GTPlanet

Now it’s time for something that’s strange, funny, and disturbing all at the same time!  In his weekly column for the Times Online, infamous Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has told a bizarre and hilarious tale on himself.  It all started when Clarkson’s wife purchased an offensive t-shirt for him, with a nasty word in big, bold letters on the front.  Of course, he couldn’t help but wear it to work for Top Gear rehearsals, providing lots of laughs until Kazunori Yamauchi and his team dropped in for a visit…

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If you’ve lamented about missing the GT Academy, relax – you could be the next Lucas Ordoñez!  A new article in Top Gear explains the competition, and if you’re a regular reader of GTPlanet, it won’t tell you anything you don’t already know.  However, in the last paragraph, the author mentions an exciting bit of information from Nissan’s own Darren Cox:

Kazunori Yamauchi is in Dubai, watching Lucas cross the finish line. He is impressed. “I always believed that someone good at GT could drive as fast as a professional,” he says. “In fact, I think that they could go even faster.”  Sounds like a challenge for anyone thinking of having a shot at the GT Academy this year, a competition Darren promises will be even bigger.

In other words – a new GT Academy is coming soon!  How, though, could the competition get any “bigger” than it already is?  An optimistic prediction would imply national Academy competitions beyond European borders, providing North American, Asian, and Australian drivers the chance to join in the fun.  Regional restrictions angered many eager competitors last year, and holding “Round 2″ on a world stage would be an excellent way to drum up excitement for the Gran Turismo brand before a late fall release of Gran Turismo 5…  We will definitely be keeping an eye on this!

A new study by CIS Insurance and endorsed by the British government has uncovered a remarkable link – people interested in automotive video games and television shows like Gran Turismo and Top Gear are much more likely to break the speed limit.  It accuses such media of creating a “cachet of excitement and glamour around speeding”,  which presumably translates into death and destruction:

David Neave of Co-operative Insurance, which compiled the report, said: ‘Games, TV and films have fuelled the increase in speeding. [...]  The Fast And The Furious and Top Gear are devoted to speeding and targeted at a younger audience who are more likely to be encouraged to speed.’

Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick endorsed the findings, saying those who speed ‘play Russian roulette with their lives and those of others’.

Granted, this isn’t the first time the racing genre has come under attack.  A similar study in Australia from late last year found that “video games kill driving skills” because they “increase [young driver's] complacency and their indulgence in risk-taking behaviour.”  Other research in the UK pitted driving games against violent first-person shooters.  The result?  Those who played driving games recorded much higher levels of agitation and aggression.

Of course, the studies seem to forget that correlation does not imply causation.  Who can say that reckless drivers are not more attracted to racing games first?  Who can say that an already irresponsible gearhead is suddenly more likely to be in an accident after watching Jeremy Clarkson thrash the latest Pagani Zonda around a test track?  Just don’t be surprised when your local politicians cite these very studies as justification to put more laws on the books…