Over a decade in the past, Sony’s online game studio, Polyphony Digital, invited automobile producers like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Honda to design racecar ideas for its best-selling recreation, Gran Turismo. The challenge commemorated the fifteenth anniversary of the online game, which has offered over 90 million copies since its launch.
BMW subsequently got here up with the Imaginative and prescient Gran Turismo (GT) coupe, that includes a complicated aerodynamic design, a 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged engine, and light-weight building with 50:50 weight distribution. Though the prototype primarily drew inspiration from the Bavarian automaker’s Nineteen Seventies touring automobiles, similar to the three.0 CSL and the 2002 Turbo, it additionally supplied a glimpse of options that might later seem in BMW’s present mannequin vary.
M2—Actual Life Imaginative and prescient GT
As an example, a few years after the Imaginative and prescient GT, BMW launched the F87 M2, which took visible cues from the previous, together with its compact silhouette, aggressive entrance fascia, kidney grilles, and headlights. Moreover, the M2 had related efficiency traits, with its light-weight and agile chassis and the N55 3.0-liter twin-turbo engine. In reality, the M2’s dynamics are additionally paying homage to the three.0 CSL and the 2002, in addition to different iconic BMWs such because the 1M Coupe and the E46 M3.
Evidently, just like the Imaginative and prescient GT, the M2 has been an fanatic’s favourite as effectively — it’s the highest-selling full-fledged M automobile and a recipient of assorted prestigious awards, together with Evo Journal Automobile of the 12 months, Motor Pattern Efficiency Automobile of the 12 months, and Auto Specific Efficiency Automobile of the 12 months.
Moreover, at $65,500, the M2 offers wonderful worth for cash, particularly when in comparison with the less-powerful Porsche 718 Cayman ($72,800) or the M3 (starting from $76,700 to $86,000) and the M4 ($80,100 to $89,400).
Imaginative and prescient GT—Light-weight Development
We all know that trendy security and technological options have made it virtually unimaginable for BMW and different OEMs to supply genuinely light-weight automobiles. Nonetheless, because the Imaginative and prescient GT illustrated, BMW remains to be using many modern supplies and methods to maintain issues below management as a lot as potential.
Living proof: the i8 and the i3, revealed across the similar time because the Imaginative and prescient GT, featured carbon-fiber building (a fabric usually seen in supercars from McLaren and Ferrari). In the meantime, the Neue Klasse electrical autos will use elements that weigh 50 p.c much less in comparison with CLAR autos. To not point out, special-edition M fashions, such because the M2 CS, the M4 CS, and the M4 GTS, make the most of numerous weight-saving measures to enhance efficiency, dealing with, and steadiness.
S58 – Certainly one of BMW’s Finest Engines
The Imaginative and prescient GT’s 3.0-liter twin-turbo engine generated 549 horsepower and 499 pound-feet of torque, and these are comparable specs to what we see within the S58-powered M3/M4. Certainly, the M4 CSL’s 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six produces 543 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque, with energy despatched completely to the rear wheels by way of an 8-speed computerized gearbox. The 0 to 60 miles per hour time is over 3 seconds, and the highest pace is 191 mph.
Notably, the M4 CSL holds the report for being the quickest BMW across the Nurburgring racetrack, with a lap time of seven minutes and 18 seconds. It’s fairly costly, although, at $140,000, and manufacturing has been restricted to simply 1,000 items.
Nonetheless, because it stands, different M3/M4 fashions additionally use the identical S58 engine, and their detuned variations pack loads of punch. For instance, the usual M4 delivers 473 horsepower and reaches 0 to 60 mph in simply 4.1 seconds, whereas the M4 Competitors xDrive generates 523 horsepower and accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds.
In the end, the S58 is likely one of the finest engines BMW has ever produced, and once more, the Imaginative and prescient GT offered an early (game-based) illustration of that. And all this simply goes on to indicate how BMW’s collaboration with Polyphony Digital was greater than only a advertising and marketing challenge.
