Video games have become incredibly realistic over the last decade or so, and this is especially true of racing simulations, where you can sample extensive fleets of real-life automobiles that are the spitting digital image of actual street and track fare.
What about the other cars, however—the ones that are so otherworldly in terms of their style, capability or physics that they seem to be restricted exclusively to the realm of ones and zeros? Which of these monsters of the online world would we want to make real and park in our garage?
We put together this list of our favorite video game vehicles we want to make the transition from flat-screen to flat-top asphalt.
1. Spy Hunter's G-6155
What Is It?
The G-6155 was game developer Bally Midway's end-run around the Bond franchise when it released Spy Hunter in 1983. This classic scroller sees you driving a silver coupe (that's totally not an Aston Martin DB5) in the pursuit of, and pursued by, a seemingly endless number of bad dudes.
What Makes It Cool?
It might not be official Q-branch issue, but the G-6155 features smokescreens, oil slicks and missiles that let you switch from bumping cars off of the road to shooting helicopters out of the sky. Oh, and it can also transform into a jet boat, which would have made 007 supremely jealous.
Closest You Can Get?
Aston Martin is currently in the midst of building 25 "continuation" versions of the DB5 prop car from the movie Goldfinger, gadgets and all. The cost? Roughly $3.5 million each, or about 7,000 museum-quality Spy Hunter cabinets.
2. Halo's Warthog
What Is It?
The Warthog is a go-anywhere all-terrain assault vehicle that's light enough to be fun, but tough enough to take unreasonable amounts of abuse in the Halo universe. Think side-by-side, but with a gun.
What Makes It Cool?
The combination cannon/open cockpit design might seem counter-intuitive, but the Warthog has spawned thousands of YouTube stunt videos and more than one real-life replica. It floats, flies, bounces, rampages across any landscape and is a blast to drive.
Closest You Can Get?
Outside of the homemade tributes, you might want to consider mashing together a Meyers Manx dune buggy with a mini-DUKW.
3. Twisted Metal's Sweet Tooth Ice Cream Truck
What Is It?
Imagine if the ice cream man from your childhood was dropped onto the set of Max Mad: Fury Road and given an unlimited budget for scary clown paint and stabbing weapons. You're now picturing the Sweet Tooth truck driven by Needles Kane in the Twisted Metal videogame series, a vehicle that has appeared in every installment of the franchise so far.
What Makes It Cool?
It's a really scary, hard-to-kill ice cream truck. You either get it or you don't, but if it's the latter, you'll need to get out of the way quickly before you're incinerated by a napalm-filled ice cream cone, or impaled on a long piece of metal jutting from under its bumper.
Closest You Can Get?
All you'd really have to do to replicate the Sweet Tooth experience is purchase a Chevy Step Van, make friends with your local clown graffiti gang and give up the hope of ever fitting in with society again.
4. Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off-Road's Baja Trucks
What Are They?
They look like remote control racers, but those little trucks bouncing around your screen in Ivan "Ironman" Steward's Super Off-Road are legitimate Baja trucks designed to replicate the same desert racers that the game's namesake drove to dust and glory.
What Makes Them Cool?
These indestructible bounders are nitro-fueled, can be easily upgraded with tire, engine, and suspension mods, and are dead simple to drive as long as you keep the accelerator floored. They're what we all wish the Raptor could have been.
Closest You Can Get?
You could build your own trophy truck out of a Toyota Tacoma, but unless you've got the money for a mid-engine, Robby Gordon-special, you probably won't be able to drive with the same wild abandon in the real wash as you can in the game.
5. Crazy Taxi's B.D. Joe's Taxi
What Is It?
B.D. Joe was the craziest driver in a game that was all about crazy: Crazy Taxi, a series of cross-platform bang-ups that combined racing with picking up/terrifying fares and somehow made it all work as one of the most popular quarter-gobblers of all time.
What Makes It Cool?
B.D. Joe drove an open-top classic that was meant to evoke the looks of an early-'60s Chevy Impala without inviting copyright claims from General Motors. It was also often the fastest car available in the game, although it didn't quite handle as well as some of the other options.
Closest You Can Get?
You could clone a crazy taxi for very little money if you were willing to sacrifice an Impala or similarly full-size classic Chevrolet, but we're personally waiting for the sequel: Crazy Uber, the game where you drive your Prius until either the battery or the bottled water in the back seat runs out. Then you just burn it to the ground.
6. Outrun's Ferrari Testarossa Spider
What Is It?
Outrun was the game that combined California style with high speed Ferrari antics and in many ways ushered in the modern era of arcade steering wheel action. It moved beyond rotoscoping to create a lush driving environment, and it put you behind the wheel of a topless Ferrari Testarossa so you could properly appreciate it.
What Makes It Cool?
Plot twist: Ferrari never made a convertible version of the classic '80s Testarossa. Well, they kind of did, but it was a one-off built for Fiat boss Gianni Agnelli, and it was silver, not flaming red like it was in the game. How we wish for a world in which a flat-12 was singing just behind our heads, unfettered by glass or steel.
Closest You Can Get?
You would have to somehow track down the individual who paid $1.3 million for Agnelli's car at auction in 2016 and then make them an offer they couldn't refuse. Or be really, really handy with a Sawzall, and equally terrible at money management.
7. Daytona USA's Hornet
What Is It?
What Outrun did for scrollers, Daytona USA did for texture-mapped, three-dimensional racing gameplay, and the star of the show was the Hornet, the stock-car stand-in for a series that wasn't entirely on-board with NASCAR's licensing lawyers.
What Makes It Cool?
The Hornet didn't look like any specific "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" model, but it was more of an amalgamation of aero trends in the 1990s. What made it so engaging to drive was physics that felt real but never impeded in the fun, providing the true sensation of high speed and head to head competition on ovals and road courses.
Closest You Can Get?
Buy any local dirt track racer, apply the right decals and you're at least halfway to a decent Hornet experience.
Interested in more classic video game action? Check out this round-up of domestic-focused driving games.