Super GT

The JGTC years (1993–2004)

The JGTC (Japanese Grand Touring Championship)^[1] was established in 1993^[2][3] by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) via its subsidiary company the GTA (GT Association), replacing the defunct All Japan Sports Prototype Championship for Group C cars and the Japanese Touring Car Championship for Group A touring cars, which instead would adopt the supertouring formula. Seeking to prevent the spiraling budgets and one-team/make domination of both series, JGTC imposed strict limits on power, and heavy weight penalties on race winners in an openly stated objective to keep on-track action close with an emphasis on keeping fans happy.

2003 Xanavi nismo GT-R (R34).

In its first season, the JGTC grid mostly consisted of Japan Super Sport Sedan cars, with the only genuine JGTC cars being two Nismo-entered Nissan Skyline GT-Rs, which were in fact modified Group A cars. An exception was the first race of the season, which was also an exhibition race of the IMSA GT Championship, and therefore saw a contingent of GTS and GTU cars from the American series join the field. The 1000 km Suzuka also saw a greater variety of competitors, with Group C prototypes, Group N touring cars, and GT cars from Europe and IMSA all joining the field.

For the following season, the series would undergo a rules overhaul, creating a class for the FIA's GT1 category, and another for the GT2 category. The JSS series would altogether dissolve into the latter category. What made the series more significant was that compared to other racing series, JGTC teams at the time had the freedom to enter whichever cars they preferred, even if it was the JSS cars from the inaugural season or spaceframe racers from the IMSA GTS class. However, the Group C prototypes, whilst easily showing dominant form, were banned from the series from the 1995 season onwards.

By the end of the 1995 season, as the cost of obtaining and running a GT1 car had dramatically increased, the JGTC would go through another rules overhaul in order to lower costs and avoid the fate of the JSPC series it had replaced. The newly formed GT500 and GT300 regulations were adopoted, which capped cars with air restrictors depending on their weight and power. While the regulations would continuously evolve, the GT500 and GT300 classes continue to form the top level of Japanese sports car racing today.

Super GT (2005–present)

2009 Lexus Petronas Team TOM's SC 430 GT500 champion.

The JGTC had planned to hold a race during the 2005 season at the Shanghai International Circuit in China, in addition to the existing overseas round at Sepang in Malaysia. However, holding the series in more than two countries would have meant the JGTC would lose its status as a "national championship" under the International Sporting Code of the FIA, and therefore could not keep "Japanese Championship" in its name. The series would instead be classified as an "international championship" by the FIA, and would therefore require direct authorization from it, rather than the JAF.

Therefore, on December 10, 2004, it was announced that JGTC would be renamed "Super GT", with the goals of "challenge to the world", "challenge from the world", and "challenge to entertainment". However, despite the name change, Super GT has continued to only hold one overseas race per year; in theory, it could regain its status as a national championship and return to JAF jurisdiction.

In 2014, Super GT and the German touring car series DTM announced the creation of "Class One",^[4] which would unify GT500's and DTM's technical regulations, allowing manufacturers to race in both series with a single specification of car. After some delays, full unification of technical regulations is set for 2019.^[5]

GT500

2016 ARTA NSX Concept-GT.

The top class in Super GT, GT500, is dominated by the three largest automakers in Japan - Nissan, Honda, and Toyota. Since 2006, Toyota has been represented in GT500 by its luxury vehicle brand, Lexus, after the retirement of the Toyota Supra from the series. The GT500 class is composed entirely of manufacturer-supported teams, the giants of the Japanese racing industry.

2005 Yellow Hat Supra (JZA80).

Since 2014, GT500 cars have been powered by twin-turbocharged, inline four-cylinder engines with two liters of displacement and producing over 600 horsepower. The cars are tube-frame silhouette racing cars similar to those seen in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM). The advancements in aerodynamics and horsepower, combined with an ongoing tyre war driving even higher speeds, have made the GT500 class the fastest form of production-based sports car racing today. The pace of a GT500 car is roughly equivalent to that of the fastest non-hybrid Le Mans Prototypes.^[11]

For many years, the Nissan Skyline GT-R, the Toyota Supra, and the Honda NSX represented their respective brands in GT500. Today, the three cars competing in GT500 are the Nissan GT-R (R35), the Lexus LC 500, and the second-generation Honda NSX. Other models, such as the Nissan Fairlady Z and the Lexus SC 430 have been used, as well as the Honda HSV-010 GT, a prototype car developed specifically for Super GT with its planned road-going variant having been cancelled.

