Why The Toyota Alphard Belongs In Gran Turismo
Japan is more than just Supras and Skylines
An Alphard Executive Lounge passes through Akihabara (Source: OptionZ via Gran Turismo)
It’s around 2:30am in Asakusabashi, and I’m stumbling out of the Delta Darts Cafe after several more ‘Mega Birus’ than the recommended daily dose would state.
It’s early February, the city’s been hit by snow, and as a result it’s cold. Bitingly cold, in fact. Home for the week is Ryogoku. It’s a fairly short journey away by foot, but there’s another option - the taxi.
There’s a fair chance that if you opt for that option, you’ll end up comfortably seated in the back of a Toyota Alphard. Alphards are everywhere in Tokyo, they’re as easy to spot (but not quite as common, of course) as kei cars. Both private and business owners run them, and you’ll almost certainly see them in one of two shades - white, or black.
Any color you like, as long as it’s black or white (Source: OptionZ via Gran Turismo)
When the Toyota Alphard appeared in Gran Turismo 7, it was largely dismissed as a pointless addition to a game that’s meant to be about sliding high-performance sports cars around circuits. Many users of the game could not wrap their heads around why on earth Polyphony Digital would include a 7-seat, 2.2-ton MPV in what they believe to be a racing simulator.
“...this is not the normal Alphard you see rolling around the streets outside my favourite darts bar.”
Here’s the thing though, Gran Turismo is not a racing simulator. Racing simulation is simply a part of Gran Turismo. What the game really is is a giant digital museum dedicated to private transport and the roles it has played in our lives for the last 100 years or so. Like it or not, you’ve bought a ticket to that museum, and its curator - a guy you may know as Kaz - occasionally adds another exhibit to that museum, and that exhibit will always be significant in some way to car culture. Like car culture itself though, it isn’t always glamorous.
As MPVs go, it’s a stunner too (Source: OptionZ via Gran Turismo)
The Alphard variant we get in the game is actually kind of glamorous though. It’s the 296bhp 3.5-litre V6-powered Executive Lounge, a 2018 model that was top of the line at the time of its release, and still makes for a premium experience 8 years on. During my time in Tokyo I clocked maybe just 2-3 of these, let me assure you that this is not the normal Alphard you see rolling around the streets outside my favourite darts bar. I promise you, you’d have a wonderful time being ferried around in one of these while you sit back and contemplate one of the world’s greatest cities alive and breathing passing the other side of the window.
Single-car championships and daily race events would make this car more popular, without a doubt. The platform itself, despite its weight, is solid. You’ve got that powerful V6 and all-wheel drive for a start. Slap a torque vectoring system on it and you can basically get yourself a rear-wheel drive 7-seat sofa with 300bhp - or 550 odd, if you’re a lunatic and drop the LFA’s V10 into it. Don’t do that, by the way. The world’s suffered enough.
There’s a good chance this could be your ride to & from Haneda (Source: OptionZ via Gran Turismo)
It might not be sold where you live and you might not appreciate another “normal” car finding its way into GT7, but the Alphard belongs in the game. It’s a big part of Japanese car culture, transport for hundreds of thousands of people from students to sumo wrestlers. It might not be exciting or interesting for you but in Japan, it’s a home for many.
