114-736: The DTM ( Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters , German Touring Car Masters) is a sports car racing series sanctioned by ADAC . The series is based in Germany, with rounds elsewhere in Europe. The series currently races a modified version of Group GT3 grand touring cars, replacing the silhouette later Class 1 touring cars of earlier years. From 2000 to 2020, the "new DTM" continued the former Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (German Touring Car Championship) and ITC (International Touring Car Championship) which had been discontinued after 1996 due to high costs. The series raced prototype silhouette racing cars based on
228-443: A front engine rear-wheel-drive design (similar to public legal road car). A roll cage serves as a space frame chassis , covered by CFRP crash elements on the side, front and rear and covered by metallic bodywork. They have a closed cockpit, a bi-plane rear wing, and other aerodynamic parts such as front splitter, side winglets and hood holes (see also on Aerodynamics section for more details). The price of one current DTM car
342-591: A North American DTM Series was signed by IMSA's predecessor, Grand-Am Road Racing and did not take into account the subsequent merger of the sanctioning body with the rival sports car championship American Le Mans Series in 2014 to form the United SportsCar Championship, now known as the IMSA SportsCar Championship . When the DTM series returned, it used a similar format to the final season of
456-562: A North American DTM series that was scheduled to start between 2015 and 2016 based on the 2014 DTM/Class 1 regulations. As of 2019, a North American DTM series has yet to run, despite interest being shown by the North American sanctioning body to run DTM/Class 1, either as a series under IMSA sanction or possible integration into the sports car championship as a potential replacement for the GTLM/GTE class in 2022. The initial 2013 agreement to run
570-593: A back seat to GT cars with the FIA replacing the World Championship for Sports Cars with the International Championship for GT Manufacturers. In national rather than international racing, sports car competition in the 1950s and early 1960s tended to reflect what was locally popular, with the cars that were successful locally often influencing each nation's approach to competing on the international stage. In
684-898: A car weight allowance range between 2,436–2,513 lb (1,105–1,140 kg ) in 2015–2016, later changed to 2,414–2,513 lb (1,095–1,140 kg ) from the mid-2017 season, in effect being closer to success ballast system used in British Touring Car Championship and Super GT despite the name. The Balance of Performance (BoP) weight regulations were scrapped just before the Austrian race due to several protests and criticisms from DTM teams. Driver aids like ABS , traction control , launch control , active suspension , cockpit-adjustable anti-roll bar and partial car-to-team radio communications are currently prohibited except fuel mapping and Drag Reduction Systems, which can only be used for 12 laps in 2018 when near enough. The safety
798-584: A car with a similar powerplant (Peugeot 908). P2 cars can weigh much less — first 675 kg, then 750 kg and now 825 kg — but are restricted to 3400 cc V6 or V8 normally aspirated or 2000 cc turbocharged powerplants. In the European series in which endurance is a priority and P2s have been run largely by privateers, P2s have not challenged P1s for outright victories; in the American Le Mans Series with generally shorter races P2 has become
912-534: A crop of large-engined "big bangers" the technology of which largely gave rise to Can-Am but soon died out. Clubmans provided much entertainment at club-racing level from the 1960s into the 1990s and John Webb revived interest in big sports prototypes with Thundersports in the 1980s. There was even enough interest in Group C to sustain a C2 championship for a few years; at 'club' level Modified Sports Car ("ModSports") and Production Sports Car ("ProdSports") races remained
1026-509: A feature of most British race meetings into the 1980s, evolving into a "Special GT" series that was essentially Formula Libre for sports or saloon cars. After a relative period of decline in the 1980s a British GT Championship emerged in the mid-90s. Italy found itself with both grassroots racing with a plethora of Fiat based specials (often termed "etceterinis") and small Alfa Romeos , and exotica such as Maserati and Ferrari – who also sold cars to domestic customers as well as racing on
1140-506: A franchise-like approval system in which only approved constructors are eligible, with rules stability enforced for several years at a time, although this led in 2007 to established constructors like Lola and Dallara entering the 2008 series by taking over the rights of existing constructors (Multimatic and Doran respectively). Grand Touring (from the Italian Gran Turismo ) racing is the most common form of sports car racing, and
1254-617: A high point in the history of the sport. In Europe, the FIA adopted the ACO GTP rules virtually unchanged and sanctioned the Group C World Endurance Championship (or World Sportscar Championship ), featuring high-tech closed-cockpit prototypes from Porsche, Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz , Nissan , Jaguar and others. In the US, the IMSA Camel GTP series boasted close competition between huge fields of manufacturer-backed teams and privateer squads –
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#17328514684611368-399: A long Japanese tradition of such hybrids; a Grand Champion series ran for many years with rebodied Formula 2 and Formula 3000 cars, rather similar to the second incarnation of Can-Am ). In the US, however, road racing actually saw a decline. The IMSA GT Championship had been prototype-based since 1983, with less emphasis on production cars. NASCAR was becoming increasingly dominant, and
1482-501: A mass-production road car in the same period. The second iteration went by the full name during its first five years. Since 2005, all official documents only refer to it by the abbreviated name. During the ITC era, a large proportion of the revenue generated by the championship went to the FIA , which led to complaints from the teams regarding the small return on their increasingly large investment in
1596-685: A mechanic if necessary or permitted. Cars such as the Bugatti Type 35 were almost equally at home in Grands Prix and endurance events, but specialisation gradually started to differentiate the sports-racer from the Grand Prix car. The legendary Alfa Romeo Tipo A Monoposto started the evolution of the true single-seater in the early 1930s; the Grand Prix racer and its miniature voiturette offspring rapidly evolved into high performance single seaters optimised for relatively short races, by dropping fenders and
