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The Cars of Driver 3, Part I

We profile the muscle cars of Driver 3 with tons of details, screens, in-game movies, and renders.

As the Driver series progresses into its third iteration, Reflections' driving opus has come into a new realm of driving, as its expanded the size and scope of its cities, the level of out-of-car action, and the sheer quantity of vehicles that gamers can drive.

What's going to put smiles on people's faces is the vast variety of vehicles. Throughout the 30 mission game, which takes place in three cities, Nice, France, Istanbul, Turkey, and Miami, Florida, racing fans will get the chance to strap into more than 70 kinds of unlicensed cars, trucks, boats and motorcycles.

As Reflections' Martin Edmondson has said, the Driver series has always been designed to be like a Hollywood car chase. Given the huge array of vehicles to choose from, players are naturally going to engage in car chases bolstered by superb physics, endless amounts of car crashes, and some interesting level designs giving players choices that affect the way the mission plays out. The series' quiet tough hero, Tanner, has returned in his undercover cop role once again, this time confronting an intelligent carjacking network as he jacks drivers out of their cars, races across traffic in huge cities, and goes where no Driver game has gone before. In the 30-plus missions, players will have several mission objectives per mission, with 70% of the game taking place in cars, and 30% taking place on foot.

In today's first feature, which details the stars of the game, the cars themselves, we show off the look of each car in render form, as well by exclusive in-game screenshots, and with never-seen-before movies. We also provide the car specs and the model from which they're taken.

Banshee Hotrod
The Banshee is one of those classic American cars remade from the 1950s. It's a rather flashy hot rod in the proper sense, with detailed fenders, lights, roof, and well, pretty much everything else you can think of; if you owned a Matchbox or Hot Wheels car when you were a kid, you probably owned this baby, or at least a variation thereof.

Speed: 135 Power: 303 Weight: 1450 Engine Type: V8 Displacement: 6286 Wheelbase: 3.21

69 Bruiser
Though Reflections has once again decided not to license cars due to the violent way in which each one is utterly destroyed (heh heh, which is actually why Driver 3 is so much fun), it's quite clear where this car originates. So, can you guess what kind of manufacturer this cool muscle car comes from? Think of horse names, or wait, is this based on a cat name?

Speed: 135 Power: 306 Weight: 1265 Engine Type: V8 Displacement: 5409 Wheelbase: 2.77

Santan TTZ
The Santan TTZ is hilariously close in origin to the original name of the real car, which, strangely isn't the name of the manufacturer anymore. Does that make sense? Just think of that old commercial that used the word "Awesome!" a little too loosely and you'll know where this little gem comes from.

Speed: 127 Power: 150 Weight: 1200 Engine Type: L6-DOHC Displacement: 2565 Wheelbase: 2.41

80 Redline
I like to think of fiery red birds when I see this car, but that's just me. On the other hand, this car reminds me of that killer vehicle that Burt Reynolds drove in that very old 1970s movie, Smokey and the Bandit. Something having to do with Trans…somethings, and a radio band that isn't FM. Anyway, big engine, skids like few others, and relatively long for a sedan-style car.

Speed: 125 Power: 225 Weight: 1450 Engine Type: V8 Displacement: 6556 Wheelbase: 2.69

That's it for the Muscle Car section of our six-part feature. Come back next week for a whole new set of killer vehicles. Driver 3 is due on Xbox and PlayStation 2 on June 21, 2004, coming to the PC sometime after. We'll have more soon.

©2004, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved

12:00 am PDT May 20, 2004

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