Gran Turismo Creator Takes It To The Nürburgring

You may not have heard of Kazunori Yamauchi, but you may be using his work for your everyday pleasure. He is the creator and producer of the hugely popular Gran Turismo racing game series. And here, you see him putting on his gloves and getting down to real-life racing at the Nürburgring, Germany. It was Yamauchi's third race, but his first in a racing car, and his first at the Nürburgring.

In the eighth round of the VLN series, a touring car race series held over 10 times annually, Yamauchi raced alongside motoring journalist Peter Lyon and racing driver Hideshi Matsuda, winning a Class win in SP8 (engine “close to production” class / Lexus IS F). The car used was of almost stock condition, apart from bare minimum safety equipment such as a roll cage.

Upon winning, Yamauchi said “I wanted to confirm just how effective the experience in the virtual world is, by competing in a race on the Nürburgring. And that includes not just the driving aspects, but on a wider range of things including the building of the car, communication, and much more. And of course, this will all be fed back into future renditions of Gran Turismo”.

While you might be inclined to think that playing Gran Turismo would improve your driving—we like to think so too— this experiment showed that virtual reality does not match up to reality. Watch Yamauchi in action below!