Cars

It is never too late to share the latest developments in motorsport circles involving GT Academy graduates. Today’s spotlight is reserved for 2011 GT Academy graduate Jann Mardenborough, who recently won his first GT300 race in the second round of the 2016 Super GT season.

Many consider June 2008 the birth of the ‘Gamer-to-Racer’ movement – this was the starting date of the immensely popular and successful GT Academy. Before the Sony-sponsored initiative however, there were pioneers who made the jump from digital to reality through different racing simulations. One of these drivers is Mark Drennan, a sim-racer who started off on the classic ‘Grand Prix Legends’ and has recently obtained a drive in the Battery Tender MX5 Cup. The story of how Drennan got his big break is exciting as it is inspiring for the racing simulation community.

This season of the Pirelli World Challenge has had no shortage of excitement. For 2011 GT Academy grad Bryan Heitkotter and teammate JD Davison – both behind the wheel of a NISMO GT-R GT3 in the top GT class – it started strong. The big Nissans were well-suited to Circuit of the Americas, enabling Heitkotter to nab silver in Round 1, with Davison close behind in 4th. Sadly, complications during the second race of that first weekend pushed them down to 19th and 13th, respectively.

Last week we reported that Polyphony Digital’s CEO Kazunori Yamauchi would be returning to the Nürburgring in the lead up to the 2016 ADAC 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Sharing the driving duties of the #101 BMW M6 GT3 with Matias Henkola, George Richardson, and Max Sandritter, Yamauchi was set to participate in the top SP9 class under the Walkenhorst Motorsport banner.

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.

The second season of JD Motorsport Organization and Nissan Canada’s Micra Cup is about to kick off in less than a month. One of the 30 drivers who will get the opportunity to steer the wheel of these one-make machines and reach for the trophy is Nicolas Hammann, the 2014 North American GT Academy champion. As one of the few newcomers who didn’t compete in the previous season, it is a challenging path to conquer, but worth of his talent and skills.

Kazunori Yamauchi will be returning to the gruelling Green Hell this year. Polyphony’s man in charge took 2015 off, after an accident during the qualifying session the year before. In a surprising turn, however, Yamauchi will be slotting in behind the wheel of a Bavarian motor for the ADAC qualifier this weekend.

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!

The roll call of names for high level racing drivers who’ve learned their craft on Gran Turismo is impressive – Jann Mardenborough, Lucas Ordóñez, Wolfgang Reip, Florian Strauss – but from 2016 though it seems we’ll have to add a new name to that list: Bob.

You’d be excused for calling the beginning of 2016 a rough start for most of the previous GT Academy grads. While veterans like Ordonez, Mardenborough, and Heitkotter all had their positions announced by Nissan in February – joined by recent grads like Matt Simmons – an alarming number of winners were notable for their absence. Gaetan Paletou and Wolfgang Reip were just two of the drivers that found themselves without a seat in the new year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjkfOY5vNXM

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.

Big news out of Melbourne earlier this week: in the run-up to the 2016 F1 season, Red Bull Racing and Aston Martin announced a long-term partnership that will not only see the winged logo of Gaydon adorn the RB12’s of Ricciardo and Kvyat, but the two companies collaborating on a road car. Not just any road car, either: Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s CTO (and designer of 10 World Championship F1 cars), will be working closely with Aston designer Marek Reichman on a range-topping hypercar.

It wasn’t all sunshine and smiles in Florida this past weekend. After a solid season opener the week before in Texas, Heitkotter and teammate JD Davison faced stiff competition on the tight street circuit of a cloudy St. Petersburg. While outright victory would evade the GT-R’s in Florida, the two drivers made points progress nonetheless, including a podium finish.

The Le Castellet circuit in France, better known to the motorsport community as the Circuit Paul Ricard, was this week’s home to the Blancpain GT Series as the official pre-season testing began for the upcoming season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycaV3-_uha0

The Pirelli World Challenge season got underway this past weekend, bringing more success for GT Academy grads and Nissan’s 2016 motorsports teams. Bryan Heitkotter was bumped up to the top GT class in the PWC mid-season last year, where he ended the series in a respectable 10th place. For 2016 however, Bryan started on an equal footing against other professional drivers, and wasted no time establishing himself as a contender with an award-winning drive in Texas on Saturday.

This year would have marked the 100th anniversary of Ferruccio Lamborghini, the founder of the eccentric Italian marque. To celebrate the occasion, the storied automaker is producing an extremely limited production run of the Centenario pictured above. Unveiled at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, the Centenario’s design is built around a carbon fiber monocoque chassis and Lamborghini’s most powerful V12 powerplant to date, producing 770 horses, and can propel itself to 60 in a paltry 2.8 seconds.