car
Back on top form, the Lamborghini design studio has taken the radical step of launching a car you can see, touch and drive but not buy.
It launched its radical, single-seat Vision Gran Turismo concept car in Monte Carlo on the weekend, complete with the same lightweight hybrid V12 powertrain from the Sian FKP 37 concept car.
Yet there are enormous differences between the Sian and the Vision Gran Turismo, not least of which is that you can see and touch and sit inside the Sian concept.
Even though a one-off concept has been made, the Vision Gran Turismo is really a virtual hypercar, which can only be driven in digital form in the Gran Turismo Sport game from spring next year.
It’s not the first of its kind, either, with 29 Gran Turismo vision cars entering the game from every maker from Audi to Bugatti, from Maserati to Mercedes-AMG and even the Red Bull Formula One operation contributing Vision cars in recent years.
The most stunning of those was Red Bull’s X2014, from the agile aerodynamic mind of F1 design guru Adrian Newey, though the Mercedes-AMG Vision Gran Turismo wasn’t far behind. Red Bull also made one in 2010 (the X2010).
The cars, developed in response to an appeal from racer/Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi, are more radical in their designs than either race or road cars, with no emissions, crash or aerodynamic rules to constrain them.
The shame of that is that the Vision Gran Turismo is jaw-dropping and astonishing, taking Lamborghini back to the days when one of its few core values was to make schoolboys jump and yell as they drove by.
Yet this way it democratizes the 800-horsepower performance of the V12 and its supercapacitor technology, opening it up to anybody with a Playstation.
“Lamborghini is a very young brand, and this is why we are here (Monte Carlo) to present our newest virtual vision in the form of a real model, with a highly futuristic and cool design to be enjoyed by the young generation of racing game and super sports car enthusiasts,” Lamborghini Chairman and CEO Stefano Domenicali explained.
It looks radical inside and out, with the single, central seat accessed only by popping up the canopy roof, like a fighter jet, and with its entire suspension system mounted outside the bodywork, with covered wheels like a Formula E car.
“The Lambo V12 Vision Gran Turismo is created to provide the ultimate virtual car for young fans and gamers, who are ultra-enthusiastic about Lamborghini and its futuristic aspirations,” Lamborghini Centro Stile head, Mitja Borkert, said.
”It 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 and the best driving experience, but also mirrors Lamborghini’s push on future technologies, particularly in the arena of lightweight materials and hybridization.”
Its cabin’s controls are all operated from the steering wheel and all of its information displayed on the inside of the windscreen, rather than a contemporary digital infotainment screen.
It’s hard to picture the Vision Gran Turismo becoming a production reality, with Lamborghini having no access to a carbon-fibre, single-seat chassis (even though it made a one-off Egoista single-seat concept car in 2013).
Still, it’s tempting, with covered outboard wheels, not unlike a Formula E car, a large rear wing, Y-shaped tail and daytime-running lights and hexagonal side windows said to be inspired by the 1968 Lamborghini Marzal.
