Audi E-Tron Vision Gran Turismo jumps from PlayStation into real life

If this car looks familiar, that's probably because you're a devotee of the Gran Turismo video game franchise. The Audi E-Tron Vision Gran Turismo was originally developed to live in Sony and Polyphony Digital's pixelated PlayStation 4 racing simulator, but now, it's emerged as a real-life car.

Developed from scratch in just 11 months, this all-electric E-Tron Vision Gran Turismo will make its first public appearance in Rome on April 14, where it will be used as a demonstrator car, with lucky Audi customers and guests getting rides ahead of the Italian city's upcoming Formula E race. 

The car, which will be piloted by former DTM-series drivers Rahel Frey and Le Mans champion Dindo Capello, will also make appearances at all subsequent European Formula E electric car races where it will support Audi's official series entries, the FE04. 

Audi E-tron Vision Gran Turismo is a PlayStation dream

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According to the German automaker, the E-Tron Vision Gran Turismo relies on three electric motors (two in the back, one in the front), each producing 268 horsepower, with total system output pegged at 815 hp. Weighing in at under 3,200 pounds (batteries are heavy), Audi says the E-Tron will accelerate to 62 mph in under 2.5 seconds. 

The full-time, all-wheel-drive concept car has been trimmed in white, black and red livery to evoke the company's groundbreaking Audi 90 IMSA GTO cars of the late Eighties.

This Audi E-Tron is the latest in a long series of futuristic racing car concepts that have been designed expressly for the mega-selling video game franchise, only to transition to real life. The Vision Gran Turismo series, brainchild of game founder, Kazunori Yamauchi, has also resulted in such memorable auto show stars as the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo and the Mercedes-Benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo, which featured in Marvel's Justice League movie.