Coupé

A coupé (or coupe), is a car with a fixed-roof body style usually with two doors. The term coupé was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. The early coupé automobile's passenger compartment followed in general conception the design of horse-drawn coupés. The French variant for this word thus denoted a car with a small passenger compartment.

Hemmings Classic Car describes a coupé as "any two-door other than a two-door sedan, smaller than a related four-door in the same model line" and that "all two-door two-seaters with a solid roof are coupes."

Automobile manufacturers have begun to use the term loosely and include sporty variants of their sedan lineup that feature sloping rooflines.

Origin
The coupé name was derived from the French language verb couper, translated as cut, there are two common pronunciations in English:


 * /kuːˈpeɪ/ koo-PAY, the anglicized version of the French spelling of coupé. The American company Chevrolet, in an effort to lend a touch of class to its two-door hardtops during the 1950s to early 1970s, marketed them with the "Sport Coupé" moniker, using the original French pronunciation.


 * /kuːp/ KOOP, derived from spelling the word without the acute accent and pronouncing it as one syllable. This change occurred gradually and before World War II. This pronunciation is most common in the United States.

The origin of the coupé body style come from the berline horse-drawn carriage. In the 18th century, the coupé version of the berline was introduced, which was a shortened ("cut") version with no rear-facing seat. Normally, a coupé had a fixed glass window in the front of the passenger compartment. The term "berline coupé" was later shortened to just "coupé". The coupé was originally considered to be an ideal vehicle for women to use to go shopping or to make social visits.

The earliest coupé automobiles had the same form as the coupé carriage, with the driver in the open at the front and an enclosure behind him for two passengers on one bench seat. By the 1910s, the term had evolved to denote a two-door car with the driver and up to two passengers in an enclosure with a single bench seat. The coupé de ville, or coupé chauffeur, was an exception, retaining the open driver's section at front. In 1916, the Society of Automobile Engineers suggested nomenclature for car bodies that included the following:


 * Coupe: An enclosed car operated from the inside with seats for two or three and sometimes a backward-facing fourth seat.
 * Coupelet: A small car seating two or three with a folding top and full height doors with fully retractable windows.
 * Convertible coupe: A roadster with a removable coupé roof.

During the 20th century, the term coupé was applied to various close-coupled cars (where the rear seat that is located further forward than usual and the front seat further back than usual). Since the 1960s the term coupé has generally referred to a two-door car with a fixed roof.

Since 2005, several models with four doors have been marketed as "four-door coupés", however reactions are mixed about whether these models are actually sedans instead of coupés. According to Edmunds, the American online resource for automotive information, "the four-door coupe category doesn't really exist."

Definition
A coupé is often considered to be a two-door car (in contrast to a four-door sedan/saloon), however several other definitions also exist.

In 1977, International Standard ISO 3833-1977 defined a coupé as having a closed body, usually with limited rear volume, a fixed roof of which a portion may be openable (i.e. a sunroof), at least two seats in at least one row, two side doors and possibly a rear opening, and at least two side windows.

Today, coupé is sometimes used by manufacturers as a marketing term, rather than a technical description of a body style. This is because coupés in general are seen as more streamlined and sportier overall lines than those of comparable four-door sedans. One dictionary states that a coupé is shorter than a sedan/saloon of the same model.

Examples
These are some examples of coupés appearing in the Gran Turismo series, the full list can be viewed at Category:Coupes:


 * Mazda RX-7 Type R (FD, J) '93Mazda RX-7 Type R (FD, J) '93.jpg


 * Toyota SUPRA RZ '97Toyota SUPRA RZ '97.jpg


 * Chevrolet Camaro SS '00Chevrolet Camaro SS '00.jpg


 * Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren '03Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren '03.jpg


 * BMW M3 '04BMW M3 '04 (GT6).jpg