Gamers who own Gran Turismo Sport on Playstation 4 will have access to a free new vehicle starting Monday, an electric race car called the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Turismo. The best part is that this futuristic Audi isn’t just some wild video game concept, it’s now a real car that will participate in Formula E.
Audi AG built a real-life, one-off version of the e-tron Vision Gran Turismo concept that will act as a race taxi. So, sadly it won’t actually race against anything, instead chauffeuring Formula E’s Audi personnel and customers around the track.
Sony Entertainment and Gran Turismo’s developer Polyphony Digital created a number of working Vision Gran Turismo concepts with other car manufacturers that were featured in the iconic racing game series, but Audi’s contribution is the first to participate in actual motorsports. The car’s color combination and design was heavily inspired by that of the Audi 90 IMSA GTO, an iconic race car from the late 1980s that helped infuse a new sense of excitement into North American motor racing.
“Although the design of a virtual vehicle allows much greater freedom and the creation of concepts which are only hard to implement in reality, we did not want to put a purely fictitious concept on wheels. Our aim was a fully functional car,” explained Audi’s chief designer Marc Lichte. “This car incorporates numerous elements of our new design language such as the inverted single frame in the vehicle’s color that will be typical for our new e-tron models.”
Three electric motors powering the front and rear axles make up the car’s e-tron quattro all-wheel drive system, pushing out 805 horsepower and resulting in a 2.5-second zero to 60 mph time. The car also features a perfect 50-50 weight distribution and a curb weight of just 3,197 pounds.
Players will have access to two variants of the car in Gran Turismo Sport. The e-tron Vision GT sports a white grille and is fully electric, of course. There’s also a black-grilled hybrid version with an electric motor mated to a turbocharged 3.4-liter V6, boasting a combined 1,274 horsepower.
The cars are available in-game now, but Audi fans will have to wait until the Formula E Rome GP on April 14 to see the real-life e-tron Vision Gran Turismo in action. There are also rumors that this car will make an appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and 24 Hours Nürburgring.
