Aston Martin is unveiling a new addition to the popular PlayStation 3 racing game Gran Turismo 6 in the shape of the “Design Prototype 100 – DP-100 Vision Gran Turismo”.
Developed in-house by the design team at Aston Martin, led by design director Marek Reichman, the new, virtual-only GT racer will be available for GT6 owners to download next month, following its global launch at the upcoming Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Starting with nothing but the traditional ‘blank sheet of paper’ the design team and design engineers worked for six months to create the new addition to the Vision Gran Turismo stable of race cars.
Created utilising many of the same techniques as applied in the development of Aston Martin production sports cars – hand sketches and 3D modelling, followed by full realisation in the virtual world – the twin-turbo V12 mid-engined racer offers up to 800 bhp.
Marek Reichman said: “Features such as the car’s revolutionary ‘active aerodynamics’ are there not just as a way of enhancing form, but also to support the car’s function in-game.
“As with the CC100 Speedster Concept, many of the design cues visible in DP-100, such as the light blade rear lamps, could also feed through into future sports cars that we’ll launch in the offline world so the importance of this project should not be underestimated.”
Aston Martin has supported previous editions of the long-running Gran Turismo series, debuting in the very first game with the DB7 coupe and Volante. The 2011 One-77 is already a popular car in the GT6 stable.
Kazunori Yamauchi, the creator of Gran Turismo and President of Polyphony Digital Inc, added: “When I first came face to face with this car at the Aston Martin Headquarters in Gaydon, UK, I was at a loss for words seeing the level of perfection in its design. I was surprised by the bold proposal of the car being the first midship layout model in Aston Martin history. And while it is clean and classy in design, it is also very emotional. Not only that, there was this future Aston Martin in front of me, that was so detailed it could be released on the market pretty much as is.”
Source: Aston Martin