Gran Turismo welcomes 1,500bhp Xiaomi SU7 Ultra in new update

The Nurburgring lap record holder for four-door cars is coming soon to Gran Turismo following a partnership between the long-running racing video game franchise and Chinese tech and car firm, Xiaomi.

Announced at the London leg of the GT World Series e-sports championship, the new deal will see players able to digitally get behind the wheel of the 1,526bhp Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, complete with its extreme aero and up to 2.36G of braking performance.

If the Xiaomi name rings a bell but you’re not sure of where you heard it, the Chinese tech conglomerate is best known for its range of smartphones. However, the firm made a shift in 2021 to also start producing cars, with its first model being the aforementioned SU7 saloon.

Despite currently only being sold in China, the SU7 Ultra has garnered worldwide recognition for its Nurburgring lap record time of 6:46:87, something that caught the attention of Gran Turismo developers, Polyphony.

Speaking to Auto Express, series founder and producer, Kazunori Yamauchi, said he was surprised by the SU7’s performance when he recently tried it out on track, stating he had to “rewire his brain” to deal with the G forces at play.

“There’s not many companies in the world that seem to enjoy making cars as much as [Xiaomi],” Yamauchi-san remarked. “I wasn’t very familiar with the Xiaomi brand until now, but you can tell from the presentation, the level of knowledge they have and their curiosity that they love what they do.”

The team at Gran Turismo say they’re endeavouring to replicate the performance of the SU7 accurately in-game. That said, this latest addition to GT7’s 536-strong car line-up is still in development, likely reaching the hands of players in the next game update which is expected to arrive in the near future.

A so-called ‘Vision Gran Turismo’ digital concept car is also said to be on the way as an embodiment of Xiaomi’s design and technical ambitions.

Such a collaboration with Gran Turismo is a huge milestone for Xiaomi, which plans to enter the worldwide car market by the end of 2027. Entering the eye of European audiences through the lens of a video game like Gran Turismo should help drum up enthusiasm for the brand which, at the moment here in the UK, is a relatively unknown entity to many.