Group GT1 , also known simply as GT1 , was a set of regulations maintained formerly by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), for Grand Tourer racing. The category was first created in 1993, as the top class of the BPR Global GT Series , and was included in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It fell under FIA regulation from 1997, after the BPR series came under the control of the FIA, becoming known as the FIA GT Championship. The category was dissolved at the end of 2011. The category may be split into four distinctive eras, from its debut in 1993–1996, 1997–1998, 2000–2009, 2010–2011.
52-661: The Mercedes-Benz CLK LM (chassis code C298) was a Group GT1 sports car designed and built by Mercedes-Benz in partnership with AMG to compete in the FIA GT Championship . To satisfy the requirements of competing in the FIA GT Championship, a road-legal version had to be built to homologate the car. That car was known as the Mercedes-Benz CLK LM Straßenversion, and Mercedes-Benz assembled two chassis, one of which
104-633: A basic interior. One was put into a museum in Japan, and the other is displayed at Toyota Motorsport GmbH headquarters in Cologne. Introduced in time for the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, the GT-One first appeared during the official testing period for the race held in May. Three GT-Ones appeared, setting the 2nd, 5th, and 10th best times and easily beating out dedicated Le Mans Prototypes (LMPs), which were meant to be
156-404: A customer, typical driver luxuries could be left out. Toyota also learned about a loophole which Mercedes-Benz had exploited. All GT-class cars were required to have storage space capable of holding a standard-size suitcase in order for the car to be considered not only production-based, but usable by the public. Mercedes exploited this by putting a small cubby hole into an unused area underneath
208-562: A large amount of production vehicles for the GT classes and eliminating the original loopholes in the system. Toyota were thus forced to make changes to the GT-One, as were all their competitors in the class. Mercedes-Benz opted to evolve their CLK LM into the CLR in the closed cockpit LMGTP prototype class, while Nissan and Panoz opted for open-cockpit LMPs. Porsche dropped out of competition altogether. Newcomer Audi decided to build cars for both
260-668: A new class, N-GT would be the lower class in the championship. The equivalent of this in ACO sanctioned Championships would be the GTS class, and the GT class. In 2005, both classes would become renamed as "GT1" and " GT2 " respectively. The Maserati MC12 would be the dominant car of this era, with it earning five consecutive teams titles from 2006 to 2009 for the Vitaphone Racing Team in the FIA GT Championship. Toyota GT-One The Toyota GT-One (model code TS020 )
312-628: A single entrant appearing in the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000 km . Although the race mostly consisted of Japanese teams, thus leaving out most of the manufacturers that had competed at Le Mans, Toyota still had to compete against rival Nissan, who entered an R391. In the end, the GT-One would fall short once again, finishing 2nd and only one lap behind the winning R391. However, Toyota won the LMGTP class (the R391 being an LMP), which would have granted them automatic entry to 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans had they continued
364-524: A snowfall. In the official testing session at Le Mans, the GT-Ones were again fast, taking the 1st, 3rd, and 5th fastest lap times. This pace continued in qualifying for the race, as the three GT-Ones took 1st, 2nd, and 8th positions. Throughout the race, the GT-Ones battled for the lead with BMW and Mercedes. Unfortunately, the GT-One was hampered by higher fuel consumption (1 or 2 laps less per stint than BMW) and by failures of its Michelin tires throughout
416-567: A tubular steel rollcage , the installation of a plastic front bumper similar to the one found on the CLK GTR Straßenversion, and a rear aerofoil that had a low- and high- downforce configuration. The road car's rear wing was also modified from the lightweight bare-bones racing wing to a wide, swooping rear wing akin to the one found on the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Straßenversion . The car
468-490: Is a racing car initially developed for Group GT1 rules, but later adapted into an LMGTP car. It raced in the 1998 and 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans . Following the end of the Group C era around 1994, Toyota decided to alter its plans in sports car racing by moving to the production-based grand touring (GT) classes for 1995. Toyota decided to use a two-pronged approach with two different competition car models. The first
