dpeilow

Reading this...

Drive the Model S (or maybe just the Tesla Roadster) in Gran Turismo 5 — Autoblog Green

...reminded me that a couple of days ago I was wondering if the Roadster would show up in Forza 3. There was a rumour at one point.

Downloadable car please!

GT5 Prologue is good, but I'm not going to buy my own PS3 just for it.

ryanjm

Since I work for an Xbox magazine for a living, I think I can shed some light on this one...well, not the GT5 part since that's a Sony game, but Forza 3...

While visiting the developer's offices a few months ago for a story on Forza 3, I did specifically ask Dan Greenawalt, the studio head, about putting the Tesla in the game. He told me it's not in there because tuning/user-created content is such a huge part of the game, and with the Tesla, of course, there's no ICE to tune!

dpeilow

Perhaps players will be happy adjusting the suspension and selecting performance mode. Or maybe there could be an imaginary market in higher performance motors or battery pack upgrades (you know, as you earn more cash, you can have an ESS with 2900mAh cells, better cooling for your PEM, that kind of thing). It would teach 'tuners' some of the issues involved with EV upgrades before the products hit the real world.

Then if you were participating in endurance races, you would have to work out the best strategy of charging pitstops vs. performance in the race.

Sounds to me like the developers aren't thinking outside of the (X)box.

Kardax

I don't know why Dan Greenawalt thinks ICE tuning is so critical... the only ICE tuning the game allows you to do on race cars is to remove the restrictor plate and nobody's complaining.

All of the other options (suspension tweaks, weight reduction, brake upgrades, aftermarket wheels, creative paint jobs, etc) would all apply to the Tesla Roadster just like the other 400 cars in the game.

-Ryan

shark2k

Project Gotham Racing 4 was supposed to have the Roadster in it: VIDEO: Project Gotham Racing 4 to feature the Tesla Roadster! — Autoblog Green

They filmed a commercial and the Roadster was one of the cars in the commercial. The link is from 2007 and I don't follow Xbox games so I'm not sure if the Roadster actually was in the game (I'm sure it came out late 2007 or early 2008). If it was, I would like to play the game just to play as the Roadster lol.

Edit: Game should have been released in September of 07 according to the article.

-Shark2k

vfx

Related:

Roadster in Project Gotham Racing 4 xbox game

Tesla X-Box Spot

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The world loves to be deceived.

MPT

The problem is probably the top speed though it'd be a killer at Tsukuba Circuit in Japan which is more twisty and bursty. Not so good on the speedway circuits though.

dpeilow

Vehicle List - Project Gotham Racing 4 - Bizarre Creations

Kardax

I have Project Gotham Racing 4 and can confirm that the Tesla Roadster is in the game. I took this picture myself shortly after it was released:


It's based on the original prototypes with the two-speed transmission, and the motor "idles" at 800 RPM, but otherwise it's a faithful representation.

MPT's assessment is correct. The Roadster's performance characteristics and weight distribution make it very potent on twisty tracks, but the low top speed makes it useless on tracks with long straights.

-Ryan

MPT

TM blog post Tesla Motors - Customers by Tom Burt; his Roadster is the sound we'll hear maybe.