The Renault Espace F1 Returns to Gran Turismo 7 in the Spec III Update

During the PlayStation State of Play on September 24, Polyphony Digital announced the Gran Turismo 7 Spec III update, which among a myriad of technical changes, also introduces Yas Marina Circuit and Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve into the game, as well as eight new cars.

The PlayStation YouTube channel uploaded a new trailer for Yas Marina Circuit.

Now, why I bring this up is because of a specific car in the video. While we know that eight new cars are being added to the update, previously, we only knew four of them:

• Ferrari 296 GT3
• Mitsubishi FTO GP Version R
• Formula Gran Turismo car
• Nissan MINE'S BNR34 Skyline GT-R V-Spec N1 base

The video however contains another one of the eight new cars in the update, and it's an icon among Gran Turismo fans.

For the first time since Gran Turismo 2, the Renault Espace F1 is coming back to the series. With a gap of nearly 26 full real-life years, the Espace F1 will hold the title for the car for the longest gap between two appearances in the franchise. Here's a video of the car in Gran Turismo if you wish to visualize the jump between 1999 and 2025.

What exactly is the Renault Espace F1 though? The Renault Espace is a series of vehicles developed by Renault since 1984. The original models were "people carrier" models until gradually working its way to a crossover SUV style in 2015.

The Renault Espace F1 is an experiment modeled after the second-generation Espace which was built between 1991 and 1996.

(Original Espace versus Espace F1 - Images from Wikipedia)

The Renault Espace F1 was created in 1994 to celebrate 10 years of both the original Renault Espace and Renault's involvement in Formula One. Naturally, celebrating the occasion called for something equal parts absurd and brilliant - Building an Espace that's a Formula One car underneath everything. There's a lot of technical know-how to explain and I know most people here aren't really that interested, but the long and short of it is that Renault powered everything with real Formula One technology, using the same engine that its Formula One cars were using at the time.

All the technology gave it the ability to accelerate from 0-60mph in less than 3.0 seconds, and a top speed of 194mph - You'd be forgiven for thinking that this was just a hollow shell with no real functionality, but no. Renault actually designed a functional prototype of the machine. Here is a video of the car being driven at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2002:

And now we've came back full circle. There were actually two different models for the car - A display model and the aforementioned functional model. Interestingly, the Espace F1 in Gran Turismo 2 is modeled after the display model, whereas the one in Gran Turismo 7 is modeled after the functional model.

In any event, this is a fantastic day to celebrate for Gran Turismo fans to see such an iconic car from the franchise return after being absent for 26 years. The update launches in December, and I couldn't be more excited.

How do you feel about the Espace F1 coming back? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.