Remember the Photomode location in Gran Turismo 4, which let you place your car on a boat in front of the famous Rialto Bridge in Venice? Citroen managed to re-create this scene from the game in the real world earlier this week, with the radical Citroen GT concept car designed by Polyphony Digital.

In town for the annual Carnival of Venice, the car floated throughout the city, its modern lines sharply contrasting with the Renaissance architecture. Hopefully, this Venetian location will be back for GT5, and we’ll be able to take our own shots of the GT on the Grand Canal…one day!

Keep reading for more pictures – thanks to Snake206 for digging this up!

Remember the custom-built 1970 Mustang that won top honors at the 2009 GT Awards during SEMA last November? It’s quite an impressive machine, and PS Forums user SWERV_GRIFFIN was on hand when a Polyphony Digital team visited by Grand Touring Garage to collect data about the car. He’s shared his impressions and hundreds of pictures of the car (here, here, here, and here) so we can see it before, during, and after its extensive makeover.

A local website has also posted a great article with more background information about the ‘Stang and Philip Koenen, the man who created it. The most interesting thing: he states the car will be “available for download”. Could we be looking at one of the first cars to be featured in a DLC pack…?

Kazunori Yamauchi added yet another event to his motorsport resume earlier this month when he competed in the 25 Hours of Thunder Hill in California. Yamauchi drove an N-spec Honda Civic for Spoon Sports along with several experienced teammates including Tatsuru Ichishima, Naoki Hattori, and journalist Sam Mitani. The all managed a clean drive, but their performance was unfortunately hampered by penalties for improper fueling and (interestingly) a too-loud exhaust. Nevertheless, it was a great experience for Yamauchi-san who is learning much from all this track time:

“Thunder Hill was a completely new circuit for me, having had no experience on it virtually or otherwise. Its extreme ups and downs and reverse banked corners are unimaginable in Japanese and European circuits, and is quite characteristic to North America.

Driving with Mr. Ichishima of the legendary Spoon team, and with Mr. Naoki Hattori who has experience in both F1 and CART, I was very careful to be smooth and constant when driving so that I wouldn’t be a handicap to the team.

Not having a lot of experience in circuit driving, and not knowing what to expect in a 25-hour race, I was very relieved to find that I was able to reduce the 20-second gap between my laptimes and my teammates’ at the beginning of the practice to almost zero at the start of the final race. It was a great feeling to confirm first hand that “Gran Turismo” has a positive effect in not just learning specific tracks, but also in raising the level of driving technique in the drivers themselves.

And racing as part of a team like Spoon, with its long celebrated history, led by true professional drivers like Mr. Ichishima and Mr. Hattori, gave me a lot of insight and experience that will be useful for creating future editions of Gran Turismo.

Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen Yamauchi’s smooth driving in action -- don’t forget about his on-board Nurburgring lap we saw last month. His ultimate goal is to compete in the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring next year, so this lengthy event at Thunder Hill was a great primer. Check out the gallery below for more!

In what appears to be the exceedingly awesome Studie store in Japan, you can get behind the “wheel” of a classic BMW E30 M3 and play Gran Turismo 4. The store, which looks to be a specialist in all things Bavarian, has fitted a Logitech Driving Force Pro (yes, it’s begging for a G25) in front of the drivers seat and mounted a Sony Bravia flat-screen right onto the hood. While I admit that it does feel a bit superfluous to see such a revered race car converted into a gaming rig, it’s bringing a lot more fun and enjoyment to people than if it was sitting there locked up – even if it doesn’t move like that Audi TT at GamesCom. Check out all the pictures of the store at Gawa, and thanks to “Enzo” for sending this in!

GTPlanet Twitter follower jef722 sent me a link to a recent article posted by EDGE Online, and I found its perspective and approach incredibly refreshing. EDGE argues that Yamauchi’s creation is much more than just a racing game – it’s a classic Japanese RPG, played out in hundreds or even thousands of races:

While you can extrapolate Gran Turismo’s unusual design forward into the beginnings of customizable, sandbox gaming, you can also trace it back to a much more traditional source. It so drastically expanded the scale and lifespan of the racing game by following a path parallel to that of Japan’s dominant game form, the RPG epic. The arc is the same: from humble beginnings, you incrementally acquire greater power, in order to best new opponents, in order to earn more currency and in order to acquire greater power still. Buying parts and tuning settings to develop car performance is a close analogue of leveling RPG characters, increasing and tweaking their stats by buying them new abilities and equipment. The experience of playing the game is characterized as much by acres of menu downtime, browsing, comparing, fiddling and planning, as by the action itself.

This formula seems commonplace now, but it changed everything back in 1998. These other games, however, fail to emulate the seemingly endless choice of vehicular options in GT, and its open structure gives you no choice but to write your own story. Of course, if you want to write that story, it’s going to take hard work, something which EDGE touched on quite eloquently:

You have to step out of Arcade mode and start on the long road of a Gran Turismo career to get past the immaculate sensory sheen and unearth GT’s radical agenda for racing games. In doing so you step straight into the first round of the infamous license tests, the austere lessons in driving technique that provide access to the various championships and racing events. They’re almost perversely unexciting; the first thing the game asks you to do is drive a small hatchback in a straight line and then stop it. It’s a long way from the seductive rush of the arcade, or even the steep demands of a motorsport simulation. The tests’ purpose is to train, yes, but also, by their very dullness, to imply the deadly seriousness of what’s to follow. This isn’t kids’ stuff, and you can’t just walk into it; Gran Turismo is a privilege that must be earned with graft. Many are put off by them, and it’s almost as if they were meant to be.

