I know Gran Turismo is a pretty realistic driving simulator, but this is pretty awesome. Toyota and Gran Turismo have created data logger visualization technology that uses vehicle race data and GPS positioning to recreate a “recording” of a drive for playback in Gran Turismo. Using a controller area network (CAN) all the technical aspects of a drive are recorded and can be output via USB and imported into Gran Turismo. You can then race against the ghost car or play it back and analyse where it all went wrong.

Sure, the chances of you being able to hop in a car, do a couple of laps and then head back to the lounge room to see how you went are pretty slight. However, what about being able to download so-and-sos hottest lap or a complete race and you going up against them? Pretty neat. There’s a great video on the GT website showing the drive and the simulation. Very cool. [Thanks Jeremy]

Simply put, CAN and GPS data recorded on a real car is exported onto a USB memory stick, and by feeding this data into Gran Turismo’s simulation engine, this real life driving data is visualized as a replay image in Gran Turismo. You can then race against the resulting ghost car or even use it to analyze your real life laps on a race track. CAN data includes things like forward/aft and right/left G forces, steering, brake, accelerator operations and engine rpm, as well as the rotational speeds of each wheel, and combined with positional data, we were successful in very accurately reproducing the recorded drive of a real life car on the road.

Tags: gadget, usb, gran+turismo, gran+turismo+toyota+collaboration