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.

The staff here at GTPlanet have plucked another ribbon from the hundreds currently available in our GT6 Track Database. In our last installment, we covered La Tour Eifel, a rolling fantasy track crafted by one of our own. This week, we’re heading back to the realm of replicas.

After teasing us last week, Fanatec has shown off their newest product in full, the CSL Steering Wheel P1. Compatible with the Club Sport Wheel Bases (the original as well as V2), the CSL wheel is unique among the existing lineup, as it doesn’t require the Universal Wheel Hub to perform on the XBox One.

The 6.0 Update is now available to PlayStation 4 owners and is beginning to roll out to Xbox One owners as of today.

GT500 Series

As GT6’s two year anniversary approaches, our community has hit a slightly shorter milestone of its own. GTPlanet’s weekly Photomode competitions are now in the triple digits, a number that deserves celebration. Like all good celebrations, prizes are up for grabs too, with two Premium memberships available.

T, what’s been going on with the Spotlight lately? The schedule has been erratic, there hasn’t been a Member of the Week in almost a month, and I feel the content hasn’t been up to the otherwise usual standards.

Sim racers on Microsoft’s system look set to get a new option in the increasingly-crowded affordable wheel market. Fanatec released the above image on Facebook yesterday, showing a leather-clad wheel with an integrated information panel and centre-line. Visible behind the wheel are the expected flappy-paddles, but beyond that, there isn’t much more info available in the original image Fanatec supplied.

Slightly Mad Studios continues their monthly support for Project CARS with the latest major update now available to PC owners, this time leaving PlayStation 4 and Xbox One owners looking toward what’s to come.