The grand touring designation generally "means motoring at speed, in style, safety, and comfort". The terms "grand tourer", " gran turismo", " grande routière", and "GT" are among the most misused terms in motoring. Within ten years, grand touring cars found success penetrating the new American personal luxury car market, Characteristics Classic grand-touring cars from the post-war era especially, have since become valuable cars among wealthy collectors. Despite this, the United States, enjoying early post-war economic expansion, became the largest market for European grand-touring cars, supplying transportation for movie stars, celebrities and the jet set notably the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (imported by Max Hoffman), the Jaguar XK120, and the Ferrari berlinettas (imported by Luigi Chinetti). In the post-war United States, manufacturers were less inclined to adopt the "ethos of the GT car", preferring to build cars "suited to their long, straight, smooth roads and labor-saving lifestyles" with wide availability of powerful straight-six and V8 engines in all price-ranges like the 1955-1965 Chrysler 300. The grand touring definition implies material differences in performance, speed, comfort, and amenities between elite cars and those of ordinary motorists. Motorsports became important in the evolution of the grand touring concept, and grand touring entries are important in endurance sports-car racing. The grand touring car concept originated in Europe in the early 1950s, especially with the 1951 introduction of the Lancia Aurelia B20 GT, and features notable luminaries of Italian automotive history such as Vittorio Jano, Enzo Ferrari and Johnny Lurani.
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