Back in the summer, a 26-year old postal delivery driver took part in a little competition you may have heard of: GT Academy. This van-driving man – by the name of Matt Simmons – would go on to win the International Region GT Academy competition. In the article linked, we mentioned Simmons was entering the usual post-Academy 3-month training program that Nissan puts each winner through, in preparation for the Dubai 24 Hours race in January. That’s not the case anymore, however.

Earlier this year, Kunos Simulazioni confirmed work was being done to bring “the best circuit in the world”, Brands Hatch, to Assetto Corsa. Kunos have confirmed that Brands Hatch will be coming to the game alongside seven new rides in Dream Pack 3 due on December 15th.

When we first learned that developer Kunos Simulazioni would be bringing the highly-praised PC simulator Assetto Corsa to consoles in 2016 the very first question many expressed was “Are the physics going to be affected?”. That question was soon answered by Marco Massarutto, Licensing Project Manager at Kunos Simulazioni, exclaiming that the games physics would be given first priority and that the game had the same feelings, dynamism and force feedback of the PC version.

Here we are in December, days away from the two year anniversary of GT6, for the eighth iteration of GTPlanet’s Track Of The Week. It’s another real-world replica this week, as we travel to Portugal’s Algarve International Circuit (commonly referred to as simply Portimao).

Hidden among the 918 MB update earlier this week (that covered the inclusion of the Mobil 1 Car Pack, as well as numerous fixes to the game), Turn 10 has quietly snuck a Nissan Silvia into Forza Motorsport 6. Not the oft-requested S14 generation though: this is the first generation of the venerable nameplate, a model that only saw 554 units produced, all hand-built.

Update 1.25 is now available to download for Driveclub. Weighing in at 400MB the update introduces the Mercedes-AMG S 65 Coupé and the KTM 1290 Super Duke R as new accolade rewards, a new easy difficulty setting for all tour events, new options for private lobbies, and more based on the continuous feedback from the community.

A new batch of seasonal events are now available in Gran Turismo 6 showcasing this week’s super lap and drift trial challenges. The events feature classic European cars representative of the ‘golden age’ of motoring, race cars, 4WD non-race cars, and Japanese racing machines proving their worth.

Interestingly enough, forum member @Whistlesnap has found evidence of two cars being added to the game: the 2020 Vision Gran Turismo, and Toyota’s tiny S-FR. Both of these were on display at the Tokyo Motor Show back in October, and the S-FR was even playable in a special build of Gran Turismo 6.

This guest contribution is by Bryan Heitkotter, 2011 United States GT Academy Champion. As the first US GTA graduate, Bryan has driven a wide variety of vehicles over the years, from the wild Juke-R to the GT3 GT-R. He’s also shared the wheel with fellow GT Academy pupil Nick McMillen. Here, Bryan recounts his experience at the 2015 NISMO Festival.

Last month saw Ayrton’s dominating MP4/4 land in FM6, along with six other cars in the eBay Motors Car Pack (in addition to November’s free car, the NISMO GT-R LM). For December, variety is again the order of the day, with a little something for everyone. Two modern cars – one a bruising GT, the other an insane hypercar – are joined by two 90’s racers, a late 80’s Aussie homologation special, the last Ferrari to win overall at Le Mans, and a great big chunk of 50’s Americana.

Need For Speed launched at the beginning of the month to generally favourable reviews. In GTPlanet’s own review, the game’s limited customization features and the AI rubber-banding were two of the standout criticisms. The first patch, released last week, specifically addresses both of those issues, as well as adding more content to the game, free of charge.

As if things weren’t crazy enough on “Black Friday”, things are heating up in the world of sim-racing deals this weekend! Of course, we already told you about most of them in our Black Friday Buyer’s Guide earlier this week, but there’s a few more surprises you need to know about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRkv9Qq_A4E

GT6 has remained untouched since the long-awaited Course Maker was introduced to the game in Update 1.21, and now has announced a short maintenance period for next week.

As foretold in a teaser earlier this month, Audi’s R8 V10 Plus is now available in Assetto Corsa courtesy of the latest 1.3.5 update.

The Classic Lotus Expansion is now available for Project CARS in a continual effort by Slightly Mad Studios to keep the game feeling new with fresh monthly content. This month’s content delivers what is surely to pique the interest of those feeling the game needs that little bit of classic flair by introducing several classic Lotus race cars: the 1963 Lotus Type 25 Climax, 1965 Lotus Type 38 Ford, 1965 Lotus Type 40 Ford, and finally the 1967 Lotus Type 51.

(EDITOR NOTE: The majority of the links below will only show the sale price starting at 00:01 Friday. eBay UK Lightning Deal links may change and/or expire at any time.)

The last WRS Championship of 2015 is about to get underway. Mentioned earlier this week, the event will be running breathed-upon GT500 cars, hovering around the 600 PP mark, with the first race taking place at Suzuka.

This is it, the final days and week of the year and what a year it’s been to say the very least. There’s still a few surprises here and there to close out the year, of that I’m almost certain, but even if the year closes with nary a peek more of what’s to come, this will have been one of the most active years in the gaming community in recent memory.

A new batch of seasonal events are now available in Gran Turismo 6 showcasing this week’s beginner, intermediate, and expert level challenges. The events feature non-race cars and race cars dancing a fine line between outright power and superior balance.