Toyota Hiace UV Express has "taken over" Gran Turismo 7

Gran Turismo is known for being the real driving simulator. But with its most recent update, the game is trending for bringing in one of the country’s most unique forms of public transport – the UV Express.

That’s right. The Gran Turismo 7 update 1.52 brought in three car models – two of those include JDM legends like the Lancer Evo 8 and the Nissan GT-R Premium T-Spec. While those will indeed provide the thrills you need for your driving in real life, GT7 players are (understandably) going crazy over the third vehicle – a Toyota Hiace Van DX, otherwise known as the Hiace Commuter van in the Philippines.

As such, Filipino Gran Turismo players dressed up the Hiace van in its signature UV Express colors. Some of them even came with graphics that depict damaged panels, scratched wheels, door dings, and the like. Thanks to GT7’s customization, the Hiace vans were even swapped with V8 engines, so they go hilariously quick in-game.

So how can such a common van be so trending in a video game, you ask? Well, in the real world, you can’t always drive a GT-R or a Lancer Evo. But in the virtual world, they are always there.

The same cannot be said though for vans like the Hiace Commuter. It’s not every day that the Hiace is present in a video game – the last one we remember is the older generation Hiace being a playable car in the Maximum Tune arcade game, and it’s indeed a hilarious experience to hoon it past 300 km/h.

Perhaps, the Nissan Urvan NV350 (known as Caravan in Japan) should be on the next update for the ultimate UV Express showdown, right? Hear us out, Polyphony Digital.