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Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer (CEO) (chief executive (CE), or managing director (MD) in the UK) is the highest officer charged with the management of an organization – especially a company or nonprofit institution.

CEOs find roles in various organizations, including public and private corporations, nonprofit organizations, and even some government organizations (notably state-owned enterprises). The CEO of a corporation or company typically reports to the board of directors and is charged with maximizing the value of the business, which may include maximizing the share price, market share, revenue, or another financial metric. In the nonprofit and government sector, CEOs typically aim at achieving outcomes related to the organization's mission, usually provided by legislation. CEOs are also frequently assigned the role of the main manager of the organization and the highest-ranking officer in the C-suite.

Origins
The term "chief executive officer" is attested as early as 1782, when an ordinance of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States of America used the term to refer to governors and other leaders of the executive branches of each of the Thirteen Colonies. In draft additions to the Oxford English Dictionary published online in 2011, the Dictionary says that the use of "CEO" as an acronym for a chief executive officer originated in Australia, with the first attestation being in 1914. The first American usage cited is from 1972.

Responsibilities
The responsibilities of an organization's CEO are set by the organization's board of directors or other authority, depending on the organization's structure. They can be far-reaching or quite limited, and are typically enshrined in a formal delegation of authority regarding business administration. Typically, responsibilities include being an active decision-maker on business strategy and other key policy issues, as well as leader, manager, and executor roles. The communicator role can involve speaking to the press and to the public, as well as to the organization's management and employees; the decision-making role involves high-level decisions about policy and strategy. The CEO is tasked with implementing the goals, targets and strategic objectives as determined by the board of directors.

As an executive officer of the company, the CEO reports the status of the business to the board of directors, motivates employees, and drives change within the organization. As a manager, the CEO presides over the organization's day-to-day operations. The CEO is the person who is ultimately accountable for a company's business decisions, including those in operations, marketing, business development, finance, human resources, etc.

The use of the CEO title is not necessarily limited to describing the head of a company. For example, the CEO of a political party is often entrusted with fundraising, particularly for election campaigns.

International use
In some countries, there is a dual board system with two separate boards, one executive board for the day-to-day business and one supervisory board for control purposes (selected by the shareholders). In these countries, the CEO presides over the executive board and the chairperson presides over the supervisory board, and these two roles will always be held by different people. This ensures a distinction between management by the executive board and governance by the supervisory board. This allows for clear lines of authority. The aim is to prevent a conflict of interest and too much power being concentrated in the hands of one person.

In the United States, the board of directors (elected by the shareholders) is often equivalent to the supervisory board, while the executive board may often be known as the executive committee (the division/subsidiary heads and C-level officers that report directly to the CEO).

In the United States, and in business, the executive officers are usually the top officers of a corporation, the chief executive officer (CEO) being the best-known type. The definition varies; for instance, the California Corporate Disclosure Act defines "executive officers" as the five most highly compensated officers not also sitting on the board of directors. In the case of a sole proprietorship, an executive officer is the sole proprietor. In the case of a partnership, an executive officer is a managing partner, senior partner, or administrative partner. In the case of a limited liability company, an executive officer is any member, manager, or officer.

Related positions
Depending on the organization, a CEO may have several subordinate executives to help run the day-to-day administration of the company, each of whom has specific functional responsibilities referred to as senior executives, executive officers or corporate officers. Subordinate executives are given different titles in different organizations, but one common category of subordinate executive, if the CEO is also the president, is the vice president (VP). An organization may have more than one vice president, each tasked with a different area of responsibility (e.g., VP of finance, VP of human resources). Examples of subordinate executive officers who typically report to the CEO include the chief operating officer (COO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief strategy officer (CSO), chief marketing officer (CMO) and chief business officer (CBO). The public relations-focused position of chief reputation officer is sometimes included as one such subordinate executive officer, but, as suggested by Anthony Johndrow, CEO of Reputation Economy Advisors, it can also be seen as "simply another way to add emphasis to the role of a modern-day CEO – where they are both the external face of, and the driving force behind, an organization culture".

United States
In the US, the term "chief executive officer" is used primarily in business, whereas the term "executive director" is used primarily in the not-for-profit sector. These terms are generally mutually exclusive and refer to distinct legal duties and responsibilities. The CEO is the highest-ranking executive in a company, making corporate decisions, managing operations, allocating resources, and serving as the main point of communication between the board of directors and the company.

United Kingdom
In the UK, chief executive and chief executive officer are used in local government, where their position in law is described as the "head of paid service", and in business and in the charitable sector. , the use of the term director for senior charity staff is deprecated to avoid confusion with the legal duties and responsibilities associated with being a charity director or trustee, which are normally non-executive (unpaid) roles. The term managing director is often used in lieu of chief executive officer.

Celebrity CEOs
Business publicists since the days of Edward Bernays (1891–1995) and his client John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) and even more successfully the corporate publicists for Henry Ford, promoted the concept of the "celebrity CEO". Business journalists have often adopted this approach, which assumes that the corporate achievements, especially in the arena of manufacturing, are produced by uniquely talented individuals, especially the "heroic CEO". In effect, journalists celebrate a CEO who takes distinctive strategic actions. The model is the celebrity in entertainment, sports, and politics – compare the "great man theory". Guthey et al. argues that "...these individuals are not self-made, but rather are created by a process of widespread media exposure to the point that their actions, personalities, and even private lives function symbolically to represent significant dynamics and tensions prevalent in the contemporary business atmosphere". Journalism thereby exaggerates the importance of the CEO and tends to neglect harder-to-describe broader corporate factors. There is little attention to the intricately organized technical bureaucracy that actually does the work. Hubris sets in when the CEO internalizes the celebrity and becomes excessively self-confident in making complex decisions. There may be an emphasis on the sort of decisions that attract the celebrity journalists.

Research published in 2009 by Ulrike Malmendier and Geoffrey Tate indicates that "firms with award-winning CEOs subsequently underperform, in terms both of stock and of operating performance".

Executive compensation
Executive compensation has been a source of criticism following a dramatic rise in pay relative to the average worker's wage. For example, the relative pay was 20-to-1 in 1965 in the US, but had risen to 376-to-1 by 2000. The relative pay differs around the world, and, in some smaller countries, is still around 20-to-1. Observers differ as to whether the rise is due to competition for talent or due to lack of control by compensation committees. In recent years, investors have demanded more say over executive pay.

