GTS and Le Mans

Gran Turismo Sport

The term GTS first appeared at Le Mans with the Porsche 904 GTS winning it's class on debut in 1964 and follow-up win of 1965. GTS model naming since being widely adopted by many other marques race and road cars (Ferrari as Gran Turismo Spider).

The ACO subsequently ran a GTS category between 1972-1975 dominated by Ferrari and Porsche, with GTS class winning Ferrari Dayton's finishing 5th overall in 1972 and 1974. The LM GTS category, again for the fastest GT cars, ran at Le Mans between 1999-2004 with GTS class wins for Oreca Chysler Viper GTS-R (1999, 2000) Corvette C5-R (2001, 2002, 2004) and Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello (2003).

For many the GTS category of the 1970s represnts sports car racing in it's purest form; converted road cars in which the best privaters with limited funds could beat works supported entries. Evidenced by a Nick Faure interview with Motorsport magazine where he notes his team didn't change tyres during the whole 24 hours on their way to 6th overall in 1975 in their privately entered Porsche 911 RSR.

With Porsche, Ferrari and McLaren all currently manufacturing GTS variant road cars, registration number LM24 GTS is a perfect plate to accompany a lucky GTS owner to Le Mans and back for years to come.

images copyright and courtesy of Porsche AG, McLaren Cars Ltd and Ferrari SpA