SRT Tomahawk Vision Gran Turismo hits the (virtual) track
Sleek hybrid racer looks 20 years into the future
American brand SRT has become the latest to reveal a Vision Gran Turismo concept – high-tech, futuristic racing vehicles exclusively available in Gran Turismo 6 on the Playstation 3.
Vision Gran Turismo is a long-running project between makers of the videogame series and automotive manufacturers to design cars that reflect their brand, while also promoting future technologies and styling trends.
SRT’s offering, the Tomahawk Vision Gran Turismo, is the company’s take on an SRT product 20 years in the future, and the result of an internal competition within the entire Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) US design community.
The concept is a single-seater sports car which its designer, Paul Hoste, says is inspired by concept art and the voluptuous curves of iconic Dodge performance vehicles.
It’s a familiar trope to describe a car that looks as if it’s moving when standing still, but that’s exactly the idea behind the Tomahawk. The bodywork is low and flowing, while the central cockpit barely clears the sides of the car. While the front and sides feature fluid lines, the rear is much more aggressive – a quintet of tailpipes sits centrally above a deep diffuser.
Like the Alpine Vision GT, particular attention was paid to this rear view – as it’s the angle many gamers will view when playing in the typical third-person racing view.
Technology has played a part in several Vision GT concepts so far, and the Tomahawk is no different. The cockpit and engine cover are made from ultra-light, transparent graphene panels, while instruments are projected onto a digital overlay on the windscreen.
Active panels in the bodywork constantly move to meet the cooling demands of the V10 power unit – a nod to the iconic SRT and Dodge Viper mills – as well as adjusting aerodynamic downforce across the car. That V10, combined with forward-looking pneumatically-driven front wheels, results in a 2590bhp output.
In addition to the cockpit design, light weight is also apparent in the car’s nanofibre and graphene 752kg mass – barely more than a modern Grand Prix car. The demands of the huge power, light chassis and downforce mean the driver would actually wear a G-suit.
Designer Hoste has even envisioned three different trim levels, from an ‘entry-level’ S with 792bhp and a slightly heavier kerbweight, through a racing GTS-R, to the maximum-output experimental ‘version X’. Top speed on the latter is 404mph.
The car will be available from the summer, by completing the appropriate online challenges at different difficulty levels in GT6.
