However, the real question is how Gran Turismo godfather Kazunori Yamauchi and his team at Polyphony Digital managed to get the GR Supra Racing Concept into a major game closely followed by millions of people without anyone finding out about it? How did they manage to do all the work that needs to be done to get a car into a video game (reference photos, scanning, audio recording, etc.) while everything still being completely secret?
According to Kazunori, "In line with the development of the Supra Concept, we were continuously receiving information. The communication took place in many different locations, whether it be at Toyota headquarters, at their research centers, at the Polyphony office or even the Nürburgring, whenever [Supra] Chief Engineer Mr. Tada and I had time to talk."
It seemed like such a casual approach to such a large undertaking. I mean Kaz and his team had to translate a car that is technically just a concept into GT Sport, a game in which its mechanics are based on real physics.
"Technically it's not that difficult. If you take the time to input a few thousand parameters, Gran Turismo can simulate a car properly." said Yamauchi-san.
I wondered what his impressions of the Supra concept were once he laid eyes on it for the first time.
Kazunori responded, "While we are in the midst of an era where conventional sports cars are few and far between, I saw in it a strong will and hope to achieve the allure of a classical sports car using the latest technology. The car is bigger than the GT86, but the wheelbase is shorter than the GT86, and you can tell that they were going for a very high body stiffness. It's obvious that they are aiming to achieve a high quality sports car in a space that has been dominated by Porsche in recent years, but with a front engine, rear-wheel-drive layout."
That led me to another point. Anyone who's followed racing games recently has noticed that Toyota has seemingly reduced their presence in just about every major racing game franchise. Though, Toyota still seems to have a close relationship with Gran Turismo and Polyphony Digital.
I asked Kazunori about this and he responded, "Automobile manufacturers in general have been maintaining a good relationship with Gran Turismo. I think the reason for this is that we have continued to create a product that really respects the work of the auto makers for the last 20 years, and they know that Gran Turismo recreates their cars perfectly, beautifully, down to every last detail."
That was my favorite trailer of all!
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