Seems like we may have the chance to drive it in Gran Turismo 7 real soon, too.
The 2023 Japan Mobility Show has kicked off, and it’s given us unexpected hope for the future of auto shows. At the same expo where Mazda single-handedly restored our enthusiasm for electric sports cars and Honda surprised the world with the rebirth of the Prelude, Nissan showcased an otherworldly concept that basically looks like what would happen if the GT-R made a cameo in Cyberpunk 2077. It’s called the Hyper Force.
Where to begin? Well, we have that front end, with the lower bumper and splitter extending a full foot ahead of where the headlights terminate; the “1000kW Advanced ASSB-4ORCE” decal right ahead of the rear wheels, calling to mind the “4-Valve DOHC RS-Turbo” text on the side of the old “Paul Newman” Skyline; and the monolithic form of the whole thing, which resembles chiseled obsidian. The Hyper Force picks up where Nissan’s Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo ends. As it turns out, that’s no small coincidence.
That’s because much like that nine-year-old design study, the Hyper Force was created with help from Polyphony Digital, makers of Gran Turismo. Specifically, Nissan enlisted Polyphony’s help with the Hyper Force’s graphic user interface, just as it did for the original R35’s Multi Function Display. Any ardent GT Sport or Gran Turismo 7 player would have picked that up right away because the very font used in all the concept’s digital readouts is the same one that appears in Gran Turismo’s head-up display.
Nissan
Polyphony of course has a long history of working with automakers to shape real-world car design, which in turn informs the sim racing experiences it creates. Case in point: The trailer Nissan released in concert with the Hyper Force shows the car on the Nürburgring Nordschleife as well as Special Stage Route X, in the Gran Turismo game engine. Allow me to go ahead and put money down that we’ll be able to drive this car in GT7 very soon.
The Nissan Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo, for reference. This thing debuted in 2014, by the way, and cars still don’t really look like this. Nissan
What will it drive like? We can make some predictions based on details Nissan has highlighted, which seem more apt to describe a mecha than an automobile. There’s the 1,341-horsepower total output, of course, put to the pavement through all four wheels; a dual-level rear diffuser and active canards and wing; and a “newly developed plasma actuator” that “suppresses air detachment to maximize grip and minimize inner-wheel lift during cornering,” in the automaker’s words. Expect plenty of power and spine-bending cornering speeds, then.
Is any of this real? No. Does Nissan have the money to make it real? Judging by the rather aged nature of its lineup these days, probably not. But auto shows and video games have always been about dreams as much as reality, and the Hyper Force’s vision of the future certainly commands your attention. If the eventual R36 GT-R looks anything like this, it’ll be quite the statement.
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