German automaker Volkswagen has signed Polyphony Digital, creators of the famed Gran Turismo racing game series, to create a driving simulation for its professional drivers. Specifically, Volkswagen hopes to improve its team's performance in this year's "GTI Club" racing series by having the drivers train utilizing the simulation. More importantly perhaps, developing the simulation is said to be much more cost effective than actual on-location testing.
According to Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi, the Volkswagen simulation will run on the PlayStation 2 but won't be offered for sale to the general public. Speaking about the project today, Yamauchi-san revealed, "The accuracy of the simulation as it related to realistic track times has gone up significantly. Players need significant skill and practice in order to improve. The Volkswagen training simulation also represents aspects of our research currently underway for the development of Gran Turismo 4. Since the Volkswagen project is strictly a simulation only the steering wheel peripheral is used." Volkswagen reportedly plans to display the training simulation to the public at upcoming GTI Club circuit races.
http://forums.xengamers.com/showthread.php?s=d2e3655bdb357c064a5680d0b3ba0858&threadid=76728
Sounds like the GT4 physics will kick some major asses.
Fredi