Vision Gran Turismo: the coolest concept cars come to PlayStation

Jaguar has placed itself at the forefront of the electric car revolution with the I-Pace SUV, despite being a smaller player in the overall car market. The British automaker also competes in all-electric racing series Formula E, and operates a whole support series made up of I-Paces. But the latest and greatest electric car from Jaguar will only be available in pixel form (at least, for now), as Jaguar has announced it’s the latest automaker to participate in the now six-year-long Vision Gran Turismo project, which has helped create a number of truly wild concept cars.

On Friday, the company debuted the Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo Coupé, a low-slung hypercar that will be available to play in Gran Turismo Sport on the PlayStation 4 starting at the end of November. While all virtual, the new car has 750kW of total power available (or about 1,000 horsepower) thanks to a three-motor all-wheel drive system.

The Vision Gran Turismo program is a simple, wonderful idea that churns out striking concepts like clockwork. Automakers design over-the-top performance cars to be included in the Gran Turismo video game, and then, like Dr. Frankenstein, they succumb to the irresistible desire to bring their creations to life. Audi is now the latest automaker to bite with its new e-tron Vision Gran Turismo concept.

The e-tron concept doesn’t look all that different from a modern GT racer, even while it’s adorned with Audi’s hot orange accents. But its performance specs are something to behold. Two 200kW motors on the rear axle and one on the front give it all-wheel drive and a total power output of 600kW, which is roughly equivalent to 815 horsepower. The car weighs just over 3,000 pounds, which — combined with all that power — means it can get from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.4 seconds.

If you really love concept cars, then what a time it is to be alive. Not only does it seem like there's a new one every week — each more insane than the last — but more of them are making their way off the page and screen and into the real world. The latest example comes from Nissan, which has just announced that it is making a real-world version of the wild 2020 Vision Gran Turismo that has been playable in Gran Turismo 6 since 2014. The company will show off the car at this month's Tokyo Motor Show.

The car is part of the Vision Gran Turismo project, which encouraged major automotive brands to develop concept cars for the game. But when it takes the stage in Tokyo, it won't be the first to have made the transition from PlayStation to test track — Hyundai and Bugatti won that distinction when they shocked everyone with real-life versions of their own Vision Gran Turismo cars at the Frankfurt Auto Show last month.

Bugatti has the unusual distinction of being an automaker without any automobiles for sale, since its Veyron hypercar recently went out of production and it'll be another year or so before the even more ridiculous Chiron is ready for action. Meanwhile, it has some time to kill — and it's doing that in the best way possible with a maximum-insanity race car for Gran Turismo's ongoing Vision Gran Turismo series of virtual cars.

The Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo had already been unveiled in sketches, but now we're seeing the real car for the first time: yes, "real," as in "made of things like carbon fiber and suede." Unlike some automakers, Bugatti decided to make a one-off show car of its Vision Gran Turismo design that's debuting at the Frankfurt auto show this week.

Of all the countless automakers who've contributed a wild virtual car to Polyphony Digital's ongoing Vision Gran Turismo project, Bugatti — the ultra-exclusive hypercar manufacturer — is pretty much the last company I would've expected to participate. Yet here we are: Bugatti just teased the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo, "a vehicle which could also be driven on a real race circuit if it left the virtual world," according to the company's head of design, Achim Anscheidt. Eventually, this Bugatti will be available to download into PlayStation 3's Gran Turismo 6, sometime after it's fully unveiled at next month's Frankfurt auto show.

We only have one shot of the car so far (pictured above), which may be an overhead shot, but it's frankly a little difficult to tell — Vision Gran Turismo designs tend to be so intentionally ridiculous that they're often just barely recognizable as automobiles. Still, Bugatti says that it'll be "presenting the new form and design language developed by the brand to celebrate the next chapter in its history following the end of the Veyron era" with this concept — a long-winded way of saying that the design elements you see here will hint at the design of the Chiron, the hypercar that will be replacing the legendary Veyron in the coming year. You can definitely make out a rear deck on the left side here, which could be lifted directly off the Chiron, but we won't know for a number of months yet.

Fiat Chrysler and Sony first teased the SRT Tomahawk last week, but now, the over-the-top hypercar is official — all 2,590 horsepower of it.

The automaker envisions the Tomahawk as a 2035 model year vehicle, which means you've got another 20 years to wait. The one loophole, of course, is that it's available this summer as a downloadable car for GT6 on the PlayStation 3, a new addition to Polyphony Digital's long-running Vision Gran Turismo partnership with real car companies to make digital concepts come to life. And what a concept: the SRT Tomahawk comes in three versions — street, racing, and "experimental technology" — ranging from 1,007 up to a mind-boggling 2,590 horsepower. In top trim, FCA envisions the car reaching 404 miles per hour. Even in a game, that's white-knuckle speed on any racetrack in the world.

