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.

Continue Reading…

Apparently the regular-sized edition of Gran Turismo 5 wasn’t good enough for public consumption anymore. Polyphony Digital and Sony have decided to super-size the popular racing simulator, releasing a new XL Edition that’s set to hit store shelves on January 17th.

Naturally the XL Edition will include all of the original GT5‘s contents but now includes all of the updates up to and including Spec 2.0 on the game disc. In addition, those that shell out $39.99 for the game will also get a voucher that’s good for $20 of DLC content. That means you can grab yourself Racing Car Pack, Car Pack 2, Course Pack, Racing Gear Pack and/or Paint Pack.

Those that just want to impress visitors to their homes though will also be able to show off a new reversible inside cover sheet that features the Red Bull X2011 supercar.

It’s a great buy for those that haven’t taken the plunge to purchase the original Gran Turismo 5 yet.

Gran Turismo 5 will be getting an update (version 2.02) on December 20th and with it will come the addition of Toyota‘s GT 86 to the game for free. A new downloadable content (DLC) Car Pack 2 will also be available for just $3.99 adding four new cars to your collection.

The second Car Pack DLC will add the 2012 Nissan GT-R Black R35, 2010 Volkswagen Scirocco R, 2010 Volkswagen Gold VI R and the 2011 MINI Cooper S to your garage. In addition, those that purchased the first DLC will receive the Gran Turismo Racing Kart 125 SP in the 2.02 patch.

The update will also come with some interface tweaks and will award virtual racers with 10 oil change and car wash coupons.

Click here to read AutoGuide’s 2013 Scion FR-S Review

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.

Happening right now out in Cologne, Germany is Gamescom, the world’s largest trade fair and event for video games and entertainment. And with all the passionate automotive enthusiasts in Germany, it’s no surprise that Sony wanted to make a statement in their booth by teaming up with Audi to show off a whole new way to play Gran Turismo 5. Custom built by quattro GmbH in Neckarsulm, the PlayStation Racing Simulator that’s currently setup at the booth is a full-on carbon-black Audi R8 LMS imitation race car.

The cockpit features the same bucket seat that one would find in the GT3 car, while they’ve added an additional one for a passenger to spectate. The roll cage has been simplified to make it easier to get in and out of the simulator, but players get to hold onto an authentic race steering wheel that’s been hooked up to the PlayStation 3 and enjoys full Dolby Surround Sound as they power their way through twists and turns.

What puts it altogether though are the pneumatic cylinders located where the race car’s suspension would be. This allows the virtual racer to really feel the physics of driving while in the cockpit of the simulator. That means they feel every bit of the centrifugal forces while cornering, braking and accelerating. According to reports, it took Audi and Sony six weeks to assemble the entire unit, far longer than it takes to build a real car.

Game developers never get much time off, and it looks like the development team for Gran Turismo is already hard at work on the successor to Gran Turismo 5, a game we still have yet to even touch. But now that GT5 has probably gone gold and game discs are being produced, Kazunori Yamauchi, the creative force behind the video game franchise, recently commented in an interview with Autoweek that GT6 is already in the early development stages.

In the rather lengthy interview, Yamauchi reveals Polyphony’s relationship with SEMA and discusses the process of perfecting Gran Turismo 5 and the reasons behind its constant delays. He did reveal that a new release date will be announced soon and that we could possibly be playing it by Christmas time, but we’re not overly optimistic.

But the biggest reveal came from a one-word answer to the question, “I know you’re trying to push GT5 out the door. Is development underway on GT6?” With the answer of “Yeah,” it’s no surprise that there are plans for a 6th rendition of Gran Turismo, but we are shocked that the development process is already underway.

And what we can possibly expect? Well, considering Yamauchi claims it took around 2,000 days to get GT5 the way he wanted it to be, he says it’s way too early to even speak about GT6. So let’s start the five years of speculating.

[Source: Autoweek]

Back in September, we were teased with Gran Turismo 5′s ultimate car – Red Bull’s X1 Prototype. Then we found out that Sony was just teasing us on Gran Turismo 5′s release date. In a bid to keep up interest and try and make us believe GT5 will ever arrive, they’ve released the official photos – and a whole lot of them – of Red Bull’s X1 Prototype. If we weren’t already anxious to play the game, we most certainly are now.

The X1 Prototype features a 3.0L V6 powerplant that gets a pair of turbochargers. The result is a mind-boggling 1,483-hp with 526 ft-lbs of torque. All this will be in a 1,355 lb chassis (gross weight) with a top speed of 249 mph.

From the screenshots it also seems like Red Bull will have a bigger role in the game besides just the awesome car. It looks like a Red Bull museum will also be recreated in the virtual GT5 universe, including their famous airplane.

Needless to say, we still can’t forgive all the delays that they keep pushing out on Gran Turismo 5, but we’re glad they’re at least adding some content that will hopefully be worth the wait.

GALLERY: Red Bull X1 Prototype

Continue Reading…

Let’s go ahead and add Gran Turismo 5 delays alongside death and taxes as life’s certainties. Taku Imasaki, Producer over at SCEA has posted the following information up on Sony’s official Playstation blog:

“We can confirm that Gran Turismo 5 will not be available this November 2nd, but the game’s release will be coming this holiday season.”

[Source: Playstation Blog]