Opinion: do Grand Theft Auto's developers still love cars?

One thing that will become apparent is that, in addition to being an irredeemable video game nerd, I’m also a complete motorsport tragic. Not just F1, but rally, oval racing and most of all, my own personal petrolhead peccadillo, endurance racing. There’s nothing I enjoy more than watching 23 and a half hours of a 24 hour endurance race, and the only reason that figure isn’t higher is that it isn’t socially acceptable for an adult to wear a nappy.

That’s why I attended what I consider to be the toughest endurance race in the world: the Nürburgring 24 Hours. Le Mans is plenty challenging, of course, but the German interpretation of the concept takes place on a combined Nurburging circuit, including the full, gruelling 14-mile Nordschleife. If Le Mans is the popular kid in class, the N24 is the nutter in the corner tattooing himself with biro ink.

Another reason this race differs from Le Mans is that it’s still somewhat accessible to amateur racers. The sharp end of the 100+ car grid features highly professional GT3 teams supported by manufacturers, the other end is a motley collection of race modified production machinery run by enthusiasts. So while priority one for my weekend was supporting my pal and Mercedes-AMG ace Adam Christodoulou, who is both a lovely, relaxed bloke off the track and a manically quick racing driver on it, I also peeled myself away from the supremely comfortable seating in Mercedes hospitality to have a wander through the paddock.

That’s because I was on the hunt for Rockstar Games Racing Team. Yes, that Rockstar Games; the ones who are currently distracted from the important task of motor racing by the whole ‘making Grand Theft Auto VI’ thing. I found a cheery chap called Ben Lyons, who is technical director of physics at Rockstar North and one of two drivers in a secondhand 2006 E90 BMW 325i that’s plastered with the game company’s logo. Lyons rather understatedly described his day job as: “a lot of the vehicle handling. And obviously, the physics of trying to make things actually stay on top of each other, not fall over and not explode."

Building and racing the 325i is a hobby for Lyons and a group of other Rockstar employees, though the company has been “super supportive”, and while GTA has grown into something far beyond a mere driving game, it’s evidence that there’s huge automotive passion within the studio. “We love cars. We’re obsessed,” Lyons told me. “There’s a message board thing and it’s always ‘Formula One this, WEC this’. There’s a real big buzz about motorsport and cars. I hope that comes off in the game.”

That passion is the only explanation for attempting the world’s most hardcore 24 hour race with only two drivers, having built the car yourself and, this year, having had to perform a full engine swap from a deceased pensioner’s donor car a matter of just three weeks before the event. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t get much more ‘rockstar’ than that...