A real life unveiling for a car that'll only ever be seen in the virtual world of Gran Turismo 6? Such is the bizarre gestation of the Aston Martin DP-100 being unveiled today at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, joining similar projects by
Volkswagen
Mercedes AMG
Toyota
BMW
Definitely not a chip off the old DB9 block
If you've seen those cars you'll know the form; the designers and engineers get free rein to create the kind of supercar they could only build in a world of limitless budgets and unburdened by tiresome things like crash regulations or other requirements that inevitably tone down their original concepts. They have to be vaguely realistic though - you can't have it running on nuclear reactors and firing frickin' lasers out of the front. Though don't bet against the latter if Audi have a go...
Anyway, keeping things vaguely realistic the DP-100 (DP equating to Design Project) has an 800hp twin-turbo V12 engine. Well, it doesn't really because it doesn't exist but let's maintain the illusion. As Aston Martin is keen to point out though, wild as it is the DP-100 has to have a "a high degree of engineering integrity" and has been developed using the same processes as a 'real' car. So from sketch pad to 3D modelling followed by what it describes as "full realisation in a virtual world." Meaning the suspension system designed for the car 'works' and were they ever given a blank cheque to build it you hope they actually could. And, of course, from a design perspective it gives Aston Martin a chance to try out some new styling language.
You can see the DP-100 drive the hill ... in GT6
"As with the CC100 Speedster Concept, many of the design cues visible in DP-100, such as the light blade rear lamps, could also feed through into future sports cars that we'll launch in the offline world," says Design Director Marek Reichman, "so the importance of this project should not be underestimated."
So although 'unveiled' here at Goodwood we won't be seeing it go up the hill. At least, not beyond the screens of the PlayStation pods and virtual recreation of the Goodwood hill within GT6. Still, as a download (available from this month) it should at least be more attainable than any real one they might actually build.