In the earlier years of the GT500 category, a number of foreign manufacturers entered cars in the series, with varying success. The McLaren F1 GTR is, to date, the only foreign car to win the GT500 championship, when it did so in dominant fashion in 1996. The Porsche 911 GT2 and Ferrari F40 also won races in the early years of GT500. The last foreign-built car to enter the series was the Aston Martin DBR9, which fared poorly in its brief run in 2009 - illustrating the overwhelming advantage in raw pace that the GT500 class cars had over the FIA GT1 category cars that dominated the landscape in Europe.

Four-door sedans have never run in the GT500 class, despite the regulations being changed in 2012 to permit their entry.

New GT500 cars were introduced in 2014 in preparation for the future Class One, including the first car in the class to utilize a KERS-assisted hybrid powertrain, the Honda NSX Concept-GT. Common aerodynamic regulations with the DTM were adopted, as was Class One's turbocharged four-cylinder engine specification. Furthermore, the 2014 rules overhaul also increased the cars' downforce by 30%, while lowering costs. Aerodynamic development above a "design line" wrapping around the fenders, bumpers, and doorsills was restricted. Over sixty common parts were introduced, including the brakes, diffuser, and rear wing.^[12]

In response to increasing cornering speeds, another aerodynamic overhaul was introduced in 2017, lowering downforce by 25%.^[13] Furthermore, KERS units were banned, although the only manufacturer to utilize such systems, Honda, had already discontinued their usage in 2016.^[14]

GT300

A Lotus Evora MC leads several GT3 cars.

Unlike GT500, both works-backed and independent teams compete in GT300, so the field tends to be much more varied in terms of types of cars entered. As in GT500, the major Japanese automakers participate in this class, entering cars such as the Toyota Prius and Subaru BRZ, which comply with JAF-GT regulations. However, the GT300 class is predominantly composed of GT3-class cars from European manufacturers such as Audi and Mercedes, although Lexus and Nissan are also represented in the class by GT3 cars. This reflects a growing interest in the series from European manufacturers, with Audi and BMW fielding works-supported entries. Lexus, Nissan, and Subaru also campaign works-supported cars in the class.

The GT300 class used to host more exotic cars from the likes of ASL, Mosler, Mooncraft, and Vemac (a Lotus tuner). However, starting in 2006, teams increasingly chose instead to campaign European GT cars, a trend that accelerated in 2010 with the introduction of GT3 cars to the series. In response to the decline of locally produced entries from specialist manufacturers, the GTA worked with Dome to create the "Mother Chassis", a low-cost GT300 platform,^[18] with the first MC car entering the series in 2014. Mother Chassis cars utilize a standard Dome-produced tub and GTA-branded Nissan VK45DE engine, while maintaining the appearance of production cars such as the Toyota 86, Lotus Evora, and Toyota Mark X. The MC concept proved to be popular with independent teams, as well as competitive, with the Toyota 86 MC winning the GT300 championship in 2016.

2006 Privée Zurich Shiden (MC/RT-16).

One of the more unique GT300 competitors was the Mooncraft Shiden MC/RT-16, a Riley Daytona Prototype-based revival of the original 1977 Mooncraft Shiden 77 (紫電77).^[19] It competed from 2006 to 2012, narrowly losing the title in 2006, and winning the championship in 2007. Front-wheel drive cars such as the Mitsubishi FTO and Toyota Corolla Levin AE101, a rarity in top-level circuit racing, are further examples of unique GT300 machines. They competed in their original configurations until the early 2000s, when FWD cars were being permitted to be converted to rear-wheel drive configuration. The FWD cars were mostly unsuccessful, failing to win any championships. Rear-wheel drive cars dominated the series until 2008, when an all-wheel drive Subaru Impreza developed by Cusco won in Sepang.