Diversity
Lack of diversity amongst chief executives has also been a source of criticism. In 2018, 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs were women. In 2023 the number rose to 10.4% of for Women CEO's of Fortune 500 companies. The reasons for this are explained or justified in various ways, and may include biological sex differences, male and female differences in Big Five personality traits and temperament, sex differences in psychology and interests, maternity and career breaks, hypergamy, phallogocentrism, the existence of old boy networks, tradition, and the lack of female role models in that regard. Some countries have passed laws mandating boardroom gender quotas. In 2023 Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Korn Ferry to research strategies and then action a plan to help more women to become CEO's.

Toxic executives
There are contentious claims that a significant number of CEO's have psychopathic tendencies, often characterized by power-seeking behavior and dominance. These individuals can often conceal their ruthlessness and antisocial behavior behind a facade of charm and eloquence. Traits such as courage and risk-taking, generally considered desirable, are often found alongside these psychopathic tendencies.

Tara Swart, a neuroscientist at MIT Sloan School of Management, has suggested that individuals with psychopathic traits thrive in chaotic environments and are aware that others do not. As a result, they may intentionally create chaos in the workplace. This perspective is explored in the book Snakes in Suits, co-authored by Robert D. Hare.

However, Scott Lilienfeld has argued that the attention given to psychopathy in the workplace by both the media and scholars has far exceeded the available scientific evidence. Emilia Bunea, writing in Psychology Today, has linked psychopathic traits in managers to workplace bullying, employee dissatisfaction, and turnover intentions. Despite this, Bunea cautions that excessive worry about supposed psychopathic managers could discourage individuals from pursuing careers in corporations and deter employees from addressing issues with difficult bosses.

In a related development, British politician Andy McDonald received praise for educating a CEO on the role of trade unions. This occurred as the restaurant chain McDonald's faced scrutiny in the UK Parliament over allegations of a toxic workplace culture.

title: Chief executive officer


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User:Stephen Rapley

I discovered Wikipedia via a piece I read in the Kuro5hin weblog on 25 Sep 2001. It was exciting to see the energy people were putting into generating and improving the encyclopaedia.

I'm still astounded at the quality of writing that many people are contributing to the entries and in the /Talk areas as well.

More recently most of my energies have been directed to using wikis (mainly UseMod & SnipSnap) as a personal memory and organisation tool and for assisting me to learn a language. Wiki as memory mapper.

Now I'm checking whether I should use MediaWiki for this.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Stephen Rapley


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Hoax

A hoax is a widely publicised falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into putting up the highest possible social currency in support of the hoax.

Whereas the promoters of frauds, fakes, and scams devise them so that they will withstand the highest degree of scrutiny customary in the affair, hoaxers are confident, justifiably or not, that their representations will receive no scrutiny at all. They have such confidence because their representations belong to a world of notions fundamental to the victims' views of reality, but whose truth and importance they accept without argument or evidence, and so never question.

Some hoaxers intend eventually to unmask their representations as in fact a hoax so as to expose their victims as fools; seeking some form of profit, other hoaxers hope to maintain the hoax indefinitely, so that it is only when skeptical persons willing to investigate their claims publish their findings that at last they stand revealed as hoaxers.

History
Zhang Yingyu's The Book of Swindles (c. 1617), published during the late Ming dynasty, is said to be China's first collection of stories about fraud, swindles, hoaxes, and other forms of deception. Although practical jokes have likely existed for thousands of years, one of the earliest recorded hoaxes in Western history was the drummer of Tedworth in 1661. The communication of hoaxes can be accomplished in almost any manner that a fictional story can be communicated: in person, via word of mouth, via words printed on paper, and so on. As communications technology has advanced, the speed at which hoaxes spread has also advanced: a rumour about a ghostly drummer, spread by word of mouth, will affect a relatively small area at first, then grow gradually. However, hoaxes could also be spread via chain letters, which became easier as the cost of mailing a letter dropped. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century brought down the cost of a mass-produced books and pamphlets, and the rotary printing press of the 19th century reduced the price even further (see yellow journalism). During the 20th century, the hoax found a mass market in the form of supermarket tabloids, and by the 21st century there were fake news websites which spread hoaxes via social networking websites (in addition to the use of email for a modern type of chain letter).

Etymology
The English philologist Robert Nares (1753–1829) says that the word hoax was coined in the late 18th century as a contraction of the verb hocus, which means "to cheat", "to impose upon" or (according to Merriam-Webster) "to befuddle often with drugged liquor." Hocus is a shortening of the magic incantation hocus pocus, whose origin is disputed.

Definition
Robert Nares defined the word hoax as meaning "to cheat", dating from Thomas Ady's 1656 book A candle in the dark, or a treatise on the nature of witches and witchcraft.

The term hoax is occasionally used in reference to urban legends and rumours, but the folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand argues that most of them lack evidence of deliberate creations of falsehood and are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes, so the term should be used for only those with a probable conscious attempt to deceive. As for the closely related terms practical joke and prank, Brunvand states that although there are instances where they overlap, hoax tends to indicate "relatively complex and large-scale fabrications" and includes deceptions that go beyond the merely playful and "cause material loss or harm to the victim."

According to Professor Lynda Walsh of the University of Nevada, Reno, some hoaxes – such as the Great Stock Exchange Fraud of 1814, labelled as a hoax by contemporary commentators – are financial in nature, and successful hoaxers – such as P. T. Barnum, whose Fiji mermaid contributed to his wealth – often acquire monetary gain or fame through their fabrications, so the distinction between hoax and fraud is not necessarily clear. Alex Boese, the creator of the Museum of Hoaxes, states that the only distinction between them is the reaction of the public, because a fraud can be classified as a hoax when its method of acquiring financial gain creates a broad public impact or captures the imagination of the masses.

One of the earliest recorded media hoaxes is a fake almanac published by Jonathan Swift under the pseudonym of Isaac Bickerstaff in 1708. Swift predicted the death of John Partridge, one of the leading astrologers in England at that time, in the almanac and later issued an elegy on the day Partridge was supposed to have died. Partridge's reputation was damaged as a result and his astrological almanac was not published for the next six years.

It is possible to perpetrate a hoax by making only true statements using unfamiliar wording or context, such as in the Dihydrogen monoxide hoax. Political hoaxes are sometimes motivated by the desire to ridicule or besmirch opposing politicians or political institutions, often before elections.

A hoax differs from a magic trick or from fiction (books, film, theatre, radio, television, etc.) in that the audience is unaware of being deceived, whereas in watching a magician perform an illusion the audience expects to be tricked.

