The Collaborative Development Of The Nissan Gt-r Multifunction Meter

[typevu]

Last year's news but pretty neat just stumbled across it. Polophony Digital creators of Gran Turismo for Playstation created the multifunction meter in the R35 GTR.

http://www.gran-turismo.com/en/news/d1382.html

The press preview for the “40th Tokyo Motor Show 2007” was held on Wednesday, October 24th at Makuhari Messe in Chiba prefecture, and the press briefing for “Gran Turismo 5 Prologue” was held in the same venue.

This is a summary of the talk session that was held in the first half of the briefing regarding the collaboration with the new model Nissan GT-R.

“Gran Turismo” (GT) series producer Kazunori Yamauchi took the podium first. The unveiling event for the new model GT-R that had been held within “Gran Turismo 5 Prologue” Free Downloadable Demo at 2:30 pm earlier in the day was then reenacted at the briefing.

The press that had gathered for the briefing had only just gotten a glimpse of the form of the new model GT-R that had been presented in the exhibition center a few minutes earlier, and they spontaneously burst into applause when the GT-R was unveiled on the screen.

The chief developer of the new model GT-R, Mr. Kazutoshi Mizuno from Nissan Motors, and marketing director Yoshimitsu Kaji appeared next. A talk session between them and Mr. Yamauchi then started.

Mr. Yamauchi described his experience of being brought in as “a member of the new model GT-R development team”, and introduced how the opportunity to test-drive the new model GT-R had been made available in various locations around the world for over a year.

Mr. Yamauchi said “I don't think there is another car that is this easy to drive. The four wheels move perfectly free and unrestricted”. Mr. Mizuno said “Even if you are rocketing along the no-speed limit sections of the German Autobahn (high-speed road), it is still possible to hold a conversation within the cabin. Driving along snowy roads is also possible. Nissan have created this kind of multi-purpose car. This is a car where the winning race driver can walk to the winner's podium without appearing tired at all, even after having experienced what is intrinsically the most unrelenting form of driving. This is because a good car does not wear out the driver”.

Mr. Kaji said that the reason for the collaboration with “GT” was “Because this is a medium that allows a connection between the real and the virtual. The idea of unveiling a car in software at the same time as it is unveiled at the actual motor show venue has never been done before. I tried driving the new model GT-R in ‘GT’, and was surprised at how it felt exactly like ‘the sensation of driving the GT-R in real life’. The amazing thing about this feeling is not just the physical sensation, but also the feeling of having already driven on Suzuka Circuit. It is so realistic that when staff at Nissan Motors were shown a ‘GT’ replay video, they mistook it for the real thing”.

Mr. Yamauchi replied “I felt that because the GT-R is a national treasure of Japan, we had to recreate it with total realism. From the external form to the texture of the surface coatings, we asked Mr. Hasegawa (Nissan Motors designer in charge of designing the new model GT-R) to check it over and over again. Of course, since this a car with the ability to change the history of Japanese sports cars, we obsessed over recreating the handling”.

Collaboration with Nissan Motors has also been achieved in the past with events such as the “Skyline 50th Anniversary Event” and the “Skyline Coupe”. It is no longer a rarity for real-life cars to be recreated in “GT” and made available to the world, and this trend is continuing.

However, the collaboration with GT-R this time has been different than previous collaboration efforts, and the things that were attempted for the first time were presented here.

This time, technology and designs jointly developed for “GT” have been incorporated into the new model GT-R.

The developers of “GT”, Polyphony Digital, were given the responsibility of planning and designing the monitor called the “multifunction meter” on the new model GT-R. Mr. Mizuno declared “We believe that this is the world's first device that allows the car to tell the driver about the condition of the car”.

He said “Even though we work in completely different industries, once Mr. Yamauchi and myself began working together we realized that the basics of how we proceeded with our work was the same. That is, creating a model in our head first before beginning to create the actual object. My first impression was that I had met someone who does things the same way”.

During the development of the vehicle, construction proceeded at such an exceptional speed that “Mr. Mizuno and myself kept on advancing. That sense of speed was enjoyable” (Yamauchi).

Finally, Mr. Mizuno said “I want this multifunction meter to be further developed. In the past, ‘GT’ has reflected the technology from real cars. For the first time, the technology from ‘GT’ has now been fitted to a real car. This is the starting point for even further advancement”. Mr. Kaji said “Although the high performance of the GT-R has been the focus of attention, the car is actually packed with many new concepts. I want these ideas to be further developed. The actual GT-R has only just had the mask removed. The Free Downloadable Demo of ‘Gran Turismo 5 Prologue’ has also only just been released. In fact, nothing has actually started yet. The best is yet to come”.

Mr. Yamauchi wrapped up by saying “This year, ‘GT’ is celebrating its 10th year. 10 years ago, we could only look at the GT-R from afar and dream ‘I want to drive that car someday’, and we poured those feelings into ‘GT’. Now 10 years have passed, and we have been able to be involved in part of the development of the GT-R, and witness the unveiling. This is all deeply moving. In the future, I want to work even harder to move closer to the world of cars”.

Edited January 31, 2008 by vietorious

[nice 28]

haha thats mad as.

and gosh that r35 interior is growing on me. looks great.

[sh@un]

can you set one of the meter functions to indicate when the motor needs the spun big-end bearings replaced?

oh, that's right- this engine won't pull such tricks

[giant]

engine oil temp is getting up in the that readout, hope it's not a sign of things (not exactly hot in japan)

[N1GTR]

engine oil temp is getting up in the that readout, hope it's not a sign of things (not exactly hot in japan)

Well, its got an oil cooler from factory?! Maybe that was just a number they guessed for display purposes

[Duncan]

ahh cmon russ, 105 is just warming up. 135 is when its getting a bit toasty

[Beer Baron]

for sure. 105 wouldn't even cook a sanga properly. and looking at the gauge it goes orange (whatever that means? maybe it means push harder) at 130 and only goes red zone at 150. nasty. you could deep fry some nice chips in it once it hits 150 though...

[Duncan]

yeah I love the fact that it suggests 150 is hot but still OK. Needs a real big idiot light to go off before then!