– Greaves Motorsport Zytek Z11SN, June 3rd, courtesy of ac1.
The phrase “what a week this has been” was the flavor of the month in May, and the landscape looks no different for the month of June. With things seemingly revving on all cylinders day after day, it seems fitting to utter that very phrase.
What a week this has been.
Whether it be the SRT Tomahawk, ongoing news regarding the Logitech G29, or Assetto Corsa coming to consoles next year, this time of year always seems to be graciously burdened with news from across the map, and this is only the first week of June! Before going any further and delving into myriad topics and sources of discussion, I have but one question: Who’s ready for the Spotlight?
GTPlanet Picture of the Week
This week’s featured image comes to us courtesy of Arixant and features the 2013 McLaren 12 GT3 as it appears in PC racing simulator, Assetto Corsa.
If you like what you’re seeing and have a suggestion for next week’s featured image, start a conversation with me, entitle it “GTPlanet Picture of the Week” and fill it to your heart’s content with suggestions and they’ll be featured in upcoming Community Spotlight articles. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.
GTPlanet Gallery of the Week
– Cizeta-Moroder V16T at Syracuse, December 10th, 2013, courtesy of TopGearHamster.
Once a month, instead of highlighting a single gallery and placing the spotlight on one individual, the spotlight will be placed on multiple people at once, thus allowing for an even richer discussion and participation.
This week’s featured gallery is yet another community effort maintained by budding virtual photographers and veterans alike. Opened on November 29th in 2013 and brought to you once again by ECGadget, the Artistic Photo Thread approaches GTPhotography with an emphasis on artistry – whether that be images with extensive post-processing, extreme close-ups, or creative angles, this is the thread where you’re fully encouraged to show off your artistic side.
– Nissan R390 GT1 at Matterhorn, August 25th, 2014, courtesy of Loading.
If you think you’ve got what it takes to dazzle with artistic pieces or you simply wish to learn from those more experienced, then you’ll no doubt want to stop by the thread right now and have a look at the immense catalog available! Maybe even ask a question (or several).
If you like what you’re seeing and have a suggestion for next week’s featured gallery, start a conversation with me, entitle it “GTPlanet Gallery of the Week” and fill it to your heart’s content with suggestions and they’ll be featured in upcoming Community Spotlight articles. NOTE: You cannot elect your own gallery.
GTPlanet Thread of the Week – Unveil The Hidden Specs!
– Toyota FT-1 Vision Gran Turismo at Bathurst, October 8th, 2014, courtesy of NBDESIGNZ.
You have no doubt come across a number of vehicles in Gran Turismo 6 with mystery specifications denoted by a series of hyphens, and it’s often said that knowing is half the fun, so this will no doubt drive any number of the community here absolutely insane not being able to know what the exact specifications for power, torque, and weight are.
This thread, put together by our own MonGnoM, puts an end to the guessing game with a unique method involving an open lobby and playing around with the restrictions.
“For example i want to know how heavy this particular car is.
So I start guessing the weight.
Starting with setting the lobby restrictions to 1200kg.
On the sheet where yu tune your car, if the blank space “—” is red, this means the car is lighter than 1200kg, so you go down with the restriction, or add ballast until it stops glowing red, and then you subtract the amount of ballast from the restricted weight limit.”
The catalog is continually building and you’re encouraged to help put an end to the guessing game as well, so you’re more than welcome to stop by the thread and give it a try yourself, or just sit back and watch the numbers come to life so you can finally stop scratching your head wondering why your favorite car’s specifications aren’t readily available for your leisure.
Porsche Coming to Forza Horizon 2?
– Porsche 911 GT3 RS, March 22nd, 2013, courtesy of Jacek145_JJ.
Microsoft may have inadvertently revealed that Porsche is on its way back to the franchise in a slip-up when publishing this month’s Duracell Car Pack trailer to the Xbox Youtube channel, and in the description read the following:
Forza Horizon 2 Porsche Expansion Pack
“Only available in Forza Horizon 2 for Xbox One, this addition will add 500 points Gamerscore, new events and more legendary German manufacturer of cars, including a supercar 2014 Porsche 918 Spyder.”
As you can imagine, the error was corrected soon after being published. The last time Porsche was featured in the series was in 2011’s Forza Motorsport 4, and even then the original intentions were withheld as the license had to be re-acquired and would later be re-introduced in a standalone expansion nearly a year later.
Could we hear more about this expansion at E3 in two week’s time?
GTPlanet Member of the Week
The time to acknowledge a member of the GTPlanet community is once again upon us. A member who has stood out among the hundreds of thousands of members already here, both old and new alike for all that they’re worth and all they have contributed to the community.
This week’s inductee is without a doubt the king of procrastination, bringing you an interview more than one year in the making, and as you can probably imagine the interview itself is of the previous 36 question format. Without any further ado, because we’ve all waited long enough, let’s give the warmest welcome to the newest member to find vacancy in the ever-expanding Member of the Week madhouse, Roo!
You can read the interview in all of its (old) glory right here!
