Car Manufacturers Reveal Concepts Years in Advance for Gran Turismo

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Top Gear recently published an interview with Kazunori Yamauchi after speaking with him at the reveal of the Alpine Vision GT in Paris.

Although they didn’t ask any probing questions about the future of GT6 or GT7, they did get some interesting quotes regarding the Vision GT program. Apparently, integrating some of the more unusual cars – like the laser-powered Chaparral 2X – can sometimes present a challenge:

“With the Vision Gran Turismo cars, a lot of them have relatively new drive and power systems in their design. So every time a new car came out, we would have to develop a new physics engine on our side to accommodate these designs and technology.”

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Alpine was eager to work with Polyphony Digital for the Gran Turismo project:

“The Alpine, especially the A110, was always one of my favourite cars – at least in my personal top three. When I heard two years ago that they were looking to rejuvenate their brand I thought it was a great opportunity to work with them. It just so happened that they were looking to work with us as well – so it all came together and this is the result.”

Kazunori also shared an update about the cars in his personal garage, though he notes it hasn’t changed in quite some time now: two Ford GTs, a Porsche 911 GT3, Mercedes SLS AMG, Honda S2000, and Nissan GT-R.

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One of his most interesting and revealing answers, however, came after being asked about how the process of including cars in Gran Turismo works, as he noted that some manufacturers give the company access to concepts years in advance of their public reveal:

“The actual process of putting the car in the game takes about six months, but the time period in which we see concepts from manufacturers can be up to two years in advance…”

Check out the full interview on TopGear.com for more.

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Comments (31)

  1. acascianelli

    Safe tactic for the manufactures. They know that by the time the concepts make it into production, they still won’t be in any Gran Turismo game…

  2. wraith of horus

    What on earth KAZ….. He has a Porsche GT3 yet refuse to ad more RUF’s or add more upto date ones. Less than half a dozen RUF’s in GT5 and GT6. Instead of adding 5 million Japanese cars more european cars please and preferably RUF……. This so pisses me off.

    1. TeamCZRRacing

      Blame Porsche and Microsoft. Microsoft has an exclusivity agreement with them, which it sublets to EA, and Porsche refuses to end the agreement. It’s completely out of Kaz’s control.

    2. Johnnypenso

      It’s EA that has the license and they sublet to T10 for the Porsche Expansion Pack DLC in Forza 4. Horus didn’t mention anything about including Porsche, he’s asking why Kaz doesn’t include more Rufs, the most obvious alternative to Porsche.

    3. drag lab 101

      The Porsche license has nothing to do with Ruf inclusion in the Gran Turismo series which Wraith of Horus speaks of.
      They’re at least a dozen other RUF’s which could be added and have nothing to to with EA’s ownership of a Porsche lisence.
      RUF is its own seperate company…
      And nothing to blame Mircosoft or Porsche for.
      The license can be used outside of EA games which Turn10 proved with Forza 4 & it’s 30 car Porsche DLC pack.
      The problem really comes down to will you pay what Turn 10 did for temporary use of the Porsche license. A hefty price for temporary use is something PD doesn’t seem to be interested in.
      But all of that has nothing to do with Ruf being in GT.
      Ruf is recognized as its own company in Germany.. You order a Ruf.. It has its own serial/vin number.

  3. HKS racer

    “The Alpine, especially the A110, was always one of my favourite cars – at least in my personal top three”

    And yet this car has been a standard until GT6.

  4. Situation1994

    I had a clue about this, in the Vision GT trailer back in 2013 when they show the uncovered Mercedes VGT there are more models already made but they’re covered, they basically uncover them when they say the car is coming, so basically all cars are made but just need to be shown

  5. Lille B

    Get it out already!!!! 25th of Dec was the latest update…

    How many seasonal events do we have to drive
    to get a little reward

  6. lGNAl

    In the article here Kaz mentions that one of his cars is a Mercedes SLS AMG. But in the full interview on the TG website it says Mercedes SL AMG. So which is it ? … I don’t see Kaz driving an SL, unless it’s one of those crazy Black editions. So it has to be an SLS. Right ?

  7. Doober

    I think its funny to see a Honda s2000 in juxtaposition to Kaz’s other cars. This article makes me wonder how long the VGT process has really been an idea. Remember back in GT4 Nike had that 2022 concept or something? I would bet that sort of root to the entire VGT, but that is just my fun guess on my part. It seems with PD things are set on to the back burner until they can be implemented into the games as perfect as they can be.

    1. potvinsuks

      I don’t find that the S2000 is out of place in that pack of cars at all! It’s one of the finest and underrated pure sports cars of all time! I may be wrong, but I think Kaz owns like 8 of em.

    2. Scheer

      I’m not surprised that Kaz has an S2000, It’s a great car. I’m just surprised he doesn’t have dozens and dozens of Miatas. :)

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