Vision Gran Turismo: Mazda LM55

Since really nothing is happening in the car world at the moment, apart from the new 5-series being revealed. Let us revisit the world of Gran Turismo 6 and its Vision project. A project that lost its wings quite abruptly around a year ago.

Mazda LM55 in some sort of GT6 green

Anyhow, here's Mazda's contribution to the Vision Gran Turismo project the LM55. It's quite an unusual VGT concept since it is more of an homage to an earlier Mazda. You guessed it, the Le Mans winning 787B. All the other concepts so far have been legitimate new models which illustrate the future design direction of the manufacturer in question. And with that the manufacturers have tried to design road-going track-monsters such as the BMW and Mitsubishi concepts. Which incidentally today look like the BMW M2 and the Mitsubishi GT-PHEV concept revealed this year at the Paris motor show.

Hunting down the next Audi, Toyota and Porsche

The Mazda LM55 is a straight up Le Mans racer, which is immediately apparent by its appearance. For a body sculpted by wind tunnel and maths it looks quite elegant and striking. To the styling Mazda has adopted the Kodo philosophy which they also use in their road cars. I like Mazda's overall road car design, if they could bring it to the racetracks I'd be in the grandstands sporting a Mazda cap that's for sure. Great styling cues which also have an engineering purpose are the hollow wheel arches. You can see the suspension arm moving while going along at 340 kph on the - not so smooth - Mulsanne straight, which is a nice touch. 

Smooth purposeful lines

It is not my favourite VGT car to drive in the game. It understeers a lot, the rotary engine noise is way better on the 787B and I find the gearing a bit odd. I thought that the gearing for endurance racers should be long but on the eight speed LM55 it's stressful. An eight speed box is too much, around Circuit de la Sarthe for instance you don't really need a lower gear than third. Maybe because of that the car is very twitchy under breaking as well. Bear in mind I drive with a normal controller, which may contribute to my bad driving.

I would really like to see Mazda return to the front of prototype racing. And if it would look this good they will certainly have a fan headquarters camping outside the Dunlop curve.