gran-turismo.com http://www.gran-turismo.com/sg/news/ This is the news headline for gran-turismo.com, the official site for the Gran Turismo game series. en 2012-01-10T08:00:00+08:00 "ACURA NSX CONCEPT Image Video" now released http://www.gran-turismo.com/sg/news/d15963.html
This is an image video of the Acura NSX Concept, a model shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.]]> 2012-01-10T08:00:00+08:00 "Racing at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring 2011" now released http://www.gran-turismo.com/sg/news/d15769.html
The 'Nürburgring 24 hour race' is the world's largest touring car event. Kazunori Yamauchi has returned to this extreme race, driven on the combined Grand Prix course and Nordschleife of the Nürburgring.

This year he is participating from a private team, Shulze Motorsports. The car is the R35 GT-R, which is challenging the Nürburgring 24 hour race for the first time since its release. See the close battle against the works teams of Volkswagen in the SP8T class, and the first class victory of the Nissan GT-R attained by Shulze Motorsports and Kazunori Yamauchi.

Combining aerial shots as well as exciting in-car cameras, this program covers the 24 hours of Nürburgring driven by Kazunori Yamauchi.]]> 2011-12-22T17:00:00+08:00 Europe's GT Academy Wins Two More Advertising Media Awards http://www.gran-turismo.com/sg/news/d15531.html
This comes as a welcome addition to the Cannes 'Gold Lion' award for 'Best Use of Branded Content' and Gold 'Best International Campaign' at the UK Media Awards earlier this year.

The 'Campaign' award panel summed up GT Academy as follows;

"NISSAN makes amazing sports cars but lacked the heritage and fanatical following of other marques. At the same time, SONY PlayStation® was looking at how to broaden the appeal of its Gran Turismo®5 game to non-traditional gamers.

The result was the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy, a global initiative to find a brilliant Gran Turismo gamer and turn them into a racing driver to compete at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Twenty gamers were taken to an intensive training school at Silverstone, where their progress was recorded and made available online. At the same time, journalists were invited to take part in a similar academy, ensuring mainstream and specialist press coverage.

Footage was turned into a 6 part television series broadcast on Channel 4 and distributed to 160 countries. Estimated global media value of the campaign is more than £30 million."

The 'GT Academy' has attained remarkable achievements on real life tracks, with the first GT Academy Winner Lucas Ordonez claiming 2nd place at the Le Mans, and winning the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup title. The second year winner Jordan Tresson has also won the Blancpain Endurance series this year. The awards received today are victories off the track, in recognition for the efforts made by all those involved in this project.]]> 2011-12-01T15:22:43+08:00 Toyota 86 Concept Movie http://www.gran-turismo.com/sg/news/d15542.html 2011-11-30T20:20:40+08:00 The GRAN TURISMO AWARDS SEMA goes to a '73 Chevrolet Camaro http://www.gran-turismo.com/sg/news/d15369.html
The SEMA show is a festival for custom cars with participants from all over America. The ninth annual Gran Turismo Awards SEMA starts off by picking five gems from the hundreds of beautiful cars on the show floor, in five different categories. This year’s category winners selected by motor journalists from top American media are as follows:

- Best Truck/SUV: CGS Performance Ford F150 (Owner: Casey Scranton)
- Best Domestic: 1966 Widebody Ford Mustang (Owner: Filip Trojanek)
- Best Asian Import: Custom Nissan 370Z (Owner: Mike Mixon)
- Best European Import: Custom Porsche 911 C4 (Owner: Mark Arcenal)
- Best Hot Rod: Custom Chevrolet Camaro (Owner: Mary Pozzi)

On the evening of November 5th the final awards ceremony were held at the Marquee nightclub of the Cosmopolitan hotel, and the Best in Show was selected from these five category winners. Kazunori Yamauchi, after going to the SEMA show floor himself to carefully examine each car personally, selected a stunning orange metallic car that had an aura of its own: the 1971 Custom Chevrolet Camaro.

Although this Camaro has all the looks of the 2nd generation Camaro from the good old days, it is a proper racing car that is still being raced today. The owner Mary Pozzi is a racer herself, and has been participating in autocross racing in this car since around 2005. The front section and boot lid are all carbon, and many other components have been trimmed down to reduce weight. The engine is Chevrolet's legendary LS2 small block V8, tuned to 620bhp, and the transmission and rear axle have been beefed up in order to transfer the power to the ground.

This was the first female owner to win the Gran Turismo Awards, and we can look forward to another beautiful machine being added to Gran Turismo in the future.
]]> 2011-11-11T12:52:36+08:00 X2010 to X2011 – the Evolution http://www.gran-turismo.com/sg/news/d15127.html The Gran Turismo 5 “Racing Car Pack” and the “Complete Pack” DLC, available from October 18th of this year also features the Red Bull X2011 Prototype.

