Production vehicles orproduction cars aremass-produced models ofautomobiles offered for sale to the public and can belegally driven on public roads. Legislation and other industrial rules define the production vehicle within particular countries or uses. There is no single fixed global definition of the term.
The earliest use of the termproduction car being applied to motor cars, found to date, was in a June 1914 American advertisement for aRegal motor car.[1] The phrase was a shortened form ofmass-produced orquantity-produced car.[2][3] The phrase was also used in terms of the car to be made in production, as opposed to the prototype.[4]
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 exclusivecoach-built models. Now, the term has broadened to include hand-assembled vehicles and those made onproduction orassembly line. The main criterion is that there are a number of the same models with 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-seatJaguar XK120 as the world's fastest production car in 1949.[5]
In 2010, theGuinness Book of Records awarded the record for the "Fastest production car" to theBugatti Veyron Super Sport. In 2013, their decision was appealed because the Bugatti was modified with itsspeed 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 the limiter was not a fundamental modification. Guinness reinstated the Bugatti record.[6][7] 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.[8][9] In February 2014,Road & Track wrote that Guinness required 30 identical vehicles.[10]
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There have been numerous disputes over what constituted production and modified cars when used inmotorsports. Even underFédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the exact definition of what was (or was not) a production car was unclear and controversial, which led to rules written in 1955.[11] 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.[11] For example, the 1968 FIA rules state that "production" forsports 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, 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[12][13] However, FIA rules tend to allow a degree of modification from the original.
Another example is theUtah Salt Flats Racing Association, which is concerned solely with the speed of a vehicle. The Association uses its definition of a production vehicle.[14] The Association allows quite a high level of modification over the original. In 2006 aPontiac 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).[15] Road tests of the same type ofcar available from the production line were incapable of anything like this speed andPopular Mechanics referred to the car asproduction based, which 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.[16]
Astock 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 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 familysedans, but are in fact purpose-built racing machines built to a strict set of regulations governing the car design ensuring that thechassis,suspension, engine, etc. are architecturally identical on all vehicles. For example, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series now requiresfuel injection. The closest European equivalent to stock car racing is probablytouring 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 was a formula that was similar to NASCAR calledAUSCAR, but it has been ended, and a form of touring cars has taken its place (this is known locally assSpercars, featuring theBathurst 1000 andAdelaide 500).
The FIA Land Speed Records Commission has regulations governing series-production cars attempting land speed records under its2014 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 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.[17]
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 aDodge Dakota with a top speed of 217.395 mph.[17] Forums citing the Dakota's top speed indicate a standard production Dakota R/T would only reach about 125 mph.[18]
Production cars under theSouthern California Timing Association (SCTA) rules refers purely to the body class. Beyond that the cars are extensively modified.[19]
Various countries have laws that define production vehicles. For example, in the United StatesBriggs 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 theIRS classified them as high-performance prototype automobiles built asracecars.[20] Legislative definitions tend to revolve around issues of safety or revenue (taxation).[21]
Not all performance specialists are officially recognised and their cars are not usually referred to as production vehicles. The primary means of identifying a cars manufacturer since the mid 1980s has been thevehicle identification or VIN. The first three digits are themanufacturer or WMI identifier.[22] 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 companyRUF, which specialises inPorsche based vehicles. In general, if the RUF vehicle 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).[23]
These are usually vehicles where the production run is restricted to a specific number of vehicles. An example of this is the 1957Rambler Rebel, a limited-production car where only 1,500 were produced.[24]
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.[25]
Pre-production cars come afterprototypes ordevelopment mules, which themselves may be preceded byconcept cars. Pre-production vehicles are followed by production vehicles in themass production for distribution throughcar dealerships. For example theBugatti Chiron in whichAndy 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".[26][27][28][29]
Three lists within Wikipedia and the discussions on their talk pages illustrate the difficulty in defining what a production car is. These are:
In the first two lists aproduction car is described as:
The third list used the same description until April 2018. It was changed to the following after a vote based on suggestions by aKoenigsegg employee :
The talk pages for all these lists continue to have ongoing discussions about the definitions.
The fastest time for a two-seater production car to travel from 0 - 300 km/h ...
