Some cars you drive. Some cars you survive. This one started with the second kind: a Group C Nissan with close to a thousand horsepower, pointed at the Nürburgring, with nothing but a PlayStation 2 controller between it and the barriers.
The plan was simple enough. A couple of offline races to get the feel back, then a proper go at record laps in two very different machines: the Calsonic Impul Nissan R92CP from 1992, and Gran Turismo's own F1500T-A, a fictional tribute to the turbo Formula 1 cars of the mid-'80s.
The R92CP: Group C at full volume
First, a correction I made out loud in the video: I called it an R91 at the start. It's the R92CP, in the Calsonic Impul colours, which is my favourite team of that era.
The numbers on screen are the kind that make you sit up. A 3.5-litre twin-turbo V8 behind the driver, about 987 horsepower, and roughly 900 kg. That's not far off a kilogram per horsepower, in a car that also sounds like one of the best Group C cars ever made. If you've never heard one at full boost, the video is worth it for the noise alone.
That engine family has history. Nissan's 3.5-litre twin-turbo V8 sits behind the most famous qualifying lap in Le Mans history: Mark Blundell's pole in the 1990 R90CK, the R92CP's predecessor. A wastegate jammed shut, the boost went far past what the engineers intended, and Blundell went for the lap anyway with something like 1,100 horsepower. He took pole by six seconds with a 3:27.020. Running this car at full boost in the game, you start to understand what kind of nerve that took.
Boost, in kilograms
A small confession: I think about boost in kilograms, not psi. A European habit I'm never going to shake. One kilogram is roughly one bar, and the scale stays readable: one, two, three, four, sometimes five.
For a sense of how wild the '80s got, BMW's 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo F1 engine was said to make somewhere around 1,400 horsepower in qualifying trim, on about five and a half bar. From a four-banger. It still sounds made up.
Racing the legends
The first quick race was a warm-up, and it showed. Starting with only a little boost dialled in, the R92CP finished where it started, in 11th, though it did set the fastest lap of the bunch.
The second race was the fun one: three laps from 20th on a rolling start, against the kind of grid you only get in a game. Toyota's GR010 Hybrid, the Porsche 962, Mazda's 787B, Jaguar's XJR-9 with its V12. From 20th to 12th in no time, then a long fight forward.
The GR010 has a personal connection. I saw one in the middle of downtown Tokyo last year, around a race weekend at Fuji. Seeing it again on the Nürburgring, even in pixels, made me grin.
The Ring itself doesn't forgive anything. It's narrow, lined with barriers almost everywhere, and the corners keep coming. It's not only famous for its length; it's dangerous because there's so little room when you get it wrong.
A word about Montreal
Narrow, barrier-lined tracks always make me think of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Like Monaco, it's a city circuit that comes alive for one race weekend a year. As someone who lives in Montreal, I think it's a waste: a track that good should be used for racing far more often. That's my take, anyway.
The F1500T-A: an '80s F1 car that never existed
Then the main event. The F1500T-A is Gran Turismo's own creation, built to bring back the look and feel of mid-'80s Formula 1. The game lists it at 986 horsepower at 11,000 rpm, from a 1.5-litre turbo V6, in a car that weighs 540 kg.
On the track it felt like a Honda to me: big revs, big power, not a lot of torque. That's a fair instinct. Honda's F1 engines of that era were 1.5-litre turbo V6s too.
My best lap in this car before the video was a 5:19, on fresh soft tyres in the first three laps. For this run I made it harder on purpose: ten laps, tyre wear and fuel use switched on, and weather that changed every couple of laps, from thick cloud to humid sunshine and back.
It got messy. Four spins in the opening laps while I found the rhythm again, then a steadier middle stint where I pulled two and a half seconds clear of second place before another spin let the Red Bulls back in. The Red Bull X2019s turned out to be very quick, especially on the straights, and they ran nine laps without stopping.
I pitted for tyres and a partial fill of fuel, hoping the lighter car would help, and rejoined in fourth. The Red Bulls finally pitted on the last lap, which put me in front for a few minutes, until one came back on fresh tyres and went past like I was parked. The fastest lap of the race went to a Red Bull at 5:29.4, about half a second quicker than my best. P2 it was.
"I would love to see a car in real life going through this section, all the turns flat out at 320. But it seems like a fairy tale to me."
The controller problem
I'll be honest about the handicap. This was all done on a PlayStation 2 DualShock controller. That means no real trail braking, no feel through a wheel, and none of the fine control these cars are built for. Every lap time here comes with that asterisk.
A full racing setup is coming. Until then, the next step is simple: more rear downforce on the F1500T-A for the next race, and another go at that 5:19.
The R92CP's real-world story runs through the same era as Nissan's road-going legends. If it sent you down a Nissan rabbit hole, start with Nissan Skylines in Tokyo, or browse every car we cover by brand.
The full run is in the video above: both cars, all the spins, and the Group C soundtrack. Watch it with the volume up.
Photos: One Breath Pictures
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