Race 07 2015 Super Touring Shoot-Out
Every now and again we all come to a point where we just want to play older, classic games that resonate with more of what we want in modern racing games, and our very own doblocruiser is looking to capitalize on that feeling for any and everyone that still enjoys SimBin’s 2007 racing sim, Race 07.
“Welcome to all the Super Touring lovers. This small competition was setup to relive and celebrate those beautiful years in Super Touring Car racing. Many have enjoyed watching those races at the famous circuits in Britain. Who remembers the battle between Thompson and Plato at Oulton Park, Nigel Mansell’s epic drive at Donington. Patrick Watts who fought Rydell at Oulton Park, Aiello and Plato at Knockhill and the legendary finally in ’92 at Silverstone.
People are very welcome to join. The shoot-outs will last 2 weeks. Within this time-period people have to weeks two submit their time. Discussing, sharing tips and tricks are also very welcome.”
Being an out-and-out time trial competition, the rules are fairly straightforward but there are a few requirements, the first of which being the game itself if you don’t already own it, and if you don’t but are interested the game can be purchased for as little $3.32. For the complete lowdown on exactly what’s necessary to participate you’ll no doubt want to stop by the thread and have a look around and have a little fun!
GTPlanet Vehicle of the Week
– Nissan GT-R LM NISMO at Spa Francorchamps, June 2nd, 2015, courtesy of AidenNewman888.
Being the first prototype used since the 1999 R391, the GT-R LM NISMO already stands out among its competition for making use of the front mid-engine layout as opposed to the rear mid-engine layout used by nearly all the other competitors in the category.
Designed by Ben Bowlby with the brief from Nissan to not design an “Audi copy”, Bowlby placed the LM’s combustion engine in front of the cockpit, a layout not used in prototypes since the Panoz LMP01 Evo in 2003. Unlike the rear-wheel drive powertrain used in the Panoz, the GT-R LM powers the front axle through a gearbox located in the front of the engine.
The engine, a 3.0L, direct injected, twin-turbocharged VRX30A V6 unit, co-developed by Nissan and Cosworth is recognized by Nissan as the most fuel efficient design, and behind the engine but beneath the cockpit is a kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) using two flywheels developed by Torotrak. The flywheels can output power to a secondary driveshaft which is connected to a limited-slip differential at the rear of the car which feeds epicyclic gearboxes located in each wheel hub, thus allowing the GT-R LM to be all-wheel drive when necessary.
GTPlanet Tune of the Week
We’re here once again to showcase the community’s effort to tame/tune the Car of the Week, so let’s get right to it.
“Another month has come upon us, and I have received yet another suggestion for car choice. Once again it takes a different turn and we will have 6 cars to choose from!
Now some cars are must have for most garages, as for me, they usually begin with every Chevy I can get and multiple versions of most them. I also enjoy most of the classic and modern muscle cars. Then there are those that grab your attention with their looks, the Gran Turismo S, classic Ferrari’s, Aston Martin or perhaps a Lambo! Or maybe you’re more about performance, ok, then there is the NSX, Elise 111R, GT-R, and so many more. Evan the little cars with less horsepower get some love, as we found out in April with the “Little Engine That Could”
Which brings us to this month’s selection, cars that tend to get overlooked or forgotten. PD did not likely include them for their looks, as I believe most would agree. They are big, heavy and most are front wheel drive, there is the one odd ball with AWD. But each does have the unique powertrain of having a V6 under the hood (or bonnet for my friends abroad). So let’s grab one, two, or all of these lesser used cars and see what would we can get out of them shall we?”
A unique challenge for the month of June is what you’re looking at here; how much performance can you wring from these overlooked and forgotten cars? If you’re up for the challenge then have a look at this month’s thread and have at it!
The Last Lap
The news is still coming quite swiftly so you’ll definitely want to keep your eyes peeled to the news page. As a matter of fact, just glue your entire body to your chair and you’ll be fine because that way you’re guaranteed not to miss a thing. How will you eat, sleep, and use the bathroom you ask? I don’t know!
Things are certainly going to continue heating up over the next couple of weeks, and for great reason. Normally with E3 in the air I’m largely looking forward to the presentations and demos and that’s again true for this year, but I’m also incredibly excited for the first-ever PC Gaming Show taking place June 16th for a number of reasons: Microsoft exclaiming PC gaming is more important to them than ever before, AMD showing off their all-new “Fiji” GPU, and the many games likely to be shown.
I won’t talk too much about nerdy PC things this week but I will delve a little deeper into things for next week, even mentioning my recent video card purchase, one ASUS Strix GTX 970. If you have no idea what that is you’ll find out next week! Until then, keep on racing!
See more articles on GTPlanet Community Spotlight and GTPlanet Member of the Week.
Great implementation of the photo credits. I saw them last week but forgot to leave a comment.
How did it come that i dont know about Race 07 SuperTouring??
Good job T 12, it’s always a pleasure to read through your pieces.
:-)
Great Spotlight, but I have a small correction: The Nissan GT-R LM NISMO is purely front wheel drive for the time being (including for Le Mans).