1710-695: A mixture of young and older drivers, including well known former Formula One drivers David Coulthard , Bernd Schneider , Allan McNish , Jean Alesi , Heinz-Harald Frentzen , Ralf Schumacher , JJ Lehto , Pedro Lamy , Karl Wendlinger , Emanuele Pirro , Stefano Modena , two-time F1 world champion Mika Häkkinen and former F1 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner Robert Kubica . Others, such as Laurent Aïello , Tom Kristensen , Dindo Capello , Frank Biela , Marco Werner , Lucas Luhr , Alexandre Prémat , Yves Olivier , Jaroslav Janiš , and Alain Menu have made their career racing in sports cars and touring cars. The DTM
1824-431: A new race format was introduced. Race weekend consisted of 40-minute (Saturday) and 60-minute (Sunday) races. On Saturday's race a pit stop was optional, while on Sunday's race a pit stop was mandatory and all the four tyres had to be changed. Both races had the same scoring system. In the 2017 season, both races of the weekend featured the same distance – 55 minutes plus a complete lap, with one race being held on Saturday,
1938-736: A number of GT series sprung up at national and European level, with the BPR series eventually evolving into the FIA GT Championship . IMSA GTP continued for a few more years but was replaced by a series for World Sports Cars – relatively simple open-top prototypes – which gave rise to cars such as the Ferrari 333SP and the Riley & Scott Mk 3, supported by GTs. As the 1990s progressed, these prototypes and others like them started to be raced in Europe and an FIA Sports Car series evolved for them. Since
2052-507: A race for touring cars ) and sports cars, whether descended from primarily road-going vehicles or developed from pure-bred racing cars came to dominate races such as Le Mans and the Mille Miglia . In open-road endurance races across Europe such as the Mille Miglia , Tour de France and Targa Florio , which were often run on dusty roads, the need for fenders and a mechanic or navigator was still there. As mainly Italian cars and races defined
2166-511: A result of GT3 Pro transition, the series will no longer utilize full-factory manufacturer entrants in order to save budgets. Michelin will serve as official tyre partner despite GT3 Pro transition. The race start format will no longer have standing start with a rolling start being implemented in place. Michelin has been the tire partner of the DTM since 2021, carrying the Pilot Sport GT S9M brand. Pirelli tires have been used since
2280-493: A result, some cars racing in the GT category did pass as true sports prototypes, in turn leading to some road-going versions for homologation purposes. The Dauer- Porsche 962 LM, Porsche 911 GT1 -98, Mercedes CLK-GTR and Toyota GT-One were prime examples of prototypes masquerading as GTs. In simplistic terms, sports prototypes are two-seat racing cars with bodywork covering their wheels, and are as technically advanced and, depending on
2394-452: A resurgence of interest in sports car racing in the US, with the network originally showing a large amount of sports car racing and sports car–related programming before being replaced by Fox Sports. The IMSA GT Series evolved into the American Le Mans Series ; the European races eventually became the closely related Le Mans Series , both of which mix prototypes and GTs; the FIA remains more interested in its own GT and GT3 championships, with
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#17328514684612508-660: A return to the series after a twenty-year absence, and won the drivers, teams, and manufacturers titles. 2012 also marked the return of three-car manufacturers since 2005 season as well as two-door D-segment compact executive coupé style since 2003 season. Audi switched from the A4 to the A5 in 2012 and to the RS5 in 2013. In 2013, the Drag Reduction System identical to the system used in Formula 1
2622-536: A setback in 2004 when long-time entrant Opel decided to pull out of the series at the end of the 2005 season, as part of a large cost-cutting operation in General Motors European division. Initially, the gap looked set to be filled by MG Rover , however their plans to enter the series were canceled after the company collapsed in April 2005. As a result, Audi and Mercedes ended up fielding 10 cars each in 2006, but
2736-410: A single 20-minute qualifying session for Saturday and Sunday races. Performance weights were also introduced to determine the winning car's weight. In 2017, the DTM field size was reduced from 24 to 18 cars total to improve quality as well as increasing affordability for its existing manufacturers, while making the series a more attractive proposition for any prospective entrants and manufacturers. For
2850-570: A single race, such as in the 24 Hours of Le Mans . In mixed-class races, an overall winner is awarded, though individual class winners are often recognised as well. Sports prototype is the name given to a type of car used in sports car racing and is effectively the next automotive design and technological step-up from road-going sports cars and are, along with open-wheel cars, the pinnacle of racing car design. The highest level in sports car racing, these cars are purpose-built racing cars with enclosed wheels, and either open or closed cockpits. Ever since
2964-571: A soft compound in 2013–2014 seasons. According to research and pre-season stability tests, the pre-2019 model can go 0 to 100 km/h in approximately 2.6 seconds. The car had a top speed of 280 km/h (174 mph ) meaning that it is the second fastest touring car behind the Australian V8 Supercars . Since DTM switched from traditional classic electronic indirect-injected V8 naturally aspirated engines to fuel-efficient direct-injected inline-4 turbocharged engines since 2019 season,
3078-406: A springboard for a race seat during the 2007 Formula One season . The plan failed however, and Paffett returned to DTM in 2007, but in a 2006 specification car. Four female drivers have taken part in the championship. In 2006 Vanina Ickx started racing for Audi and Susie Stoddart (later Wolff) in 2011 for Mercedes. In 2008 Ickx was replaced by Katherine Legge , who was subsequently replaced for
3192-592: A support series for the Rolex Series, provides a similar series to the old Trans Am Series, mixing conventional sports cars and touring cars. Due to Grand Am's affiliation with NASCAR, many NASCAR drivers occasionally participate in the Rolex Sports Car Series. Max Papis is a notable example in that he was a road racer prior to his tenure in the Sprint Cup Series. Many of these drivers only participate in
