Here’s some information from the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance I thought you might enjoy…
The 200 mph, 1000-horsepower GTP — Grand Touring Prototype — racers from the 1981 through the 1993 IMSA Championship seasons will star at the 23rd annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance on March 11, 2018 at The Golf Club of Amelia Island, The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island.
A quarter century has passed since IMSA’s GTPs last raced in anger. They were the spiritual descendants of the mighty, unlimited Can-Am racers of the ‘sixties and 1970s and the vanguard of a new generation of automotive performance and technology. By the end of the GTP era in 1993 they had eclipsed every major record the fabled Can-Am racers set.
In 1986 a GTP Porsche 962 erased the top speed record of the mighty 1200 horsepower Porsche 917/30 with a 212 mph pass on Watkins Glen’s uphill Wedgewood Straight. GTP racers redefined automotive performance, forced technological progress and helped set car design on a fresh course.
“Long distance endurance racing has its roots in the pursuit of automotive progress and excellence,” said Tim Pendergast, Director of Operations of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. “While much of today’s motorsport menu is little more than motorized entertainment packaged to sell consumer products, endurance racing was created long ago to prove and improve the automobile, its operating systems and even its driving environment.”
The GTP class arrived as the automotive electronics revolution blossomed and changed everything: precise engine management and ground effects led a wave of technological advances that propelled automotive evolution.
Innovation that had been the currency of Formula 1 and the Indy 500 became the engineering bedrock of the Grand Touring Prototypes that raced for 12 hours at Sebring and 24 hours at Daytona. GTP races were relentless battles by major manufacturers and privateers at speeds above 200 mph, day and night, rain or shine.
“Jaguar, Nissan, Toyota, Chevrolet, Ford, Mazda, BMW and Porsche, especially Porsche, stepped up and fought the GTP wars from Daytona to Del Mar,” said Pendergast. “It was a very exciting time for North American road racing. For many race fans the GTP era marks the beginning of motorsport history. GTP racing seduced them.
“We have a full class of significant IMSA GTP winners and champions plus a GTP seminar for hard core GTP fans . . . and 25 years after the final IMSA GTP race, I’m still one of them.”
About The Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance
Now in its third decade, the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance is among the top automotive events in the world. Always held the second full weekend in March, “The Amelia” draws over 250 rare vehicles from collections around the world to The Golf Club of Amelia Island and The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island for a celebration of the automobile like no other. Since 1996, the show’s Foundation has donated over $3.0 million to Community Hospice & Palliative Care, Spina Bifida of Jacksonville, The Navy Marine Corps Relief Society, Shop with Cops, and other deserving charities. In 2013 and 2016 the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance won Octane Magazine’s EFG International Historic Motoring Event of the Year award.The 23rd annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance is scheduled for March 9-11, 2018. For more information, visit www.ameliaconcours.org.
Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance
3016 Mercury Road
Jacksonville, Florida 32207
www.ameliaconcours.org