Race after your dreams with the power of the ROG Strix SCAR 16 and SCAR 18

Every gamer wants to win. To be at the top of the leaderboard at the end of a match, to smile from the winner's podium after a race. But success in the digital domain rarely translates to the real world. One gamer, Jann Mardenborough, beat the odds and turned his unparalleled skill at racing in Sony’s Gran Turismo into a career as a professional driver. This incredible story inspired the new movie Gran Turismo, coming exclusively to cinemas on August 25th. 

Dreams have no limits 

Mardenborough launched his racing career with a firm grip on his controller and a natural talent for racing. He went to his friend’s house and played Gran Turismo so much that eventually the family gifted him his own copy of the game, furthering his obsession. “I started gaming when I was seven. Playing Gran Turismo on the original PlayStation, really just racing games,” Mardenborough said in a 2014 interview with The Guardian. “I’ve always had a passion for Gran Turismo and to drive cars I’d probably never, ever, get to drive.” 

When he entered GT Academy 2011, Mardenborough was one of 90,000 competitors. While he had driven his mom’s Hyundai coupe around town, he had never been behind the wheel of a real sports car. But his determination and skill kept him at the top of the leaderboards in his time trials, and he ended up at the finals at the Silverstone Circuit. Surrounded by other finalists and instructors, Mardenborough was allowed to drive the Nissan GTR and 370z at just 19 years old, with no experience on the track. As Gran Turismo’s director Neill Blomkamp explains, “Only then did he learn how to drive proper cars – how to hit an apex and exit a corner – everything he’d done intuitively inside the game, but had never been taught.”  

Despite driving the real deal for the first time at GT Academy, his passion for motorsports and raw talent drove him to victory, and a spot driving for Nissan in high profile races like the Dubai 24 Hour and the Fuji 24 Hour. Mardenborough is clear to point out that while he did have a knack for driving in game, he was not instantly the best in the real world, and it took years of dedication to reach his level of performance. 

The Strix SCAR 16 and 18 are built for competitors 

At the Republic of Gamers, we are driven every day to design and build high-performance gaming machines for gamers just like Jann Mardenborough. The 2023 Strix SCAR lineup embodies that energy and competitive spirit, with insanely powerful hardware, lightning-fast displays, and next generation cooling systems. Featuring up to an Intel 13th Gen Core i9-13980HX processor and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU, the 2023 Strix SCAR series is built for those who dominate (or dream of dominating) the leaderboards. 

For buttery smooth visuals that will help keep you firmly planted on track, we equipped the SCAR 16 with an incredibly fast QHD 240Hz Nebula HDR display with NVIDIA G-SYNC. This 16:10 aspect ratio panel sports a 90% screen-to-body ratio, immersing you right in the action on screen. As a member of our Nebula HDR lineup, this Mini LED-equipped panel can reach 1100 nits of peak brightness for ultra vivid colors and out of this world HDR experiences. Whether you’re catching the taillights of the lead car or cruising across France, the ROG Strix SCAR gaming laptops are the perfect tools to take your game to the next level.