3306-645: A vehicle to increase performance as a season progresses, DPs are restricted to their original conception of the car from the start of the season. For these reasons, the category being labeled as a "prototype" has occasionally been criticised as misleading and being more in line with traditional "spec" race series prevalent in the United States. The intention of the DP formula was to provide a class in which tight technical regulations encouraged close competition and where budget would be relatively unimportant. DP chassis are subject to
3420-526: Is also increasingly being used by young drivers such as Robert Wickens and Gary Paffett to jump-start their racing career in single-seaters. Wickens was in the 2012 Mercedes young driver program and in his first year of DTM. This strategy appears to have worked well for Christijan Albers , who built a reputation by finishing second and third in the 2003 and 2004 championships with Mercedes-Benz and then graduated to Formula One in 2005 . He came back in 2008, but this time driving for Audi . After winning
3534-462: Is an example of one of the best known sports car racing series. A type of hybrid between the purism of open-wheelers and the familiarity of touring car racing, this style is often best associated with the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. First run in 1923, Le Mans is one of the oldest motor races still in existence. Other classic but now defunct sports car races include the Italian classics,
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3648-401: Is built in part upon success in sports car racing. These makers' top road cars have often been very similar both in engineering and styling to those raced. This close association with the 'exotic' nature of the cars serves as a useful distinction between sports car racing and touring cars. The 12 Hours of Sebring , 24 Hours of Daytona , and 24 Hours of Le Mans have in the past been considered
3762-403: Is found all over the world, in both international and national series. Historically, Grand Touring cars had to be in series production, but in 1976 the class was split into production-based Group 4 Grand Touring Cars and Group 5 Special Production Cars , the latter of which were essentially pure-bred racing cars with production-lookalike bodies. GT racing gradually fell into abeyance in Europe in
3876-488: Is normally €600,000-€5,000,000. All Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters cars aero packages are completely assembled. The car floor underbody is flat. Serratured side front fenders are included along with triple-decker front side winglet flicks, multiple side winglet flicks and multiple rear winglet flicks. The 2017–2018 generation of rear wing for all Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters cars are slightly wider, bi-plane wing and also parallelogram rear wing end plate. Since 2019 season onwards,
3990-411: Is one of the main types of circuit auto racing , alongside open-wheel racing (such as Formula One , IndyCar Series and Super Formula Championship ), touring car racing (such as the British Touring Car Championship , which is based on 'saloon cars' as opposed to the 'exotics' seen in sports cars. Supercars Championship , is an Production Touring Car Racing specs consists with 5-litre V8 Engine and
4104-452: Is very important for all DTM drivers. Drivers are required to wear a race suit, Nomex underwear, gloves, socks, boots and headsocks in the DTM. Meanwhile, the helmets for all DTM drivers are made of carbon-fibre shell, lined with energy-absorbing foam and Nomex padding. The helmet type must meet or exceed FIA 8860-2010 certification approval as a homologation for all auto racing drivers. HANS device are required to be worn by DTM drivers since
4218-411: The 2019 season , turbocharged engines were reintroduced to the series for the first time since 1989 (see article below for full story). Mercedes left the series following the conclusion of the 2018 season, but R-Motorsport joined the series in 2019 to run four Aston Martin -branded cars, although they would withdraw after a single season that did not yield competitive results. The 2019 season also saw
4332-564: The ACO regulations, two categories of sports prototypes are now recognised: P1 and P2. Cars competing in the P1 category must weigh no less than 900 kg and are limited to 6000 cc naturally aspirated and 4000 cc turbocharged engines. 5500 cc turbo- Diesel engines are also permitted in P1 ;– Audi scored Le Mans victories with such a car in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and Peugeot returned to racing in 2007 with
4446-564: The ADAC took over the DTM. This is the evolution of DTM points scoring system history since reborn. 2023–present Sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built sports prototypes which are the highest level in sports car racing or grand tourers (GT cars) based on road-going models and therefore, in general, not as fast as sports prototypes. Sports car racing
4560-525: The Audi A4 , Opel Vectra GTS and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class . All dimensions, like the wheelbase, are identical in order to provide equal opportunities without the actual design of the road cars having any influence. Audi immediately had success in 2004 with Swedish driver Mattias Ekström , now a long-time veteran of the sport, becoming a DTM series champion for the first time. The championship suffered
4674-939: The Targa Florio (1906–1977) and Mille Miglia (1927–1957), and the Mexican Carrera Panamericana (1950–1954). Most top-class sports car races emphasise endurance (generally between 6 and 24 hours), reliability, and strategy, over pure speed. Longer races usually involve complex pit strategy and regular driver changes. As a result, sports car racing is seen more as a team endeavour than an individual sport, with team managers such as John Wyer , Tom Walkinshaw , driver-turned-constructor Henri Pescarolo , Peter Sauber and Reinhold Joest becoming almost as famous as some of their drivers. The prestige of storied marques such as Porsche , Audi , Chevrolet , Ferrari , Jaguar , Bentley , Aston Martin , Lotus , Maserati , Lamborghini , Alfa Romeo , Lancia , Mercedes-Benz , and BMW
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4788-580: The Targa Florio and as they grew bigger (via the Porsche 910 to the Porsche 908 and finally the Porsche 917 ) the Stuttgart marque became first a competitor for overall wins and then came to dominate sports car racing – both they and Mercedes have made intermittent returns to the top level of the sport through the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 2010s. Sports car racing has intermittently been popular in Japan ;– in