520-497: The 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans to be able to develop a new GT car for 1998. (A MC8-R was entered for the 1997 race, but failed to qualify.) Turning to Toyota's European arm based in Cologne, Germany , Toyota Team Europe (TTE) and Dallara were tasked with development of the new GT car. With the one-year hiatus, TTE was able to observe what the competition was developing for the GT class, and exploit it to their benefit. In 1997, both
572-613: The Audi R8C , no LMGTP entrants appeared in the next year's race; only Bentley continued to compete in the class until it was abolished as a result of an LMP class restructuring in 2006. Marlboro was the Toyota GT-One sponsor in 1999 (hence the white chevron with red body livery), though an anti-tobacco law in France meant that no Marlboro logos appeared anywhere on the car. In pictures of practice sessions, Marlboro barcodes across
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#1732801656249624-514: The CLK GTR . Similar to the 911 GT1, the CLK GTR was yet another homologation special prototype, with the car only being a racing-version of a production Grand Tourer in name. The car had no street legal version even built by the time the category collapsed in 1999, and shared only the instrumentation, front grille and the four headlamps with the normal CLK (C208) . That same season, realising that
676-619: The Champs-Élysées in Paris as part of the "Dream Paris Stars" exhibition, alongside other rare Mercedes vehicles. The car would also make an appearance at the 2015 Chantilly Arts and Elegance Richard Mille , which Mercedes-Benz was sponsoring. In 2016, the car was put up for sale through the Mercedes-Benz Museum 's trading arm, All Time Stars, where it sold for €2 million. * Despite retiring, they had completed over 75% of
728-625: The DTM and ITC forced Mercedes to turn their attention to the newly introduced Le Mans Grand Touring Prototype class, where homologation was not an issue. Japanese Internet service provider MTCI planned on campaigning the CLK LM in the Japanese Grand Touring Car Championship , however, negotiations to purchase the CLK LM fell through, with MCTI eventually fielding a custom Porsche Boxster . The LM's successor,
780-524: The F1 GTR would not be competitive against the homologation specials, McLaren also updated the bodywork of the car, with the alterations so significant that they were forced to build a road car with the updated bodywork, effectively turning the car into a homologation special. The resulting car was known as the F1 GT, with three being built. In 1998, realising that with the introduction of the updated CLK LM, and
832-594: The FIA GT Championship , piqued the interest of Mercedes who instructed AMG to construct a car to the Group GT1 regulations. To speed up the development process, AMG purchased McLaren F1 GTR chassis #11R from French privateers Larbre Compétition , which was then fitted with AMG's own bodywork along with substituting the F1 GTR's S70/2 engine for Mercedes' own, the LS600 . This accelerated development process meant that
884-531: The Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and the Porsche 911 GT1 were dominant cars in their class that exploited loopholes in the rules. Each car was a custom-built supercar, and only a handful of production cars were built to homologate them. TTE realized that they would actually only need to build a single production car in order to meet homologation requirements; since the resulting car would never be sold to
936-540: The Mercedes-Benz CLR , inherited many features from the CLK LM; the V8 was enlarged to 5.7 L (347.8 cu in), rechristened the GT 108C, and the roofline was lowered by 10 mm (0.4 in), among other changes. The CLR, despite being a purpose-built Le Mans racecar, turned out to be beset by severe aerodynamic flaws that resulted in its infamous somersaults at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans . Following
988-658: The Porsche 911 GT1 was also imitated by the MC8R (wherein the front chassis parts are modified from the original road car, and the rear uses a custom racing structure). While the Supra performed admirably in 1995, the MC8-R would appear superior in 1996. With its development of high-powered GT race cars, Toyota decided that a car similar to the MC8-R, designed as a race car first and foremost, would be better suited to continue Toyota's GT racing efforts. Thus, Toyota announced they would skip
1040-511: The Sauber C9 and Mercedes-Benz C11 , dubbed the GT 108B. The engine featured a revised crankshaft , with the GT 108B replacing the previous crossplane crank of the V12 with a flat-plane crank . Changes to the bodywork included removing the two front brake cooling ducts, the removal of the front fender gills, alterations to the roof scoop, and a lower roofline and nose. The CLK GTR would race
