The Lambo V12 Vision Gran Turismo is the most extreme Lamborghini ever | GRR
Lamborghini has whipped the covers off its new racing car for 2020. It’s a dramatic looking single-seater coupe powered by an 800-horsepower hybrid drivetrain with styling straight out of Star Wars. Its name gives a clue as to where you will be seeing it race: it’s called the Lambo V12 Vision Gran Turismo.
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.
Lamborghini Centro Stile in Sant’Agata Bolognese has risen to the challenge with gusto: the Lambo V12 Vision Gran Turismo is something of a stunner. The wild single-seat coupe is a reimagined version of the Aventador-based Sián FKP 37, Lamborghini’s most powerful-ever car and first electrified model. The limited-production machine was unveiled at the Frankfurt Show this year in honour of late VW group chairman and engineering genius Ferdinand Piech.
Just like the Sián FKP 37, the digital racing version for Gran Turismo marries the Aventador’s V12 with an electric motor powered by supercapacitors (rather than lithium-ion batteries) to provide an extra boost. The Sian FKP 37– 63 of which are being made and all sold out – boasts a total of 807bhp and 0-62mph in 2.8 seconds on its way to a 217mph top speed; figures for the gaming version are not quoted, Lamborghini just emphasising it will be “fun to drive”.
From the look of it that’s certainly true. Like any Lamborghini, it will make quite a sight when it lines up on the virtual grids in next year’s championships, beginning next spring. The main body is disconnected from the wheelarches in the manner of a wildly futuristic Caterham 7 and you get into it from the front via a jet-fighter style canopy. Lambo’s ever-dramatic wedge profile is topped and tailed by extravagant aerodynamic devices including a large and intricate rear wing with signature Y-shape taillights. Other familiar Lambo styling devices include a hexagon theme in the side windows said to be inspired by the 1968 Lamborghini Marzal.
“The Lambo V12 Vision Gran Turismo is an opportunity for the design talent within Lamborghini to stretch its wings and visualize a car that, like every Lamborghini, is a head-turner,” said Mitja Borkert, head of Lamborghini Centro Stile. “It offers
the best driving experience but also mirrors Lamborghini's push on future technologies, particularly in the arena of lightweight materials and hybridization.”
For Lambo CEO Stefano Domenicali the virtual vision is a “highly futuristic and cool design to be enjoyed by the young generation of racing game and super sports car enthusiasts.”
“Racing” one of these sure beats putting a poster of the Countach up on the bedroom wall!