Virtual v real: Which ST is quicker?

Ben Collins on his way up the Goodwood Hillclimb in the real Ford Focus ST.

Ben Collins on his way up the Goodwood Hillclimb in the real Ford Focus ST.

Published Jul 4, 2014

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Goodwood, Sussex - The new Ford Focus ST notched up its first win just hours after making its global debut - by winning a unique "virtual vs. real" race against a virtual Focus ST after Ford and Sony staged the first such race on the world-famous hillclimb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The real Focus ST, driven by the former Stig, Ben Collins, went up the 1.86km hill barely a 10th of a second ahead of gamer Krisztian Somodi, tackling the same course simultaneously on a Gran Turismo 6 PlayStation3 simulator.

CLOSE CONTEST

The game reproduced the conditions on the day itself as closely as possible - right down to the tyres - which made for a close contest with the real Focus ST posting a time of 1m05:13s, with the virtual car covering the climb in 1m05.23s.

Collins said afterwards: Racing against a virtual car was a first for me - I had no idea who was in the lead, so it was a pleasant surprise to realise I'd won."

The race was shown live on giant screens at the festival, with visitors later able to set their own time on Gran Turismo 6 simulators on the Ford stand.

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