Looking for a new job?  If you’ve got a background in marketing and a passion for Gran Turismo, you might want to consider applying for this position with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeXaKFWg9NE

We reported last December that Polyphony Digital’s Citroën GT may actually be headed for production.  That’s now confirmed thanks to Citroën Product Manager Vincent Besson‘s recent comments to Autocar.  Of course, no pricing or official specifications have been released, but we do know that it won’t contain the futuristic fuel-cells that we’ve played with in GT5 Prologue.  Instead, the French company will enlist V8 power from a GM or Ford motor, much like the one found in the concept that the car magazines have been playing with.  As was originally speculated, production will be limited to no more than 20 units, so you’d better get those orders in right away…  Thanks to Alex P. for the tip!

The Guinness World Records releases annual “Gamer’s Edition” books, which rate and document some of the more dramatic feats in the world of video games.  However, Guinness is branching out from the objective realm of records and numbers into the subjective world of opinion and “expert judging panels”.  One of the products of this ideological shift is a ranking of “The Top 50 Console Games of All Time“, and the results are raising a few eyebrows.

Sim racers love their hobby, and we’ve seen some pretty impressive setups over the years (see our Racing Cockpits forum for more).  This, however, raises the bar to a completely new level – it’s a full size replica of a Ferrari F1 car wired up for video gaming, and it can be yours for £13,500 ($18,944 USD).  The mysterious model is actually listed for sale on a website where ‘real’ F1 cars can be bought and sold, but this one substitutes a PlayStation 2 in place of a V10.  Yes, that’s right – more than $18,000 and you don’t even get a PlayStation 3!

Two numbers that have befuddled many HDTV buyers throughout the years are 720p and 1080i.  What do they mean, exactly?  There are plenty of technical explanations (here’s a great one), but most of you just want to know which will give you the best experience on your PlayStation 3.  That answer will change depending on your television set, but if you want to see what the difference really looks like, check out these screenshots of GT5 Prologue.  GTPlanet user R0M posted a few in this forum thread, and added 200 more to his post at TaxiGamer.

If you’ve spent any amount of time playing GT5 Prologue, you’ve surely noticed the “Tuned Nissan Skyline Coupe (V36)”.  It offers just enough modification to the standard car’s shape without going overboard, and the result is beautiful.  Of course, much like the GTbyCitroen, it was designed entirely by Polyphony Digital, and it was not until last year at SEMA that we learned this car will be brought to the “real world” by Japanese tuning shop Zele Performance. We’ve now got the full details – Zele is actually offering up the official body kit for Skyline Coupe/Infiniti G37 owners everywhere, but it doesn’t come cheap.  For the rest of us, though, it provides an interesting look at yet another car that made the jump from our TV screens.  Take a look at the photos below or visit Zele’s website for all the details.

Polyphony Digital teamed up with RC car company HPI Racing to bring the Ford GT LM Spec II to life.  We know the Ford GT is one of Kazunori Yamauchi’s favorite cars (he actually owns two of them), which is probably the reason it was featured prominently in Gran Turismo 4’s box art and the game’s epic video intro.  The 1:10 scale car looks to be very well put together, and much more powerful than anything you will find at your local Wal-Mart.  Pricing has yet to be announced – check with your nearest HPI distributor (Europe/North America) for local availability.

Richard Meaden, professional racer and writer for the (awesome) online publication Drivers Republic, was a witness to history last month when he drove alongside GT Academy winner Lucas Ordóñez in the 24 Hours of Dubai.  Meaden eloquently describes the experience of the 24 hour event from a personal, honest point of view in his latest article, and it’s a fascinating read.  He covers the race build-up, paddock drama, trials and tribulations of endurance racing, and complements Ordóñez for his calm head and steady driving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNQJ1T0DJrM

In something that probably won’t come as a surprise to most Gran Turismo fans, a recent study has shown that driving a vehicle of a particular make in a video game makes the player “50% more likely” to consider purchasing a car from that company in the future.  The study, conducted by Dr. Kyle Murray and Robin Ritchie, placed one person in a room with Project Gotham Racing and another in a room with a video feed of the game.  The result:

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In an awesome demonstration of ‘virtual’ driving skills in the real world, GT Academy winner Lucas Ordóñez successfully competed in the 24 Hours of Dubai!  With highly experienced teammates like former F1 driver Johnny Herbert, Alex Buncombe, and Rob Barff, the pressure was on Lucas to keep the lap times low and the car on the track.  He managed to do just that, and despite a mechanical setback, helped the Nissan team finish 9th in their class 451 laps and over a distance of 2431km.

Proper Graphics’ 3D model of a Koenigsegg CCX to Gran Turismo 5’s specifications caused quite a stir.  Not only was it discussed across the web, the accompanying video clip was the seventh most popular on YouTube last week!  Yury Rybakov of the Belarus-based design studio dropped by our forums to help explain exactly why their model looked so much better than what we’ve seen in games so far.  Mr. Rybakov conceeds the Koenigsegg wasn’t processed in real-time like it would be in a game, but it also makes significantly better use of the polygons that it is composed of.  He supports his argument by highlighting several imperfections in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue’s vehicle models that have resulted in incorrect and misaligned surface reflections that most of us have probably missed!

Before you read anything else (and anyone posts this on a forum/blog without proper citation), this Koenigsegg CCX rendering has nothing to do with Gran Turismo 5.  So, what’s it doing on GTPlanet?  ‘Proper Graphics‘, the imaging company who created the model did actually have GT5 in mind, crafting it within Polyphony Digital’s polygon and texture specifications.  As you can see, though, the level of detail is considerably higher than anything we’ve seen in GT5 Prologue, due to the fact that it’s rendered by itself on high-end computer hardware.  A game’s many environmental variables probably consume too much of the PlayStation 3’s processing power to give us anything like this at the moment, but make no mistake – Gran Turismo 6 won’t look much different.

The wildly popular Inter-Forum Timetrial Championship has finally come to a close after 63 days of heated competition and 1,237 submitted times from participants around the world!  The guys from Team GTros ultimately came out on top, with their member Ramon taking the top spot in the individual points standings.  Team GTPlanet and our own driver holl01 came in second in team and individual standings, respectively.  The Germans from Team GTRP round out the podium, and FAK of the Dude Team scored an individual third.  A big thanks goes to all of the Team Captains who kept everyone in order, and especially to GTPlanet’s chief race organizer Sphinx, without whom this competition could have never occurred.

Sony is using Gran Turismo 5 Prologue to power a ‘3D’ tech demo at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  Apparently, it’s a pretty impressive new display technology, but don’t get too excited – a Sony representative made it clear this television will not be headed for production any time soon.  Regardless, it’s a pretty cool look at what we could see by the time Gran Turismo 6 comes around…  ArsTechnica has first impressions of the display:

GTPlanet’s inbox has been filled over the past few days with reports that Kazunori Yamauchi is interested in developing a game outside of the Gran Turismo series.  The news apparently comes from an interview with Japanese gaming magazine ‘GeMaga‘, where he also supposedly stated that he ‘would have wanted GT5 to come out in 2009‘.  So, what’s the problem with this story?  Many other news outlets have picked up and ran with the news, but their only reference is this article from PS3Center.net – a site which lost a considerable amount of credibility by participating in the recent rash of misinformation.  PS3Center’s lack of hard details about the source leaves a lot to be desired, and GTPlanet cannot endorse or verify the integrity this information.