Nissan had been debating whether the benefit of a “small” amount of the power sent to the rear wheels, would be worth the extra complexity and weight this would add – and ended up, for now anyway, driving it as a pure ‘FF’ racing car.
As it had always been envisioned as a primarily front wheel drive cars, with the option of sending power to the rear wheels when needed (almost the opposite setup of the roadgoing GT-R), so I imagine it could become AWD at a later stage though.
(I can’t be sure about how it works in GT6 though, as its ‘FF’ designation could just be a reference to how the combustion engine works – given that spec sheet power output in-game is for the V6 only. Without more detailed info of in-game hybrid system, such as if it is 2MJ (as they are using at Le Mans, given the short development of the car) or the full 8MJ one (which again was, and is, the original intended system), it is hard to know if the GT-R in GT6 resembles the ‘concept of the real car’ or the ‘Le Mans Spec’ of the real car.
If anyone have tested if there is indeed power sent to the rear wheels, I would like to know.
I am really curious how those Nissans will compete in le mans. Yesterday I have read an article from a german motoring magazine that said Nissan is going to blame itsself. It said they will race purely FF because the hybrid system does not work entirely. Also the brakes seem to be a problem. Without the hybrid system they seem to suffer from understeer and the aerodynamics cant work properly. I dont know if its only roumors but after a long period of developement and a lot of money involved I would be very disappointed if the concept simply does not work. So I keep my fingers crossed for Nissan although its not really one of my favourite manufacturers.
The car has like what, 604hp?
I bet majority of the Le Mans car have like over 900hp! Even with the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO being boasted to have better fuel efficiency the point is clear: POWER IS EVERYTHING!
Unless Nissan can increase the power of the car to 800 or even 900+hp I will not believe this car to be even LMP2 worthy!
Interesting. I went on what I immediately found as the sources I usually adapt from were mostly press release-like pieces.
The source from which this was mostly copied and pasted from, Wikipedia, does note that the flywheel supplies power to the front, but has the option to send power to the rear. It appears when this was copied from Wikipedia that the sentence accurately describing the flywheel system was left out. That secondary system is indeed not in place for 2015, and has been held off until 2016.
Of course GTPEDIA contains details on all the hidden power, weight and drivetrain data missing from ALL of the Gran Turismo games, not just GT6…
Hrm… well then. Were you just sitting by, watching us have fun trying to ferret out the information? ;D
Heck, I bought the thing, I should give it a peek sometime for these juicy details. Weren’t you the author, by the way? Or a contributing author?
Yes to both :D
Of course we also update for cars added to GT6 and include numbers where they have none.
Great spotlight Terronium. Though you’re making more and more work for yourself by adding all these different things to it…!
Also, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up with all the driving content being thrown at us at the moment… Thank god we can find it all here on GTPlanet in one nice neat forum package!
Odds of GT7 being announced at E3 for a release in the next 12 months anyone?
I’m pretty damn sure it might.
i dont think it will, they might show stuff related to GT7 but they wont announce anything being released in the next 12 months.
I’m thinking there’s a 50% chance of something Gran Turismo revealed at E3. Not one source has said, “GT7 will definitely not be there.” And specifically, no one has said, “Gran Turismo won’t be at E3 at all.” And I don’t mean playable kiosks.
I’m thinking anything more than a trailer of GT7 will be a longshot, 10%. However, GT7 Prologue? GT6 HD? I’m thinking more like 55% on either.
If I’m totally wrong, that’s fine. I know it’s being built, and I have all kinds of patience. It will come when it’s ready.
Oh poop, release within the next 12 months… I’m tired. Yes, JohnnyP, I am. ;P
Uhm… release by June ’16, I’d say 25%. Release by holidays 2016, 50%. Release within 2017, sure thing.
GTPlanet. GTPlanet never changes… (to paraphrase Ron Perlman)
Jordan posted a couple of weeks ago on the forum that it was unlikely that there would be any GT at E3.
Of course, that doesn’t rule out an announcement of some sort being made at the Pikes Peak event instead… (that’s just me guessing in the wind, and I do think it unlikely that there will be anything on GT7 until 2016 at the earliest)
Maybe TenD doesn’t consider Jordan a reliable source…lol.
Maybe JohnnyP has reading comprehension issues. Lol. Let me quote myself again for the record:
Not one source has said, “GT7 will definitely not be there.”
Johnny, maybe reading this a second time helps.
Jordan says he doesn’t expect it, that’s good enough for me.
Big shout out to Super Touring Mod Creater Andreas, i make skins for this amazing mod =)
:bowdown: Thanks for The great work. Do you happen to have a few names and a link so that I can add it to my shootout.
The mods and skins are really very well done!
PM me please :)
This is the golden age of sim racing no doubt and you guys at GTP are doing a great job keeping us informed about the ever expanding roster of games and hardware available to us players. Keep up the good work!!
Likewise, didn’t expect to see Race07 in this article, let alone some mods for it.
All the this news…Too much want *ded*