Mercedes reveals ‘Gran Turismo’ vision
The Mercedes-Benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo, a virtual supercar concept, is set to make a real-world debut at the company’s new US R&D center in California.
The Mercedes-Benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo, a virtual supercar concept, is set to make a real-world debut at the company’s new US R&D center in California.
It turns out that the concept car, which was created for “Gran Turismo 6,” the Playstation racing game, is more than simply a collection of pixels and computer code.
A real-life, scale 1:1 version of the 585hp, super-light-weight car, complete with heads-up display and gullwing doors, will be arriving in Sunnyvale, California to mark the official opening of Mercedes-Benz’s new Research and Development facility on November 19.
The car, which manages to pay homage to the marque’s supercars of decades past, such as the 300SL, while also being clearly a visitor from the automotive future, blends long, feminine flowing lines with aggressive animalistic front and rear haunches that cover the car’s oversized alloy wheels.
Under the hood is a front mid-mounted V8 biturbo engine courtesy of AMG and as the car is built using an aluminum space frame adorned with carbon fiber, it tips the scales at just 1385kg, meaning that it offers a power-to-weight ratio of 1hp to every 2.4kg.
To mark the game’s 15th anniversary, its developer, Polyphony Digital Inc., approached a number of car companies, including Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin and Volkswagen, as well as legendary automotive design studios Bertone, ItalDesign Giugiaro and Zagota and asked them to create exclusive virtual concept cars which will be released as gifted downloadable content to gamers as online updates.
And when the game goes on sale in December, the Mercedes-Benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo will be the first concept that players will be able to download.