Nissan Rolls Out Life-Sized, Remote Control GT-R to Celebrate Release of Gran Turismo Sport
To celebrate the upcoming release of the video game Gran Turismo Sport, and to mark 20 years of Nissan involvement in the Gran Turismo gaming series, Nissan have created a one-off project car based on the GT-R that has been extensively modified to be driven entirely by a DualShock 4 Play Station 4 controller. The car, called the GT-R/C, was put through its paces by NISMO athlete and GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough around Silverstone’s National Circuit. Mardenborough was able to control the car from the cockpit of a helicopter and achieved a best lap time of 1:17:47 averaging 122 km/h and reaching a top speed of 211 km/h. The GT-R/C is fitted with four robots that operate the steering, transmission, brakes and throttle while six computers mounted in the rear of the car update the controls at up to 100 times a second. The completely unmodified DualShock 4 controller connects to a micro-computer that interprets the joystick and button signals and transmits them to the GT-R/C’s onboard systems with a range of up to one kilometer. In order to help Mardenborough judge the vehicle’s speed a Racelogic VBOX Motorsport sensor was installed to relay speed data to a LCD display in the helicopter cockpit. Additionally, the GT-R/C has also been fitted with two independent safety systems operationg on different radio frequencies which allows two additional operators to apply full braking in the event of the main operator losing control. The car will be used in a tour of schools in the UK while the Gran Turismo Sport video game goes on sale October 17th in North America.