4902-547: The Triple Crown of endurance car racing . And also the additional of Bathurst 12 Hour , Spa 24 Hours , Nürburgring 24 Hours and Suzuka 1000km are considered the Crown Jewel of Endurance race. According to historian Richard Hough , "It is obviously impossible to distinguish between the designers of sports cars and Grand Prix machines during the pre-1914 period. The late Georges Faroux contended that sports-car racing
5016-470: The World Sportscar Championship was conceived, there have been various regulations regarding bodywork, engine style and size, tyres and aerodynamics to which these cars must be built. Sports prototypes may be (and often are) one-of-a-kind machines, and need bear no relation to any road-going vehicle, although during the 1990s, some manufacturers exploited a loophole in the FIA and ACO rules. As
5130-439: The rear wheel drive Audi R8 in sports car racing ). The DTM returned in 2000 as Mercedes and Opel had agreed to use cars that were based on the concept car that was shown by Opel on various occasions (e.g. the 1999 24 Hours Nürburgring where Opel celebrated its 100th anniversary). The series adopted the format of the 1995 championship, with most rounds held in Germany and occasional rounds throughout Europe, but having learnt
5244-403: The 1950s, sports car racing was regarded as almost as important as Grand Prix competition, with major marques like Ferrari , Maserati , Jaguar and Aston Martin investing much effort in their works programmes and supplying cars to customers; sports racers lost their close relationship to road-going sports cars in the 1950s and the major races were contested by dedicated competition cars such as
5358-510: The 1960s and 1970s. In Britain 2-litre sports cars were initially popular (the Bristol engine being readily available and cheap), subsequently 1100 cc sports racers became a very popular category for young drivers (effectively supplanting 500 cc F3), with Lola , Lotus , Cooper and others being very competitive, although at the other end of the scale in the early to mid-1960s the national sports racing scene also attracted sophisticated GTs and later
5472-424: The 1960s progressed, with worldwide battles between Ferrari, Ford, Porsche, Lotus, Alfa Romeo and Matra as well as other more specialist marques running on into the early 1970s. The competition at Le Mans even made it to the movie screens, with Steve McQueen 's film Le Mans . This era was seen by many as the highpoint of sports car racing, with the technology and performance of the cars comfortably in excess of what
5586-574: The 1960s small-capacity sports racers and even a local version of the Group 7 cars as raced in the Canadian-American Challenge Cup were popular; a healthy local sports prototype championship ran until the early 1990s and now the Super GT series provides high-budget exposure to manufacturers, with many international drivers appearing. The Japanese manufacturers have also been frequent visitors to
5700-612: The 1980s and 1990s, with silhouette cars continuing to race in IMSA races in the USA. When GT racing revived after the collapse of the World Sports Car Championship at the end of 1992, the lead in defining rules was taken by the ACO. Under the ACO rules, Grand Touring cars are divided into two categories, Grand Touring 1 (GT1, formerly GT) and Grand Touring 2 (GT2, formerly N-GT). As the name of
5814-501: The 2002 season that meets or exceeds FIA 8858-2010 certification approval. Earpieces are also required by DTM drivers to improve communication. As Super GT GT500-style " Class 1 " format retired after 2020 season due to ruthlessly brutal raising costs, the series will adopt the GT3 Pro from 2021 season onwards. The engine format of new GT3 Pro will no longer mandated instead of free (displacement, shape, number of cylinders and injectors). As
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#17328514684615928-423: The 2005 season, citing costs and company restructuring. Aston Martin provided the cars to R-Motorsport team in 2019, but left DTM after the 2020 season unable to secure an engine supplier. In 2000, Mercedes-Benz AMG came to the new DTM from the 24 Hours of Le Mans . Mercedes-Benz won their first race in 1st Hockenheimring round, as well as the series title. In July 2017, Mercedes-Benz AMG company officials announced
6042-545: The 2011 season by Rahel Frey . Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters cars closely resemble public road vehicles but custom-built into a racing version as a reference of silhouette racing car format. The championship controls and specifies the chassis/car and engine manufacturers that teams are allowed to use each season. The league's choice of manufacturers are changed every year. Opel provided cars and Spiess engines in 2000–2005 with two different models (Astra in 2000–2003 later Vectra GTS V8 in 2004–2005). Opel ended its DTM program after
6156-678: The 24 Hours of Daytona. The original Trans-Am Series dissolved in 2006, but returned to action in 2009 with tube frame TA1 and TA2 divisions racing with production-based TA3-American and TA3-International divisions. In addition, the SCCA continues to provide a major support series for Trans-Am. This series, known as the SCCA World Challenge , consists of a one-hour race for each round, combining three classes: GT ( Chevrolet Corvette , Aston Martin DB9 , etc.), "GTS" ( Acura TSX , BMW 3 Series , etc.; replaced
6270-636: The ACO & FIA to come together to create the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) starting in 2012. This new series replaced the ILMC and was a spiritual successor to the former FIA World Sportscar Championship. In 2012, the Rolex Sports Car Series overhauled its Daytona Prototype class, allowing for production-based designs. The ALMS's new LMP/LMC format, however, has not held up. The prototype classes split again in 2011, with LMP1 having three cars and LMP2 having one. A new "GT Pro Am" class
6384-426: The ACO split GT2 into two categories, GTE-Pro (for all-professional teams with current-spec cars) and GTE-Am (for teams with one amateur and one professional per car using previous-spec cars), as a way to entice rookies to enter one of the three Le Mans Series. Manuel Reuter Manuel Reuter (born 6 December 1961) is a German former racing driver . He has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice: He also won
6498-666: The ACO's rules the basis for the LMS and ALMS. The Le Mans Prototype is somewhat reminiscent of the old Can Am prototype. Further splits in the American scene saw the Grand American Road Racing Association form a separate series, the Rolex Sports Car Series , with its own GT and prototype rules aimed at providing cheaper, lower-cost racing for independent teams. Grand Am's Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge ,
