Touring car

The cars used for touring car racing in various series since the 1960s, are unrelated to these early touring cars, despite sharing the same name. "Tourer" is used in British English for any open car. The term "all-weather tourer" was used to describe convertibles (vehicles that could be fully enclosed). A popular version of the tourer was the torpedo, with the hood/bonnet line level at the car's waistline giving the car a straight line from front to back. Touring car was applied in the U.S. to open cars (cars without a fixed roof, for example convertibles) that seat four or more people and have direct entrance to the tonneau (rear passenger area), although it has also been described as seating five or more people. Touring cars may have two or four doors, and the drivetrain layouts of early touring cars was either front- or mid-engined. When the top was folded down, it formed a bulky mass known as the fan behind the back seat: fan covers were made to protect the top and its wooden ribs while in the down position.