24-442: [REDACTED] GM-X Stiletto on display at the 1964 NY World's Fair The GM-X Stiletto was a dream car created by General Motors in 1964. It was designed to have an aerospace design, aircraft steering, a maintenance monitoring system, toggle switch controls, and three way communication speakers. The instrument cluster featured 30 flashing lights, 29 controls and 16 gauges. You entered
48-562: A Dodge Dakota with a top speed of 217.395 mph. Forums citing the Dakota's top speed indicate a standard production Dakota R/T would only reach about 125 mph. Production cars under the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) rules refers purely to the body class. Beyond that the cars are extensively modified. Various countries have laws that define production vehicles. For example, in
72-402: A concept vehicle or show vehicle ) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not be produced . General Motors designer Harley Earl is generally credited with inventing the concept car, and did much to popularize it through its traveling Motorama shows of
96-564: A cars manufacturer since the mid 1980s has been the vehicle identification or VIN. The first three digits are the manufacturer or WMI identifier . If the performance specialist is the manufacturer then its WMI identifier will be in the VIN. An example would be vehicles made or modified by tuning and manufacturing company RUF , which specialises in Porsche based vehicles. In general, if the RUF vehicle
120-424: A high level of modification over the original. In 2006 a Pontiac TransAm of John Rains Racing was classified as being the fastest production model (Bonneville D/PS class) with a top speed in excess of 297 mph (478 km/h). Road tests of the same type of car available from the production line were incapable of anything like this speed and Popular Mechanics referred to the car as production based , which
144-520: A minimum of 200 cars were required for homologation, Group A , a minimum of 2,500 identical models have to be built in 12 consecutive months However, FIA rules tend to allow a degree of modification from the original. Another example is the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association , which is concerned solely with the speed of a vehicle. The Association uses its definition of a production vehicle. The Association allows quite
168-422: A working drivetrain and accessories. The state of most concept cars lies somewhere in between and does not represent the final product. A very small proportion of concept cars are functional to any useful extent, and some cannot move safely at speeds above 10 miles per hour (16 km/h). Inoperative " mock-ups " are usually made of wax, clay, metal, fiberglass, plastic, or a combination thereof. If drivable,
192-778: Is a RUF modified Porsche then the WMI will be Porsche's (WP0), but if it is built by RUF then its WMI will be RUF's (W09). These are usually vehicles where the production run is restricted to a specific number of vehicles. An example of this is the 1957 Rambler Rebel , a limited-production car where only 1,500 were produced. Motor vehicle production statistics are available for countries worldwide, by country, make, and model. Production statistics by country and by model, as far as announced, are available for each make as well. Pre-production cars come after prototypes or development mules , which themselves may be preceded by concept cars . Pre-production vehicles are followed by production vehicles in
216-436: Is used to differentiate such a car from a "race car", a special, custom-built car designed only for racing purposes. The actual degree to which the cars conform to standard model specs has changed over the years and varies from country to country. Today most American stock cars may superficially resemble standard American family sedans , but are in fact purpose-built racing machines built to a strict set of regulations governing
240-535: The mass production for distribution through car dealerships . For example the Bugatti Chiron in which Andy Wallace achieved a maximum of 490.48 km/h (304.77 mph) on 2 August 2019 was described by Bugatti a "near production ready prototype". Three lists within Misplaced Pages and the discussions on their talk pages illustrate the difficulty in defining what a production car is. These are: In
264-579: The "Fastest production car" to the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport . In 2013, their decision was appealed because the Bugatti was modified with its speed limiter turned off, a circumstance already known in 2010. Guinness, which had listed speeds by British cars with modified limiters as production car records in the 1990s, upheld the appeal and initiated a review of their production car definition. The investigation concluded that turning off
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#1732773170047288-868: The 1950s. Concept cars never go into production directly. In modern times, all would have to undergo many changes before the design is finalized for the sake of practicality, safety , regulatory compliance , and cost. A "production-intent" prototype , as opposed to a concept vehicle, serves this purpose. Concept cars are often radical in engine or design . Some use non-traditional, exotic, or expensive materials, ranging from paper to carbon fiber to refined alloys . Others have unique layouts , such as gullwing doors , three or five (or more) wheels , or special abilities not usually found on cars. Because of these often impractical or unprofitable leanings, many concept cars never get past scale models or even drawings in computer design . Other more traditional concepts can be developed into fully drivable (operational) vehicles with
