News Ford is developing a virtual racing car with its Fordzilla Esports drivers

Ford has announced it has an all-new racing car in the works – and it wants the racing game community to have a hand in designing it.

According to the car maker, the upcoming machine (known only by its “Team Fordzilla P1” code name) will be unlike anything else that’s been made by the company to date. As well as being a clean sheet design, with no ties whatsoever to an existing real-world vehicle, the car is being described as Ford’s first ever “virtual racing car”.

While Ford of Europe’s designers will be primarily responsible for the finished car, Ford has said racing game fans will be able to have a hand in its development. Five of Ford’s regional “Fordzilla” esports team captains (including Leah Alexandra, the captain of the UK Fordzilla team) will be closely involved in designing the car, and Ford will let other users help decide certain features of the car in a series of polls on the official Team Fordzilla Twitter page.

Ford didn’t say when the car will be finished, though it has confirmed work on the Team Fordzilla P1 will begin later this week, with the first Twitter poll due to be launched later today (11th March).

Ford of Europe’s design director Amko Leenarts said: “Coming up with a no-holds barred race car for the virtual world is when the gloves come off and the design team can really let their imaginations fly. The expertise of gamers is crucial to ensuring that this will be the best-looking car on the grid.”

Team Fordzilla UK captain Leah Alexandra added: “We all love racing our dream cars but ultimately these are usually painstaking recreations of vehicles that actually exist in the real world. It will be an absolute thrill to get behind the wheel of the Team Fordzilla P1 for the first time knowing that not only have we helped to create it but that no-one else has ever driven it before.”

While the Team Fordzilla P1 is set to be Ford’s first virtual racing car, it isn’t the first time the car maker has attempted to make a new vehicle for racing game players to get behind the wheel of. At the time of writing, Ford is still listed as a participating brand in Gran Turismo’s Vision Gran Turismo concept car programme, though it’s unclear when Ford’s car (which, according to the teaser image below, is an open-wheel single-seater model) will be added to a Gran Turismo game.

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