One of the features of Gran Turismo Sport is a ‘livery editor’ for customising paint and stickers on the cars you race in the game. For my daughter that means pink paint and Peppa Pig graphics on everything. Meanwhile my son and I spend hours recreating real life racing colours, from Lark McLaren F1s to DTM BMW M3s. And now Nissan UK has done it for real, wrapping its own Skyline R34 in classic Calsonic racing livery for our trip to Germany.
Inevitably we set about creating our own Calsonic Skyline before the real thing arrives, placing it in virtual ‘scapes’ representing real roads around the Nürburgring. We also create the liveries for in-game GT-R GT3s in honour of the two customer teams running in the real race, meaning by the time we pack our bags for Germany our Gran Turismo garage has a Calsonic R34 alongside NISMO GT-Rs in KCMG Motorsport and Kondo Racing colours.
When the real Calsonic Skyline pulls up outside my son is gobsmacked, the more so when he learns where we’ll be taking it. Accordingly the journey to the Eifel mountains passes in a flash of limit-free Autobahn and excitable car chat, his every Gran Turismo dream coming real before his eyes. Race day traffic means we barely make the start but we land in NISMO hospitality directly opposite one of the KCMG GT-Rs, just like the one we ‘made’ in the game. The flag drops, the race gets underway and, bellies full of bockwurst, we head out for the true Nürburgring 24 experience.