Let’s be honest shall we, we’ve all, at one time or another, wondered what a race car with no rulebook to reign it back would perform like. Luckily for us, renowned Formula One aerodynamicist Adrian Newey and the rest of the Red Bull Racing head honchos daydream too.
The end result would be the Red Bull X1, the brainchild of Newey, and being made possible in a virtual world courtesy of the people responsible for Gran Turismo 5, Polyphony. Of course, Red Bull Racing’s young driving talent, Sebastian Vettel, also contributed to the virtual creation of the X1.
It does bear a rather uncanny resemblance to the Caparo T1, especially from up front, but the more you look at it, the more it appears to be the love child of a Formula One car and LMP1-spec racer.
Now keep in mind that the car still does only exist in the virtual world of your PlayStation 3, so the power comes from a gas turbine sending 1,483hp and 714.5Nm of torque through a CVT to the rear wheels. With figures like that entering the equation, the resultant top speed has been simulated to 400.7km/h.
Once designing was completed, Vettel himself jumped behind a Logitech G25 and lapped Suzuka in a blistering 1:11:540. If you need a layman’s example to line it up against, Vettel ‘s fastest time in his 2009 F1 car was 1:30:833.
Now if only the release of Gran Turismo 5 would be as quick as the X1.
Source: Autoblog
