Another day, another virtual lap—only this time it’s the esteemed Gran Turismo creator, Kazunori Yamauchi, driving a race-modifed Lexus IS F in the 8th round of the VLN series at Nürburgring:

Back in August, Mr. Yamauchi and a team of two others (Motor Journalist Peter Lyon and racing driver Hideshi Matsuda—all three judges for the World Car of the Year Awards) competed and won the SP8 (close-to-production) class in this four-hour race. The IS-F was the same car that was used at this year’s 24 hour Nürburgring race.

What’s even more impressive is that this was Mr. Yamauchi’s first international race and his first racing car—though from the sounds of it, the 1000 virtual Gran Turismo laps certainly helped:

On the reason for competing in the event, Mr. Yamauchi stated that “I wanted to confirm just how effective the experience in the virtual world is, by competing in a race on the Nurburgring. And that includes not just the driving aspects, but on a wider range of things including the building of the car, communication, and much more. And of course, this will all be fed back into future renditions of Gran Turismo.”

Very interesting story, the official Gran Turismo site has the all the details along with some photos, including this shot of the car exterior:

Lexus IS-F Gran Turismo

[Source: Gran Turismo Website]

Filed under: Lexus IS-F: 1st Generation Racing F-Sport Tech Japan Videos