6612-643: The Continental Challenge's Grand Sport class, promoting its other touring car class to "GTS". This came after several years of the old TC class being an Acura-BMW- Mazda affair. For 2012, the series adopted a "B-spec" touring car class comparable to that of the Continental Challenge's Street Tuner class. 2010 also saw the introduction of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) by the ACO, featuring events in America, Asia and Europe. This in turn led
6726-513: The Daytona oval and prohibitively expensive for smaller teams to run. Compared to the LMPs, DPs are severely limited in terms of approved technology; for instance, they are required to be constructed of steel tube frames with carbon-fibre skins, rather than being carbon-fibre monocoques, and must use production-based engines. In addition, contrary to their European counterparts who continuously alter and develop
6840-557: The French car industry switched from making large powerful cars to small utilitarian ones, French sports cars of the 1950s and early 1960s tended to be small-capacity and highly aerodynamic (often based on Panhard or Renault components), aimed at winning the "Index of Performance" at Le Mans and Reims and triumphing in handicap races. Between the late 1960s and late 1970s, Matra and Renault made significant and successful efforts to win at Le Mans. In Germany, domestic production based racing
6954-604: The IndyCar Series' split from CART in 1996 put more emphasis on ovals regarding domestic open-wheel racing. Also contributing to the decline was the retirement of Mario Andretti from Formula One. It would be over a decade before another American driver would join Formula One, viz. Scott Speed , although Speed was ultimately unsuccessful and eventually joined NASCAR himself. The debut of the SpeedVision television network brought
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#17328514684617068-600: The Jaguar C and D types, the Mercedes 300SLR, Maserati 300S, Aston Martin DBR1 and assorted Ferraris including the first Testa Rossas. Top Grand Prix drivers also competed regularly in sports car racing. After major accidents at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1957 Mille Miglia the power of sports cars was curbed with a 3-litre engine capacity limit applied to them in the World Championship from 1958. From 1962 sports cars temporarily took
7182-518: The NASCAR-owned Grand Am series. The ALMS has now introduced "GTE-PRO" and "GTE-AM" for endurance races. In 2014, American Le Mans Series and Rolex Sports Car Series were merged into United SportsCar Championship , with IMSA as its sanctioning body. Fox Sports 1 (successor of Speed Channel) was returned as main broadcaster of the unified series. Daytona Prototype was replaced in 2017 by Daytona Prototype International (DPi), which based on
7296-508: The SCCA's World Challenge, and failing to garner a television contract. A major factor in this is the fact that Trans Am's teams still use vehicles dating back to 1999. In most other series, teams tended to update their vehicles every few years or so (examples include the 2005 vs. 2010 Mustangs in the Continental Challenge and the two different generations of Mazda RX-8 in the Rolex Series). Other television changes include Speed Channel losing
7410-586: The US sports car scene ( Nissan and Toyota in particular during the heyday of IMSA) and to the European scene, in particular Le Mans, where despite many years of trying by all the main Japanese marques the only victory to have been scored by a Japanese marque was by Mazda in 1991, until 2018 when Toyota scored a first and second-place finish. Toyota followed this with another 1-2 finish in 2019. Powerful prototypes (effectively pure-bred two-seater racing cars with no real link to production vehicles) started to appear as
7524-426: The US, imported Italian, German and British cars battled local hybrids, with initially very distinct East and West Coast scenes; these gradually converged and a number of classic races and important teams emerged including Camoradi , Briggs Cunningham and so on. The US scene tended to feature small MG and Porsche cars in the smaller classes, and imported Jaguar, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Allard and Ferrari cars in
7638-405: The cars were technically similar to Group Cs but used a sliding scale of weights and engine capacities to try to limit performance. Both Group C and GTP had secondary categories, respectively Group C2 and Camel Lights, for less powerful cars, targeting entries by small specialist constructors or serious amateur teams. The FIA attempted to make Group C into a virtual "two seater Grand Prix" format in
7752-659: The championship in 2010, Paul di Resta raced from 2011 until 2013 for Mercedes-engined Formula One team Force India . He has now returned to the Mercedes DTM team. Pascal Wehrlein , who has won the championship in a Mercedes car in 2015 went on to race for Sauber F1 Team and was a test driver for the Mercedes F1 team. Gary Paffett has also used his championship win to gain a test with McLaren , and they signed him as permanent test driver for 2006. This prevented Paffett from defending his title in 2006, however he thought that it will be
7866-497: The class implies, the exterior of the car closely resembles that of the production version, while the internal fittings may differ greatly. GT2 cars are very similar to the FIA GT2 classification, and are considered 'pure' GT cars; that is production exotic cars with relatively few internal modifications for racing. The Porsche 911 is currently the most popular car in the GT2 class. 2009 will be
7980-452: The company's withdrawal from German touring car racing after 2018 season and the immediate discontinuation of its DTM program, coinciding with its entrance into FIA Formula E Championship in 2019, and its discontinuation of its DMSB program. During the first inaugural resumption season, all DTM car styles were utilized shorter S-segment compact sports two-door coupé-style cars until 2003 season but in 2004 coupé-style cars were minority due to
8094-525: The current model can go 0 to 100 km/h in approximately 2.8 seconds and now has a top speed of 300 km/h (186 mph ) and thus outperforming Australian Supercars top speed (Albeit, DTM cars use 102 RON fuel compared with Australian Supercars using E85 fuel. A fair comparison would be both series cars using the same fuel type). In 2015, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters introduced a Balance of Performance (BoP) system to improve racing spectacle. The Balance of Performance (BoP) weight regulations specified
