I’ll happily admit that ever since playing Grand Theft Auto III in the early 2000’s that I’m addicted to the game series. Don’t go judging me based upon that. Ever since GTA IV came out, the vehicles became realistic parodies of actual vehicles, very close to their real-life counterparts. One car that has lasted the entire GTA series is the Bravado Banshee, which, for most of the series, has been a spoof of the Dodge Viper. (In the 1980’s Miami-themed Vice City and Vice City Stories, the Banshee was a C4 Corvette.)
For a prize giveaway to celebrate GTA V, Rockstar Games (the creators of the Grand Theft Auto series) wanted to have a real-life Banshee made. The project was turned over to West Coast Customs, who took a 2006 Dodge Viper SRT-10 and got to work. Digital renderings of the Banshee were translated into badges, headlights, taillights, bumper clips, hood and emblems that visually matched the in-game version of the car. The dashboard was slightly modified and the Banshee logos were embroidered into the seats, door panels and dash cap.
The Banshee has been on eBay for a few rounds now, hovering around the $100,000 mark. While I think the idea is pretty cool, there are a couple other cars that could’ve been a better (let alone cheaper!) choice to modify from the game:
Vapid Dominator (Ford Mustang)
Canis Mesa (modified Jeep Wrangler)
Declasse Sabre 550SS (GM G-body)
Click here to see the eBay link for the real-life Banshee.
I don’t really want anything that WCC has touched… but do want a Viper badly enough that I wouldn’t turn that one down if it was cheap enough.