'95 Grotti Cheetah

The Cheetah's one of the oldest names in Grand Theft Auto, and here it comes back as a 1995 Grotti. Rockstar calls it the manufacturer's signature mid-nineties sports car, and it's finished in a minimalist retro-futurist livery.

It's the headline vehicle of the Ultimate Edition, so to be plain about it: this isn't a car everyone gets. If you buy the standard game, it won't be waiting for you.

If you do buy Ultimate, it won't necessarily be waiting on launch night either. Rockstar describes the edition as "an exclusive collection of items threaded across all aspects of Jason and Lucia's story", so the extras turn up as you play (how the Ultimate Edition unlocks).

What the shots show

The body's white with red striping, and it's got pop-up headlamps, a slatted engine cover and a deep rear diffuser with quad lights. Inside, the cabin's red, with a squared-off wheel and a dashboard that's very much of its period.

The first image has it parked right outside the Pagasi residences, and that's deliberate staging. Rockstar's put its most expensive bonus car in front of the most expensive-looking address it's shown so far.

A Ferrari-shaped name since the 3D era

The Cheetah's been in the series since the 3D era, and it's always been the Ferrari-shaped one. The original was a Testarossa in everything but the badge, and that's exactly the car that defines the period Vice City is nostalgic for. Grotti's been Rockstar's Ferrari stand-in ever since.

Why 1995 and not 1986

The model year's the interesting call. Rockstar picked 1995, a decade after the original Vice City's 1986 setting, which makes this a used supercar in a modern-day game, an old car somebody's kept on the road. A period piece would've been the obvious choice. A thirty-year-old Ferrari-alike is a more Florida object than a brand-new hypercar would be.

It'll need looking after, too. Edge, which saw a Rockstar demo for its 29 October cover feature, reports that every vehicle in the game has a fuel gauge and engine health, so an old supercar runs on petrol and wears out like everything else on the road.

The Cheetah in Trailer 1

There's a Cheetah in the trailers too. The first trailer has a white one parked on Ocean Drive at night with its door up, on a Leonida plate that reads CH33TAH (our 4K read of the trailer text). Nobody can tell from that shot whether it's the '95 Ultimate Edition car or a regular Cheetah that's in everyone's game.

It's been in Miami in real life as well. A classic Ferrari dressed as the Grotti Cheetah ran in the Grand Theft Auto VI convoy through the city on 15 and 16 October (the convoy). That's marketing, though, and a wrapped car on a causeway doesn't tell you anything about the game.

What isn't known

Rockstar hasn't published any performance figures, and it hasn't said whether the white Cheetah in Trailer 1 is this car or a base-game one. Given how long the model's been in the series, some version of it's probably in everyone's game, but nobody's confirmed that. The '95 in this livery is the Ultimate Edition car, and Rockstar hasn't said at what point in the story it turns up.