GTPlanet

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!

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Finally, someone (EuroGamer) with the opportunity to play Gran Turismo PSP has the great idea to select the series’ most infamous track: the Nurburgring Nordschleife!  The “Green Hell” looks a bit more like heaven from the “cockpit cam” of this Renault Clio.

When the Nurburgring Nordschleife was first revealed in Gran Turismo 4, it was hard to complain about the missing GP circuit.  However, you’re lying to yourself if you haven’t wished to drive through those tire barriers separating the Nordschleife from the rest of the track, and everyone has been anxiously hoping for it to appear in Gran Turismo 5.

Thanks to GTPlanet user tlongman, we may have just found the answer to that question in one of the most unlikely of places: the latest trailer for Gran Turismo PSP!  In the first scene, a Nissan GT-R Spec V and Corvette ZR-1 pull out of a pit garage and are then seen racing on the Nordschleife.  The problem, of course, is that the Nordschleife by itself has no such garage area – that’s only found on the GP circuit.  Sure enough, further detective work reveals the grand stands across from the pits are virtually identical to those found at the real track.  (Note:  The grand stand area along the pit straight of the GP circuit has been undergoing heavy construction for the past two years, and does not look the same today.  You must look for pre-construction photos to see the same stands found in the video.)

This is very exciting, of course, but it doesn’t completely add up.  This was supposed to be a video for GT PSP – could Polyphony Digital possibly have crammed the entire

Nordschleife into the portable system’s RAM in addition to the GP circuit?  According to the GT PSP demo shown at E3 last month, they did not, as only a map of the Nordschleife can be seen in the game’s track selection menu.  Regardless, this is still very promising news for Gran Turismo 5.  Thanks to Polyphony Digital for sneaking this in!

Check out this forum topic for further photos and analaysis.

Citroen continues to promote their popular Citroen GT with increasingly high-profile events.  Just last weekend, Polyphony Digital’s real-life concept car helped kick off the infamous 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, and was on public display during the entire event.  This is the first of several appearances for the car across Europe – coming up next, it will take part in the driver’s parade of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and will attend the UK’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in July.

It should also be noted that the Gran Turismo brand was featured prominently at the Nurburgring, on the windshield of each car.  Photos/videos of the Citroen GT on the Nordschleife have yet to pop up, though it’s only a matter of time…

You don’t have to decrypt any secret messages for this tidbit of news!  Coming straight from Kazunori Yamauchi himself, weather changes and night racing can be expected soon.  GTPlanet user MGR managed to dig up the following interview with Yamauchi-san, conducted by Audi.  It’s part of the Audi R8 Meets Gran Turismo 5 mini-site and documentary, which gives two professional drivers the opportunity to compare the R8 in both the real and virtual world (also check out the video – including footage of the Nurburgring Nordschleife running in GT5: Prologue – on GTPlanet’s YouTube Channel).  Unfortunately, the video is in German, but Yamauchi’s interview is in print and can easily be translated.  In addition to dynamic weather and lighting, he also reiterates the inclusion of damage.  Here’s what he had to say…

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