A hoax is often intended as a practical joke or to cause embarrassment, or to provoke social or political change by raising people's awareness of something. It can also emerge from a marketing or advertising purpose. For example, to market a romantic comedy film, a director staged a phony "incident" during a supposed wedding, which showed a bride and preacher getting knocked into a pool by a clumsy fall from a best man. A resulting video clip of Chloe and Keith's Wedding was uploaded to YouTube and was viewed by over 30 million people and the couple was interviewed by numerous talk shows. Viewers were deluded into thinking that it was an authentic clip of a real accident at a real wedding; but a story in USA Today in 2009 revealed it was a hoax. Governments sometimes spread false information to facilitate their objectives, such as going to war. These often come under the heading of black propaganda. There is often a mixture of outright hoax and suppression and management of information to give the desired impression. In wartime and times of international tension rumours abound, some of which may be deliberate hoaxes.

Examples of politics-related hoaxes:
 * Belgium is a country with a Flemish-speaking region and a French-speaking region. In 2006, French-speaking television channel RTBF interrupted programming with a spoof report claiming that the country had split in two and the royal family had fled.
 * On 13 March 2010, the Imedi television station in Georgia broadcast a false announcement that Russia had invaded Georgia.

Psychologist Peter Hancock has identified six steps which characterise a truly successful hoax:
 * Identify a constituency – a person or group of people who, for reasons such as piety or patriotism, or greed, will truly care about your creation.
 * Identify a particular dream which will make your hoax appeal to your constituency.
 * Create an appealing but "under-specified" hoax, with ambiguities
 * Have your creation discovered.
 * Find at least one champion who will actively support your hoax.
 * Make people care, either positively or negatively – the ambiguities encourage interest and debate

Types

Hoaxes vary widely in their processes of creation, propagation, and entrenchment over time. Examples include:
 * Academic hoaxes:
 * The Sokal affair
 * The Grievance studies affair
 * Art-world hoaxes:
 * The "Bruno Hat" art hoax, arranged in London in July 1929, involved staging a convincing public exhibition of paintings by an imaginary reclusive artist, Bruno Hat. All the perpetrators were well-educated and did not intend a fraud, as the newspapers were informed the next day. Those involved included Brian Howard, Evelyn Waugh, Bryan Guinness, John Banting and Tom Mitford
 * Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960: a 1998 art world hoax, by William Boyd
 * Disumbrationism: a modern art hoax
 * Pierre Brassau: exposing art critics to "modern paintings" made by a chimpanzee
 * Spectra: A Book of Poetic Experiments: a modernist poetry hoax
 * Ern Malley, the popular but fictitious Australian poet
 * Apocryphal claims that originate as a hoax gain widespread belief among members of a culture or organisation, become entrenched as persons who believe it repeat it in good faith to others, and continue to command that belief after the hoax's originators have died or departed
 * Computer virus hoaxes became widespread as viruses themselves began to spread. A typical hoax is an email message warning recipients of a non-existent threat, usually forging quotes supposedly from authorities such as Microsoft and IBM. In most cases the payload is an exhortation to distribute the message to everyone in the recipient's address book. Thus the e-mail "warning" is itself the "virus." Sometimes the hoax is more harmful, e.g., telling the recipient to seek a particular file (usually in a Microsoft Windows operating system); if the file is found, the computer is deemed to be infected unless it is deleted. In reality the file is one required by the operating system for correct functioning of the computer.
 * Criminal Hoaxing, such as the case of John Samuel Humble, also known as Wearside Jack. Criminal hoaxing diverts time and money of police investigations with communications purporting to come from the actual criminal. Once caught, hoaxers are charged under criminal codes such as Perverting the course of justice
 * Factoids
 * Hoaxes formed by making minor or gradually increasing changes to a warning or other claims widely circulated for legitimate purposes
 * Hoax of exposure is a semi-comical or private sting operation. It usually encourages people to act foolishly or credulously by falling for patent nonsense that the hoaxer deliberately presents as reality. A related activity is culture jamming.
 * Hoax news
 * Hoaxes perpetrated by "scare tactics" appealing to the audience's subjectively rational belief that the expected cost of not believing the hoax (the cost if its assertions are true times the likelihood of their truth) outweighs the expected cost of believing the hoax (cost if false times likelihood of falsity), such as claims that a non-malicious but unfamiliar program on one's computer is malware
 * Hoaxes perpetrated on occasions when their initiation is considered socially appropriate, such as April Fools' Day
 * Humbugs
 * Internet hoaxes became more common after the start of social media. Some websites have been used to hoax millions of people on the Web
 * Paleoanthropological hoaxes, anthropologists were taken in by the "Piltdown Man discovery" that was widely believed from 1913 to 1953
 * Religious hoaxes
 * UFO hoaxes
 * Urban legends and rumours with a probable conscious attempt to deceive
 * Plandemic is a planned in advance pandemic

Hoax news
Hoax news (also referred to as fake news ) is a news report containing facts that are either inaccurate or false but which are presented as genuine. A hoax news report conveys a half-truth used deliberately to mislead the public.

Hoax may serve the goal of propaganda or disinformation – using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect. Unlike news satire, fake news websites seek to mislead, rather than entertain, readers for financial or political gain.

Hoax news is usually released with the intention of misleading to injure an organisation, individual, or person, and/or benefit financially or politically, sometimes utilising sensationalist, deceptive, or simply invented headlines to maximise readership. Likewise, clickbait reports and articles from this operation gain advertisement revenue.

title: Hoax


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Autosport

Autosport is a global motorsport publishing brand headquartered based in Richmond, London, England. It was established in 1950 at the same time as the origins of the Formula One World Championship.

Autosport began life as a weekly magazine in 1950 and expanded into digital publishing with the creation of Autosport.com in 1997. In 2016, Haymarket Media Group sold Autosport and the rest of its motorsport portfolio to Motorsport Network.

Autosport.com
Autosport launched its website – Autosport.com – in 1997. As distinct from the magazine, the online content is more internationally focussed and as well as covering sports news and reporting on races, Autosport.com also produces video and galleries taken from the Motorsport Images archive and in-depth long-form content in the website's subscriber-only sections.

Autosport Plus
Autosport Plus is a paywalled part of the autosport.com website with additional content.

Current editorial team

 * Editor - Haydn Cobb
 * Plus Editor - James Newbold
 * Grand Prix Editor - Alex Kalinauckas
 * F1 Reporter - Luke Smith
 * F1 Editor - Matt Kew
 * International Editor - Lewis Duncan
 * News Editor - Megan White
 * News Editor - Tom Howard
 * Technical Editor - Jake Boxall-Legge
 * Director of Digital - Jessica McFadyen
 * Technical Team Leader - Geoff Creighton

Autosport Magazine
Autosport first issue was published in 1950 and the weekly newsstand title has been in continuous publication ever since.

