MOTORISTS may soon be able to drive at 170mph through the gridlocked streets of Manhattan — from the safety of a Rotherham car park.

A new concept car aimed at the baggy-trousered, baseball-cap wearing post-MTV generation will feature the world’s first dashboard-mounted Xbox 360 video game system as standard.

It will not work while the car is being driven, but when parked, the Nissan Urge’s steering wheel, accelerator and brake pedals can be used to control the Xbox, which will come loaded with Project Gotham Racing 3. A 7 in video monitor will flip down from the roof.

“Nissan conducted a survey of 2,000 ‘echo-boomers’, a majority of which said technology and gaming are among the most important attributes in their first car,” Bruce Campbell, vice-president of design at Nissan Design America in La Jolla, California, said. An “echo-boomer” is a child of a baby-boomer.

The car itself is a stripped-down, motorcycle-inspired design, with an aluminium centre structure and a glass bonnet, giving a view of a small, high-revving engine. It also features see-through door panels, a collapsible canvas roof, a Formula One-style steering wheel, and lightweight mesh bucket seats. The biggest draw, however, is the Xbox in the dash.

Putting video games in cars has long been popular with wealthy rappers, who for years have installed PlayStations in the back seats of Range Rovers and Cadillac Escalades. The concept gained momentum with the popular MTV show Pimp My Ride, in which the rapper Xzibit takes a viewer’s clapped-out banger to the West Coast Customs workshop in Los Angeles to be remodelled.

The car usually emerges with brightly coloured paintwork, chrome wheel rims, a leather interior, and a built-in video game console. To “pimp” has now become a widely used verb, meaning to improve.

Cadillac attempted to capitalise on the phenomenon by inviting rappers, record moguls and athletes to a private viewing of its 2006 Escalade, at which they could give feedback on the wheels, audio system and other interior features.

The upshot was the Cadillac Escalade ‘Platinum Edition’, which features two ceiling-mounted television screens, 20in chrome wheels and cup holders that can both heat and cool drinks. It comes with a 6.0 litre engine, costs more than $70,000, and does about 15 miles to the gallon.

Younger consumers, unable to afford luxury SUVs, have instead focused on brands such as Nissan, largely thanks to the “cool” factor bestowed on it by the sub-culture of illegal street racing that became popular in California during the 1990s.

Many street racers are young Asian-Americans, and their cars of choice are heavily modified cheap Japanese saloons.

Although Nissan does not plan to put the Urge into production, some of its features, including the Xbox, are likely to turn up in future models. Project Gotham allows motorists to race virtually through the streets of New York, London, Las Vegas and Tokyo, as well as the famous Nurburgring circuit in Germany.

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