Jann Mardenborough is closing in on the ultimate target for most any aspiring racing driver, he now has a clear path under his feet that leads straight to an F1 racing seat for the first time.

WRS Time Trials

Lucas Ordonez, winner of the first-ever Nissan PlayStation GT Academy competition, will race in Japanese Super GT in 2014. After serving the ultimate Nismo apprenticeship – which has seen him take two international championship wins and two podium finishes at the Le Mans 24 Hours – the 28 year-old Spaniard will partner with Kazuki Hoshino in the NDDP Racing Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 in the GT300 class.

The community here at GTPlanet has been as active as ever, if you haven’t taken notice by now, we have a new GT Suggestions forum where you can let your imagination run wild and list your suggestions that you firmly believe would make Gran Turismo the game of your dreams – whether it be with additional vehicles, tracks, or features. There’s plenty of activity already so I’ll take a moment to list off some of my favorites:

In a certainly unexpected turn of events, Cigarette Racing Team has announced a surprising partnership with Mercedes-Benz and Sony to build the $1.5-million Cigarette Racing 50’ Vision GT Concept boat. Yes, that’s right – a speedboat.

The latest Seasonal Events are now available in Gran Turismo 6, featuring three new time trial events exclusive to the High End Performance G37, the Light Car Company Rocket, and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

The latest Seasonal Events are now available in Gran Turismo 5, featuring a series of five expert level racing events exclusive to GT500-class racing machines from the Super GT and Japan GT Championship (JGTC) with no more than 600PP and no better than Racing/Hard compounds or less.

As has become something of a tradition with each new Gran Turismo game (and demo), the digital imaging specialists of EuroGamer’s Digital Foundry blog have completed their technical analysis of Gran Turismo 6 to see how things are working under the hood.

BMW Japan is organizing the Asian “BMW Z4 Challenge” for Gran Turismo 6.

Two-time Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 podium finisher and inaugural Nissan PlayStation GT Academy winner Lucas Ordóñez has been confirmed as the first race driver for Nissan’s revolutionary ZEOD RC prototype.

WRS Online events are in full swing, with 2 Weekly Races already behind us, and our first Special Event on the horizon.  On the weekend of February 22nd and 23rd, WRS Online will host a 2.4 Hour Mixed Class Endurance Race at the Silverstone GP Circuit.  The event is open to current members of and recent applicants to our GTP_Registry.

Race Coverage

It seems that with every new month—some could even say every new week—we’re playing the waiting game until the next big thing comes to Gran Turismo 6, and the aspect itself may have inadvertently become a game within a game to some; being on the lookout for the newest feature or improvement that will further the overall enjoyment of the game itself. It’s devilishly clever and often results in a think-tank of untold proportions.

Tamir Moscovici’s documentary about Kazunori Yamauchi and the Gran Turismo series has now been released on YouTube, via PlayStation’s official channel.

The latest Seasonal Events are now available in Gran Turismo 5, featuring a series of two racing events exclusive to American sports cars with no more than 550PP and no better than Sports/Hard compounds or less for this week’s time trial, and Comfort/Soft compounds for this week’s drift trial.

Sony Europe has included GT6 in their “February PlayStation Store” sale, reducing the price of the digital version of the game from £49.99/€59.99 to £29.99/€39.99 through February 12, 2014, along with a wide collection of other titles.

After the first rumors emerged a few days ago, the first 2014 GT Academy competition has now been officially announced for India.

When we first launched our book, GTPEDIA: GTPlanet’s Guide to the World of Gran Turismo, in November of 2012, we knew it would need to grow and change as the games evolved, and offered free, downloadable updates to cover corrections and new additions.

Nissan is set to take on “the Mountain” for the first time in 22 years. Nissan is running the GT-R Nismo GT3 at the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour, which is held at the world famous semi-permanent road course featured in GT6: Mount Panorama.

We’ve got quite the juicy post this time around, and you all deserve it having waited so patiently for our latest episode. It’s been a long time coming, but we think we’ve released something worthwhile in episode 15, where we cover all the news from the past month and do the usual rounds of speculation and distraction during our discussion.