Ford: Team Fordzilla P1 virtual car makes its real-world debut

A few months ago we had the chance to see the first virtual racing game machine designed in collaboration between the players themselves and the well-known car brand. Ford. The journey of the racing car made by Team Fordzilla P1 it started a few months ago, specifically in March of this year, when players were asked to rate the car's characteristics on Twitter, including the seating configuration, the engine position and the definition of the cockpit. They have been more than 250.000 users who actively participated in the surveys and today Ford's Team Fordzilla esports team took the project forward, revealing a full scale model of his extreme racing car of the Fordzilla P1 Team.

While seeing real cars ported into video games is a pretty common thing, this is the first time ever that an automobile manufacturer has created a virtual car, which has not yet been included in a game, with a real physical model. The innovative racing car from Team Fordzilla P1 features a designer-designed exterior Arturo Ariño and an interior that was the vision of Robert Engelmann, both designers of the famous blue oval company, Ford. The race car is built around the monocoque structure partially covered by a large, hyper-transparent jet fighter-style canopy, which protects the driver and co-driver. The transparent roof not only blurs the boundaries between the exterior and interior, but also emphasizes the unique F1-like driving position.

The one made by Team Fordzilla P1 is the first Ford car ever built digitally without any face-to-face interaction throughout the process. Due to the current pandemic, it was designed by a team that had never met, working remotely, deployed in five different countries and built in just seven weeks - less than half the time it would normally take. Co-created by players for players, the hypercar features some special touches that speak to the sim-racing community. There is a message in front of the co-pilot's seat AFK (Away From Keyboard), a playful reminder that the occupants of that seat are away from the keyboard. The #levelup lettering recognizes that racing players and drivers aim to improve themselves every time they play or compete, while the #liftoff lettering is a nod to this racing machine taking off from a virtual world and transitioning to the real one. On the front of the car is the most important message; a reminder GLHF (Good luck have fun) for every gamer and racing driver to really have fun and enjoy the ride.