It is of course a virtual racer whose high-speed dices will be played out only on screen. It is the latest contender designed to take part in the FIA-certified Gran Turismo Championships, the now-massive annual global e-sports showdown between fans of Polyphony Digital's latest racing game, Gran Turismo Sport.
(If you haven’t got a Sony PlayStation 4 and haven’t seen the racing have a quick look because it is breathtaking in its reality.)
Digital creations they may be but that doesn’t stop the manufacturers from building them for real. Lamborghini took the opportunity to unveil the Lambo V12 Vision Gran Turismo in the flesh last weekend (23rd-24th November) at the Gran Turismo Championships world finals in Monaco. The new Lambo wasn’t available to take part this year – still undergoing shake-down tests perhaps – leaving Toyota to take the manufacturers’ crown this year and Mikail Hizal to secure the Nations Cup for Germany.
Manufacturers including Jaguar, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Chevrolet, Nissan, Alfa Romeo, Ford, Porsche, BMW and Lexus view participation in the iconic racing game as a win-win, generating huge publicity among young people and enthusing a new generation of motorsport fans in ways which have in the past provided a stepping stone to actual motorsport. Designing a virtual racer has also proven an irresistible challenge for car company design departments over the years.