The NLS Class System Explained
An NLS grid carries around twenty classes at once, labelled with codes like SP9, VT2, Cup3 and AT2. They look impenetrable from the outside. They are not — the system is logical once you know that it answers two questions about every car: how far from standard is it, and how fast is it?
Three Families of Car
Almost every entry belongs to one of three families. Get these straight and the rest falls into place.
| Family | Prefix | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Specials | SP, AT | Purpose-built race cars, from GT3 machinery down to heavily modified saloons |
| Production | V, VT | Cars that started life as road cars and stay close to standard |
| One-make cups | Cup | Identical cars from a single manufacturer’s racing programme |
Alongside them sit TCR, for FIA-homologated touring cars, and the historic classes H2 and H4 for older machinery.
The Classes in Full
This is the 2026 structure. Not every class appears at every round — a class runs when cars enter it.
| Class | Family | What runs in it |
|---|---|---|
| SP9 | Specials | GT3 cars. The headline class, split into Pro, Pro-Am and Am |
| SP10 | Specials | GT4 cars |
| SP11 | Specials | GT2 cars |
| SP-Pro | Specials | Prototypes |
| SP-X | Specials | Special and one-off builds that fit nowhere else |
| SP3 to SP8 | Specials | Naturally aspirated race cars, graded by engine size |
| SP2T to SP8T | Specials | The turbocharged equivalents, graded the same way |
| AT1 to AT3 | Specials | Alternative-fuel and experimental drivetrains |
| TCR | Touring | FIA-homologated TCR touring cars |
| V3 to V6 | Production | Naturally aspirated road-based cars by engine size |
| VT1 to VT3 | Production | Turbocharged road-based cars by engine size |
| VT Hybrid, V Elektro | Production | Hybrid and fully electric production cars |
| Cup2 | One-make | Porsche 911 GT3 Cup |
| Cup3 | One-make | Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport |
| Cup5 and BMW one-makes | One-make | BMW’s customer racing cars, including the M240i Racing and its M2 Racing successor |
| H2, H4 | Historic | Older cars running to period-appropriate rules |
How to Read a Code
The codes are built from a small vocabulary, which is why they look worse than they are:
- SP means Special — a race car rather than a modified road car
- V means a production-based car
- T appended to either means turbocharged
- The number almost always indicates engine displacement, rising with capacity
- AT marks an alternative drivetrain or fuel
So VT2 is a production-based turbocharged car in the second displacement band, and SP7 is a naturally aspirated race car with a large engine. Once you have that, most of the grid decodes itself.
SP9: The Class Everyone Watches
SP9 is where the GT3 cars run, and where the manufacturers put their money. It is also the one class that is graded by who is driving rather than by what they are driving. The FIA rates every professional driver platinum, gold, silver or bronze, and the average rating of a car’s crew decides which sub-class it falls into.
| Sub-class | Crew rating | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| SP9 Pro | Average above 2.4 | Full professional line-ups, factory-supported |
| SP9 Pro-Am | Average of 2.4 or lower | A mix of professionals and paying amateurs |
| SP9 Am | Average of 1.35 or lower | Predominantly amateur crews |
This is why two identical GT3 cars can be racing for different trophies. The car is the same; the crew is not. The same principle governs class structures in the WEC and IMSA, and it is worth understanding on its own terms.
Why So Many Classes?
Because the alternative is worse. With a lap-time spread of three minutes or more across the grid, a single classification would be meaningless — the same handful of GT3 teams would win everything and there would be no reason for anyone else to enter. Splitting the field into narrow, well-matched classes gives roughly twenty separate races happening simultaneously on the same piece of tarmac.
It also explains the NLS championship’s unusual scoring, which rewards position within a group rather than outright finishing order. A car forty places back on the road can be winning its own race entirely.
What This Means When You Watch
Check the class before you judge the racing. Two cars fighting hard three minutes off the lead may be settling a championship, while the GT3 that just swept past both of them is simply lapping them and has no involvement in that fight at all. At the Nürburgring, position on the road and position in the race are two different things.