In late 2020, Ford’s Team Fordzilla esports team unveiled a full-scale model of the P1 race car that was designed in collaboration with gamers. Now, it’s giving people the chance to get behind the wheel and take to the virtual track by turning it into the ultimate racing simulator.
The P1 racer – complete with vivid new gaming-inspired livery – is powered by an HP Z4 workstation with players controlling the game via an in-built gaming steering wheel and pedals. Upgraded lighting, both front and back, pulses gently like the breath of a sleeping person when the P1 is waiting for the next race. They then come alive during race time as the rear lights synchronise with braking moments during gameplay to connect viewers outside with the action.
Aural stimulation is also catered for, with a built-in audio system channelling a realistic, bespoke sound design to the driver to take the racing simulator experience to a completely new level.
Following the success of the P1 project, Team Fordzilla is now also launching a second series as it looks to work with gamers and Ford’s designers once again to create a new Supervan. Ford has a tradition of building race-inspired Supervans based on its Transit models, with the first appearing 50 years ago in 1971. The new Supervan Vision Concept, will imagine what an extreme performance model of future Transit vans may look like as it takes the Supervan story into a new dimension.
The project will follow a similar format to the P1 racer, with gamers asked to vote on the different elements of the design throughout the process. This will be kicked-off during Team Fordzilla’s live show at gamescom 2021, with viewers polled whether they want a track-focused racer or an off-road rally van.
This all comes as Ford’s involvement and dedication to gaming is highlighted by the announcement that a Ford Bronco model – the 2021 Ford Bronco Badlands – will be one of two vehicles to feature on the cover of the new Forza Horizon 5 game. The Forza franchise by Xbox Game Studios is one of the most popular for racing fans globally, and in 2016 Ford of Europe went to gamescom with Forza and set a new Guinness World Records title for “Longest video marathon on a racing game” using Forza Motorsport 6.
The gamescom 2021 event started on Wednesday 25th August and ended on Friday 27th August. You can still catch the Team Fordzilla show by visiting twitch.tv/teamfordzilla, and it was livestreamed on Twitter.com/teamfordzilla too. Viewers were also given the chance to win a Mustang Mach-E GT during the show .
P1 racing simulator
The simulator runs on a Z4 Workstation Intel Xeon W2295 3.00Ghz with 18 cores and the graphic card Nvidia RTX A6000 48GB. The Z4 is HP’s best-selling performance workstation and is ideal for the performance demands of the simulator. It is also compatible with the HP Reverb G2 VR Headset allowing an even more immersive ‘virtual’ experience in the future.
Team Fordzilla
Team Fordzilla launched at gamescom in 2019, going on to find teams of drivers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK, with a team captain selected for each. As well as competing in regional and European sim-racing championships, Team Fordzilla also hosted its first Fordzilla Cup competition in 2020.
Project P1 Concept
Revealed at gamescom 2020 was the original Team Fordzilla P1 race car, which was the first virtual racer to be designed in collaboration with gamers and an automaker’s designers. If that wasn’t unique enough, the team revealed a full-scale, real-world model of the vehicle just three months later.
