Six things hiding in Rockstar's own GTA 6 vehicle screenshots

Rockstar’s press bundles contain more images than anyone publishes. Most coverage picks the prettiest one and moves on.

We went through the vehicle set properly, opening every file rather than reading its name, and there are six things in there worth writing down. Four are simply readable off the image. Two are inference, and they are labelled as such.

1. We can now read Leonida’s number plate

Two shots between them give the whole design.

The rear of the Grotti Cheetah shows the bottom half: GOODTIME STATE, with an orange sitting in the middle of the plate. The tail fin of the Vapid Stanier shows the top half: LEONIDA.

So a Leonida plate reads LEONIDA across the top, the state nickname GOODTIME STATE across the bottom, and an orange between the characters.

That is a straight lift of Florida’s real plate, which carries an orange and the state name in the same positions. “Goodtime State” is invented. Florida’s actual nickname is the Sunshine State.

It also connects to something already on this site. One of the businesses on our places page is Goodtime Gear, a Vice City souvenir shop. “Goodtime” is not a one-off joke, it is Leonida’s word for itself.

2. The police chase you by boat, with a helicopter overhead

This is the find.

An overhead night shot of the Shitzu Squalo has a Vice City Police boat running alongside it, close enough to read the lettering on the hull, while a police helicopter holds station off to the side with its spotlight on the water and rotor wash visible on the surface beneath it.

Rockstar has said the wanted system is rebuilt, and we have written up how losing the police works. What no official statement has covered is what happens when you run for the water. This image answers it: a marine unit and air support, together, at night.

Two people are visible in the Squalo’s cockpit, so this is a pursuit rather than a patrol.

3. There is a scuba set sitting on the deck

A second Squalo shot shows two characters on the swim platform with a cool box, a gull on the arch, and two dolphins in the water alongside. On the deck between them is a full scuba harness and tank.

This is where we stop and label things. A prop in official artwork is not a confirmed mechanic. Rockstar has not said a word about diving in GTA 6.

What can be said: GTA 5 had diving, this is Rockstar’s most water-heavy map yet, and the studio chose to place a scuba set in a promotional image. That is worth noticing and it is not evidence. Anyone telling you diving is confirmed is going further than the picture does.

The dolphins are simply there. Marine wildlife, in official imagery, unambiguous.

4. The Ultimate Edition car is branded for a business on the map

We had already worked out that the Vapid Buggy wears Wyman’s World livery. The full-car shot makes it unmistakable: the door carries the Wyman’s World roundel, the words parts bought and sold, and race number 6.

Wyman’s World Auto Salvage Co. is a real business in the game, listed on our places page from a separate Rockstar image of the yard itself.

So a vehicle you only get by paying twenty dollars extra is decorated for a scrapyard you can presumably visit. That is a small thing, but it is the kind of small thing that suggests the Ultimate Edition content was built inside the world rather than bolted onto it.

5. The detail level on bonus vehicles is not reduced

Three of these images are interiors or close-ups, and they are worth a line because of what they rule out.

The Cheetah has a full red leather cabin with two round dials, a period cassette head unit, drilled alloy pedals, and Grotti’s prancing horse on the steering wheel boss. The Vapid Buggy has a 1960s dash with a preset radio, a clock on the passenger side, and a roll cage tube running across the door opening. The Stanier close-up shows whitewall tyres branded Ballour, a bullet wing mirror and a skirted rear arch.

These are pre-order and Ultimate Edition vehicles, the category that in most games gets a reskin. They are modelled to the same standard as anything else shown so far.

6. Two small identification points

The Cheetah is a Testarossa, and Grotti is Ferrari. The side strakes, the twin round lamps inside rectangular housings, and a prancing horse used twice on the car settle both.

The Buggy’s headlights are taped over in an X. Real off-road racers do that so a stone strike does not scatter glass across the course. It is a detail nobody adds unless they have looked at the real thing.

Where to see them

All twelve of these images are now published on our vehicles page, each captioned with what is actually in the frame.

Every one is an official Rockstar image from the GTA VI media pages. We host no leaked material and never will.