Gran Turismo Ford E10 (image:forums.radiocontrolzone)
My childhood joys revolved around Radio Controlled cars and Video Games. It was with some excitement then that I unpacked the Gran Turismo-designed HPI Ford E10 radio controlled car (kindly provided for review by Eclipse Hobbies). Not only was this a car from high-end R/C manufacturor HPI, but it had all the detail and shine of the Ford GT in my Gran Turismo garage.
My six year old wandered in and was intruiged to see what I was so excited about. As I tried to explain I realized that this as much about reliving my youth as it was about a new toy. Here are some excerpts from my review…
The radio controlled HPI Racing E10 Ford GT LM brings together two hobby worlds – video games and r/c cars. The r/c car and been designed and branded by Polyphony Digital around a vehicle from their video game racing simulator on the PS2 and PlayStation 3.
This reminded me of the synergy behind Nike and Apple working together on their running shoe add-ons for the iPod. Two brands set their differences aside and create something that works in both markets. Here we find the high end R/C components and design of HPI join the attention to detail and eye for high design of Gran Turismo to create something a little bit special.
I’m sure there are plenty of other no-brainer overlapping products like this that never get made due to corporate red tape. So, congratulations to HPI and Polyphony Digital for bringing this to market.
The Gran Turismo HPI E10 Ford LM R/C car is most likely a marketing idea. But it is one that fans of both Sony’s PlayStation3 Gran Turismo game and HPI’s high performance R/C cars will get a lot of value from. It strikes a sensible balance between price, performance and appearance. Although it looks pretty, you really need to hit the road to see this car really shine.
