GTbyCitroen Tours London - Pictures!

Fantasy-turned-carbonfibre supercar out on the town, as execs mull production plans

By Chris-R / Wednesday, 24 June 2009 / Loading comments

Having been taken aback by the ‘real-world’ interest in its supercar concept designed for the Playstation Gran Turismo game, Citroen is now milking the GTbyCITROEN for every available column inch.

We reckon this one is real...

Suits us though, as we get to fill some space with these cool pictures of the GTbyC cruising the mean streets of London on a live recreation of part of the Gran Turismo London street circuit that’s a virtual recreation of the real thing... er, you know!

‘Taking in some of the Capital's most famous landmarks, the virtual-turned-reality supercar swapped pixels for Piccadilly as it swept through the world famous circus, toured Regent Street, rounded Trafalgar Square and cruised down the Mall past Buckingham Palace,’ gushes the Citroen press release, leaving us to work out which of the associated pictures are real and which are digital renderings from the game.

Citroen is so excited at the prospect of having a supercar in its line-up that company execs are presently huddled in spirited discussions about whether to build a full production version for sale. One possible option under discussion is for Citroen Sport (the in-house rally car builder based at Versailles) to build a few dozen examples, possibly using a bought-in V8 from Detroit, or perhaps with a 5.5-litre V12 diesel related to the engine that powered the Peugeot 908Hdi to its recent Le Mans victory. According to our source at Citroen a decision will be taken 'in weeks or months', but we shouldn't expect to see a full production version until 2011/12 at the earliest.

Make your own mind up about the rest!

In its current concept car form, the Citroen supercar measures nearly five metres long (4.96m) and is just over a metre high (1.09m). The design features wide air intakes, rear air-diffuser, horizontal LED headlamps, gull wing doors and diamond-effect 21inch aluminium wheels. Inside the cabin offers a 'refined racing experience' with copper, steel and black leather finishes combined with hi-tech racing controls. The vehicle rolls on the PSA group's carbon monocoque designed specifically for concepts, and it's not clear whether this could be developed to production spec, or whether Citroen Sport would start from scratch. With its 580bhp (unspecified) Detroit V8, the running concept pictured here has been driven up to at least 70/80mph by journalists - but that's all we know.