The video game industry bills more than the musical and the cinematographic, together. And this has been the case for about a decade now. Digital evolution has brought highly realistic domestic simulators and also professional-style virtual competitions, which are even held at the same time as the traditional ones on the circuits.
But this new universe is constantly growing. And Ford is the latest company to expand it. At the Gamergy fair, which is held this weekend at the Ifema venue in Madrid (15 euros, from 4 to 9 p.m.), it presented its P1 machine, which is a full-scale car that works as a high-power simulator.
The car is combined with a huge high-resolution screen (10 x 4 meters) and with two cutting-edge computers from the company HP, Ford’s partner in the development of the P1, which adds high doses of realism.
The first is the HP Reverb G2 virtual reality glasses, which “provide a very natural peripheral vision”, in the words of Melchor Sanz, head of technology at the firm, and the second is the electronic control brain, which is called HP Workstation Z4 and stands out for its speed of processing.
The P1 machine also has three 4K cameras for the steering wheel, the pedals, and the player’s face, which will allow each game played by each player during the Gamergy fair to be reproduced in streaming.
The Ford P1 is designed by Amko Leenarts, Ford of Europe Design Director, and also by the gaming community, as reported by Leenarts himself in the press release. And it has a spectacular image, which reinterprets the style of various racing cars with futuristic airs.
The designer explains it this way: “The P1 is the ultimate simulation machine, combining patterns from F1 cars and Le Mans GTs with a very futuristic and aerodynamic styling .” And, as the players asked, “with two seats instead of one,” Amko abounds.
Ford pursues the P1 to achieve a double objective. On the one hand, to function as the striking simulator that it is, taking it as a claim to fairs and similar events, and on the other, to get your digital avatar to be integrated into some of the most popular simulation titles of the moment, such as the Gran Turismo on Playstation and Forza Motorsport on Xbox, among others.
The brand has not yet confirmed what it will be. “It is currently being negotiated,” says Antonio Chicote, Ford Spain’s press officer. Finally, there is no mechanical or performance data for the P1, but it is speculated that it has the V6 Biturbo engine of the Ford GT, plus an electrical module that could raise the power from the 650 hp of the aforementioned real model to the 800 hp of the P1 digital.
