Car Culture

If you were a rally car, what kind of life would you like to live after your pavement-punishing career finishes? Would you cruise around local sales auctions, hoping some driver will take you for another exciting motorsport adventure, or would you give yourself over to peaceful days of dust collecting in automotive museums, to the joy and happiness of all the visitors? Our friends over at InsideSimRacing found an even better solution: full-size simulator.

Just last week, we brought you images of the Gran Turismo Hot Wheels collections set to arrive in stores later this year. What we overlooked at the time was that the site responsible for the sneak peak (the T-Hunted blog) also had a smaller, interesting look at the other big console racing tie-up with the diecast giant: Forza.

More news on the Gran Turismo collection from Hot Wheels: It looks like even the world of diecast cars can receive expansion packs!

The latest post made by Polyphony Digital on Gran Turismo’s official website could attract some very dense toy car collector and enthusiast traffic. AUTOart, the popular die-cast model car manufacturer, has released a special 1:18 replica of the speedy Red Bull X2014 prototype!

I believe many of you will recall our report from the 2015 SEMA automotive show several months ago when we closely followed the battle between five 2015 GT Awards finalists, all brought together from various categories. Presented by Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi himself, the ”Best in Show” crown was awarded to a painstakingly-modified Datsun 240Z, which is owned by popular Fast & Furious movie star Sung Kang.

UPDATE: The “Fugu Z” was scanned by the Polyphony Digital team on November 7, 2017 in Long Beach, CA. It was finally added to Gran Turismo Sport in the game’s 1.31 update, released on December 5, 2018.

It’s been a busy day at SEMA, as Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi toured the show floor visiting all the finalists for this year’s GT Awards.

This year’s winner of the Gran Turismo Award at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is this 1952 Cunningham C-4R Competition Roadster.

Since its inclusion in Gran Turismo 6 was first announced back in 2013, the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed has had a close relationship with the franchise. As many will recall, last year saw the in-game track updated to include the 2014 “Central Feature” sculpture at Goodwood – a soaring art installation that features different manufacturers and changes each year.

Top Gear recently published an interview with Kazunori Yamauchi after speaking with him at the reveal of the Alpine Vision GT in Paris.

While in Paris to help unveil the new Alpine Vision GT concept car, GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi was awarded the “Grand Prize of Creativity” at the 30th International Automobile Festival for his contributions to the automotive industry.

The 2014 Gran Turismo Awards were held at Drai’s Nightclub on the Las Vegas strip Wednesday night, where Kazunori Yamauchi announced a custom car from SEMA 2014 – the world’s largest aftermarket automotive industry event – would be featured in an upcoming Gran Turismo game.

It’s that time of year again! The 12th annual Gran Turismo Awards have been formally announced, and will be held next week at SEMA 2014 – the largest international automotive trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

When Kazunori Yamauchi accepted the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge from Forza Motorsport’s Dan Greenawalt last week, he took the opportunity to pass along the challenge to two more people: Lucas Ordoñez, original GT Academy champion, and Ken Kutaragi, the “Father of PlayStation” who was instrumental in the design and development of the original console.

As you probably know, the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” has taken the world (and social media) by storm over the past few weeks. It’s resulted in a lot of fun videos of people getting cold water poured over their head, and it’s raised more than $88.5 million dollars to help victims of ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and help fund a global team of researchers looking for a cure.

Each year at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance – the world’s most famous and prestigious car show – Kazunori Yamauchi selects a car to be awarded the “Gran Turismo Trophy”, after which it will be digitized and immortalized in the Gran Turismo series.

In a certainly unexpected turn of events, Cigarette Racing Team has announced a surprising partnership with Mercedes-Benz and Sony to build the $1.5-million Cigarette Racing 50’ Vision GT Concept boat. Yes, that’s right – a speedboat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc1omWH-0nQ

It may be the best time of the year, but bad things can still happen.

Amazon.com and GT Academy have teamed up to giveaway a 2014 Nissan 370Z NISMO Coupe, with an approximate retail value of more than $43,000.