8208-472: The demise of Group C (where Japan and Germany both had successful series of their own) Japan has largely gone its own way in sports car racing; the Super GT series is for very highly modified production-based cars; although prototypes are slowly returning to Japanese racing in the Japan Le Mans Challenge many of these 'prototypes' are little more than rebodied Formula 3 cars (although there has been
8322-554: The disappointing "lightnings". On the other hand, it was Opel team boss Volker Strycek who brought a new highlight to the fans, by racing a modified DTM car on the old version of the Nürburgring in 2002, 20 years after the top classes had moved to the modern Grand Prix track, and ten years after the old DTM stopped racing there. The Opels did not win in many of their race entries in the VLN endurance racing series, as they were mainly testing, but
8436-490: The driver's championship in the following two years. Mercedes-Benz were in the runner-up positions in both 2008 and 2009 ( Paul di Resta in 2008 and Gary Paffett in 2009). In 2010, Mercedes finally bridged the gap to Audi, as di Resta won the 2010 championship driving for AMG-Mercedes . In 2011 and 2012, the DTM held a Race of Champions -style exhibition event in the Munich Olympic Stadium . In 2012 BMW made
8550-543: The early 1990s, with engine rules in common with F1, short race distances, and a schedule dovetailing with that of the F1 rounds. This drove up costs and drove away entrants and crowds, and by 1993 prototype racing was dead in Europe, with the Peugeot , Jaguar, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz teams all having withdrawn. In an attempt to provide a top-class endurance racing series to replace the WSPC,
8664-411: The fastest touring car racing in the world) and stock car racing (such as NASCAR ). Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over particularly long distances or large amounts of time, resulting in a larger emphasis on the reliability and efficiency of the car and its drivers as opposed to outright car performance or driver skills. The FIA World Endurance Championship
8778-408: The former DTM in 1996: two races of 100 kilometres, with a short break between them. In 2001 and 2002 there was a short race of 35 kilometres as well as a long race of 100 kilometres, which included one pit stop and points scored for the top 10 as in earlier seasons. From 2003 to 2014 there was only one race, which had a distance of about 250 kilometres, and two mandatory pit stops. For the 2015 season
8892-399: The former touring car class), and Touring Car (a "showroom stock" class similar to Grand Am's Continental Challenge). The Trans Am series returned in 2009, but has yet to establish a television contract. The 2010s have seen a major overhaul of sports car racing in the United States. The Pirelli World Challenge reformatted in 2010 to have a showroom stock touring car group comparable to that of
9006-438: The four ACO homologated LMP2 chassis made by Dallara , Onroak (Ligier) , Oreca , and Riley - Multimatic , with brand bodywork and homologated engines. Manufacturers are asked to partner with a privateer team, and each car will sport manufacturer bodywork, corresponding to their brand-identity. These rules are made to both control costs and attract manufacturers to the series. In 2018, SRO Motorsports Group has taken over
9120-506: The genre, the category came to be known as Gran Turismo (particularly in the 1950s), as long distances had to be travelled, rather than running around on short circuits only. Reliability and some basic comfort were necessary in order to endure the task. After the Second World War , sports car racing emerged as a distinct form of racing with its own classic races, and, from 1953, its own FIA sanctioned World Sportscar Championship . In
9234-439: The high-tech touring car series. Since 1997, many ideas had been discussed in order to find a compromise for the rules of a new DTM racing series. Opel put the primary emphasis on cost control, Mercedes-Benz supported expensive development in competition, BMW wanted an international series rather than one focused on Germany only, while Audi insisted on allowing their trademark quattro four-wheel drive system (despite running
9348-520: The larger classes. A breed of powerful hybrids appeared in the 50s and 60s and raced on both sides of the Atlantic, featuring European chassis and large American engines – from the early Allard cars via hybrids such as Lotus 19s fitted with large engines through to the AC Cobra . The combination of mostly British chassis and American V8 engines gave rise to the popular and spectacular Can-Am series in
9462-447: The last run of the GT1 class as a result of budgeting issues. GT1 teams are currently enlisting to run their cars in the GT2 class next year. The American Le Mans Series also runs a "GT-Challenge" class, which currently only uses Porsche 911 GT3 Cups but will open to other cars next year. This category is designed for privateer and rookie teams as an easier way to enter the series. For 2011,
9576-518: The lessons of the ITC format, the ITR constantly made efforts to keep costs in the revived series from exploding to unreasonable levels, and to keep the championship firmly tied to its German roots. As too many races were initially planned outside Germany, no Championship (Meisterschaft) status was granted by the DMSB , and the DTM initials now stand for Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (German Touring Car Masters). Unlike
9690-482: The management of Pirelli World Challenge , with USAC as its sanctioning body since 2017. Beginning in 2019, NBC Sports will be replacing Fox Sports as main broadcaster of WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with six-year broadcasting rights. There are many kinds of sports cars that compete, but they can be broadly broken down into two main categories: Sports prototypes and Grand Touring (GT) cars. These two categories (or "classes") are often mixed together in
9804-770: The most active prototype category with serious involvement from Porsche and Acura and whereas P2 in Europe tends to involve races of attrition, in the US series the P2s, particularly the Porsche RS Spyder are often quicker round a lap than P1s, with the Porsche having scored many overall victories against the Audis in P1. Prototype rules for 2010 and beyond will encourage production-based engines (GT1 engines in LMP1, GT2 engines in LMP2) and rules to equalise