It covers all forms of motorsport from Formula 1 through to the British club racing scene. The magazine carries race and rally reports from high-profile and significant meetings from all over the world and the UK and blends this with news analysis and in-depth articles looking at contemporary cars, drivers and events as well as retrospective looks at significant characters and developments from the sport's past.

Traditionally Autosport had only focused on four-wheel racing, but its editorial expanded to include MotoGP coverage in 2014. In the past, the magazine once carried reviews of new road cars, but it is now specifically dedicated to racing and rallying.

Autosport stopped printing their magazine on 30 April 2020 due to COVID, and said that they would resume in time for the 2020 Formula 1 season. They then resumed publishing with the issue dated 3 July 2020.

Current editorial team
Since May 2016 the magazine has been edited by Kevin Turner, who was previously the editor of sister title Motorsport News. The other full-time members of staff are.

 * Chief Editor - Kevin Turner
 * Deputy editor - Marcus Simmons
 * Grand Prix editor - Alex Kalinauckas
 * F1 Editor - Matt Kew
 * F1 Reporter - Luke Smith
 * Technical Editor - Jake Boxall-Legge
 * Production Editor - Peter Hodges
 * Group National Editor - Stephen Lickorish
 * Performance and Engineering Editor - James Newbold
 * Deputy National Editor - Stefan Mackley
 * Art Director - Lynsey Elliott
 * Art Editor - Michael Cavalli

In addition, the magazine features a number of freelance correspondents. Among these are F1 columnist Nigel Roebuck, Sportscar specialist Gary Watkins and British Club racing expert Marcus Pye. It also has correspondents covering club-level racing from the British domestic racing scene and prominent international races and rallies.

Editions
Autosport Asia Edition

In April 2011, Autosport re-launched Autosport Asia Edition. It is published by Bespoke Media Pte Ltd in Singapore. It is a monthly magazine instead of a weekly and the aim is that it will carry over most of the month's content from the British edition, as well as placing a very strong emphasis on the Asian motorsport scene.

Autosport Russian Edition

On 11 February 2013, launched Autosport Russian Edition.

Autosport Arabic Edition

On 1 November 2013, launched Autosport Arabic Edition.

Autosport French Edition

On 3 April 2014, launched Autosport French Edition.

Autosport Engineering & Autosport Performance
Autosport Engineering and Autosport Performance are regular supplements that appear in Autosport each month on a rotating basis. Edited by James Newbold, Autosport Engineering is derived from the section of the Autosport International Show of the same name.

The supplement has a particular focus on companies based in the UK.

Autosport International
Autosport International is a motorsport-themed exhibition, which has taken place every January at the NEC Birmingham, UK, since 1991.

Autosport Awards
The Autosport Awards, held annually at The Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in London on the first weekend in December is motorsport's red carpet event, honouring the achievements of the race drivers from Formula One and other world championships, as well as recognising and promoting emerging talent.

title: Autosport


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Motor racing (disambiguation)

Motor racing describes various forms of motor-powered racing:

 * Auto racing
 * Motorboat racing
 * Motorcycle racing
 * Kart racing
 * Truck racing

Motor racing may also refer to:

 * Motor Racing Developments
 * Motor Racing Network
 * Motor Racing Outreach

title: Motor racing (disambiguation)


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Touring car racing

Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition that uses race prepared touring cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States.

While the cars do not move as fast as those in formula or sports car races, their similarity both to one another and to fans' own vehicles makes for well-supported racing. The lesser use of aerodynamics means following cars have a much easier time passing than in open-wheel racing, and the more substantial bodies of the cars makes the subtle bumping and nudging for overtaking much more acceptable as part of racing.

As well as short sprint races, many touring car series include one or more endurance races, which last anything from 3 to 24 hours and are a test of reliability and pit crews as much as car, driver speed, and consistency.

Characteristics

Touring car racing started in the mid twentieth century as a long-format style of competition that took place on public roads between numerous towns. The cars were crewed by a driver and, because of their unreliability, a mechanic who carried tools and spares. The legacy of these beginnings can still be seen in modern touring and GT carsthe driver sits offset from the centreline of the car and there is space for a second seat (although they are rarely fitted any more).

While rules vary from country to country, most series require that the competitors start with a standard car body, but virtually every other component may be allowed to be heavily modified for racing, including engines, suspension, brakes, wheels and tires. Aerodynamic aids are sometimes added to the front and rear of the cars. Regulations are usually designed to limit costs by banning some of the more exotic technologies available (for instance, many series insist on a control tire that all competitors must use) and keep the racing close (sometimes by ballast weight where winning a race requires the winner's car to be heavier for subsequent races).

Touring cars share some similarity with American stock car racing governed by NASCAR. However, touring cars are, at least notionally, derived from production cars while today's NASCAR vehicles are based on a common design. Touring car racing is also referred to as saloon car racing.

FIA TCR World Tour
Worldwide

Modern World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) started in 2005, evolving from the reborn European Touring Car Championship. The series merged with the TCR International Series and became the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) starting from 2018. In 2023, the WTCR was replaced by the TCR World Tour.

Running at major international racing facilities, this series is supported by BMW, SEAT and Chevrolet. The latter fields a works team, whereas the other two only sell racing kits to be installed on their cars, providing technical support to their customers. In 2011, Volvo also entered the championship, fielding a one-car team as an evaluation for a possible heavier commitment to the series. The World Touring Car Championship features 1.6-litre cars built to Super 2000 regulations based on FIA Group N.

Following the trend of recent FIA rules, cost control is a major theme in the technical regulation. In 2011 the rules concerning the engine capacity have changed, switching from 2000 cc to 1600 cc turbo engines. Cars equipped with the old 2000 cc engines are still eligible in the championship. Many technologies that have featured in production cars are not allowed, for example: variable valve timing, variable intake geometry, ABS braking and traction control.

British Touring Car Championship
United Kingdom

The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) currently competes at nine circuits in the UK with cars built to Next Generation Touring Car specification, with ballast being used to equalise performance. From 2011, cars that ran to the BTCC's own Next Generation Touring Car specification were eligible to compete in a phased move away from Super 2000 regulations. Cars are 2.0-litre saloons, station wagons and hatchbacks with over 350 bhp and can be front or rear-wheel drive. During the 2016 season manufacturer team entries came from BMW, Subaru, MG, and Honda. Since BTCC budgets have been kept relatively low, there is a strong independent and privateer presence in the championship. Manufacturers represented by privateers include Vauxhall, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, Chevrolet, and Audi.