1092-542: The 911 GT1-98, the F1 GTR could no longer be competitive, McLaren withdrew backing from the program, following BMW which had done so the previous year, in 1997, although two cars would still be entered by Parabolica Motorsports and Davidoff Classic. In 1999, following the total domination of the Mercedes-AMG team in the Championship in the previous season, which saw them win all races in the championship, with both
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#17328016562491144-571: The CLK GTR and LM, no GT1 teams entered the category, apart from the Mercedes-AMG Team. As such, the FIA chose to run the 1999 FIA GT Championship with just the GT2 class. Following the omission of the original GT1 category in the 1999 season, the FIA GT Championship was restructured, such that original GT2 class would be elevated to the top class of the championship, and become known as GT while
1196-475: The CLK GTR was ready for competition just 128 days after work on the design had begun. The CLK GTR debuted at Mercedes' home track, the Hockenheimring , where Bernd Schneider qualified on pole. However, he later retired with brake problems, and the sister car finished 27th. Despite the setback, the CLK GTR would prove to be successful in the 1997 FIA GT Championship , winning six out of eleven races,
1248-502: The FIA World Sportscar Championship in 1992, BPR Global GT series was founded by Jürgen Barth, Patrick Peter, and Stephane Ratel (with their last names forming the name of series organizer BPR), as a championship for privateers, with four hour long endurance races. Barth, an ex Le Mans winner, was manager of the customer competitions department at Porsche, Peter was a well-respected race promoter, while Ratel
1300-579: The GT-One program. The GT-One program would not be continued into 2000, Toyota instead turning TTE into the leaders of the new Toyota F1 team. This would mark the end of Toyota's attempts at Le Mans, which had started in 1985, until its return in 2012 with the TS030 Hybrid closed-cockpit LMP1 prototype in the FIA World Endurance Championship . With Mercedes-Benz pulling out and Audi discontinuing their LMGTP competitor,
1352-449: The GT-One. TTE designed and manufactured the car's carbon fibre chassis and bodywork in-house, while Toyota supplied a heavily upgraded version of the engine they originally used on their Group C cars, the twin-turbocharged 3.6 L (220 cu in) R36V V8. TTE also developed the only two GT-One road cars built, required in order for the race car to qualify as a road car-based grand tourer. They were painted red and fitted with
1404-723: The GTP and LMP classes, while BMW continued in the LMP class as before. Toyota decided to follow the route of Mercedes and evolve the GT-One into a GTP class prototype. Although the CLK-LM required extensive modifications to become the CLR, the GT-One was already close enough to a prototype that an extensive redesign was not needed. Toyota began an extensive testing program, including a long distance test at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium soon after
1456-513: The constructor's and the driver's championship by a large margin. Following the success of the CLK GTR, Mercedes-Benz modified the CLK GTR to suit the long straights of the Circuit de la Sarthe , constructing a new chassis with revised bodywork. AMG also had doubts over the reliability of the V12 engine of the CLK GTR, opting to replace it with a non-turbocharged version of the M119 engine found in
1508-481: The first two rounds of the 1998 FIA GT Championship , where it won the championship's first two races at Silverstone and Oschersleben before being replaced by the CLK LM. At the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans , Bernd Schneider qualified the No. 35 CLK LM on pole in the third of four qualifying sessions, setting a time of 3:35.544, just over a second ahead of the works Toyota GT-One . The sister No. 36 CLK LM would round out
1560-529: The front of the car (which also appeared on Ferrari Formula One cars during tobacco legislated races) were seen, although these barcodes did not appear on the final race car. The logos were also absent during the Fuji 1000 km race, which was held in Japan, a country with no tobacco sponsorship restrictions at the time. Other sponsors included Zent (#1), Venture Safenet (#2) and Esso (#3 and Fuji 1000 km). A total of seven GT-Ones were built over