9918-509: The new DTM started with the traditional Hockenheimring round on the short course. Some cars competing in the race had no or few sponsorship decals. While Opel's cars could match the speed of most Mercedes cars in the 2000 season, the hastily developed Abt-Audi ended up outclassed. As the body shape of the TT had rather poor aerodynamic properties, Abt was allowed to use a version with a stretched wheelbase and bodyshell in later years. Further dispensation
10032-471: The new generation of rear wings are wider than 2012–2018 generation of rear wing, single-plane wing and uniquely shaped rear wing plate. DTM cars have included a Drag Reduction System since the 2013 season (similar to Formula One ) for helping the driver to overtake. The HYLO (High Yaw Lift-Off) aerodynamic safety is integrated on the rear wing for all Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters cars started form 2020 season onwards. Previously Hankook and Dunlop were
10146-453: The other on Sunday. In both races, the drivers had to pit at least once for a set of fresh tyres. For the 2019 season the time limited race format was abolished and the series reverted to the fixed lap race format that was last used in 2014. However, after the opening round of the 2019 season, the series reverted the 55-minute plus one lap distance format due to issues with television broadcasts running longer than expected. The drivers have been
10260-491: The performance of petrol and diesel LMP1s are also being addressed. Daytona Prototypes are a product of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series , and offer a different interpretation of the prototype theme. DPs, as they are often called, are closed-cockpit, purpose-built racing machines which are less expensive and (deliberately) somewhat slower than Le Mans Prototypes, which were becoming dangerously quick on
10374-462: The premier form of "sports car" racing from 1976, with prototypes going into a general decline apart from Porsche 936 domination at Le Mans and a lower-key series of races for smaller two-litre Group 6 prototypes. A peculiarly American form of sports car racing was the Can-Am series, in which virtually unlimited sports prototypes competed in relatively short races. This series ran from 1966 to 1974 and
10488-679: The previous incarnation, which primarily used saloon models like the Mercedes-Benz W201 , the new DTM featured only 2-door coupés . Opel used the upcoming Coupé version of the Astra as in the concept car, and Mercedes used the CLK model which was already used as the basis for the Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR GT1-class sports car . The motorsport arm of the Bavarian tuning company Abt Sportsline
10602-514: The rear tyre sizes were 280/660-R18 (11.0/25.6-R18) in 2000–2003 later front tyre sizes were 265/660-R18 (10.4/25.9-R18) and the rear tyre sizes were 280/660-R18 (11.0/25.9-R18) in 2004–2010 and later front tyre sizes were 260/660-R18 (10.2/25.9-R18) and the rear tyre sizes were 280/660-R18 (11.0/25.9-R18) in 2011). The compounds of Hankook Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters tyres are currently only one dry slick compound (standard prime hard) and one wet treaded compound (full-wet only). Option tyres were used as
10716-437: The regulations they are built to, as quick as or quicker than their single-seat counterparts. Although not widely known, sports-prototypes (along with Formula 1 cars) are responsible for introducing the most numbers of new technologies and ideas to motorsport, including rear-wings, ground effect 'venturi' tunnels, fan-assisted aerodynamics and dual-shift gearboxes. Some of these technologies eventually filter down to road cars. In
10830-467: The rights to almost every series. The World Challenge was transferred to Versus, while the ALMS was transferred to an ESPN/ABC partnership. ALMS races are shown live online with a telecast the following day (although Speed still has the rights to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is still televised live). For 2012, some races will be televised live. Speed, having a partnership with NASCAR, still has exclusive rights to
10944-426: The road cars. Also, in order to save money and provide close racing, many common parts from third party specialists are used, like transmission (from Hewland ), brakes (from AP Racing ), wheels (from ATS ) and Hankook tyres ( see below ). The all-important aerodynamic configurations are tested in wind tunnels before the season, brought to an equal level, and kept that way throughout the season. DTM cars adhere to
11058-413: The road cars. Instead of the road car bodies, unrelated purpose-built chassis are used, which are closer to prototype racing. Many drivers have in fact described the handling of the cars as closer to single seater racing cars than road cars. Only the roof sections of the road cars are put on top of the roll cages, and lights and other distinctive design features are used in order to provide a resemblance to
11172-571: The second seat. During the later 1930s, French constructors, unable to keep up with the progress of the Mercedes-Benz and Auto-Union cars in GP racing, withdrew into primarily domestic competition with large-capacity sports cars – marques such as Delahaye , Talbot and the later Bugattis were locally prominent. Similarly, through the 1920s and 1930s the road-going sports/GT car started to emerge as distinct from fast tourers (Le Mans had originally been
11286-449: The series. In March 2010, The GT Association (the governing body of the Super GT series in Japan) initially announced that the ITR were beginning to align the technical regulations with Super GT's GT500 class and NASCAR 's Grand American Road Racing Association Grand Touring division to form a new Grand Touring specification. In October 2012, a cooperation agreement between DTM and Super GT
11400-681: The speed was said to be impressive, and the fans loved it. However, they won the 2003 Nürburgring 24 Hours against factory efforts by Audi, who also ran a DTM-spec TT and BMW, who ran an ALMS -spec M3 . After their successes with the Audi R8 and the official support of the Abt-TT-Rs at the Nürburgring, Audi finally joined the DTM as a factory entrant in 2004. The three constructors involved decided to switch to D-segment compact executive -based saloon bodies. The road models used as patterns since 2004 are
11514-455: The television deal with the major German television station ARD required three marques to participate in 2007 in order to continue the broadcast agreement. The DTM carried on with only two manufacturers in spite of the television agreement requiring three manufacturers to participate in the series. The 2007–2009 seasons were marked by the dominance of Audi. Swede Mattias Ekström won the second of his two titles in 2007, and Timo Scheider took
