GT4 2004 DMC DeLorean S2

A GT4 2004 DMC DeLorean S2

GT4 1970 Chaparral 2J Race Car

Now, what is this? A vacuum cleaner? An air con unit?

Noooo, it a car.

It's a Chaparral - the GT4 1970 Chaparral 2J Race Car.

And it's pictured here parked at Nanzenji.

A very powerful car, and with two available turbo upgrades in GT4, its power can be increased to over 1000 bhp.

However, it's rather hard to control, fragile, also likes to fly in GT4 for some reason... I look confused, shouldn't it like stick to the surface?

From the Gran Turismo file.

"Nicknamed "The Vacuum Cleaner", this car took the motoring world by surprise and became an icon in racing history."


The 2J may well be the most innovative, wildest racing machine ever created. The car, characterized by its big boxy rear end, entered the 1970 SCCA Can-Am racing series in North America, as the first machine in the series to feature active ground effects...in the form of a giant vacuum.
The Can-Am series was quite unusual as, at the time, there was no rule to limit the amount of horsepower for its race cars. Chaparral boss, Texas oil magnate Jim Hall, pulled a wild car from his sleeve when he created a race car that utilized two engines: one was a 690 HP powerplant to power the car and the other, an air-cooled snowmobile engine that powered a pair of large fans to suck the air flowing underneath the car, thus making it "stick" to the road surface. The area between the sides of the bodywork and the ground were sealed by floating pieces of high-strength Lexan. Nicknamed "The Vacuum Cleaner", the Chaparral 2J astounded race fans and the other Can-Am drivers alike.
Aside from its odd looks, the 2J often took pole position by several seconds over heady competition that included the previously-dominant McLaren M8D...that is, when it was running. The 2J experienced many mechanical problems in its maiden season, making every race it entered a thrilling event.
Before the start of the 1971 season, the SCCA banned the use of engines used for other than powering the car itself, and the Chaparral 2J was banished from motorsports forever.

GT4 2004 Proto Motors SPIRRA 4.6 V8

On the occasion of a Friday (26.08.2016), I hereby give you, the readers of this blog, some pictures of a Spirra - the GT4 2004 Proto Motors SPIRRA 4.6 V8 to be exact.

It is parked in these pictures at Grand Canyon which is a photo travel location in Gran Turismo 4 but is also "one of the seven (more than seven, I am sure) wonders of the world that stretches across the State of Arizona in America, with majestic views of the arid landscape".

Wearing a coat of Spirra Yellow, the Spirra is a real car. However, its initial manufacturer - Proto Motors (or Protomotors) of South Korea went bankrupt soon after GT4 came out in 2004 but the Spirra apparently lives on as the Oulim Motors Spirra and has gone already through several generations.

Introduced at the Seoul Motor Show in 2002, the Spirra Prototype was an attractive, midship sports car developed by Proto Motors, a Korean research and development company established in 1997 that is best known for creating stretched limousines and electric vehicle prototypes, for major Korean auto manufacturers including Daewoo and Hyundai.

Korean auto manufacturers are known for their practical sedans and efficient compact cars, but this could soon change as a result of the Proto Motors Spirra Prototype.

With an overall length, width, and height, of 170.0 inches, 75.9 inches, and 46.2 inches, respectively, the Spirra's sharply-pressed bodylines rests atop an aluminum spaceframe/carbon fiber chassis.

Its looks immediately brings to mind high-performance, and includes unique design elements in their use of curves around the headlights. The doors are gull winged and open towards the front.

The engine compartment behind the front seats is spacious enough to accommodate just about any engine, and allowed the choice of a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4, a 3.0-liter V-6 and a 4.6-liter V-8. The most powerful V-8 produced 320 HP, giving it the ability to go head to head with leading Japanese and European sports models and it came equipped with a 6-speed manual transmission.

This is a very rare car in the extremely competitive sportscar market that proudly claims "Made in Korea".

Proto Motors has since then changed their company name to Oullim Motors.

It looks OK. In fact, I think it was ahead of the times in the looks department. 

Present-day (2016) cars have the same styling cues.

GT4 2004 DMC DeLorean S2

My summer villa has a working PS2 console plus a copy of Gran Turismo 4 (the game that started the car photo thing with its Photo Mode feature).

And I can now make some GT4 car pictures, and to start things off - here is the GT4 2004 DMC DeLorean S2.

Wearing a coat of exactly nothing over its stainless steel panels, it is parked here at Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is one of the wonders of the world located in the State of Arizona and is also a photo travel location in GT4.

The 2004 DMC DeLorean is not the original DeLorean but is probably a car built by DMC of Texas using NOS parts, OEM parts and reproduction parts.

Here is what the in-game description says:

After this, the engine inventory of the DMC-12s were shipped from Ireland to the U.S., and passed into the hands of a newborn DMC which would maintenance the Deloreans. This company, responding to the requests and demands of Delorean owners, announced a tuning menu that increased engine power to 197 HP. Deloreans equipped with this engine are known as Series 2.

 

As to why the 2004 DMC DeLorean S2 made it to the Gran Turismo series but the original one didn't is a mystery to me, albeit a low-level one - I am not losing sleep over it. 

Also, note how the original company is not there any more to pay the Gran Turismo developers or something like that.

GT4 pictures turn out better than I expected they would.

Read more about the DMC DeLorean say on wikipedia.