The 196mph, radio-controlled GT-R
Nissan and Gran Turismo create ultimate toy from a real GT- R. We get behind the controller
SOME PEOPLE – THOUGH NOT ANYONE at evo – will tell you the Nissan GT-R feels a bit like a videogame to drive. While it’s true that the GT-R seems capable of bending physics sometimes, its popular image as a bit of a digital experience couldn’t be further from the truth. Computers, in this case, enhance rather than hinder the drive.
Still, the GT-R’S connection with the virtual world is strong, particularly in the long-running Gran Turismo series. The early GT games were my own first connection to the GT-R legend, and for gamers turned professional racing drivers like Lucas Ordóñez and Jann Mardenborough, Gran Turismo and Nissan kick-started their careers.
Now the gaming franchise and the Japanese car maker have given us the Nissan GT-R/C. It’s almost the complete opposite of playing Gran Turismo with a racing wheel and pedals – instead you have a real, full-size and very much full-performance car, operated via a Playstation Dualshock 4 controller.
Built by JLB Design Ltd, the GT-R/C is based on a 2011 Nissan GT-R and, mechanically at least, is entirely standard – right down to its 542bhp twin-turbo V6. Where it differs is where you drive it from – essentially anywhere but inside the car itself, and up to a kilometre away.
The GT-R/C’S interior is rigged up with four robots, controlling the steering, throttle, brakes and transmission, which in turn are controlled by a series of pneumatic pumps, electric servos, and six computers located in the boot. These monitor signals processed through a micro-computer hooked up to the Playstation joypad, interpreting movements of your fingers a hundred times per second – trigger buttons to accelerate and brake, left joystick to steer, and up and down directional buttons to select drive or reverse – and translating them into movement in the car.
It sounds and looks obscenely complicated and very clever. And it is – clever enough that Mardenborough, from a vantage point within a helicopter, was able to complete a lap of the Silverstone National Circuit in 1:17.47, hitting 131mph on the long straight before Brooklands.
Our own experience was slightly more sedate, guiding the GT-R/C around a coned-off section of Silverstone’s Stowe Circuit and operating the car from the passenger seat of a Nissan Qashqai. The changing perspective of a chase car made it quite a challenge, but exercise the sort of finesse you might use to set the best laps in Gran Turismo itself and you can get around quite smoothly.
Steering lock is limited to prevent any sudden movements and there were two engineers observing proceedings, ready to slam on the brakes and cut the engine should things go awry, but aside from those limitations there’s little stopping the GT-R/C being driven nearly as fast as its conventionally controlled counterpart.
Safely parked and shut down, the GT-R/C will now do a tour of primary and secondary schools in the UK to inspire the next generation to take up careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Who said videogames would never get you anywhere?