Our pick of the top three concepts from Vision Gran Turismo
The Vision Gran Turismo project is perhaps one of the greatest things to ever happen to the world of virtual racing. What else would you call the creation of concept cars by manufacturers themselves, exclusively for a racing game, but also sometimes previewing upcoming designs? The brainchild of the creator of Gran Turismo, Kazunori Yamauchi, the Vision GT project invited manufacturers to send in designs for their ideal grand tourers, which would then be incorporated into the game. Started in 2013, it's given us some noteworthy designs over the years, appearing in Gran Turismo 6 and in the Gran Turismo Sport title that followed. Of the most recent concepts created for Gran Turismo, these are just a few that we wish weren't confined to the virtual realm.
The first Lamborghini to be designed for virtual racing, the Lamborghini V12 Vision Gran Turismo was penned by Lamborghini Centro Stile, the in-house design department for Lamborghini. The virtual car carries the powertrain from the Sian, which means it sends the 819PS of power, developed from its V12 and supercapacitor, to all four wheels.
Inspired by legendary Jaguar racecars from the past, the Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo looks the way it does thanks to battery modules being placed around the cockpit, also achieving a low centre of gravity and a perfect weight distribution. Speaking of, the virtual car gets its power from the same batteries as those found in the I-Pace Trophy, the world's first production electric car race series.
If you're thinking the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo looks a lot like the Bugatti Chiron, that's because the Chiron production car is actually based on the virtual machine designed for Gran Turismo. It debuted a whole year before the Chiron did, and we imagine, was a great barometer for Bugatti's styling department as to how the replacement for the venerable Veyron would be received.
