Jordan Greer

Technical presentations recently published by Polyphony Digital engineers have given us a fascinating look at the work that goes on behind the scenes at the secretive development studio.

Even though the GT Academy’s days may be over (Lucas Ordoñez, the original winner, officially parted ways with Nissan earlier this month), Nissan remains heavily involved with Polyphony Digital and the Gran Turismo franchise.

Over the past few months, Polyphony Digital observers have enjoyed a few peaks behind the curtain of the traditionally secretive software company. Back in September, Polyphony engineers published technical presentations that offered a look into how Gran Turismo Sport was built and other experimental projects they are working on.

It’s almost Christmas, and Steam is giving racing game fans an extra reason to celebrate. The PC gaming platform has slashed prices on racing games, so if you’ve been considering any of them, now would be a good time to act.

With the holidays upon us, it can be easy to forget just how close we are to the release of Codemasters’ highly anticipated DiRT Rally 2.0. The game launches on February 26, 2019, and a batch of new content has been revealed as an early Christmas surprise.

After a motorcycle accident injured his spinal cord, Alvaro Blanco was no longer able to use his hands and feet to control his favorite racing game — but that wasn’t about to stop him from playing. Now, Alvaro uses a special controller known as a Quadstick to play GT Sport using only his mouth.

Fanatec has been on quite a roll the past few weeks. After some big holiday sales and new product launches including a new CSL Elite F1 kit and the PS4-compatible direct drive Podium Racing Wheel F1, the company still has a few surprises to reveal before the end of 2018.

Fanatec has officially unveiled the Podium Racing Wheel F1, the first-ever direct drive racing wheel that is compatible with the PlayStation 4 console (it works with PCs, too).

The numbers are in for the FIA-certified GT Championship World Finals in Monaco, where Team Lexus took victory in the Manufacturers Cup and Igor Fraga was crowned the first Nations Cup World Champion in dramatic fashion.

While most of the attention of Gran Turismo fans was focused on the FIA-certified GT Championship World Finals in Monaco last week, something interesting was quietly being shown off on the other side of the world at “InterBEE 2018” in Tokyo.

At the FIA-certified Gran Turismo Championship World Finals last week, Polyphony Digital showed off a new track and several new cars at the event in Monaco. Now, we know exactly when all that new content is going to be available to the public: December 5.

After all the confetti had dropped at the FIA-certified GT Championship Nations Cup World Final on Sunday night, we had a chance to speak with all the podium finishers about their races and their time in Monaco.

Hopefully you watched the FIA-certified GT Championship’s Manufacturer Series live stream yesterday: it was a real treat, with the podium decided in the final seconds of a one-hour race around the Nurburgring 24h circuit.

Back in 2013, GT Academy was in full swing, and a promising young driver from the UK by the name of Adam Suswillo made it all the way to the final race of the competition. Despite an impressive performance, Suswillo came up just short of the crown, as the judges selected Portugal’s Miguel Faisca as that year’s European GT Academy champion.

We’re only a day away from the FIA-certified Gran Turismo Championship World Finals beginning, and the predictions are rolling in.

When the Americas Regional Finals for the FIA-certified GT Championship were broadcast from Las Vegas two weeks ago, only brief clips of the World Final qualification races — also known as the “block” and “repechage” races — were shown on the live stream. Instead, the stream focused on the resulting top 10 drivers and their three final races to determine the regional champion.

The 2018 FIA GT Americas Regional Championship was held in Las Vegas last week, and saw the crowning of the first Americas Champion: Igor Fraga, known as “IOF_RACING17” in GT Sport.

Since 2003 one of the most coveted prizes at the SEMA show is the Gran Turismo Award. Hopefuls from around the world wait and see if their vehicle will find its way into a future Gran Turismo video game. The competition is always amazing and this year was no exception.

The following is part of GTPlanet’s exclusive coverage of the 2018 FIA Gran Turismo Championship, as our editorial team travels around the world to get you special access to the events and competitors. Stay tuned for more, and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for a closer look behind the scenes.

Before we completely close the page on last week’s FIA-certified GT Championship EMEA Regional Finals and prepare for this week’s American Regional Finals in Las Vegas (which we’ll also be covering in full), we need to stop and take a moment to reflect on one of the best Gran Turismo events, ever.