Ford and Team Fordzilla debut extreme virtual race car

It is the first virtual gaming race car designed in collaboration between gamers themselves and a car brand. Now Ford's Team Fordzilla esports team is moving the game on again by revealing in a livestream a real-life, full-scale model of its extreme Team Fordzilla P1 race car.

While seeing real cars transferred to computer games is commonplace, this is the first-ever time an auto-manufacturer has brought to life a gamer-collaborated virtual car - yet to be featured in a game - with a physical model.

The journey of the Team Fordzilla P1 race car started in March this year when gamers were asked to vote on the package and features of the car on Twitter, including seating configuration, engine position and cockpit definition. Nearly a quarter of a million fan votes were submitted throughout the polling process.

The innovative Team Fordzilla P1 race car features an exterior designed by Arturo Arino and an interior that was the vision of Robert Engelmann, both Ford designers.

The race car is built around the monocoque structure partially covered by a large, hyper-transparent jet fighter-style canopy, protecting the driver and co-driver. The exterior of this race car is the combination of a sleek GT-like front end with beautifully sculped front fenders and extremely sculpted bodyside panels. The rear end is completely exposed and celebrates the aerodynamics and racing circuits rawness.

In the cockpit, there are LED notification units, keeping the driver and co-driver up-to-date on the track status in their peripheral view. In addition, an integrated screen on the steering wheel enables live data exchange with the team at the pit wall. 

The Team Fordzilla P1 is Ford's first ever car built digitally without any face-to-face interaction throughout the process. Due to COVID-19, it was designed by a team who had never met, working remotely, spread across five different countries and built in just seven weeks - half of the time it would normally take. 

Co-created by gamers for gamers, the hypercar features a few special touches that speak to the sim-racing community. On the floor in front of the co-pilot's seatm there is an AFK (Away From Keyboard) message, a playful reminder that occupants of that seat are away from keyboard.

A #levelup graphic acknowledges that gamers and racing drivers aim to better themselves each time they play or race, while a #liftoff graphic is a nod to the lifting off of this race car from a virtual world and transitioning it to the real one. On the front of the car by the lower spoilerm there's the most important message, a GLHF (Good Luck Have Fun) reminder to every gamer and racing driver to truly have fun and enjoy the ride.