Why are touring cars called touring cars?

[AR-CoolC]

One of those tough questions from a 5 year old.

My daughter whilst distraught at not being able to watch her programs whilst I watched the touring cars yesterday asked me "why are they called touring cars"

Well I couldn't really answer her, as the cars generally used in touring cars are family cars, and the only reference to touring in the world of cars are Grand Tourers (GT's) or BMW tourings (estates )

So does anyone know the history of the term "touring cars"?

[gttouring]

well from Wiki "A touring car was a popular car body style in the early 20th century, being a larger alternative to the runabout and the roadster. They were open cars, often fitted with convertible tops. Most early touring cars had a tonneau at the rear giving seating for four or more. Engines on early models were either in the front, or in a mid-body position. Touring cars evolved into the modern sedan/saloon body style."

or Touring car racing is a general term for a number of distinct auto racing competitions in heavily-modified street cars. It is notably popular in Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, and Australia. It can basically be considered a Closed-Circuit, sponsored, legal form of street racing performed by professional drivers.
so they start with a standard production shell (so DTM regardless of name is technically now a GT series) and touring cars are actually derived from production cars while NASCAR vehicles are custom built (although in the early days of NASCAR, stock cars were in fact built from production cars, much like current day touring cars

i hope that helps the quizzard in your house
i would say a touring car should be based on a 4 door saloon, but so many notables have not been...mini, cortina, alfa 156 etc...

[VIVA GT]

Wasn't this form of racing originally called Saloon Car Racing (to distinguish it from Sports Car Racing), but then changed to Touring Cars?
Not that this is maybe relevant (or easily explaind to a child), but isn't there some regulation regarding the volume of the passenger compartment to be of a certain (minimum) size to be considered as a Touring Car? I'm sure that it was this regulation that allowed the Mazda RX7 (what I'd consider as a Sports Car) to be allowed as a Touring Car as far as racing is concerned...