312-755: The United States Briggs Cunningham 's business was classified as a hobby by tax officials because he did not manufacture enough of each model for the Cunningham automobile to be considered a production vehicle, but rather the IRS classified them as high-performance prototype automobiles built as racecars . Legislative definitions tend to revolve around issues of safety or revenue (taxation). Not all performance specialists are officially recognised and their cars are not usually referred to as production vehicles. The primary means of identifying
336-797: The car by folding the roof and the rear section up. GM-X Stiletto did not have the powertrain or operable steering and suspension systems, but the rear section was used in a more modest form in the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado . It shares an appearance with the Buick Century Cruiser . References [ edit ] ^ "The Greatest Concept Cars of All Time, Volume I" . Car and Driver . 25 August 2015 . Retrieved 17 September 2023 . External links [ edit ] GM Photo Store Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=GM-X_Stiletto&oldid=1175786319 " Category : General Motors concept cars Concept car A concept car (also known as
360-550: The car design ensuring that the chassis , suspension , engine, etc. are architecturally identical on all vehicles. For example, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series now requires fuel injection . The closest European equivalent to stock car racing is probably touring car racing . In the UK and New Zealand there is a racing formula called stock cars but the cars are markedly different from any road car one might see. In Australia there
384-463: The drivetrain is often borrowed from a production vehicle from the same company or may have defects and imperfections in design. They can also be quite refined, such as General Motors ' Cadillac Sixteen concept. Production vehicle Production vehicles or production cars are mass-produced models of automobiles offered for sale to the public and can be legally driven on public roads . Legislation and other industrial rules define
408-546: The exact definition of what was (or was not) a production car was unclear and controversial, which led to rules written in 1955. Although the term is defined for particular types of vehicles, and that a certain number of a model must be produced to qualify as "production", it is another matter to enforce the rules. For example, the 1968 FIA rules state that "production" for sports cars need to have at least 25 identical cars produced within 12-months and they were meant for regular sales to individual purchasers, Group B race series,
432-585: The limiter was not a fundamental modification. Guinness reinstated the Bugatti record. Guinness also reported some sources that at least 50 identical vehicles are needed to constitute a production car. Nevertheless, several models with less than fifteen units produced were certified for production car records. In February 2014, Road & Track wrote that Guinness required 30 identical vehicles. There have been numerous disputes over what constituted production and modified cars when used in motorsports . Even under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA),
456-441: The production vehicle within particular countries or uses. There is no single fixed global definition of the term. The earliest use of the term production car being applied to motor cars, found to date, was in a June 1914 American advertisement for a Regal motor car . The phrase was a shortened form of mass-produced or quantity-produced car. The phrase was also used in terms of the car to be made in production, as opposed to
480-458: The prototype. At that time, production cars referred to less expensive vehicles, such as the Ford Model T, made in relatively large numbers on production lines instead of the more exclusive coach-built models. Now, the term has broadened to include hand-assembled vehicles and those made on production or assembly line . The main criterion is that there are a number of the same models with
504-473: The same specifications. There is no fixed definition of the number of vehicles or the amount of modification allowed outside of motorsports or national regulations or laws that determine what is or is not a production vehicle. For example, Guinness recognized a modified two-seat Jaguar XK120 as the world's fastest production car in 1949. In 2010, the Guinness Book of Records awarded the record for
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#1732773170047528-617: The time of the application for the Record Attempt and either homologated by the FIA, or for which an application for homologation has been made to the FIA or recognised by the ASN of the country in which they are manufactured for National Records. The high level of modification allowed under these FIA's rules would tend to indicate that the cars are production based, rather than straight from an assembly line. For example, Category B Group III had
552-602: Was a formula that was similar to NASCAR called AUSCAR , but it has been ended, and a form of touring cars has taken its place (this is known locally as sSpercars , featuring the Bathurst 1000 and Adelaide 500 ). The FIA Land Speed Records Commission has regulations governing series-production cars attempting land speed records under its 2014 Appendix D - Regulations for Land Speed Record Attempts . Series-production cars fall under rule D2.3.2 and state that they must be: Category B: Series-production Automobiles in production at
576-611: Was probably a more accurate description. A similar racing association is the Dry Lakes Racers Australia which holds evenets on Lake Gairdner in South Australia. It also has a Production Car category with its own set of definitions. A stock car , in the original sense of the term, is an automobile that has not been modified from its original factory configuration. Later the term stock car came to mean any production-based automobile used in racing. This term
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