Orlando Bloom's character, Danny Moore, is inspired by the real-life Darren Cox. He was a former Nissan Europe executive who, in 2008, founded GT Academy to help Sony PlayStation so that racing gamers could have a chance to become professional racing drivers.
Darren Barnet's character, Matty Davis, is loosely inspired on the real-life Brian Heitkotter, who was winner of GT Academy alongside Jann Mardenborough on 2011.
A local South African professional race car driver and sim racer, David Perel, cold-emailed director Neil Blomkamp offering his assistance. Blomkamp responded within 5 minutes, and over the next 7 months, Perel had the opportunity to be on set, providing advice on all things racing.
One of the other significant VFX challenges faced was that, while many tracks featured in the film are accurate tracks, the production was not going to be able to film at Le Mans for the 24 Heures du Mans race scene in the film. This meant no filming, scanning and no photography or photogrammetry could occur at that location. Instead, visual effects would create Le Mans, based on racing footage filmed in Hungary and additional CG builds.
Kazunori Yamauchi: the sushi chef in the Tokyo restaurant Mardenborough goes to with his girlfriend.