1612-417: The incidents, Mercedes withdrew from all sportscar activities in 1999 and never entered Le Mans again. The CLK LM Straßenversion or Strassenversion (German for "Street version") is the road-legal homologated version of the CLK LM. Mercedes manufactured two chassis, No. 001 and No. 002, the former of which was destroyed for crash testing purposes. Modifications for road use included the installation of
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1664-427: The lead, but suffered a tire failure while lapping traffic. Having lost the chance to challenge for the lead, it was forced to slowly continue along the track to return to the pits for a new set. The lone GT-One would finish 2nd overall, one lap behind the winning BMW. As a consolation prize, the GT-One would win the GTP class, although it was the only car in the class to actually finish. The GT-One would race once more,
1716-741: The loss of Patrick Peter from the BPR Organisation, the BPR Organisation evolved into the Stephane Ratel Organisation , with the SRO now co-organising the championship with the FIA. With this change, it saw an even larger influx of professional teams and manufacturers, with the whole grid of the GT1 class consisting of nothing but professional teams. The 1997 season saw the entry of the Mercedes-AMG Team, who would debut
1768-427: The new 993 chassis, which replaced the 964 platform 911 Carrera RSRs that had once dominated the series grids. In addition, professional teams had also begun to enter the championship that had once been intended for privateers, which caused costs to increase dramatically. Porsche even sent in a factory team to several rounds, with its 911 GT1 , which was thought by most in the series paddock as being built against of
1820-515: The newly introduced LMGTP class for the 1999 season, which produced the Mercedes-Benz CLR . Mercedes was left without a series to race in after the 1996 International Touring Car Championship and Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft folded in 1996, with their competitors Opel and Alfa Romeo pulling out of the series, leaving Mercedes as the sole entrant. The elevation of the BPR Global GT Series to an FIA -sanctioned event,
1872-419: The pits and being abandoned on the track. Halfway into the event, the #2 GT-One driven by Thierry Boutsen was lost in another tire puncture that led to a high-speed accident, destroying the car and ending Boutsen's racing career. This left the team with only car #3, which was still running at the top of the field. At this point, a large amount of the competition had been eliminated, with all Mercedes cars out of
1924-554: The race car's characteristics such as the large rear wing, with the interior being very spartan; it lacked furnishings such as upholstery or a second seat. The rising costs and Mercedes ' use of homologation specials caused Porsche and McLaren to withdraw from the 1999 FIA GT Championship , and seeing as Mercedes was the only entrant, the FIA opted to run the 1999 season without the GT1 class. The repetition of what happened in 1996 with
1976-520: The race distance, and were thus classified. Bold – Pole position Italics – Fastest lap Group GT1 The class which was to become known as "GT1" was debuted by the ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest) at the 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans , under the name Group GT . The class was first defined in the FIA Appendix J regulations, as Group GT , in 1993. In 1994, following the collapse of
2028-402: The race due to their famous accident and withdrawal. Audi had also lost two of their four cars, and Nissan had lost their factory-backed R391 , although an older Courage C52 campaigned by the team was still active. BMW and Panoz were the only teams continuing without major problems. During the final hour of the race, the lone GT-One driven by Ukyo Katayama was chasing the remaining BMW for
2080-459: The race, mostly caused by sharp gravel which had been accidentally brought onto the racing surface by other cars. The design of the GT-One's wheel wells allowed for a blown tire to cause extensive damage to the mechanical linkages inside; after only 90 laps, the #1 GT-One driven by Martin Brundle was lost when it suffered an explosive tire puncture and was damaged beyond repair, unable to return to
2132-417: The rear bodywork, although it was not as easy to access as a normal trunk. Toyota, in their interpretation of the rules, were able to convince Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) officials that the car's fuel tank, normally empty when the car is scrutineered before the race, qualified as trunk space since it could theoretically hold a suitcase. With these loopholes in place, TTE was able to set out in developing