All racing machines are subject to many small refinements and changes year after year. The X2010 is no exception, and through the hands of Red Bull Racing’s Adrian Newey and Gran Turismo, it has evolved into the X2011.

Here we will introduce the actual advancements that have been made:

 

1. Slimmed down mono-canopy for reduced frontal projected surface area

The engine induction box and the shock absorbent material supporting the driver helmet were optimised, to slim down the glass canopy characteristic to the X2010. As a result the frontal projected surface area of the car has been reduced.

 

2. Optimisation of the side pontoons

The shape of the side pontoons containing the radiator as seen from its sides, were changed to become a narrow– bulge– narrow cross section, so that the air flows neatly towards the rear (mainly to the rear diffuser).

As compared to the X2010, the upper and lower surface (seen from the side) of the side pontoon is now more teardrop in shape, and allows air to flow efficiently towards the rear. Though not apparent from the outside, the cross sectional area of the air duct leading from the exhaust fan to the skirt at the rear end was also made slightly larger to improve the efficiency of the fan.

 

3. Exhaust fan mechanism changed to a rotating blade - static blade combination

The fan used to draw out the air from the underfloor was improved. The X2010 utilised a simple fan using only rotating blades, but in the X2011 the fan now takes on a two layer structure using static blades added behind the rotating blades to improve efficiency.

Due to the improved efficiency it became possible to reduce the speed of the exhaust fan, resulting in reduced loss in drive power for the engine. This has improved engine output by approximately 5%.

 

4. Rear wing width increased to the full width of the body

The width of the rear wing on the X2010 was limited to be within the width of the rear wheels, but this has now been widened to the full width of the body. This allows it to more effectively rectify the air flowing over the rear wheel arch, reducing both drag and lift.

 

5. Optimisation of the rear bumper

Another characteristic shape of the X2010, the rear wheelarches, were changed to be more tear-drop in shape (mainly the upper surface). The lifted rear end of the arches were also made slightly longer.

This is to reduce the drag caused by the air wrapping around at the rear end of the car after passing though the rear wheelarch.

 

6. Extension of the rectifying fins at the rear end of the front wheelarches, towards the rear

The rectifying fins at the rear end of the front wheelarches were extended so that air flowing on the outside of the front wheelarches will flow more smoothly towards the side pontoons.

 

7. Changed the shape of the exhaust louvre on top of the pontoons

The shape of the exhaust louvres on top of the pontoons were revised to more efficiently draw out air in the side pontoons.

 

8. Exhaust outlet positioning

The position and direction of the exhaust outlet on top of the side pontoons were optimised to match the flow of air above the pontoons.

 

The Red Bull X2011 prototype has stepped even closer to perfection as the ultimate racing machine. Drive for yourself and experience the evolution.

]]> 2011-10-28T20:02:15+08:00 Spec 2.0 opening movie now available http://www.gran-turismo.com/sg/news/d15016.html We hope you enjoy the new movie featuring the latest update and DLC content.]]> 2011-10-17T17:00:00+08:00 GT Academy Winner Becomes Champion of the Le Mans Challenge http://www.gran-turismo.com/sg/news/d14989.html
With this podium finish, Signatech became this seasons LMP2 Class Series Champion, even before the final race. The drivers who became series champions were Franck Mailleux, Jean-Karl Vernay, Soheil Ayari and the first GT Academy winner, Lucas Ordonez. (*There is no drivers title set in the ILMC). In his first full participation in endurance racing, Lucas has achieved the podium of the Le Mans and became the ILMC champion, proving beyond doubt that the driving experience in "Gran Turismo" is effective in real competition.

In the Petit Le Mans fought over 10 hours and 1000 miles, the same number of cars as in the original Le Mans compete on a circuit that is 1/3 the length of the Sarthe circuit, making this a tough race every time.

Though Signatech Nissan went into the final in 2nd place from the qualifying round, and ranked at the top of its class in the beginning of the race, it became a close battle with the Level 5 Motorsports Acura HPD ARX01G in the same class of the ALMS (American Le Mans Series). The team worked hard to carefully manage the numerous safety car periods so no time was lost, and marked the fastest lap of the race in mid race, but they were plagued with power steering problems immediately after. They lost 30 minutes in its repair, but managed to still complete the race in third place. But the 11 points for 3rd place were enough to place them immovably at the top of the point rankings, making them series champions even before the final race of the series at Zhuhai (China).