2015 Toyota Prius apr GT.

Hybrid cars first raced in the GT300 class in 2012, when apr introduced their Toyota Prius apr GT, and Team Mugen fielded a Honda CR-Z GT. Both cars were heavily modified from their production counterparts. The Prius was powered by a 3.4 liter V8 LMP1 engine, which worked in concert with production Hybrid Synergy Drive components; the CR-Z utilized a 2.8 liter V6 LMP2 engine and a 50kW Zytek electric motor.^[20][21] Both the CR-Z and Prius were mid-engined, differing from their front-engined road-going counterparts; this resulted in the CR-Z's withdrawal after the 2015 season, as new regulations for 2016 stipulated that GT300 cars' engines were to be located in the same position as in their production counterparts. However, apr took advantage of a loophole in the regulations to continue to race their mid-engine Prius, currently fielding two cars in the series.^[22]

The development of GT300 cars is much more regulated than that of their GT500 counterparts; the GTA works with the Stephane Ratel Organisation to balance the performance of all GT300 cars via technical adjustments in order to create close racing.^[23] While the GT3 cars in the class are closely related to production cars, the JAF-GT machines differ from production vehicles to a greater degree, and in the case of the Mother Chassis cars, share little more than a badge and exterior styling with their road-going counterparts. While engine outputs are at a lower level than the GT500 cars, the GT300 cars still post competitive times and races are relatively tight when combined with GT500 traffic. As it is becoming increasingly more difficult for GT500 cars to overtake GT300s, the GTA may review the speed difference between the two classes in the future, especially if the pace of the GT300 cars continues to increase.^[24]

Weight handicap

Perhaps the best-known handicap system in use in the Super GT is its "success ballast" system, known in the series as the "weight handicap".^[27] Weight penalties are assigned depending on a car's performance during the race, similar to systems used in the DTM and the BTCC. The system metes out two kilograms of ballast per point scored;^[28] it formerly added ballast based on qualifying positions and individual lap times. Stickers on the cars display every car's weight handicap level. In the 2007 season, the Takata NSX team achieved a record-breaking 5 pole positions in the first 7 races, but due to the weight handicap system, they only won one race among those seven. Such regulations keep the championship in play up to the final race of the season: only two GT500 teams (ARTA in 2007 and MOLA in 2012) have managed to clinch a driver's championship prior to the final race.

Following repeated cases of teams and drivers not winning a single race but still winning the championship, the handicap system was changed in 2009 to combat sandbagging, discouraging a team from intentionally performing poorly in order to secure a more favorable weight handicap. The ballast is now halved in the penultimate race and lifted altogether in final race for teams that participated in every round of the season. Teams missing only one round receive halved-ballast in the final race instead.

In 2017, the weight handicap system for GT500 cars was amended to add fuel flow restrictions. Actual weight ballast will be capped at 50 kilograms for reasons of practicality and safety. When a car's assigned ballast exceeds 50 kilograms, it will be assigned a lesser amount of weight ballast, but a fuel flow restriction will be imposed, the severity of which increases according to the size of the assigned weight handicap. While the amount of actual weight ballast carried may vary, the weight handicap stickers on the cars will continue to display the assigned weight handicap.^[29][30]

List of notable former JGTC/Super GT drivers

1998 JGTC Fuji incident

Japanese driver Tetsuya Ota is notable for surviving a fiery multi-car pileup he was involved in during a JGTC race at Fuji Speedway on May 3, 1998. The accident was initially caused by an oversaturated track. Ota then aquaplaned and left the track which put him directly into an already crashed Porsche. At the time of the accident, the Ferrari Ota was driving had a full cell of fuel which was ignited by the impact. Ota was severely injured due to third-degree burns on a good percentage of his body which may have been prevented if JGTC, at the time, had sufficient emergency response. Ota filed a lawsuit against the racing club plus organizers for negligence and won the sum of ¥90 million (US$800,000).