We Drive SRT’s Tomahawk Vision Gran Turismo Concept, Detail Its Insanity (2024)

There are Gran Turismo 6 Vision concepts—such as those digital creations of Mercedes-Benz, Mazda,Infiniti, Volkswagen, and others—and then there is SRT’s Vision Gran Turismo concept, dubbed the Tomahawk. Actually, make that SRT’s three Vision Gran Turismo concepts; each one represents a harder-core version of the base Tomahawk S. And all three are coming to a PlayStation near you this summer. For it to stand out compared to the other impressive Vision concepts, well, just keep in mind this is the same company that created the Viper and the 707-hp Challenger Hellcat. “More” is just sort of its thing.

In case you weren’t aware, not just any automaker gets to create a special, digital-only Vision concept car—the makers of the Gran Turismo video game, Polyphony, must first approach a company and invite it to design an in-game fantasy vehicle for Gran Turismo. SRT got the call more thana year ago, and Fiat-Chrysler head of global design, Ralph Gilles, had the company’s design department drop everything and begin work on a car that would never be built, sold, or make Fiat-Chrysler a dime. Gilles, it turns out, is a rabid Gran Turismo player.

A design competition was held amongst the staff—anyone could submit a sketch, even the clay modelers—and the submissions were narrowed down to five finalists. From there, in the interest of putting Chrysler’s real-life design projects back on track, the Tomahawk you see here was quickly chosen and thrown into, er, development. Keen on making its imaginary Vision concept car a tenuously realistic but still insane creation, SRT brought in actual engineers to tinker with the sultry, low-slung, mid-engine sports car’s designand bend Gran Turismo 6’s vaunted in-game physics engine to its will.

The team thus fitted the (again, digital) Tomahawk with a pair of pneumatic tanks, both of which are effectively incorporated intothe car’s frame rails, as well as a bevy of pneumatic actuators, compressors, anda front-axle pneumatic motor. “Accumulators” on the front axle and attached to the engine can restorecompressed air to the tanks, where it is used to power the front axle, as well as actuators controlling the Tomahawk’s multitude of active aerodynamic components. The hardest-core model, the Tomahawk X, gets nine pneumatically actuated aero bits: apair of underbody splitters, a flap on each rear quarter-panel, flaps above each wheel, and a three-piece rear wing. The flaps on top of the wheels can deploy to increase downforce, but they can also tilt in corners to induce yaw and help steer the car. Same goes for the flaps on each quarter-panel. The pneumatics play a role in yet another active-handling trick: They power actuators that can change the suspension’s camber settings on the fly. This means that unlike regular cars, which have fixed, symmetrical (side-to-side) camber, the Tomahawk can fiddle with its camber left-to-right to maximize the inside tire’s contact patch inasmuch as regular camber settings aim to maximize the outside tire’s contact patch.

When players in Gran Turismo press a boost button, extra pneumatic power is sent to the front axle while all of the car’s panels retract into their slipperiest positions, boosting top speed to more than400 mph. Under hard braking, all of the upper-body panels spring to nearly vertical positions, giving the Tomahawk the appearance of a scared cat. Peak downforce, according to SRT’s engineers, is over six times the mass of the Tomahawk itself, which weighs a scant 1660 pixeled pounds, thanks to future-materials actually in development today such as graphene, advanced carbon fibers, and more.

Things get even wilder. Split the Tomahawk in half, and you’d be presented with a bizarre scene: Everything of significant substance, from the driver to the engine to the suspension, sits below the tops of the tires. In fact, the center of gravity is actually lower than the wheels’ centerline, contributing to a peak lateral grip figure allegedly in excess of 10 g. Enter the g-suit, which SRT took the time to design for the in-game driver (no, you, the player, don’t need to wear a g-suit whilst playing Gran Turismo, unless you want to). Unlike similar suits worn by fighter pilots, which help maintain blood flow to the upper body during high-g maneuvers, the SRT suit is designed to maintain blood flow laterally throughout the (fake) driver’s body.

Power comes primarily from a V-10 engine, but it’s a weird one, for sure. Whereas the DodgeViper SRT’s V-10 works with a 90-degree V, the Tomahawk has a nearly flat, 144-degree V. It also revs to 14,000 rpm, displaces 6981 cubic centimeters(that’s 426 cubes to you Mopar fans), and uses pneumatic valves. Output is a healthy792 horsepower in S spec (add 215 ponies from the pneumatic front axle), while the midlevel Tomahawk GTS-R uses a 1137-hp version of the same engine (with 313 ponies from the front axle). Of course, the top-dog Tomahawk X is suitably over-the-top, with 2168 horsepower from the V-10 and another 422 from the front-axle pneumatic motor. That’s 2590 horsepower, total, for those keeping track. Suck it, Hellcat.

So what is this beast like to drive? If you’ve ever played Gran Turismo, imagine doing so . . . on fast-forward. SRT set up Gran Turismo rigs for journalists to sample the virtual car ahead of its digital release later this summer. Yep, we were paid to play video games today. Around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, our virtual test track, the regular Tomahawk S was obscenely quick, but itwas also a fickle thing; the Tomahawk X, in full scared-cat, dynamic-aero-panel mode, was practically glued to the track. Beingmore benign and far more planted than the S, the X shifts the challenge—for the player, that is—to reacting quick enough to keep the car on the road. Turns come up instantly, and little braking is required, thanks to the mind-boggling aero and huge mechanical grip from the car’s 325/25R-21 front and massive 425/20R-23 rear tires. The engine wails with a unique ripping sound, the pneumatic actuators pop and hiss as they raise, lower, and re-vector the multiple wings, flaps, and panels all over the body. It’s certifiably pulse-raising, and this author worked up a sweat in a bid to post a lower lap time than a colleague from Road & Track.

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To us, however, the real joy comes from knowing how bizarrely seriously SRT took its assignment to create a Vision concept ride. We’re told not many automakers actually played a role in crafting their cars’ feel and performance. Not so with SRT, which also took it upon itself to bring in actual engineers to make sure the Tomahawk’s various techno-frippery actually could kinda sorta work, or at least play nice with digital physics. The result is an epic creation, and one that could actually have an impact on Fiat-Chrysler’s future design. When asked whether the Tomahawk has any bearing on a future Viper-type vehicle, FCA design chief Ralph Gilles said, “Already some things visually are inspiring us,” adding, “Clearly, there’s forward thinking here.” And that crazy V-10 engine? SRT’s engineers tell us the 144-degree V in fact boasts a more balanced firing order than the Viper’s 90-degree V-10. Do we need to shift our Mid-Engine Sports-Car Transition Watch from the Chevrolet Corvette to the Dodge Viper? Anything’s possible—at least digitally.