Gran Turismo 5 Challenge Helps Japan Tsunami Victims at Spa 1000km May 5-6

Winner of the first GT Academy and ILMC 2011 driver Lucas Ordonez has teamed up with other drivers on the grid at this weekend’s Spa Francorchamps 1000km to host a track-side Gran Turismo 5 challenge, benefiting victims of the devastating tsunamis in Japan.

As part of the build-up to this weekend’s race at the famous Spa circuit, this Thursday and Friday (May 5 & 6), fans will be invited to visit the Spa Entertainment Village, where they can donate €10 to race against Intercontinental Le Mans Cup drivers in GT5 race seats. The public will pit their wits against the pros over two laps on the game’s virtual Le Mans La Sarthe Circuit, or fans can make a charity donation to complete virtual laps of Spa Francorchamps using Com’In Sport Motion simulators.

The idea for the event was born in an exchange of Twitter posts between Lucas and Neel Jani of Rebellion Racing (and former F1 test driver), after which they quickly garnered corporate support from PlayStation, Speed Chills, and Com’In Sport. As a result, collected funds will go to support the Red Cross’ Japanese Tsunami Appeal. For more information, visit the event’s official Tsunami Appeal Virtual Challenge Facebook page.

Congratulations and kudos to Lucas and Neel for this simply awesome idea, and good luck to both on track this weekend!

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Comments (56)

  1. RADracing

    Those Com’In Sport Motion simulators work with GT5. Now I wonder how we can make our PS3 and GT5 work with those actuators so that we can build our own motion similator?

  2. Amac500

    All ILMS tracks would he a basic. Though personally, I could care less about the Chinesse course, but the rest are needed. Still, all ILMS track should he a basic.

  3. occasionalracer

    Great idea for a great cause. It’s funny they’re running la Sarthe by GT5 and Spa by Com’In. Hopefully PD can steal their track build and add it to the game. What ever happened to the Pikes Peak rumor, I would pay a good $15 for that, and would love to see $5 of that go to those poor families who lost everything they had.

  4. MarcoM

    I am going :D Too bad it is only on Thursday and Friday. I will go on Saturday. Oh wait, on Saturday the drivers have to do some real racing.

    1. Greyum

      No, you wrote the following:

      “Now Spa must be added into GT5 ;)”

      If something must be done, that is very different to something that should be done. If you can’t string together a cohesive argument over the space of just two posts, give up now.

    2. Nurburgthing.

      You’re right though my high chum, they MUST add Spa. Its stupid that it wasn’t in the game initially.

      Greyum is just being a pedantic troll.

  5. HKS racer

    Altough it’s a great idea Poliphony really need to realize if they create a GT5 DLC they’ll raise a huge amount of money for Japan.
    Already said in the forum, somebody tweet this to Kazunori please.

  6. CorporateHammer

    How about releasing SPA for $4.99 when PSN goes back up and donating $3 of that to the victims ? I’d buy it.

    1. Not Paying for DLC

      I’d happily donate to Japan but will not pay for DLC from a brand that prides itself on quality. Forza, Xbox Live and a number of other racing franchises charge money for DLC for the sake of making plenty of revenues. GT shouldn’t do the same.

    2. Greyum

      Not paying for DLC…by your own admission, you would not pay for the original game then either. DLC is extra content that took time and money to produce. Don’t think it represents value for money? Leave it, your loss.

    3. Not Paying for DLC

      But I did get the game…lololol. DLC = the content we would have received for free in the 2 extra years that Kaz wanted to work on GT5. Rather pay for events like the one that Lucas is setting up. Get some fresh air and actually meet with fellow GT fans in person.

    4. CorporateHammer

      I can understand not wanting to pay for DLC and the milking that goes with it. I base my purchases on how I feel about what I got in the initial package. I’m more than pleased with the quality and amount of content I got with GT5. Some people are not, but honestly when compared to other games in the genre there’s allot of quality content and nothing comes close to the experience I get with GT5 and a wheel on PS3. I’d gladly fork out more money for more tracks and cars for this game.

    5. Imprezive

      Not Paying for DLC isn’t actually typing. His tears are hitting the keyboard and typing letters for him. The words they formed and the order are purely coincidence.