Prior to 2001 the BTCC was contested by cars built to 2.0-litre supertouring regulations and had in its heyday up to nine different manufacturers. Joachim Winkelhock stated on several occasions that it was the best touring car championship in the world, and many champions of that era now race in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC). Between 2002 and 2006 the BTCC ran its own Touring class with Super Production/Super 2000 cars making up the numbers; the Touring class was phased out (only privateers are eligible to run old Touring cars) with the intention of a pure Super 2000 series. The introduction of the Next Generation Touring Car specification, from 2011, started a phased transition from Super 2000 cars in an effort to cut costs and improve the sport.

DTM
Germany/Europe

The DTM series, the initials standing for Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft until 1996, then following a hiatus, revived as Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters in 2000, features advanced purpose built 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-powered space frame machines, covered with largely carbon fibre bodyshapes resembling the manufacturers' road machine (although the roof and roof pillars do originate from the production car). In order to lower costs, the engine power is limited to 610 hp, and transmissions, brakes and tyres (Hankook) are standard parts for all. Also, dimensions and aerodynamics are equalised. The approx. 985 kg (without driver) DTM cars corner incredibly quickly and wear spectacular bodykits incorporating huge wheel arches and diffusers, plus a drag-reduction system (DRS) designed to encourage overtaking.

More than 20 works-backed entries of the Opel Astra, Audi TT and Mercedes-Benz CLK contested the revived 2000 DTM series but a serious issue developed for the series when Opel pulled out ahead of the 2006 season. BMW would eventually replace Opel as the series' third manufacturer for 2012, while Mercedes-AMG withdrew at the end of 2018. Mercedes-AMG was replaced by a privately funded Aston Martin Vantage program that did not last beyond the 2019 season.

For the 2019 season, major technical changes occurred. Turbochargers were reintroduced in accordance with new regulations impacting engines and power outputs, as all cars are now required to have 2.0-litre 4-cylinder single turbo engines, replacing the 4.0L V8s that had been used since the series' revival in 2000. Engine power was increased from ~500 hp to 610 hp, with an extra 30 hp available as part of a push-to-pass system available to drivers for the first time. Downforce levels were also reduced to encourage overtaking and increase top speeds to 300 km/h (186 mph) in order to improve the racing spectacle.

In 2019, DTM formed a partnership with the Japanese sports car series Super GT which runs a near identical set of rules and regulations in its GT500 class. Honda, Toyota – represented via Lexus, and Nissan each entered a wildcard entry for the final race of the 2019 season at the Hockenheimring. The cars entered were a Nissan GT-R (R35), a Lexus LC 500 and a Honda NSX. For the weekend of the 22nd-24 November, DTM sent three BMW M4s and four Audi RS5s to take part in a non-championship race at Fuji Speedway along with the full GT500 grid, labelled the 'SUPER GT x DTM Dream Race'. Aston Martin withdrew from the event as they intended to focus on developing the Vantage package for 2020, however this never eventuated as the program was ended.

Audi announced in late April 2020 that they would be discontinuing their involvement in the series after the end of the 2020 season, following the same path Mercedes-Benz did after the end of the 2018 season; focusing on electric motorsport, most notably Formula E. This will leave BMW as the sole manufacturer left, putting the series' future in serious jeopardy.

Nürburgring NLS Endurance Racing Series
Germany

Since 1997, and nowadays still on the over 20 km long famous old Nürburgring and other circuits worldwide, in average over 150 touring cars compete in the NLS series of ten typically four-hour-long races. Cars range from old 100 hp road legal compacts to 500 hp Porsche 996 and even modified DTM cars (1250 kg). Most entrants of the 24 Hours Nürburgring collect experience here.

Scandinavian Touring Car Championship
Sweden/Denmark

Between 1996 and 2010 the Swedish Touring Car Championship contained various races in Sweden and a few in Denmark. The most successful car makes were Volvo, BMW, Audi, and Nissan. In 2010 the championship merged with the Danish Touringcar Championship to form the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship. The 2010 champion was Robert Dahlgren, because he had achieved the best results from selected races in the Danish and Swedish championships. Rickard Rydell and Johan Kristoffersson won the championship in 2011 and 2012, in a Chevrolet and a VW, respectively. In 2013 the series merged with the TTA – Racing Elite League to form the 2013 STCC – Racing Elite League season, starring 17 drivers for Volvo, BMW, Saab, Citroën, Dacia, and Honda.

Supercars Championship
Australia and New Zealand

Formerly the Australian Touring Car Championship, Supercars are recognised internationally as the 'fastest touring cars in the world' racing at speeds that can reach nearly 300 km/h. They are also the most expensive touring cars in the world with each car costing in excess of $1 million (AUD) which includes bespoke $250,000 (AUD) 5.0-litre V8 engines producing approximately 635 hp (473 kW). The current formula was devised in 1993 (based on Group A regulations) and branded as 'V8 Supercars' in 1997 and 'Supercars' in 2016. The series features grids of approximately 25 cars, although selected events feature wildcard entries which add to the grid. The cars are currently based on the Ford Mustang GT and Holden Commodore (ZB) The minimum weight for a Supercar including driver is 1395 kg. The Commodore will be replaced by a Chevrolet Camaro in 2022. The race cars themselves are derived from production body panels and space frame chassis. Both body styles feature an aerodynamic package incorporating large front and rear wings designed to ensure equal aerodynamic performance between the two vehicle types.

The series incorporates the world famous Bathurst 1000 race as a championship round. Because of the longer distance, regulations require two drivers per car for this race. This also applies to The Bend 500 & the Gold Coast 600. These events make up the Pirtek Enduro Cup, which is a championship-within-a-championship where the driver combination with most points collected over these three endurance races wins a trophy.

In Australia, Supercars enjoys a strong support base that is still driven in large part by the tribal Ford versus Holden battle. Over 200,000 total spectators attend the four-day Adelaide 500 and Bathurst 1000 events, and the 2019 Bathurst 1000 drew a maximum of 2.36 million television viewers across the country. This compares favourably with other major sporting events such as the AFL Grand Final with 2.2 million TV viewers in 2019. Supercars is also popular in New Zealand, with a regular round formerly held in the country (previously held at Pukekohe) being the only international event on the series calendar. Attempts at further international expansion were made in China, Malaysia, the Middle East, and the United States during the 2000s and 2010s, none of which have survived.

