Last updated on December 13th, 2024 at 04:51 pm
Following on from the initial announcement of the Lister Storm, we’ve now seen more classic GT racers revealed for GTRevival. Straight4 Studios CEO Ian Bell has now shared work in progress images of two more iconic racing cars from that era of grand touring competion.
The Chrysler Viper GTS-R (Also know as the Dodge Viper GTS-R) launched in 1996, with 57 cars built until 2005. Developed with Oreca and Reynard, the big talking point is the 8.0 litre V10 naturally aspirated engine putting out between 600 and 770bhp to the rear wheels.
It competed against the Lister and other rivals in the FIA GT championship in the early 2000s, taking the title five times. It also claimed championships in the American Le Mans Series, British GTs and plenty of other events around the world, including the 24 Hours Nurburgring, and class wins at Le Mans.
The other car is the BMW M3 E46 GTR which debuted in the 2000 ALMS GT category and won the championship in 2001 with a 443hp V8 engine. It was subject to controversy as 10 production cars were claimed to have been produced for sale to meet homologation rules, but these were then changed for ALMS in 2002 to require 100 cars and 1,000 engines, leading to BMW withdrawing it from the championship.
It did continue in other events, including winning the 24 Hours Nurburgring in 2004 and 2005.
It seems that the title for GTRevival is increasingly appropriate with the focus so far on iconic racing cars from the past. Given that the big sim racing platforms are predominantly focused with the current GT3 field, it’s a way to stand out and offer something different, especially given the previous history of Bell and many of the Straight4 Studios team across a range of developers and titles including GTR, GT Legends and more.
Ironically, the closest comparison is probably with RaceRoom, which was released in 2013 by SimBin, now KW Studios. But so far, the pre-alpha images from GTRevival look a lot more visually impressive, so it’ll be interesting to see how that translates into a beta version and finished product.
The recent Straight4 Studios newsletter also revealed the addition of Henrique Alves, the founder of online multiplayer platform Sim Racing System, with plans for a free-to-play solution which could compete directly with iRacing. Which could be interesting, and again, also puts GTRevival up fairly directly against RaceRoom, which also offers free-to-play online options.
In any case, having another potentially high quality sim racing option can only be a good thing. Especially if it opens up more opportunities to race a wider range of cars and tracks.
You can keep up with all the latest GTRevival news and updates, here. Along with seeing all of the cars revealed so far in our GTRevival car list, and all of the circuits in our GTRevival track list.
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