But first, let's get into the race series that GTR is based on. The FIA GT Championship, a largely European phenomenon, is based around the racing of "supercars." You know, those ones that go like a million miles per hour and cost about as many dollars to build. The series is quite popular in Europe, where it's in its eighth season. Alongside the FIA European Touring Car Championship and the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup, it's part of the prestigious LG Super Racing Weekend series. In any case, SimBin saw a niche.
The team has modest roots. Its origins, if you'd believe it, are as a mod group with members scattered across the globe in places like Sweden, England, and Colombia. Using EA's F1 Championship engine, the team created a free-for-download version of GTR using the FIA GT Championship cars and teams. It turned out to be hugely popular, and this attracted the attention of the FIA, which subsequently granted SimBin use of the license. This, in turn, attracted the attention of 10tacle Studios, who is now publishing the game. And this is how, Cinderella-style, a gang of talented mod developers went from a group of guys building something in their spare time, to a fully funded (albeit remotely connected) game studio.
Though it was quite hardcore back when it was a mod, the association with FIA has allowed SimBin to bring the detail in GTR to absurd levels. They claim that their car chassis are the most destructible ever rendered in a retail game, and I believe it -- I spent a good portion of my demo crashing into things (not always by intention), and the results are insane. All of the tracks are re-created using GPS and CAD, and MOTEC data, ensuring fine levels of accuracy. MOTEC, by the way, is the same software that racing professionals use to read race telemetry. This means that the tracks in GTR will "age" throughout the course of a race, just like they would in real life. Certain portions of their areas will become slicker, for instance, as the racing lines start to form on them.