As the series has grown, major international motorsport organisations have become involved such as Team Penske, Andretti Autosport, United Autosports and Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Both Ford and Holden financially and technically supported their favoured teams and took an active role in promotion of the series from its beginning, but began to wind back and ultimately withdraw their financial commitments approximately in line with the decline in sales and eventual discontinuation of the Falcon in 2016 and Commodore in 2020 (the two models that exclusively competed in the V8 formula from 1993 to 2012). Ford withdrew all financial support after 2015, and Holden cut most of its support back to only the Red Bull Holden Racing Team from 2017. Holden was shut down as a brand during 2020, ending its factory involvement in Supercars after the 2020 season, while Ford returned for the 2019 season with the Mustang project. The Commodore will be replaced with a Chevrolet Camaro, which will be sold in Australia by General Motors Specialty Vehicles.

Other manufacturers have also appeared in the series, including Nissan with Kelly Racing, Volvo with Garry Rogers Motorsport, and Mercedes-Benz in a non-factory-supported program from Erebus Motorsport. With Kelly Racing's switch to Ford Mustangs for 2020 after a year of running its Nissan Altimas privately, Supercars reverted to a two-make Ford vs. Holden competition.

Americas

 * 🇦🇷 TC 2000 Championship (1979–present)
 * 🇨🇴 TC 2000 (Colombia) (2004–present)
 * 🇺🇸 TC America Seriesduring the SpeedVision/Speed Channel era, the "touring cars" in this series were lower-performance vehicles modified to almost the same extent as the American Le Mans Series and Rolex Sports Car Series caliber grand touring cars. After the touring cars became a BMW–Mazda–Acura affair, the series was reformatted to include a new touring car class mostly sharing Grand Am's Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge vehicles. Shortly later, a lesser B-Spec group was added. After acquisition by SRO, TC America was separated from World Challenge.
 * 🇨🇦 Canadian Touring Car Championship
 * Costa Rica Touring Car Championship
 * 🇩🇴 CDCC Dominican National Championship
 * 🇺🇸 U.S. Touring Car Championship
 * 🇺🇸 Continental Tire Sports Car Challengefeatures both a sports-car-based grand sport class and a touring-car-based street tuner class
 * 🇧🇷 Stock Car Brasil (1979–present, link)
 * 🇺🇸 American Touring Car Championship (2009–present)
 * 🇧🇷 Copa Petrobras de Marcas (link)

Europe

 * 🇩🇪 ADAC Procar Series (Germany), formerly DMSB-Produktionswagen-Meisterschaft (DPM) with ETCC rules (1995–2017)
 * 🇫🇷 Renault Eurocup Mégane Trophy
 * 🇪🇺 European Touring Car Cup, held at various European circuits since 2005
 * 🇪🇪🇱🇹 Baltic Touring Car Championship
 * 🇫🇮 Finnish Touring Car Championship (1987–present)
 * 🇮🇪 Irish Touring Car Championship
 * Portuguese Touring Car Championship
 * 🇷🇺 Russian Touring Car Championship
 * Cruze Cup (One-make series)

Asia-Pacific

 * 🇯🇵 Super GT (1993–present)
 * 🇭🇰 Hong Kong Touring Car Championship (2002–present)
 * Philippine Touring Car Championship (formerly the PNTCC)
 * 🇨🇳 China Touring Car Championship
 * 🇲🇴 Macau Touring Car Championship (? –present)
 * 🇲🇾 Malaysia Championship Series (2014–present)
 * 🇹🇭 Thailand Super Series (2013–present)
 * 🇳🇿 NZ Touring Cars
 * 🇦🇺 Super2 Series
 * 🇦🇺 Super3 Series, link
 * 🇲🇾 Saturday Night Fever Challenge SeriesMalaysia (Club Event Series)
 * 🇮🇳 Volkswagen Vento Cup India (2011–present)

Africa

 * Global Touring Car Championship

Former series

 * The old World Touring Car Championship, plagued by lack of support from the FIA, raced under the Group A regulations in 1987.
 * Germany's former DTC adopted ETCC rules in 2004 and was renamed to DMSB-Produktionswagen-Meisterschaft (DPM) until 2005
 * Asian Touring Car Championship (2000–2002, 2005–2011)
 * Benelux Racing League 2004–2009
 * Belgian Touring Car Series, last season in 2011.
 * Australian Super Touring Championship ran from 1993 to 2001.
 * Japanese Touring Car Championship (JTCC) ran from 1994 through 1998.
 * Super Tourenwagen Cup (STW) ran from 1994 through 1999.
 * North American Touring Car Championship (NATCC) ran from 1996 to 1997.
 * Swedish Touring Car Championship (1996–2010)
 * South American Super Touring Car Championship ran from 1997 through 2000.
 * Norwegian Touring Car Championship
 * Danish Touring Car Championship (1999–2010)
 * Italian Superturismo Championship (1987–1999, 2003–2008)
 * Superstars Series (2004–2013)
 * French Supertouring Championship (Championnat de France de Supertourisme), last season in 2005.
 * Campeonato Español de Turismos (Spanish Touring Car Championship) ran from 1959 to 1998.
 * Bankfin Touring Car Championship (South African Touring Car Championship) which ended in 2000.
 * Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (1984–1994) then turned to ITCC by the FIA in 1995, based in heavily modified cars, began to be too expensive and due to retirement from Opel and Alfa Romeo the ITCC series were cancelled in 1996.
 * V8Star Series
 * New Zealand V8s (1994–2015)
 * V8SuperTourer

Famous races

 * Bathurst 1000 held at Mount Panorama Circuit since 1963, part of the Supercars Championship (the race was held at Phillip Island from 1960 to 1962)
 * Norisring Trophy held at the Norisring for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters
 * Spa 24 Hours since 1924–1989
 * 24 Hours Nürburgring at the famous old Nürburgring, since 1970, related to VLN series there
 * Macau Grand Prix Guia Race (contested as part of WTCC since 2005)
 * Tourist Trophy held until 1988
 * Wellington 500, held at the Wellington street circuit between 1985 and 1996
 * InterTEC (インターTEC), held at Fuji Speedway as part of the JTCC round through the series duration until the series' demise in 1998
 * Cascavel de Ouro (Cascavel de Ouro), held at Autódromo Internacional de Cascavel, since 1967

Rule sets
Different sets of regulations do apply:
 * Contemporary touring car racing: Class 1· Group A· Group F· Group G· Group H· Group N· Group S· Group SE· Group SP· Next Generation Touring Car· Super 2000· TCR Touring Car
 * Historic touring car racing: Group 1· Group 2· Group 3· Group 4· Group 5· Group B· Supertouring

title: Touring car racing


text:
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 purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel racing (such as Formula One), 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) 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 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, 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 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 the Triple Crown of endurance car racing.

