Bow Down To The Magnificent Mercedes AMG Vision Gran Turismo

This is the Mercedes-Benz AMG Vision Gran Turismo, the first of the "Vision Gran Turismo" series that will feature in the sixth instalment of the popular racing game.

To mark the 15th anniversary of Gran Turismo, Kazunori Yamauchi, Producer of the Gran Turismo series, gave the world's leading automotive manufacturers a esign brief to create concepts that look towards the future of motoring.

Gorden Wagener, VP of design for Daimler, colourfully describes the concept car as: "The perfect symbiosis between emotional, sensuous contours and intelligently presented high tech" And it's not just Wagener getting carried away - the press release appears to have been written by a romantic novelist with a car fetish: "The AMG's 'long bonnet has a flowing transition into a compact greenhouse offset to the rear, which takes the form of an aerodynamically efficient water drop to descend slightly at the rear."

What this means is that the AMG Vision Gran Turismo is a kind of extreme SLS, complete with gullwing doors. Thanks to the aluminium space-frame body and lashings of carbonfibre, it tips the scales at just 1385kg.

This may be no more than a virtual motor, but the pixelated version gets an AMG biturbo engine that produces 585hp and 590 lb ft torque - enough to push you into the back of your sofa under hard acceleration. At its rear, the AMG features eight tailpipesfor good measure.

The 1:1 scale model will be on display this week at the opening of the new Mercedes-Benz Research & Development centre in Sunnyvale, California.