Production vehicle

The characteristics of a production vehicle or production car are mass-produced identical models, offered for sale to the public, and able to be legally driven on public roads (street legal). Legislation and other rules further define the production vehicle within particular countries or uses. There is no single fixed global definition of the term.

In 1896 the term production car was used to describe a railway carriage that carried the scenery for an opera company. The earliest use of the term production car being applied to motor cars, found to date, was in a June 1914 American advertisement for a Regal motor car. The phrase was a shortened form of mass-produced or quantity-produced car. The phrase was also used in terms of the car to be made in production, as opposed to the prototype.

At that time production cars referred to cheaper vehicles such as Model T's that were made in relatively large numbers on production lines, as opposed to the more expensive coach built models. Now the term has broadened to include vehicles that are hand assembled, or assembled on a production or assembly line. The main criteria being that there are a number of the same model 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 recognises a modified 2-seat Jaguar XK120 as the world's fastest production car in 1949.

By 2011, the Guinness Book of Records listed the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport World Record Edition as the world's fastest production car, but only five of this version were said to have been made. In 2013 their decision was appealed on the ground that the Bugatti was a modified version - the limiter was turned off. Guinness upheld the appeal and initiated a review of their production car definition. The outcome of the review was that turning off the limiter was not a fundamental modification and the Bugatti record was reinstated. Guinness were also reported in some sources as saying that at least 50 identical vehicles were needed to be made to constitute a production car. In February 2014, Road and Track wrote that Guinness required 30 identical vehicles.

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Wikipedia