Historically Accurate Tracks, Some Cars Confirmed for Trans-Am Title

GT Interactive’s recent announcement of an upcoming title has been confirmed by Gordon Goble over at GameCenter, who also managed to get some extra comments from the developers.

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You can add GT Interactive to the suddenly lengthy list of computer gaming distributors who have decided that realistic automobile racing makes for very good subject matter. In Trans-Am Racing, set for debut this October, GT takes racing simulation fanatics on a historical trek back to a time when late ’60s/early ’70s muscle cars shook tracks across North America.

Trans-Am Racing will ask computer drivers to test, modify, and race in an environment that GT promises will re-create the period, keeping a strict eye on maintaining the detailing and accuracy of each of the classic muscle cars. In that regard, GT has teamed with the Sports Car Club of America (the Trans-Am sanctioning body) for licensing of the cars from the 1968 to 1972 era, and Engineering Animation Inc. (EAI), a data visualization company with a decade of auto accident re-creation experience, for the 3D imagery and physics that make up the game.

Accident re-creation, huh? That should certainly make for some mighty fine crashes, though GT Interactive communications manager Lance Seymour assures us that gaming newcomer EAI is capable of far more than simply calculating how a car breaks apart in a collision. “There are people at EAI with quite a bit of industry experience,” says Seymour.

Trans-Am racers can jump behind the wheel of such four-wheeled icons as the ’66 Dodge Dart, ’68 Camaro, and ’70 Boss Mustang FB while driving through venerable circuits like Lime Rock, Riverside, and Bridgehampton. The competition? Well, let’s just say it will include the likenesses of Parnelli Jones, Mark Donohue, and Dan Gurney.

Though details are sketchy at this point, Seymour assures us that car modification will be extremely realistic, including “almost anything you can dream up.” Track detail will be “historically accurate,” and players will have control over “every single aspect of the game.” Seymour also says Trans-Am Racing is “a true simulation. We’re really looking to establish a presence in the racing simulation genre and we’re going all out to do so.”