The Nissan GT-R Turns Virtual in Gran Turismo 5

Edmunds Inside Line

Maybe some don't get it fully yet, but one carmaker that does is Nissan. It had a slightly disguised GT-R running around the virtual GT5 test track for months before its unveiling at the Tokyo show. "Our relationship with Nissan has been good for many years," says Kazunori, lighting his third cigarette in 15 minutes. "We have known the development team for the car since the R34 GT-R [1997], so our history goes way back."

Clearly no coincidence, the R34 Skyline GT-R was, in many people's eyes, close to being the physical version of the car in the game. The way it looked and reacted on screen were eerily similar to the way the car drove on the road.

Well, for GT5, Kazunori and his team have gone one better with the new GT-R. Not only is the car in the game exactly the same as the real car down to the last pixel, the road car now has one main feature that has been designed by the Gran Turismo team. "We worked very closely with Nissan to design the onboard computer," Kazunori says. "The concepts, design and functionality were developed by the Nissan team using our ideas."