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2184-452: The spirit of the rules, due to the fact that it was a Porsche 962 with just the front of the chassis being shared with a Type 993 911, and it having a street variant simply for the sake of meeting its homologation requirement. The homologation special method was not new however, with Porsche having already earlier collaborated with Dauer Sportwagen to race the Dauer 962 Le Mans in 1994 (at
2236-411: The superior class. For the race week itself, all three cars performed admirably in qualifying by continuing their quick pace, qualifying 2nd, 7th, and 8th, and being beaten only by GT class competitor Mercedes-Benz . During the race itself, the #28 GT-One suffered from a high-speed accident halfway through the race, taking it out of competition. The two other entrants continued to race, both remaining in
2288-603: The time of homologation, only one road car existed) to effectively score the last Le Mans victory for the Porsche 962 series, and Toyota heavily modifying the Toyota MR2 into the SARD MC8-R for the following year's race, also joined by a more pure road derived Toyota Supra and national rivals Nissan Skyline GT-R (both of which had also competed in JGTC with identical specifications) and Honda NSX that year. Following
2340-424: The top 10. However, within the closing hours, the higher-ranked #29 GT-One suffered a gearbox failure in competition for the win, leaving Toyota to take 9th place in the race with the remaining #27 entry, which ended the race 25 laps behind the winning Porsche 911 GT1 . Following the success of the GT1 class as a whole over the LMP class, the ACO and FIA moved to change the regulations for the GT classes, requiring
2392-399: The top three. The engine ultimately proved to be Mercedes' Achilles' heel , with both cars retiring before the halfway mark. Problems with the power steering oil pump caused the CLK LM's entire lubrication system to fail, with Schneider pulling over on the pit straight on the 19th lap, and Gounon pitting a few laps later with the same problem. In spite of the disappointing results, Mercedes
2444-526: Was a heavily modified Toyota Supra , referred to as the Supra LM, which would use a turbocharged Toyota 503E inline-4. The second entry was a purpose-built racing car, with a small number of production cars built to meet homologation regulations. Powered by a turbocharged Toyota 1UZ V8, this car was modified heavily from the Toyota MR2 , and became known as the SARD MC8-R . The overall design of
2496-539: Was an executive/investor in the Venturi GT1 project. The Series had four categories, namely GT1-4, with each decreasing number signifying increased freedom in its technical regulations. By 1996 however, the championship had grown, with the grids of the championship growing due to an influx of cars from several makes in the top GT1 class, such as the McLaren F1 GTR, and the new Porsche 911 GT2 Evolution based on
2548-501: Was destroyed for crash testing purposes. The termination of the FIA GT Championship meant that the requirement for 25 road-legal chassis to be produced was no longer in effect, leaving the sole road-legal version produced prior to the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans the only one in existence. Later on, the spare test car (chassis No. 005) was converted for road-legal use in the United Kingdom. The road-legal conversion retained much of
2600-426: Was destroyed for crash-testing. The CLK LM went on to win every single championship event in the 1998 FIA GT season , retiring only at the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans , which was a non-championship event. The removal of the GT1 class from the FIA GT Championship due to the lack of entrants and rising costs meant that Mercedes' GT1 program was brought to a close at the end of 1998. Mercedes instead focussed their efforts on
2652-493: Was pleased with the pace of the CLK LM, fielding the car for the rest of the 1998 FIA GT Championship . The two cars shared pole position between them throughout the season, and won every single race, posting six 1–2 finishes. Klaus Ludwig and Ricardo Zonta captured the drivers title at the conclusion of the 1998 season, along with Mercedes-AMG collecting the constructors. Five chassis were constructed in total, with three racing chassis, and two road-legal chassis, one of which
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#17328016562492704-482: Was presented at the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside the CLK LM racecars, after which it was sold to a Japanese collector. The sole chassis has since made sparse appearances, resurfacing at the 2014 Rétromobile alongside two Mercedes-Benz 300 SL on display by French auction house Classic Sport Leicht, where it was purchased by a European owner. In 2014 it was put on display in the Mercedes-Benz showroom on
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