I’ve been obsessed with cars since I was a kid. If I saw a cool car logo on the street, I’d stare at it for ages, and the margins of my textbooks were filled with lopsided car sketches. But building a real car? That’s way easier said than done. Then I found out—you can design a brand, car models, and even shoot commercials from scratch in a car simulation game. Isn’t that basically a "virtual workshop" handed to me?
So I dived headfirst into the game. First, I named the brand "HIROCHI" and designed the logo with mechanical-style lines—like the precise inner workings of an engine. Next, I started tinkering with the SBR4 model: I dug through tons of automotive engineering materials to equip it with a "flat-four engine" (that’s the layout you can see in the photos). I also obsessed over the "Shooting Brake" body style—wanted it to ooze with sporty vibes and be practical enough for four adults to sit comfortably.
But building the car wasn’t enough—I needed people to "see" how cool it was! So I followed the style of real car ads, using in-game scenes to shoot the promo: first, the blue SBR4 speeding down a road at the foot of snow-capped mountains to highlight "driving fun"; then a close-up of the interior to show off the luxury cockpit I designed (you can even pick different style options!); I didn’t skip the eco-friendly eSBR variant either—filmed it parked next to a charging station with the tagline: "Chase your dreams, and love the planet too."
The most fun part was the tweaking process. To make the SBR4’s stance on the track feel real, I adjusted the suspension parameters over and over, even obsessing over tiny details like tire grip. Sometimes I’d stay up till midnight just to get one frame of footage smooth. My friends joked, "You’re playing the game so seriously you’ve turned into a car company designer!" But watching the car I designed go from "a bunch of data" to the "star" of the promo? That sense of accomplishment was way better than beating a game boss.
Now when I look back at these clips, I know this wasn’t just "messing around"—it was using the game as a paintbrush, turning all my love for cars and curiosity about design into something tangible. Who knows? Maybe one day, I can take all this "virtual experience" and reach for my real-life car dream～
