Life has been known to imitate art. Many companies, in particular, have taken to Rockstar Games and Grand Theft Auto for inspiration. But it very rarely happens that we see someone take this inspiration a step further and bring something from the video games into real life.
Like, for example, create a Liberty City Police Cruiser and drive it around New York City.
X user Mellz transformed a decommissioned police vehicle into a fully realized Liberty City Police Department cruiser and has been driving it around the real-world inspiration for the setting of Grand Theft Auto 4 over the past week.
The user documented the entire journey from the initial purchase to cruising through Times Square on X.
The story began back in August when Mellz acquired a retired Ford Crown Victoria, which went through months of repairs, modifications, and customization work until it was transformed into a proper replica, complete with an LCPD license plate and working lights and all.
Perhaps most impressively, the custom decals featuring the same text and iconography players see on the police vehicles patrolling Liberty City are made from glow-in-the-dark material, adding an extra visual element that makes the car stand out even more in low-light conditions.
Side-by-side comparisons posted online show just how accurate the recreation is. The real vehicle parked on New York streets looks remarkably similar to screenshots of the Vapid Police Cruiser from the game
If we didn’t know any better, we’d have thought that this was a Rockstar Games-commissioned project, done to tease and market the long-rumored remaster of the 2008 title.
As we inch closer to the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 with its setting in a fictionalized version of Florida, Vice City, these types of projects remind us why earlier entries in the series remained beloved if underrated.
Fingers crossed, this will inspire Rockstar to make the GTA 4 remaster official.
Rockstar is currently expected to reveal something related to GTA 6 within the next week, ahead of the next Take-Two Interactive earnings call. We’ve already gotten a revamped website earlier this week. We’re hoping that we’ll get more soon.
