Porsche’s Fabian Schmölz walks CDN through the VisionGT Race Car

Nearly two-and-a-half years after it was announced at the last IAA in Frankfurt, Porsche’s first-ever virtual racecar has finally debuted in PlayStation’s Gran Turismo 7 racing game.

In collaboration with Polyphony Digital, a Tokyo-based spinoff of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Porsche designed a sleek, low-slung racer with massive wheel arches, futuristic face and a rearward-opening roof inspired by fighter jets. Car Design News spoke with exterior designer Fabian Schmölz who worked on the VisionGT — and whose credits also include the 718 GT4 and Spyder, the 992 GT3 RS, Macan 3, and the Renndienst Concept.

Laura Burstein: Porsche has featured production cars before in Gran Turismo, but this is your first car designed exclusively for the video game. What was the design brief?

Fabian Schmölz: For the brief we had total freedom. We could build up the whole car from scratch, which is really special. Usually, you start with a brief like, “What is the next Panamera of the next 911?” This time it was like, “What would you see our brand in the gaming universe in the future?” These were totally new boundaries for us, so it was a question on how far to go and to push the form language of our brand. This also creates a bridge between our fan base and fans of virtual gaming – this is something I’m specifically proud of.

LB: The car is unlike anything we’ve seen before, yet it’s still recognizable as a Porsche. How did you achieve this?

FS: There are certain elements in our brand, little rules which inform the Porsche design DNA. This is really the width-to-height ratio; this car has the center of gravity super low — and this also makes sure you have the most fun going around corners. I’m really proud of the proportion. It’s a really a compact car and follows our design philosophy in this way. Also, in view of this being an electric car, you try to reduce volumes and go to the most minimum package possible.

I wanted to achieve a car for the brand which follows models like the 550 Spyder and 907, which have a strong aerodynamic theme, and mix those proportions with those themes and bring it to a modern electric way. You have those round plan shapes that’s the classic older-day Porsche form language, contrasted with this sharp aerodynamic theme in the body side and also in the rear, the air pressure of the wheelhouse release. We also brought the design DNA of the rear light bar of the 992 into the active aerodynamic rear wing. So, this is a really strong design theme, and also on a functional level.

LB: Walk us through the other key design elements.

FS: The focus point in the front is the low headlight graphic. The idea was if you look at our heritage, let’s say a 908, they literally have no light graphic, or a really low one in this period of time, and usually they have the brake cooling air intakes. So, this is one of the one key features I wanted to combine, because the philosophy of reducing is also to combine more functions together. So, I put the lights in the brake cooling area, which also gives you the low bonnet that every Porsche fan and customer likes.

And from that low bonnet you have a dynamic body side shape, upwards with a peak to the back. So the highest point is at the shoulders of the passengers. Because we design for people, so it should be ergonomic. This gives a really good tension, and really good proportion for the car. The moment you have the highest point on the shoulder line, you end up with a kind of high rear, so the idea with the aero themes was to cut them out and also reduce a little bit of volume on the rear. And obviously you have the diffuser, because with electric cars it’s more and more important to reach a certain range and have a good use of energy.

LB: How did designing a car strictly for a video game differ from designing a production car, or even a real-life concept?

FS: There was some similarities, like we started with the sketches and narrowed them down to some ideas that worked well and then made some computer models to develop it further. The big difference is time. For a production car you have up to four years from the first sketch to the manufacturing. For this car it was about six months for the emotional part and then one year of more developing and implementation.

Also, this was the first time we didn’t have a clay model. Because it’s a car for the video game, we wanted to push the boundaries of CAD modeling and try to be true to the environments in which it’s implemented. Maybe the biggest thing is, in a game environment you’re not limited by budget. So, you can try things out that maybe in a production car that would be too expensive, or you’d have to go through a lot of presentations to push through. This is what was cool about the project.

LB: What did you learn from doing this virtual project that you can apply to designing for the real world?

FS: When you make a production car, the sketches are highly emotional, especially in the first part of the process. But then you go through a lot of loops of technical feedback and you lose a little bit of that emotion because you have to be more pragmatic. Then it takes a long time until you see a car on the road, and if you do, if it’s something like a GT3 RS, there’s a limited number of cars, so the chances of seeing the cars moving on the streets and in the light is really low.

In this case, Polyphony implemented the car in this race environment, and they gave us back in a loop all these really highly emotional images on the racetrack with awesome lighting, like how you would try to sell a design in the first place. This is something I would take in the future design process, to use this technology a bit more and to make more artworks like they did, because they really inspired us.

LB: Porsche has the highest margins in the business and perhaps the biggest fan base of any auto manufacturer in history. Why do you think it’s important for the brand to dedicate resources to designing video game cars?

FS: Our customers are not just a classic customer from back in the days. Our customers change and the world is changing, so you can reach a way bigger group of people all interested in motorsports and these types of cars. We wanted to open the door to make it available to every fan, from 10 years to 69 years — or older — to give them easy access to a highly emotional Porsche car for the racetrack. That’s why it’s such a small car. In real life, if you have an expensive hypercar, you might be too afraid to push the boundaries on the track. This is why we made it fun looking, so you’ll want to enjoy it. Those people in the next years and decades will grow up and will maybe become our real customers in the future.