Polyphony Digital's ongoing Vision Gran Turismo program — a partnership with real automakers to create concept cars for the Gran Turismo video game series — soldiers on. And Renault may have just made the most amazing Vision GT car yet.

Take one look at the Alpine Vision Gran Turismo and you can guess that it's a pure concept car through and through, but there's something more to this one: Renault is bringing the racing-focused Alpine brand back into production next year. It's a stretch to call this car a precursor to a production model, but it's also possible that there are design cues here that could find their way into some future Alpine models.

Mazda's Christmas gift to the world of racing fanatics has been revealed as the LM55 Vision Gran Turismo concept supercar. It joins a growing cadre of outlandishly designed vehicles that car manufacturers have been contributing to Gran Turismo 6 since the game's release last year. Challenged by Polyphony Digital chief Kaz Yamauchi to produce their grandest vision for the ideal Gran Turismo racing car, marques like Mercedes-Benz and Toyota have responded with enthusiasm and even built real-world mockups to show off the undulating curves of their supremely aerodynamic concept autos. Mazda's approach is even more focused on the racing aspect, as the company has taken its 1991 Le Mans win as the basis for the LM55 concept that it's now added to the Gran Turismo 6 roster. Carbon fiber components and a monocoque chassis form the basis for an aggressive design that has "blended agility with elegance."

To give the LM55 a test drive, download the latest update for Gran Turismo 6 on the PS3 and browse to the Vision GT car menu, which also includes all the other Vision Gran Turismo supercars introduced so far.

Vision Gran Turismo, an ongoing promotion in Polyphony Digital's storied Gran Turismo racing sim franchise, challenges real automakers to produce wild, virtual concept cars that can be downloaded into the game. An impressive number of companies have participated, ranging from Toyota to BMW to Aston Martin. Chevrolet's Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo debuted just last month.

Now, Infiniti has pulled the wraps off its entry, the Infiniti Concept Vision Gran Turismo. The swoopy mid-engine supercar features scissor doors and a rear-biased weight balance "that fills users with the joy of driving by actively drifting the rear," according to the company.

The latest concept car designed for Gran Turismo 6 is a futuristic supercar from Chevrolet. The car, dubbed the Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Tursimo (VGT), will be available as downloadable content in the PlayStation 3 game later this holiday season. It was designed through a collaboration between Chevrolet Research and Development and Chaparral Racing, and it features a propulsion system based on technology that could one day be used in spaceships.

Earlier this year, Toyota created the gorgeous FT-1 for "Vision Gran Turismo," an ongoing series of concept cars designed by real-world car companies and design studios in collaboration with Sony's Polyphony Digital for the release of Gran Turismo 6. The high-performance sports car was widely believed to be a teaser for a reboot of the Supra, a legendary franchise for Toyota that last saw production in 2002.

Those rumors are louder than ever this week now that Toyota has revealed a second version of the FT-1 that it describes as a more "sophisticated" and "premium" take on the original, painted in a dark silver in place of the bright, sporty red seen before. Both versions look fantastic.

At the UK's Goodwood Festival of Speed, Nissan today took the wraps off a full-scale model of its new virtual supercar. The Nissan Concept 2020 Vision GT was created for Gran Turismo 6's "Vision Gran Turismo festival," which invites car makers to present their vision of the near automotive future as downloadable content for the game. Mercedes Benz, BMW, Mitsubishi, and Volkswagen have all contributed to the in-game festival so far, and Nissan's will be available for download in July.

The Concept 2020 Vision GT was created by a team led by design director Taisuke Nakamura at Nissan Design Europe. "It's a new styling challenge without any constraints [or] boundaries," says Nakamura of designing for a video game. The European team collaborated with Nissan engineers in Japan to ensure the vehicle's aesthetics adequately reflected its in-game performance. "It was purely a design challenge from outside to see how much we can go further to achieve an attractive design."

Some of Toyota's most iconic vehicles were designed in a small building hidden behind a Baptist church in California.

Nestled amongst the beaches and boardwalks of Newport Beach, you’ll find Calty Design Research. First opened in 1973 as the first West Coast facility of its kind from a major automotive manufacturer, it represents one-fifth of the Toyota Design Network. Here, cars like the 1978 Celica sports coupe, 2012's stylish Lexus LF-LC concept, and the very first Prius were designed. The facility's responsibilities range from minor cosmetic changes for minivans to dreaming up the cars of the future. But with the Toyota FT-1 sports concept, unveiled today at the 2014 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, they did something a bit different — design a car with a little help from a video game.