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New Cars in Gran Turismo 5 Demo at SEMA 2009

October 31st, 2009 by Jordan

sema-winners

It’s time for the 7th annual Gran Turismo Awards at the SEMA show in Las Vegas! As you may recall, this unique event is a big deal for GT fans and car tuners alike, as Yamauchi picks his favorite car from the show to be featured in the next GT game. Award winners from previous years have brought us some of the series’ most memorable and cars, including the 1962 Buick Special (‘03 winner) in Gran Turismo 4 and the 1960 Art Morrison Chevrolet Corvette (‘06 winner) in GT5 Prologue.

jr-rocha-with-yamauchi

This year will be a little different, though, as Sony has just announced that the 2007 and 2008 award winners (HPA Motorsport’s Audi TT and JR Rocha’s Infiniti G37) will be playable in a fresh new Gran Turismo 5 demo on the show floor. Kazunori Yamauchi himself will, of course, be on hand to personally select the 2009 winner, so we should also expect several new interviews popping up in the coming week.

On a considerably more somber note, it has just come to my attention (via Chronos in the forums), that JR Rocha, the personal owner of the 2008 award-winning Infiniti G37, passed away just last month from a heart attack. Presumably, SEMA 2009 would have been his first chance to play his own car in the game, making this turn of events all the more tragic. We’ve lost a great automotive enthusiast and car designer -- may he rest in peace, and may his creation live on forever in GT5.


Here’s a video clip from last year’s show, with a look at each of the finalists and JR’s impressions after getting top honors:

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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28 Responses to “New Cars in Gran Turismo 5 Demo at SEMA 2009”

  1. Will Marsh Says:

    Wow man. I feel sorry for the guy’s family. It’s cool his car will be in the game. It will be like a way of honoring him of sorts.

  2. tomivav Says:

    Passed away…
    Rest in peace.

  3. alba Says:

    RIP JR Rocha.

  4. Canadian STIG Says:

    Is there going to be a DOWNLOADABLE playable demo or is this in reference to playable demos at booths?? Sorry about the ignorance…

  5. aleksandar SRB Says:

    Sorry for that guy… but he will live thanks to GT5 and Sony!!!!!!

  6. ralph89 Says:

    R.I.P JR

    That’s really sad, for his family. I will drive the heck out of his car when GT5 arrives. (To show some respect)

  7. JimInPT Says:

    Interesting video above, but those rap morons really brought it down at the beginning.

  8. Leondrift Says:

    R.I.P JR Jocha

    as soon as i get GT5 i’ll buy that car and drive the wheels off it.

  9. Sam__ NY Says:

    I find it funny that if you bring a Porsche to SEMA, no matter how good it is, it can’t win the GT award.

  10. Bank Alexander Says:

    Sweet. Yuss.
    And yeah sorry for that guy.

  11. chris Says:

    in gt5 there should be a jr jocha race series just with his car or secondly but i know not alot of people will like this. if his car is put on the playstation store and costs 1 euro we could play it on gt5p then gt5 and the proceeds from the money of the car go to jr jochas family

  12. tomek_pl Says:

    his car should be on the gt5 box

  13. Zmann42087 Says:

    While I am NOT a proponent of High End Performance or their tuning philosophy (*bling*bling* yo!), it is unfortunate that JR passed away at such a young age. Our prayers go out to his family and friends.

  14. Mustang750R Says:

    I second the idea of his JR’s G37 being placed on GT5. Atleast put it as a limited edition case of the game to honor him. Really, anything that shows respect to a fellow auto enthusiast.

  15. Filipino Stig Says:

    R.I.P. JR Rocha

    When the game is released I will get your car and do justice with it.

  16. jay gatsby Says:

    r.i.p. , Jr Rocha!

  17. AlteredNicolas Says:

    I feel sorry of him and hes family but hi lives in they hart and in the game for ever. :’)

  18. chris Says:

    Rest in Peace JR!

  19. Brian Says:

    I wonder if Kaz knows that he passed away. I wouldn’t be shocked if he didn’t considering that it has just come to our attention that he doesn’t and I wouldn’t think that Kaz has had a lot of direct contact with Rocha within the last 6 months.

    I would be curious to know what his feelings on the tragic turn of events are.

  20. Tomaz Says:

    RIP JR Rocha!

    His car should be in every Gran Turismo game just in memory of him.

  21. Altf4 Says:

    RIP JR.
    I will purchase the car first hand.
    His car should be the fastest in the game, better than the F1 imo.

  22. N155AN Says:

    rip jr

    so sad he wont get to see his dream…

  23. atom_ae86 Says:

    RIP JR ROCHA

  24. Azzer Says:

    R.I.P JR

  25. Snaeper Says:

    And to think I wanted to get his car anyways. Now driving it is going to be a real special occasion. RIP

  26. Mustangmiha Says:

    Yeah, his car should be on GT5 cover-box!

  27. speedy_2 Says:

    That sucks about JR. But, what an honor to get a car you built into the GT series. People that don’t even know this story will still find it out once they get this car in GT5. Those other cars were nice as well. I really liked the Camaro Road Race Car. I hope cars will be downloadable in the future so that Polyphony can add things to the game like this, even after it is released.

  28. maxpontiac Says:

    If you have yet to see the GT5 SEMA cars, I urge you to do so.