Nissan's virtual racing driver becomes reality

May 6 2009

The world's first virtual to real life racing driver, Lucas Ordonez, has won a place on the podium at the first race of the competitive European GT4 series.

Ordonez won last year's Nissan/PlayStation GT Academy and has since been in an intensive training schedule to change the talent he showed in front of the computer screen into winning style behind the wheel of a real car.

And the training appears to have paid off, as Ordonez partnered experienced racer Alex Buncombe in the European GT4 series, securing a podium finish.

"I'm really happy that we came third in my first race weekend in GT4, it's great for me," said Ordonez.

He continued: "We'll try to continue to improve in Italy in two weeks time. Alex showed that the NISSAN can lead races and I need to help convert those chances."

The success of the former computer game champion could increase interest in both real racing and those carried out on computer games.

It could also encourage more people to consider buying used cars as they perhaps try to take their success on the computer onto the road - although they would also benefit from the type of training that Ordonez went through.

Used car prices have been increasing over recent months as they become a popular alternative to motorists unwilling to splash out large sums of money on new models during the recession.

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