Jaguar’s slick new electric hypercar will only exist in Gran Turismo

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The newest entry in the longstanding Vision Gran Turismo program.
Images: Jaguar

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.
While the automaker says the design of the car was inspired by all sorts of historical Jaguars (especially the LeMans-winning D-Type), it also looks a bit like a flattened Aston Martin, or some kind of evil character from a Cars sequel. Inside, the Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo Coupé boasts a radical, sparse interior with just one transparent boomerang-shaped display behind the steering wheel, and augmented reality information can also be projected on the windows. There’s even a hologram system on the dashboard, which can project navigation, vehicle data, or an artificial intelligence that Jaguar says is “affectionately named ‘KITT-E’” — because when you’re making a digital concept car, no futuristic technology is off limits.


It may seem silly to focus to intently on the details and design of a car that only exists in a video game, but Vision Gran Turismo concepts have come to life in the past. Started as part of Sony’s celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Gran Turismo franchise back in 2013, the program was essentially an open call to automakers to design outrageous, future-facing vehicles without the restrictions of trying to create them in the real world. But some have actually brought their digital creations to life, like Toyota did with the FT-1 in 2014, or Audi did last year with the E-Tron Vision Gran Turismo.
None of that guarantees Jaguar will attempt to make a real world version of the Jaguar Vision Gran Turismo Coupé. More likely, the automaker will distill some of the ideas teased here and apply them to its forthcoming electric road cars. Still, it’s always fun to see an automaker’s designers stretch their legs when freed of the constraints of real-world manufacturing. Here’s to another six years (or more) of Vision Gran Turismo.


Source: Sean O'Kane|@sokane1 (The Verge).
~Best Feeds™...

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