AMG Vision Gran Turismo Tested on Gran Turismo's Nurburgring

Obviously, we're not that insane and we didn't engage in such an odd behavior until after we actually played the game on our PS 3 yesterday.

While the following is not a game review but sort of a (virtual) car review, you might want to switch off your common sense meter and just play along.

You see, Mercedes-Benz not only created a virtual concept car for a racing game but they also made the physics and kinematics like they would on a real car, on top of the fact that the AMG Vision Gran Turismo was also built as a 1:1 scale model that is... remote controlled.

The virtual model has tires that respond to friction and heat, a realistic suspension system, brakes, aerodynamics and last, but certainly not least, a glorious twin-turbocharged V8 engine that sounds like the end of the world.

At least this is how we imagine it sounds, because the Gran Turismo franchise doesn't seem to have corrected one of its biggest flaws – the fact that most engines sound like a combination between a fruit mixer and a washing machine at full speed.

Fortunately, that's not exactly the case for the Mercedes-Benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo, even though it could have sounded a little bit better if you ask us.

As we were saying, this virtual concept car is powered by a virtual version of a real engine, and what better engine for a futuristic AMG than a twin-turbocharged V8 with close to 600 hp?

In fact, the V8 used by the model is the M157 from the very real E 63 AMG S-Model and the CLS 63 AMG S-Model.

This means that no less than 585 hp (577 bhp) and 800 Nm (590 lb ft) of torque are housed under that gorgeous and illegally-long hood, ready to be unleashed on unsuspecting pavement by a heavy right foot/twitchy trigger finger.

With a virtual body that weighs a virtual 1385 kilograms (3053 pounds), the impressive figures above translate into even more impressive... figures, such as 2.4 kilograms per horsepower – or almost the same as a Bugatti Veyron.

Thanks to the front midship positioning of the engine, the model's weight distribution is of 46 percent at the front and 54 percent at the rear, to somewhat counteract the natural tendency of something as powerful to slide its tail like a rattle snake.

Unfortunately, in real life – in the GT6 game, actually – that natural tendency is only mildly counteracted, as we found out after taking the AMG Vision Gran Turismo for a spin on the most famous racing track on the planet.

The 20,832 meters of the Nurburgring Nordschleife are usually the epitome of what separates the boys from the men, with F1 legend Jackie Steward nicknaming it “The Green Hell” for good reasons.

Until not so long ago, doing a hot lap of the German circuit in under eight minutes was considered quite the bee's knees, separating sports cars from downright supercars, so that was the time requirement we imposed on ourselves after jumping behind the Playstation Dualshock 3 wireless controller.

Fortunately, despite the car's plan to jump into the nearby Nurburg Castle woods at pretty much every one of the 154 bends of the circuit, we managed a somewhat respectable time of 7:40:608 minutes, or about the same as the now old SLR McLaren driven by Klaus Ludwig.

Considering that we left the track a couple of times and that we were already drenched in cold sweat by the time we were passing Döttinger Höhe, we think that in the hands of a Gran Turismo professional (they do exist) the car will most likely best the SLS AMG Black Series time.

We are now waiting for the Christmas holidays to go all anti-social and become friends with pizza and dark lit rooms in order to help us post a sub-seven minute time with a properly-tuned AMG Vision Gran Turismo, although we have a feeling that some of you guys have probably already beaten our current time.