Audi 2008 Annual Report Download - page 17

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Station, complete with racing seat, cockpit, pedals and
television monitor, in the Audi Lounge at the Nürburgring.
GT is a godsend for racers: There are probably precious few
professional drivers alive today who don’t practice on the
console before qualifying. The game is unbelievably impor-
tant, especially for young drivers going out on a given track
for the first time, says Tomczyk as he sits down at the wheel
of the game console. Yes, it’s about mental training – con-
centrating intently for eight minutes, and then repro-
ducing this later on the track itself. But above all, it’s
about the track layout, characteristics of the corners,
the climbs and drops. “It usually takes 10 to 15 laps to
memorize the circuit during a race. With GT, this can be
significantly reduced.” He is then silent for a while as he
GOING FOR IT:
DTM driver Martin Tomczyk (left)
clocks a super time in the R8.
LIKE THE REAL THING:
Professional gamer Sascha Appel
(right) has only ever driven the R8
in video games.
developer Polyphony Digital, which means he is one of the
reasons why the newest car models are able to storm
around the virtual Nordschleife in the upcoming “Gran
Turismo 5.” Appel also has a real racing license. The profes-
sional driver is a hobby gamer; the professional gamer is a
hobby driver. They are made for each other.
And this “Gran Turismo”? It is one of the most successful
racing games of all times. More than 700 different vehicles
and 50 tracks. Breathtaking graphics. And so pedantically
close to reality that the digital Nordschleife deviates from
the original by no more than five centimeters at any one
point. The latest, fifth version of “GT,” as fans like to call
their game, is coming out in 2009 with new models and
new tuning options. Until then, there’s “GT5: Prologue,” a
kind of digital appetizer. It’s already loaded in the Play-