11628-468: The three Super GT GT500 manufacturers – Honda , Lexus and Nissan – each field a guest entry at the final race of the season , before entries from both series would compete at the non-championship Super GT x DTM Dream Race held at Fuji Speedway in Japan. The 2021 season switched to a GT3-based regulation otherwise known as GT Plus. The Class 1 cars were replaced in order to attract more manufacturers to
11742-1136: The transition to four-door sedan saloon-style cars. In 2004 the four-door sedan saloon-style cars were introduced due to touring car racing's core philosophy (several touring car racing tournaments have a de facto 4-door sedan saloon cars) until 2011. For 2012 season onwards the two-door coupé-style s were returned until 2020 but the two-door coupé-style cars are much more different than 2000–2003 cars (longer length, longer wheelbase, slightly lower height and aggressive aero package as based on compact D-segment compact executive cars ). The updated new coupé-style cars were introduced in 2017 thanks to new rear wing. The cars are supposed to be fast and spectacular, while still fairly cheap to build and run. All DTM race cars have RWD and 4.0-litre V8 engines (later 2.0-litre inline-4 turbocharged engines) which are air-restricted to 460 hp but now into over 500 hp since 2017 until 2018 season and now into 610 hp including 30 hp push-to-pass since 2019 season and later 580 hp + 60 hp push-to-pass since 2020 season onwards, no matter if similar layouts or engines are available in
11856-551: The tyre partner and supplier of DTM from 2000 to 2010 seasons (Dunlop) and 2011 to 2020 seasons (Hankook), carrying the SP Sport Maxx (Dunlop 2000–2010) and Ventus (Hankook 2011–2020) brands respectively. The DTM runs the bespoke compounds and same size as LMP and GT cars since 2000 and re-profiled in 2012. The current front tyre sizes are 300/680-R18 (11.8/26.8-R18) and the rear tyre sizes are 320/700-R18 (12.6/27.9-R18) (previously front tyre sizes were 240/650-R18 (9.45/25.6-R18) and
11970-449: The world stage. Road races such as the Mille Miglia included everything from stock touring cars to World Championship contenders. The Mille Miglia was the largest sporting event in Italy until a fatal accident caused its demise in 1957. The Targa Florio , another tough road race, remained part of the world championship until the 1970s and remained as a local race for many years afterwards. As
12084-552: Was added. Initially, this format was only to be used in endurance races, but was eventually applied to all races. For 2012, only a handful of LMPs are being entered, with almost all of them being powered by Japanese manufacturers ( Nissan , Honda , etc.). The British manufacturer Morgan has entered a Judd -powered LMP. Aston Martin Racing , who for several years had entered an LMP, has returned to GT for 2012. The reformatted Trans-Am Series remained stagnant, being heavily overshadowed by
12198-475: Was allowed to enter on short notice. Abt used the Audi TT as a basis for a DTM car, as Audi had no suitable 2-door coupé in its model lineup at the time, even though the dimensions of the car did not fit into the rules of the series. This also meant that the 1999 STW- Supertouring -champion Christian Abt could not defend his STW title as this series was also discontinued, with Opel then moving into DTM. In May 2000,
12312-548: Was also granted, such as increased rear wing height, which helped the Abt-Audi TT-R win the DTM championship in 2002 with Laurent Aïello . In 2002, the DTM also introduced the HANS device to increase driver safety and reduce injuries from accidents. In 2000, Manuel Reuter came second in the championship. After that year, no Opel driver was among the top three in the overall championship, with few podium finishes and no victories for
12426-600: Was an expansion of the USRRC that conformed to FIA Group 7 rules. The original Can-Am fell victim to rising costs and the energy crisis . The ACO, organisers of the Le Mans 24 Hours, attempted to come up with a formula that would encourage more prototypes back to the race but would also be relatively economical – their Grand Touring Prototype rules in the late 1970s, based on fuel consumption rules, gave rise to two different varieties of sports car racing that were widely held to be
12540-514: Was introduced by ITR to improve racing in DTM. In 2014, the body shape and aerodynamic pieces of all DTM cars were modified to improve racing. The double-header races (Saturday and Sunday races) were also revived in 2015, thus switching from races with total laps run to timed races. The qualifying format was also reformatted into a single-session timed qualification (similar to the Formula One qualifying format used from 1996 to 2002), but DTM only run
12654-512: Was largely dominated by BMW , Porsche and Mercedes-Benz , although sports car/GT racing gradually became eclipsed by touring cars and the initially sports car based Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft gradually evolved into the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft . Porsche started to evolve a line of sports prototypes from the late 1950s; noted for their toughness and reliability they started to win in races of attrition such as
12768-460: Was not born until the first 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1923 , and while as a joint-creator of that race he may have been prejudiced in his opinion, it is certainly true that sports-car racing as it was known after 1919 did not exist before the First World War." In the 1920s, the cars used in endurance racing and Grand Prix were still basically identical, with fenders and two seats, to carry
12882-652: Was seen in Formula 1. Homologation saw many out-and-out racing cars produced in sufficient quantities to see them classed as production vehicles; the FIA responded by placing more restrictions on even the allegedly production-based cars and placed draconian limits on the power available to prototypes – these prototypes of the late 1960s/early 1970s were comfortably quicker than contemporary Grand Prix machinery and for 1972 they were constrained to run much smaller engines to F1 rules, often de-tuned for endurance. Group 4 Grand Touring Cars and Group 5 Special Production Cars became
12996-533: Was signed in Berlin. The agreement regarding the use of the 'New DTM' regulations by Japan's Super GT began in 2014 and ran for four years. DTM moved away from its previous 4.0-litre V8 specification in favour of 2.0-litre turbos in 2019, which Super GT had implemented in 2014. On 27 March 2013, the ITR and NASCAR Holdings road racing division, the International Motor Sports Association announced
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