Photo: Chris Holstrom Concepts/Chris Shelton
In the world of racing games, Gran Turismo is at the top of the list. Polyphony Digital’s PlayStation exclusive has been around since 1997, selling around 80 million copies since. And one of the biggest reasons behind the success are the cars featured.
On the one hand, there is the usual complement of production cars, coming from established carmakers. But that’s what most other serious racing games have too, so Gran Turismo needed something to stand out from the crowd.
That something is called the SEMA Gran Turismo Awards. First held in 2003, the event is the reason why you can race real-life custom builds in the game: things like the Art Morrison Corvette '60, or the Stielow Engineering Red Devil, or the 1967 Chevy Nova by Chris Holstrom Concepts.
We talked about one of Holstrom’s builds earlier this week. It was a 1968 Camaro that sold for $110,000 at a recently concluded auction, and while looking into that, we stumbled upon this here Nova. Since November is autoevolution’s Chevrolet Month, we couldn’t resist the temptation to cover it too a bit.
The car was selected to be part of Gran Turismo in 2013 (it first appeared in Gran Turismo Sport, introduced as part of Update 1.10.), probably because it is something along the lines of an ultimate sleeper. As you can see (the photos in the gallery are of the real thing, not the digital racer in Gran Turismo), the body of the car is mostly stock, as with the exception of a hand-made cowl vent, a small air dam below the bumper, and a carbon fiber hood, not much has changed.
Not the same can be said about the interior though. There, with the exception of the dash, which was kept stock, everything else is shiny and screams brand new.
When lifting the hood though an entirely different story unfolds. There lies an LS9 engine linked to a Tremec T-56 transmission. From the crate, the engine develops 638 horsepower and 604 lb-ft of torque, but the shop behind the build increased the output by an extra 100 hp.
We are not sure what happened with the real life car since it was chosen to be a star in the PS game. So far we didn’t stumble upon it on any sales and auctions websites, so chances are whoever owns it is still having a lot of fun with it. In the real live, not like the rest of us, virtually.
That something is called the SEMA Gran Turismo Awards. First held in 2003, the event is the reason why you can race real-life custom builds in the game: things like the Art Morrison Corvette '60, or the Stielow Engineering Red Devil, or the 1967 Chevy Nova by Chris Holstrom Concepts.
We talked about one of Holstrom’s builds earlier this week. It was a 1968 Camaro that sold for $110,000 at a recently concluded auction, and while looking into that, we stumbled upon this here Nova. Since November is autoevolution’s Chevrolet Month, we couldn’t resist the temptation to cover it too a bit.
The car was selected to be part of Gran Turismo in 2013 (it first appeared in Gran Turismo Sport, introduced as part of Update 1.10.), probably because it is something along the lines of an ultimate sleeper. As you can see (the photos in the gallery are of the real thing, not the digital racer in Gran Turismo), the body of the car is mostly stock, as with the exception of a hand-made cowl vent, a small air dam below the bumper, and a carbon fiber hood, not much has changed.
Not the same can be said about the interior though. There, with the exception of the dash, which was kept stock, everything else is shiny and screams brand new.
When lifting the hood though an entirely different story unfolds. There lies an LS9 engine linked to a Tremec T-56 transmission. From the crate, the engine develops 638 horsepower and 604 lb-ft of torque, but the shop behind the build increased the output by an extra 100 hp.
We are not sure what happened with the real life car since it was chosen to be a star in the PS game. So far we didn’t stumble upon it on any sales and auctions websites, so chances are whoever owns it is still having a lot of fun with it. In the real live, not like the rest of us, virtually.
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