Cunningham C-4R Wins 2015 Gran Turismo Award at Pebble Beach

2015_pbcde_cunningham_c4rThis year’s winner of the Gran Turismo Award at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is this 1952 Cunningham C-4R Competition Roadster.

Now in its 64th year, the Pebble Beach event celebrates the rare to unique historic cars, both well-kept originals and meticulously restored examples, in a pageant of motoring likened to the Olympics. Gran Turismo has been part of that history for the last eight years, with a special prize sponsored by Polyphony Digital for the car hand-picked by Kazunori Yamauchi for inclusion in a future Gran Turismo game.

The award has given us some spectacularly beautiful and noteworthy cars from automotive history, with previous award winners making it to Gran Turismo 5 and Gran Turismo 6, so this year’s winner will doubtless already be pencilled in along with its three predecessors for the next Gran Turismo game.

Winners of the Gran Turismo Award to date are:

So what of this year’s winner?

2015_pbcde_cunningham_c4r_1954The Cunningham C-4R Roadster was one of three cars (two roadsters) built by Briggs Cunningham to win Le Mans with an American car and American drivers. Though this didn’t turn out the way that Cunningham had hoped, despite attempts from 1951 through to 1955, the C-4R was nevertheless a sports car weapon – finishing 84% of all races it started and winning 74% of them.

This particular car, part of the Simeone Foundation museum in Pennsylvania, is the most notable of the C-4R’s, finishing Le Mans in third overall (first in class) in 1954 driven by William Spear and Sherwood Johnston, 9 laps ahead of Cunningham himself in the sister C-4R. A worthy addition indeed!

Fans might note that the most recent three winners are also yet to appear in a Gran Turismo title, so it may be a little while until the Cunningham becomes digitally available. Nevertheless, we look forward to taking it to – where else – the Circuit de la Sarthe in the future!

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Comments (30)

  1. TheEvstar93

    I really like what Kaz does at Pebble Beach and SEMA. I think it’s a very clever idea to get some nice cars in the GT series although, I do have to agree with a lot of you guys that he needs to pick up the pace when it comes to getting them scanned and put into the game. I was very, very slightly partly disappointed not to see that Ford GT powered Mustang Mach 40 in GT6 when I got it. (Although it didn’t disappoint me that much at all really.)

  2. Samsonknight

    Glad to see this car making it into the game. It is one of my favorite cars ever since I got a Hot Wheels of it in my younger years. Thanks for putting a list of all the winners. It’s nice to know what is in store although, I stand with those that have already commented that it’s taking a bit too long for some of them to be revealed in game.

  3. Kurei

    Isn’t the combined number of SEMA winners &Pebble beach winners, that still have to be introduced in the series, greater than the amount of numbered GT releases at this point…?

    Like… Pick up the pace PD, do something, haha.

  4. Mr C5 Z06 Vette

    What happened to the Aston DB3S, and Maserati A6GCS? We are yet to see these two therefore I doubt that we will see the Cunningham anytime soon. In fact I am fairly certain that some people even forgot about the Aston and Maserati until they read this article. Oh well it was still a good, informative article. I like Cunningham C-4Rs.

  5. Robin.

    I always wonder what would happen if a Porsche won, it would be unfair to disregard it simply because PD don’t have the licence.

    1. Hastatus

      We need cars like this because it will help educate people in the evolution of cars. I didn’t know anything about this car until I looked it up. Shelby drove/raced cars by Cunningham in the 1950s and obviously we can see how their design influenced his Cobra designs in the 60s. Cunningham’s cars were the first to wrap the bodies of the cars over the frame rails. Originally the American race cars had white bodies and blue rails. Since these cars’ bodies covered the rails, they put blue “racing stripes” on the top of the body. Therefore this was one of the earliest racing cars with a wrapped body and what we call “racing stripes” today. This makes it a incredibly awesome and worthy addition to Gran Turismo.

  6. HarVee

    I feel this years winner is a bit too similar to the previous two winners. I’m not seeing how this car stands out. It has history, yes, but a car isn’t good or unique just based on that.

  7. Sick Cylinder

    This is an excellent choice by Kaz and hopefully appears as soon as possible. 1950’s Le Mans cars are a category currently missing from the game, but one which would be very popular with classic racing enthusiasts. The Aston Martin DB3S is a previous award winner. If Kaz could add an appropriate Ferrari such as the 375 Plus which won in 1954 and the D type Jaguar which was second that year, with the Cunningham C4R 3rd and 5th that year we would have a realistic grid for some great racing.

    1. Sick Cylinder

      Just to add – if we are going to race these cars we need changeable racing numbers. Too many of the classics either have no racing number (Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe) or a fixed number (many examples) or no colour change options, all of which detract from the racing experience.

  8. sirjim73

    Snazzy tie Kaz!
    Love the car, would be great to throw this round Sierra. I love driving the classics in GT6, just wish there were more classic events in the career mode or seasonals to race them in.

  9. Ben Rogue

    So, when are any of these cars coming to Gran Turismo? Why would they even bother with this if they can’t even finish making the cars that are actually in the game?… So hope GT7 isn’t half baked like the last 2 games. At least the physics were good enough in GT6 to keep me playing.

    1. Stylel_Code

      It’s not only a “life”
      If you look his histories of going in places, you’d notice that he probably has no limits on the amount of vacations he is allowed to have, which is not good.

    2. Whitefalcon63

      I just got PCars. Ummmmmm Personally I’m a little disappointed. Over all GT6 is better but just feel a little let down with the track maker and car updates that we haven’t got.

    3. deviln3

      Although I agree that PD could probably use more of Kaz’s attention, but in the grand scheme of things, being visible in the auto industry the way Kaz is, gives him option to work with more automakers. For example the collaboration with Nissan and Toyota, and whole lot of other automakers.

    4. eran0004

      @ Stylel_Code: Why would it be a vacation? You don’t think the Gran Turismo Awards is something he’s doing in his role as the producer of, I don’t know, Gran Turismo?

      The studios doesn’t shut down when he’s not in the office, and there are plenty of mid-level managers and co-producers so it’s not like it’s up to Kaz to micro-manage everything on site.

    5. HarVee

      @devlln3

      Being “visible” isn’t exactly going to improve the quality of the game, which is what is most important. He can strong connections Nissan, but that doesn’t improve the core of the game. The VGT collaboration, for example, does nothing to improve the quality of the game and is nothing but “fluff”.

    6. yewles1

      “Being “visible” isn’t exactly going to improve the quality of the game,”

      What does this do other than whine about another future car being in the series? That’s all you’re actually doing.

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