Future GPX Cyber Formula, an Audi and the FIA GT World Cup

Anything that mixes anime with motorsport attracts this blogger’s attention, and Uno Racing Team sneaked in a good one for the FIA GT World Cup this week, as the celebration of Tarmac Works’ milestones will see a good old anime appear at the streets of Macau, with Future GPX Cyber Formula being revived once agan.
 

Both Uno Racing Team entries will appeal to the itasha lovers as Kuromi will be featured in Adderly Fong’s No. 10 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, while James Kuai Yu’s Audi will receive the full Cyber Formula treatment and will race with the No. 30 from the main machine of the anime, the SUGO Asurada GSX. This comes in a partnership between Tarmac Works and IXO Modelcars, with Tarmac Works in special celebrating 10 years of partnership with Uno Racing Team.
 

For those who don’t know, Future GPX Cyber Formula was created and released in 1991 by Sunrise, and some striking characteristics from Sunrise’s works appear there or go from CF to other animes, like the Gundam series, like the unmistakable sound effects. After the first 37 episodes, a series of OVAs was released from 1992 to 2000, separated in four intertwined arcs.
 
While games were already a thing during the time that the anime was released, they became the main Cyber Formula media from the 2000s, with games for Playstation, Playstation 2, Playstation Portable and Game Cube following the original games for Super Nintendo and Game Boy until 2008, and from then on, Project YNP has been the only company developing Cyber Formula games based in the final Future GPX Cyber Formula SIN arc, but only the latest one, Future GPX Cyber Formula SIN VIER getting approval from Sunrise.
 
For western audiences, the theme might be reminiscing to F-ZERO, as the story is situated between 2015 and 2024, where a series with unlimited rules and cyber systems assisting the drivers surpassed Formula 1 and became the pinnacle of motorsport, with the main character, Hayato Kazami, joining SUGO by accident at 14 years old and staying with them as he was locked as Asurada’s registered driver, and what follows next shows the progress from a kid with zero racing experience into champion material, with all the struggles in between.
 

After the run of Sunrise anime and games, basically the Future GPX Cyber Formula brand has continued as merchandise only, even though technically there’s content in the games that would the anime franchise to keep going, but this doesn’t stop Cyber Formula fans to be spread all over East Asia and more regions, with the Hong Kong and South Korea fanbases being as big as the Japanese fanbase. Its appeal is so lasting that some aspects can be seen in a Highspeed Etoile, despite the gap of more than 20 years between them.
 

Also, following the trend that covers Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, Ghost in the Shell, Evangelion, Infinite Stratos and other anime, Cyber Formula had a brief stint as a sponsor in Super Taikyu, appearing in the RFC Honda Civic Type R TCR in the ST-TCR class during the 2021 season.
 
Qualifying will be held on Friday afternoon local time while the Qualifying Race will be held on Saturday and the Main Race will be on Sunday. Along with the real car on the street track, the No. 30 Audi will be available as a diecast via Tarmac Works during the race week.
 
PHOTOS: IXO Modelcars, Suchiruu