Evolution
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 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 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 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 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 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.

Post-war revival
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 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 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 a back seat to GT cars with the FIA replacing the World Championship for Sports Cars with the International Championship for GT Manufacturers.

Growth at a national level
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

1960s and 1970s – Evolution, rise, and decline
Powerful prototypes (effectively pure-bred two-seater racing cars with no real link to production vehicles) started to appear as 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 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 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 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 a high point in the history of the sport.

1980s – Group C and IMSA GTP
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 – 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 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.

1990s – Rebirth and revival
In an attempt to provide a top-class endurance racing series to replace the WSPC, 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 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 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 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.

2000s – Resurgence in the US
The debut of the SpeedVision television network brought 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 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, 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 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 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.

2010s – Reformatting
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

Types of cars
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 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
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 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 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 962LM, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 car
Grand Touring (from the Italian Gran Turismo) racing is the most common form of sports car racing, and 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 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 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 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, 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.

FIA divides GT cars into four categories called GT1 (formerly GT), GT2 (formerly N-GT), GT3 (recently introduced) and GT4. The GT1 and GT2 divisions are very close to the ACO rules outlined above, and again some crossover racing does occur, particularly in the GT2 class. The GT3 class is relatively new and was introduced for 2006. These cars are closer to standard form than in GT2, and in most cases modifications are restricted to those found in one-make cups. GT4 is another new category for amateur and semi-pro drivers in production-based cars with very few racing modifications – for example, no aerodynamic aids or body modifications are permitted. All of the categories (with the exception of GT2) have their own championships/cups run by the FIA. Currently, GT2 is defunct in the FIA, and only runs in Le Mans Series/ALMS; however, the FIA has also announced that GT2 cars will be able to compete in the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2012 in a World Class along with GT3 cars.

Grand-Am has only one class for Grand Touring cars which allows production-based GT racers at a spec somewhere between FIA GT2 and GT3 in terms of modification (e.g. the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) to compete with purpose-built tube-frame "silhouette" machines reminiscent of the former IMSA GTO/GTU classes. Grand-Am also runs various under-classes more reminiscent of GT4, though closer to factory cars. For 2012, GT3 cars will be allowed, with spec wings and splitters, as long as they pass a test at the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, North Carolina, thus allowing GT3 cars to run with few modifications relative to other series (NASCAR, the parent company of Grand-Am, does not permit anti-lock brakes or traction control to be used on Grand-Am GT cars).

, the four GT categories are in mixed health. GT1 has been all but phased out with the removal of the class from the FIA GT1 World Championship in favor of GT3 cars, in turn leading to the outright discontinuation of the series. GT2 is currently limited to certain series, including the IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series, FIA World Endurance Championship, Asian Le Mans Series, and the International GT Open. GT3, which has since emerged as the most popular of the GT classes, has seen widespread use in many international and regional series such as the FIA GT3 European Championship and the Blancpain Endurance Series, as well as most national series such as Germany's ADAC GT Masters and the British GT Championship. GT4 has likely been phased out like GT1, with the removal of the category from the Blancpain Endurance Series and the cancellation of the GT4 European Cup for 2012 due to issues regarding the organiser.

Technology escalation and control
While GT cars are at least in theory based on road-going models, some GT1 cars in the mid to late 1990s were effectively purpose-built sports-prototypes which spawned exotic production cars with homologation production limits of 25 cars (for small-scale manufacturers, such as Saleen) or 100 cars (for major manufacturers like Daimler AG).

The original form of GT1 racing was intended for the purebred supercars and purpose-built race cars. Examples include the McLaren F1 GTR, Ferrari F40, Porsche 911 GT1, Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, Toyota GT-One and Nissan R390 – while the first two were a derivatives of road-going sports cars, the German and Japanese contenders were pure-bred racing cars – virtually sports prototypes. Rising costs coupled with declining entries led to the death of this class in 1998, and it was replaced by what was then called GT2 (by the FIA, which later evolved into the GT1) and Le Mans Prototype (LMP, by the ACO).

This process was repeated in 2009 in response to cost increases in GT1 and GT2 racing, resulting in the abolition of both GT classes as they stood. Various proposals exist to control technology and costs, mainly by discontinuing the existing GT1 class and creating new class boundaries between current GT2, GT3 and GT4 cars.

Other divisions
Sports car racing in general extends far beyond ACO and FIA rules, encompassing the Grand-Am professional series as well as amateur road racing classes in the Sports Car Club of America in North America.

Amateur sports car racing throughout the United States is sanctioned by clubs such as the Sports Car Club of America. The SCCA's sports-racing classes include C and D Sports Racing, Sports 2000 and Spec Racer Ford, in descending order of speed and sophistication, as well as a number of production-based and one-make classes.

In Japan, the Super GT series divides cars into two classes, called GT500 and GT300. These cars are less restricted than their European and American counterparts, with cars often sporting tube frame clips and forced induction kits. Teams are also free to change engines with other models made by the manufacturer. The numbers in the classifications refer to the maximum power (in horsepower) available to each class; this is achieved through the use of engine restrictors. Proponents of the series claim that the Super GT cars are the fastest sports cars in the world, while critics deride the cars as being outside the limits of 'acceptable' modifications. In recent years however, rule changes in both GT500 and GT1 (aimed at eventually allowing both classes to compete with each other in the future) have brought the cars closer to each other, although GT500 cars still have a notable advantage in terms of aerodynamics and cornering performance (enough to compensate for GT1 cars greater power).

In Europe, although most national championships (British, French, German and the Spain-based International GT Open) run under FIA/ACO GT regulations with some modifications to ensure a more balanced competition and lower costs, some championships are open to non-homologated GT cars. The Belcar series in Belgium allows silhouettes and touring cars to race alongside GTs, while the VdeV Modern Endurance allows small prototypes from national championships such as the Norma, Centenari and Radical to race alongside GT3-class cars. Britcar permits a wide range of touring and GT cars to compete in endurance races, and Britsports permits various kinds of sports racing cars.

Current

 * FIA World Endurance Championship – In operation since 2012, the current auto racing World Championship for Sports cars and GTs organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

Former

 * World Sportscar Championship – The long-running former World Championship, which dissolved in 1992. Originally contested in 1953 by Sports Cars, GTs and even Touring Cars, towards its end it was restricted to Sports Cars. At various times, it was also known as the International Championship for GT Manufacturers, International Championship for Sports Cars, International Championship for Makes, World Championship for Makes, World Endurance Championship and World Sports Prototype Championship. 1963 saw the first formal separation of Sports Cars and GT cars in separate championships. The practice continued until 1977, after which it became a sports car only series.
 * FIA GT1 World Championship – A short-lived GT series in the early 2010s created by Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) in an attempt to promote the FIA GT Championship to World Championship status.

