At last year’s L.A. auto show, Mercedes-Benz pulled the wraps from its AMG Vision Gran Turismo, a slinky, low-slung thing that recalled a marriage of the closed-wheel W196 streamliner and the former Daimler property Dodge/SRT/Dodge Viper. For added zazz, M-B rolled out a full-scale model of the thing. Six months down the road, BMW’s announced the final version of its virtual Vision Gran Turismo car, an M-liveried thing that should not be confused with the 3- or 5-series Gran Turismos, nor with the 4 or 6 Gran Coupes. For that matter, one shouldn’t get it mixed up with the Vision EfficientDynamics, the concept vehicle that led to the new i8.
What the Vision Gran Turismo is is a distillation of roughly 40 years of Bavarian competition GT cars into one hypothetical vehicle designed to operate in a wholly digital realm. “Built” at the behest of Gran Turismo franchise honcho Kazunori Yamauchi for use in the sixth iteration of the racing-sim chestnut, the BMW features headlights reminiscent of the i8‘s, size/proportions that seem to echo the new 2-series, and fender flares that land somewhere between those of the recent M3 GT2 and the outlandish tack-on boxes of the 3.0CSL Batmobiles. The roundels just behind the Hofmeister kink also recall those storied E9-based racers.
The hypothetical powerplant is a 3.0-liter turbocharged six churning out 541 digital horsepower. Pushing buttons on your controller—or moving your driving simulator’s electronic shifter—will allow you to chose any of the six gears in its sequential transmission. Virtual weight is 260o pounds, achieved via liberal use of a carbon-fiber weave constructed solely of bits and bytes. (No word as to whether that code is generated by computers at the BMW/SGL production facility in Moses Lake, Washington.)
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If you can’t wait to download it for your PlayStation—it’s available now—the Vision Gran Turismo is available to try out at BMW Welt in Munich. Just don’t show up in a Plymouth Gran Fury. BMW might think you’re mocking them.
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