Indeed, if you’re a patient, hard worker, you’re going to find the Gran Turismo experience incredibly rewarding. If you’re just looking for a quick thrill, you’re going to have a more difficult time appreciating what GT really is. Thankfully, for those of us who enjoy the challenge, Yamauchi has kept each major release true to the original, and let’s hope that doesn’t change with GT5. As we look forward to it, we should not forget to appreciate his artistic foresight which has provided us so many great memories over the last decade. Check out the full article right here for more!

Although Sony may have decided that we wouldn’t find Gran Turismo 5 under the tree this year, that doesn’t mean that the GT fanatic in your life needs to have a gloomy Christmas dreaming about “what could have been”. Even if they haven’t been good enough this year for a VisionRacer VR3 or a Wheel Stand Pro, there are actually quite a few unique and rare items out there which I know I would certainly love to receive. So, as the holiday shopping season starts in full swing today, here’s a few gift ideas you might not have considered for yourself or that ultimate fan. Keep in mind, however, that one-of-a-kind items on eBay go quickly after I spotlight them on GTPlanet (that’s what happened last year), so don’t hesitate too long if you find something you really like.

• Official Gran Turismo Jacket
• Official GT5 Prologue Jacket
• 1:18 AutoArt Skyline GT Model (another here)
• 1:18 AutoArt Ford GT LM Spec II Model (…and another here)
• Remote-Control Ford GT LM Spec II from HPI Motorsport
• GT5 Prologue Cushion Pillow (kinda odd)
• Nurburgring 24h GT Windshield Decal Sticker
• Gran Turismo 4 Prologue (for true collectors)
• The Cars of Gran Turismo by Huw Evans (look for a contribution from yours truly on page 12)

Of course, it’s always a good time to pick up something from the GTPlanet Store – and really, who doesn’t want a thong bearing our logo? Happy shopping, everyone!

Remember when GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi joined the Lexus team for the VLN race on the Nurburgring last month? AutoExpress has now also posted a complete on-board lap of the Nordschleife with Yamauchi-san at the wheel! As you can see, he’s a smooth, quick, and calm driver in what appears to be a very balanced and composed IS-F on the infamously bumpy track.

Kazunori Yamauchi’s participation in the VLN’s BFGoodwrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft event on the Nurburgring Nordschleife last month is carefully documented in the latest issue of Auto Express. Editor Owen Mildenhall, who shared the car with Yamauchi and Peter Lyon during the 4 hour endurance race, has posted about the experience on the magazine’s website. Unfortunately, the differential on the team’s Lexus IS-F wasn’t up to the task, forcing Yamauchi to retire the car after just 40 minutes behind the wheel.

It wasn’t all for naught, though: Yamauchi still learned from the intense experience, which he hopes to be able to simulate in Gran Turismo 5:

“I feel like I am in a dream, driving as fast as I possibly can. The only time I get in this trance-like state is when I am racing a real car. I want to understand what makes me feel like that, and ultimately feed it back into Gran Turismo 5.”

Of course, this actually isn’t Yamauchi’s first event on the Nurburgring – he also competed in another VLN race in the IS-F last August, with the team finishing first in their class (Yamauchi blogged on preparations for the event here and here). His ultimate goal is to compete in the Nurburgring 24-hour Endurance race next May, and, hopefully, we’ll all be able to follow along at home with fresh copies of Gran Turismo 5!

Gran Turismo 5 is about to make its public debut in UK shopping malls as it joins Sony’s ongoing “PlayStation House Tour“. As you can see in the description, the “touring games extravaganza” will give you “the chance to test out all the best titles and newest releases [...] including [...] GT5″. Sure enough, when GTPlanet forum user Kyaw checked out the “House” in the Birmingham Bullring, the staff on-hand confirmed a demo of the racing title will be there “soon”. Before you get too excited, keep in mind this version of the game will almost certainly be similar (if not identical) to what was playable in France last month. (Though the latest demo running at the Tokyo Motor Show including the Toyota FT-86 would certainly make for a pleasant surprise.)

Regardless, with so many GT fans in the UK, this will be a great opportunity for many of you to see what the gaming press has been enjoying for some time now. The “House Tour” will be in Birmingham until November 1st, before moving to Manchester and beyond.

*UPDATE*: Sony has now removed the game from the list of playable titles at this event – see here for more information.

Logitech’s new steering wheel has finally arrived! They’re in stock right now at Amazon.com for $287.38, plus shipping. Reports in our forums also indicate the G27 is showing up on shelves at Best Buy in the United States. The obvious question, then -- should you pick this up? According to the reviews, here’s the simple answer: if you’ve already got a G25, you’ll appreciate the hardware upgrades, but you shouldn’t feel too pressured to pick up a G27. If you’re in the market for your first steering wheel (and don’t mind spending the extra cash over the discounted G25 prices), you’re going to get one of the best wheels on the market.

Ultimately, the Logitech G27 offers significantly refined internal technology, while eliminating some of the classic “pet peeves” that many have with the G25 (while introducing some new ones along the way). I’ll leave further explanation to this review by SimHQ, and this video review by InsideSimRacing…