International championships

 * Porsche Supercup – One-make series for Porsche Carrera Cup cars, serving as a support series for the Formula One world championship. Predominantly European series, but has since also ventured into western Asia.
 * 24H Series – Endurance series for GT and Touring cars. Predominantly races in Europe and the Middle East, but has also gone to the United States.

Defunct

 * American Le Mans Series – Based on the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Run in the United States and Canada, although held events elsewhere, as far away as Australia. Emerged from the IMSA GT split, and essentially replaced IMSA GT. It lasted from 1999 to 2013 and merged into the United SportCar Championship.
 * Intercontinental Le Mans Cup – International championship, starting in 2010 and ending in 2011. Despite its international status, it was not considered an official World Championship because it was not organised by the FIA.

North America

 * WeatherTech SportsCar Championshipthe current top-level North American sports car and GT series, founded following the merger of the Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series, with the first season held in 2014.
 * GT World Challenge America – GT and Touring Car Racing series in the US and Canada
 * Michelin Pilot Challenge – support/feeder series to the Rolex Sports Car Series and its successor WeatherTech SportsCar Championship; mixes GT and touring cars
 * Trans-Am Series – Originally a touring car series incorporating some GT elements in later years but remained primarily for touring cars. Gradually evolved into a silhouette racing car series, mirroring NASCAR trends. Began in the 1960s was hugely popular during the Pony car era of muscle cars in the late 60s and early 70s, it folded in 2005. A new Muscle car series evolved in 2009.

Defunct
 * IMSA Prototype Lites – Support series for the American Le Mans Series, formerly called "IMSA Lites". Single seat sports cars with motorcycle engines.
 * Rolex Sports Car Series – Grand-Am's top-level US sports car series, emerged from the USRRC. Lasted from 2000 to 2013, merged into the United SportsCar Championship. Separate classes for Sports cars and GT cars.
 * Can-Am – Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Prototype-based series which ran from 1966 to 1974 and in revised form from 1977 to 1986; revived in 1998 as a part of the USRRC)
 * USERA – United States Endurance Racing Association – Pro-Am Endurance Championship in the United States
 * IMSA GT Championship – lasted from 1971 to 1998 and replaced by ALMS and the Rolex Series.
 * United States Road Racing Championship – emerged from the IMSA GT split, became the Rolex Series.
 * International Race of Champions – The popular IROC one-make series has been run in the United States, in later years predominately on oval for GT and Muscle cars.

Europe

 * European Le Mans Series – Sister series to the ALMS, run mostly in Europe (formerly the ELMS).
 * Michelin Le Mans Cup
 * GT World Challenge Europe – European Championship for GT3 cars, which replaced the FIA GT1 Championship in 2013. Consists of GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup & GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup
 * International GT Open – European Championship for GT2 and GT3 cars, founded in 2006.
 * GT4 European Cup – A GT4 racing series, predominantly in Europe but some rounds elsewhere.
 * Supercar Challenge series – Formerly known as the Dutch Supercar Challenge, Sportscar series held in Benelux region since 2001.

Defunct
 * FIA Sportscar Championship – FIA's now-defunct European Prototype racing series – most races ended up part of the European Le Mans Series.
 * FIA GT Championship – European Championship organised by FIA for GT1 and GT2 cars, ran from 1997 to 2009.
 * FIA GT3 European Championship – GT3 European racing series, predominantly in Europe but some rounds elsewhere.

Asia-Pacific

 * Asian Le Mans Series – Series running LMP2, LMP3 and GT3 cars.
 * GT World Challenge Asia – Asian GT3 Championship founded in 2009, that replaced the Asia GT Challenge and GT Asia.
 * Super GT – Japan-based sports car racing championship; previously known as the Japan GT Championship (JGTC).

Defunct
 * Japan Le Mans Challenge – Established in 2006, ran in Japan and folded in 2007.
 * All Japan Sports Prototype Championship – Japanese series for Gr. C cars, replaced by JGTC in 1993.
 * Fuji Grand Champion Series – a Japanese series originally for Gr. 6 cars.

Australia

 * GT World Challenge Australia – A series for GT type cars which ran from 1982 to 1985 (mostly IMSA GTO spec cars as well as Group B Sports Sedans from the then defunct Australian Sports Sedan Championship), and from 2005 to date. The championship is currently run to FIA GT3 regulations. In November 2020, the Championship was acquired by SRO Motorsports Group and Australian Racing Group for the assets as new promoter and rebranded as part of "GT World Challenge" era to debut in 2021.
 * Sports Racer Series – An amateur series for small, mostly motorcycle-engined sports cars, run for the first time in 2010.
 * Australian Nations Cup Championship – A series for GT type cars which ran from 2000 to 2004. Replaced by the revived Australian GT Championship in 2005 after the series organiser Procar Australia ceased operation in 2004.
 * Australian Sports Car Championship – A series which ran from 1969 to 1988. It was run for the unique to Australia Group A Sports Cars regulations from 1969 to 1975, for Group D Production Sports Cars from 1976 to 1981 and again for Group A Sports Cars from 1982 to 1988.

Germany

 * Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft – German series which originally pitted touring cars against GT racers, Gr 6 and then Gr. C was later added.
 * ADAC Supercup – A Group C only national series in Germany, replaced DRM and ran until 1989. Not to be confused with the various Porsche Supercup series.
 * ADAC GT Masters – ADAC level GT series
 * Interserie – Germany-based series, originally similar to Can-Am.

United Kingdom

 * British GT Championship – national level GT series
 * Speed – National level endurance car championship run by MotorsportVision Racing. Sometimes called LMP3 cars.
 * Thundersports – a British series of the 1980s in which pretty much any kind of sports racer, GT and even touring cars were eligible.
 * Clubmans – a long-lived British formula which featured sophisticated, quick but economical front-engined/rear wheel drive sports racers well into the 1990s. Based originally on the popularity of the Lotus Seven.

United States

 * GT World Challenge America
 * GT America Series
 * GT4 America Series

Major single events

 * 24 Hours of Le Mans – A Endurance events organized by Automobile Club de l'Ouest and sanctioned by Federation Internationale de l'Automobile
 * 24 Hours of Daytona
 * Nürburgring 24 Hours
 * Spa 24 Hours
 * Bathurst 12 Hour
 * 12 Hours of Sebring
 * Suzuka 10 Hours
 * Dubai 24 Hour

title: Sports car racing