Nissan’s 2020 GT concept comes to life

NISSAN has taken the next step towards a possible production future for its 2020 Vision Gran Turismo concept with the presentation of a full-scale model at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week.

The Japanese manufacturer has again raised the question about the concept’s production potential as the next-generation GT-R supercar, offering this in a press release ahead of the British motoring extravaganza: “So will a production version be driven up the Goodwood hill in 2020? That remains to be seen … but a great deal can happen in the near future.

“In the meantime, enthusiasts can enjoy its dramatic looks and spectacular virtual performance from the comfort of their armchair.” As GoAuto has reported, Nissan announced earlier this month that it was adding the concept to the Gran Turismo 6 PlayStation 3 game.

It was created by a team at the company’s European design centre in London, with the brief being to “create the sportscar of their dreams”.

There was, however, clearly much more to the story, with the car-maker also drawing heavily on the resources of its advanced engineering team in Atsugi, Japan, for development of the vehicle.

It also described the concept as “a vision of what a high-performance Nissan could look like in the future” and said that “as a specialist in automotive design in three dimensions, Nissan believes that the real world is ready for the Nissan 2020 Vision Gran Turismo”.

The vehicle prepared for Goodwood will be on static display only, with Nissan keen to point out that the first people to drive it will be gamers when the car becomes available to download in July.

Nissan Design Europe vice-president Koji Nagano said that people might not be able to own a real version of the car, but the game allows anybody to steer it.

“This is in line with the Nissan philosophy,” Mr Nagano said.

“In reality, not everyone would be able to own a car like the Nissan Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo, but through Gran Turismo anyone can drive it and experience Nissan’s promise of delivering innovation that excites.” The motoring world is now waiting for a fully working prototype to emerge.