GTPlanet

Next week, Ford of Australia will produce its very last car. The Broadmeadows assembly plant will cap off a 57-year production run of over 4.5 million sedans, wagons, utes and crossovers on October 7. Only two days ago, the Geelong facility — Australia’s oldest of its kind — wrapped up engine production after 91 years.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKwCIcJDT4F/

There’s a local brewery that has gained a lot of fans in Toronto since it started selling beers at the turn of the millennium. Despite winning numerous awards, the team has bucked the craft beer trend of branching out, opting to exclusively stick to the original product their reputation has been built on. The motto? “Do one thing really, really well.”

Earlier this year beginning in February, our team of Weekly Race Series racers developed a new event, known as the Triple Mix. The backbone of the series was the freedom in picking the car you wanted to tour around the events, and participants would have that option: the GT300 versions of the Impreza, IS350, and RX-7 would be available over the course of the championship.

Way back in February, our Weekly Race Series team proposed a new event, known as the Triple Mix. Instead of picking one car to run a series in, participants would get to drive all three of the available rides — the GT300 versions of the Impreza, IS350, and RX-7 — over the course of the championship. Unfortunately, network issues in Gran Turismo 6 sidelined the competition for half the year. The Triple Mix lives on though, and the first race will take place August 27.

We went old school last month, dusting off the old PS2 to celebrate Gran Turismo 3’s 15th anniversary. It was a nostalgic trip down memory lane, one that wasn’t complete without a bit of competition. We introduced a Time Trial Contest using the game, where the fastest GTPlanet member could win a prize. Not to be left out, those that didn’t have access to the game could guess the final time of yours truly, as I tried to keep pace with the aliens that make up our community. Today, we’re announcing the winners.

As you may have just read, GT3 celebrated an important 15 year milestone today. On July 20, 2001, the game became available in Europe following earlier roll-outs in North America and Japan. To celebrate, we’re holding a little contest, with two prizes up for grabs.

Join us from 17:00 EDT / 22:00 BST / 23:00 CEST this evening as we air our report from a rather wet 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed where BMW takes centre stage as it celebrates its centenary.

For many fans, GT Sport is still largely a mystery. With the public beta officially cancelled, the chances of playing the game before its November release are limited. There are exceptions, like the Nürburgring 24H race this past weekend, and of course the big event in downtown London that wrapped up the week before.

Join us from 18:00 EDT / 23:00 BST / 00:00 CEST this evening as we air our report from the launch event of the latest instalment in the Gran Turismo Franchise.

The DiRT series has had a bit of a checkered history. From the first game’s rallying roots, to the ‘xtreme’ era pandering of DiRT 3, and finally the game that brought the series to a lasting hiatus – DiRT Showdown. To say that the series has a split fanbase would be an understatement.

The 2016 Formula One season kicks off this weekend and I couldn’t be more excited. This year is markedly different in comparison: a new team; new qualifying; Red Bull has a new sponsor; Pastor Maldonado will no longer entertain us with his real-life “Crash FM” (I’m patting myself on the back for that reference, thank you); and Renault is back in the fray.

In a world where we analyze every minute detail, striving to understand every facet, and every nook and cranny of the hobbies we take part in, it’s weeks like this one that makes everything worth it. If you haven’t been keeping up with the events of this week then allow me to outline a few things for you.

Our friends over at CarThrottle have posted a new interview with 2011 GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough. The 24-year old briefly recounts the series of events that lead to him climbing the top step of the podium, as well as what the experience has been like mixing it with racers of more traditional backgrounds out on the track.

Have you ever entered a racing series, only to lament your initial car selection? Sure, Car X looked so appealing during pre-season testing, but a few races in, you had eyes only for Car Y. It’s the classic green-grass scenario, really. The boys over at GTPlanet’s Weekly Race Series have solved the problem with Special Event XVI: why pick one of three cars, when you can just drive all of them instead?

“You’re going to rally school!”

A sentimental longing for the past; for a period or place with happy personal associations. That’s the definition of nostalgia, and the reason this is both the prelude and underlying theme this week has to do specifically with nostalgia playing such a significant role among those of us here at GTPlanet.

I’ll be honest, originally, the title was going to be “Everybody Wants to Rule the World of Racing Games” but I changed it, obviously. Why? One, it’s a little long-winded. Two, it would almost certainly conjure up thoughts of Tears for Fears, at least among those old enough or even savvy enough to know who they are.

Nineteen hundred seventy four. That’s a sizeable number, one with significance. You see, that is the total number of car models found in the following games: Gran Turismo 6, Forza Horizon 2, Driveclub, Project CARS, Forza Motorsport 6, Need For Speed, and Assetto Corsa. At least, that’s according to our handy, sortable Google Spreadsheet.

With spring drawing near, talks of the upcoming Gran Turismo Sport beta are going to become commonplace and for good reason. Gran Turismo Sport is an opportunity to steer the franchise in a new direction; to reinvent and reassert it is as one of the key players in this niche genre, and what better way to do just that than with an offshoot title.