Coment from Lucas Ordonez:
"This has been another sensational weekend for us, we are the Champions and it is incredible! My biggest handicap this weekend was the traffic, with over 50 cars entered and the big difference between the GT and the LMP cars. I had to concentrate a lot harder than at the standard six-hour races. I am proud to have been part of our 2011 success. For me this is something quite indescribable! My thanks to Nissan and the whole team!"]]> 2011-10-11T15:47:11+08:00 Notice of the Sebastian Vettel World Champion Celebration Event and Giveaway http://www.gran-turismo.com/sg/news/d14635.html To commemorate Red Bull Racing's 2 year consecutive constructors champion achievement, the duration of the "Red Bull X2010 S.Vettel" giveaway campaign has been extended for 1 week!

In the F1 Japan Grand Prix final today, Sebastian Vettel became the 2011 F1 series world champion. To celebrate this occasion, we have started two special campaigns in Gran Turismo 5. Both campaigns are only offered for a limited time (1 week).

Special Online Event

We will be hosting a time trial on the Suzuka Circuit, using the Red Bull X2010 S.Vettel. Try driving the “fastest racing car on earth, free of any and all regulations", on the same Japan Grand Prix final course where Sebastian Vettel became series champion.

The prize for winning this race is an incredible 5 million credits. And because this is a champion celebration event the difficulty for the Gold time target has been set lower than usual, making this a great opportunity for everyone to win a huge prize.

To participate in the online event:

(1) Start Gran Turismo 5 on a PS3™ system connected to the internet, and start the game while signed into the PSN. (If a game update is found, please perform the update first).

(2) Go from the top screen to [GT Mode] - [GT Life] - [Seasonal Events].


(3) Select your event from the event listing.

 

Red Bull X2010 S. Vettel Giveaway

Everyone who logs onto Gran Turismo 5 during the campaign will receive the Red Bull X2010 S.Vettel in the game.

Celebrate this historic birth of the new king of racing by adding GT5's ultimate dream car, the Red Bull 2010 to your own garage.

How to receive the car:

(1) Start Gran Turismo 5 on a PS3™ system connected to the internet, and start the game while signed into the PSN. (If a game update is found, please perform the update first).

(2) Go from the top screen to [GT Mode] – [ Community] - [Gift].


(3) Select the [Gift Car Ticket] from the list of gifts.


(4) Change the display to [GT Life], and select the Red Bull X2010 S.Vettel from [Car Delivery] at the bottom of the screen. The car receiving scene will appear.


*The logon deadline for receiving the present is October 17, 2011 at 9am JST. * The screenshots shown are from the English version.
]]> 2011-10-09T16:09:40+08:00 Get Ready to download the Red Bull X2010 to commemorate Sebastian Vettel’s historic F1 Championship http://www.gran-turismo.com/sg/news/d14612.html
One of the stars of the Red Bull racing team, Vettel currently has a commanding lead in the F1 Drivers Championship. With only five races left in the 2011 season, Vettel currently has a 124-point lead over McLaren driver Jenson Button. Having already earned 309 points so far this season, Vettel needs to score only one point, by finishing 10th place or better, in one of the remaining five races to go home with the title.

The next race on the F1 calendar is the Japan Grand Prix, scheduled to take place on October 9. Should Vettel clinch the F1 championship for the second time, look for the official announcement on gran-turismo.com and in the News section in Gran Turismo 5 to find out when this special limited time offer will start.
About the Red Bull X2010:

The Red Bull X2010 racecar is the ultimate driving machine. A fantasy vehicle found exclusively in Gran Turismo 5, the X2010 was created as a joint project between Red Bull Racing and Gran Turismo makers Polyphony Digital. It was designed with only one purpose in mind: to go fast as possible, free of any and all racing regulations. Initial plans for the X2010 called for it to be a conventional single-seat race-car with covered wheels. But Adrian Newey, genius chief technical officer of Red Bull Racing and partner in the X2010 project, suggested a radical element be added to improve the car’s downforce: fan technology.

The X2010 isn’t the first racecar to adopt fan technology. It has been tried before in the Chaparral 2J and Brabham BT46B, but both these racecars were ultimately banned from professional racing because they were deemed to make the vehicle too fast. The X2010 incorporates this forbidden technology flawlessly, as the car’s front and rear wings were designed to maximize the fan’s effectiveness. All of this results in a car that is capable of going more than 450 km/h, and that pulls 8.75gs of lateral acceleration through corners…the very limits of what the human body can handle.

Conceived by Polyphony Digital and perfected by Adrian Newey, the X2010 is indeed the ultimate racecar. And the only way to experience it is in Gran Turismo 5.
 

 
]]> 2011-10-05T14:16:51+08:00