Team Fordzilla P1 is the Ultimate Virtual Car
The Team Fordzilla P1 is what you get when gamers are asked to build a racing car. An absolutely bonkers, virtual-for-now concept that, if it were real, would probably smoke anything with four wheels on a race track. Ford will make a real-life scale model before the end of 2020, but unfortunately, it won’t be the type you can actually drive. Shame.
Why was this made, you might ask? According to the American automaker, it’s an “exploration of the parallels between the virtual and real worlds,” which sounds a lot like the start of a dystopian science fiction story to us.
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Photo: Ford
With virtual reality devices getting better by the day, how close are we to getting to an eXistenZ scenario in which it becomes harder and harder to identify what’s real? You’ll just be cruising along in your Team Fordzilla P1, slamming the throttle with abandon because it’s not real, only to crash and realize that you were actually back in real life and couldn’t tell the difference. But of course, when Ford says “exploration of the parallels,” what it actually means is “exploring digital designs we could apply to reality.”
Digressions aside, the Team Fordzilla P1 is actually pretty cool. Developed under the codename “Project P1,” it was created with input from fans on Twitter at various stages of the design. Gamers were able to select the seating position, drivetrain, and cockpit style before Ford designers got to work on their interpretation of what their audience wanted.
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There were multiple designs made, and the one you see now was the winner of a final poll with a whopping 83.8 percent of the votes. Nearly a quarter of a million fans participated.
Inspired by the Ford GT, the P1 was designed by Arturo Ariño, a Ford exterior designer (who would believe it?). The car is supposedly able to morph itself, its wheelbase becoming longer for high-speed stability on tracks like Le Mans, and shorter for extra maneuverability on slow, narrow tracks like Monaco. So yes, definitely sci-fi territory, but Ford has hinted you’ll be able to drive it in an upcoming racing video game in 2021.
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As for “Team Fordzilla,” that’s just the name of Ford’s new esports team. It was founded during last year’s gamescom and features 40 drivers from teams across France, Germany, Spain, the U.K., and Italy, who compete in national events using the iRacing simulator. The P1 was unveiled on the anniversary of Team Fordzilla’s founding, coinciding with the final of the inaugural Fordzilla Cup.
“We showed again at gamescom this year that we’re serious about gaming, but what was really great is the continuing support we’re receiving from that gaming community,” said Team Fordzilla’s Emmanuel Lubrani. “This really pushes us to keep innovating with projects like the Team Fordzilla P1 concept.”
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.