    6. Not Paying for DLC

      Imprezive I commend your honesty about your current emotional situation *thumbs up*

    7. Amac500

      If I could get a track like Spa for a buck then maybe, but those 24 or 25 track logos on te website, those shouldn’t be a buck a pop. With that many it would be to much. If there was a couple cars or tracks with it for a dollar or two then ya, I would probably go for that. I think they should release a DLC for ILMC. We get the ILMC tracks we don’t have and get some current Le Mans LMP cars and GT cars. I would pay 5 bums for that.

    8. CorporateHammer

      @Amac500

      A dollar per track is expensive ? I just made a comment about getting SPA and donating at the same time. I know everyone has their own opinions but when you see 3 maps in CoD for $15 and someone saying a buck a track is far fetched well…..

  7. Tyrone

    ‘fans can make a charity donation to complete virtual laps of Spa Francorchamps’ – OMG OMG OMG … ‘using Com’In Sport Motion simulators.’ … :( , for a brief minute I thought, well I think you all can see what i was thinking.

    1. Amac500

      @Tyrone. Yup man, I was thinking the exact same thing, lol! Man, how can they be into promotions and stuff with out actually having the track. They need to have all ILMS tracks as a basic, no doubt. Who agrees?

  8. Joost van Dun

    Too bad I can’t go this weekend, but already enjoyed my last weekend @ Spa with the World Series Renault

    1. GT5Canuck

      Yes, I found it ironic that you can race at the real Spa, but there’s no virtual one.

    2. Gulyo

      Buy Shift 2 :DD
      There is brilliant track selection in it and after patch the handling much improved !!!
      Best racing game EVER !!!

    3. Amac500

      @Gulyo Shift is for people that want to say they are playing a racing sim but aren’t good enough to actually play one. Gran Turismo or Forza is legit, and then finally after that we get to…… Grid….. then comes Shift. Shift will never handle like a sim, no matter how much handling changes. GT5 has the best physics, Forza has most bells and whistle.

    4. Imprezive

      @Amac500, I know a lot of people like to hate Shift 2. But I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks Grid is closer to a sim than Shift is. I admit Shift is not exactly a sim, but Grid? Nice try, bro. It doesn’t deserve that much negative feedback.

      Play Shift 2 on Elite handling, then actually take time to adjust the settings around. It’s still not quite as good as Forza or GT5, I’ll give you that, but it’s not entirely far off.

    5. Amac500

      @Imprezive I say Grid because the crash damage was probably the best and most realistic I have seen yet. I’m not saying shift isn’t a good game, but to call it a sim is a stretch.

    6. Imprezive

      @Amac500 I’ll agree with you there. The damage in Grid was great. I thought you meant handling-wise. The handling in Grid wasn’t even close to a sim.

      As far as Shift goes, it’s not a sim, but what it does do right is presentation. It makes things exciting. While the effects may be exaggerated slightly, it’s a good way to simulate the feelings that you would have in the car that you don’t get through a TV screen. If someone made a game with Gran Turismo’s physics, and Shift’s effects, and didn’t have Vaughn Gittin Jr. talking all the time, I think that would be an excellent game right there.

    7. Amac500

      @Geo_212 Ehhhh… Naw. We are talking console games here. I haven’t been able to play iRacing either because you gott’a pay for everything it seems. I’m not going to through money into it when I can play sims on all those consoles. But I have seen videos of it and I do think it still loses a graphical battle with GT5

    8. Amac500

      @Imprezive I always wished that Windows and Sony could set aside their differences to make a game. Forza seems to win in the bells and whistles like their livery editor and they has ABUNCH of fast LMS cars that everybody always asks for in GT5. Then GT5 wins on acurate physics like weather, car physics, and weather change. If their track collection was together that would rock to. We could finally get Sebring and Road Atlanta to pair with De La Sarthe and Daytona Road Course, which host the 4 big enduro races in auto racing. They should make crash damage like Grid and get those good, jarring crash effects if ya know what I mean.

      Shift 2 doesn’t have Le Mans Prototypes though, right?

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