The team of racers assembled from the Nissan Playstation GT Academy earned themselves a remarkable honor at the Dubai 24 Hour race this weekend, finishing third in their class and 26th overall. All four drivers, Lucas Ordoñez, Jordan Tresson, Bryan Heitkotter and Jann Mardenborough, are GT Academy grads, having started out behind the wheel of virtual race cars to win the opportunity to attend the GT Academy racing program.

The team qualified the #100 car fourth in their class and despite some mechanical issues the four drivers endured all 24 hours of the race without any damage to the Nissan 370Z while earning a podium finish.

This is truly an unprecedented achievement in the world of motorsports. As we all know, it’s tough enough to earn a podium finish as a professional racer with a complete team backing you up. So to take four virtual gamers from Gran Turismo, train them – with Heikotter and Mardenborough having less than a year to go from gamer to racer – and to finish third in the class, the GT Academy should be extremely proud.

Who said video games are a waste of time?

If it’s  impossible, implausible or just plain awesome and you can’t have it in real life, there’s always going to be video games to let you live out the fantasy.

Amid the buzz building around the new Acura NSX, we can’t help but think to ourselves that it would be nice to just jump in and drive the thing. No waiting around, just instant gratification like a kid in Toys-R-Us. The good news is, as you get older the toys tend to get way cooler and in this case more accessible.

Polyphony Digital, the creators behind the wildly successful Gran Turismo racing game series, have released a video featuring both the old and new versions of the Acura NSX ripping around a track. In addition to teasing the distinct possibility that Playstation 3 owners may soon get to “drive” the NSX, it features some of the key details released at this year’s Detroit Auto Show, including the fact that the car is a mid-mounted V6 hybrid using three electric motors. Gamers, power up your consoles.

Watch the video on the after the jump.

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Go ahead and start the jokes now on how long it’ll be until Gran Turismo 6 sees daylight, but the creator of the famous racing simulator franchise has confirmed GT6 is currently under development. Kazunori Yamauchi made the comments during an interview at the SEMA Show’s Gran Turismo awards, where he also spoke about the new downloadable content (DLC) for GT5.

“Of course we’re working on GT6 already and I think what really will be the separating factor is something that we can’t update through a DLC is something that obviously has to be saved for GT6. Things that we can provide through DLC we will, so that’s really the market difference.”

So how far along are they in developing GT6? We’re not sure. The bigger question now is whether or not it’ll make it to Sony’s Playstation3 or its successor, the Playstation4. And will we have to endure delays if Polyphony decides that development should take place on the next-generation console once it’s officially announced? Guess we shouldn’t hold our breath, something tells us the next generation of drivers will be the ones lining up to get their hands on this one.

[Source: IGN]

If you like tuner cars, you probably love the SEMA Show. At the 2011 installment of this custom car show, you could enter your personal ride to be forever immortalized in the digital world of the Gran Turismo game. Interested? Read on!

This year, as in some previous years, Sony/Polyphony will be holding a contest to see which show car should win the prize of being included in the next game. Five categories are open for the contest, which are Truck/SUV, Asian Import, European Import, Domestic Auto or Hot Rod.

The winner from each category will then be judged by Gran Turismo creator Kazumori Yamauchi, who is a bit of a car nut himself. He will pick just one car from the five categories to be sent to the digital lab for it to be reborn in the game. This vehicle will be included in the next installation of the Gran Turismo game.

Seeing how the last game took forever to hit the market, the winner of this contest is advised to not hold his/her breath waiting to see their ride appear in the game. Find out how to enter here.

The 2011 SEMA Show runs from November 1 – 4. Check out AutoGuide’s complete preview and coverage here.

Once again PlayStation and Polyphony Digital will present the Gran Turismo Awards at this year’s SEMA Show, where the Best of Show winner will have their vehicle immortalized in an upcoming Gran Turismo video game. Editors from numerous industry publications will choose the class winners in  five categories (Best Hot Rod; Best Japanese Import; Best European Import; Best Domestic Automobile; and Best Truck/SUV). Then Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi will pick the overall Best of Show car, which will be featured as a drivable vehicle in the racing simulator game Last year JR Rocha took the top sot for his wild Infiniti G37 (pictured above).

The winners will be announced in a ceremony on Wednesday, November 4th at Rain Nightclub in the Palms Casino Resort. Think you car has what it takes? Follow the link for details on how to send in your application.

[Source: SEMA]