What Does The GT In A Car's Name Mean?

With hundreds of car models gracing the streets, it's unsurprising that carmakers need to find ways to differentiate themselves. To do this, they sometimes add special terms to signal certain values. One common abbreviation you'll find on high-performing luxury vehicles is the letters "GT.

" But what does GT mean? The term "GT" means "Grand Touring," or in its original Italian, "Gran Turismo." Although we don't know who first coined it, the term "Grand Tour" has roots in an aristocratic tradition, according to England's Royal Museums Greenwich . A rite of passage among elite young men in the 18th century, the Grand Tour consisted of traveling through Europe and stopping at major cities as part of a cultural education.

Hundreds of years later, while the real meaning of the term has been lost, the essence of wanting to be well-traveled and worldly remains. For cars, the term "GT" was first used by Alfa Romeo almost a century ago with its 1930 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Turismo, signifying a difference between the GT and Alfa Romeo's sportier lineup. Since then, GT models are meant to be cars that blend performance and all the comforts necessary for long-distance driving, such as space, comfort, and storage.

That said, this isn't necessarily what GT means today. After all, language is a living thing, and meanings evolve with time. So what else does GT stand for? In the past, we've talked about what makes GT models different from sports cars.

However, the reality is that the lines be.