GTPlanet Weekly Rewind: Weekend Warriors

You’re probably sitting there wondering to yourself “Why is the Rewind so late this week?” and to that I say it isn’t late, quite literally it was postponed to make way for other bits of worthy news I’ll cover again later on in the Rewind, so consider this a special ‘on-the-weekend’ edition of the Rewind. And I know you’re staring at this week’s featured image again—back to me; look, I’m on a horse! There’s no horse why are you looking over here?

I literally have nothing else to say this week that isn’t better suited for the ‘Closing Thoughts’ section of this weekly piece, so without further ado… let’s get physical! And that was an Olivia Newton-John reference that I reckon almost no one will understand.

GTPlanet Picture of the Week

This week’s picture, a cropped version of the original, comes to us courtesy of Primus Ortus (click for the full image as more than half has been cropped) and features the Yamaha-tuned, V10-howling Lexus LFA speeding straight-ahead at Cape Ring in an image that makes great use of bokeh. Just like last week’s shot, this one makes me want to jump into one of my virtual LFA’s and start taking pictures.

Have a suggestion for next week’s featured image? Drop me a private message, entitle it “GTPlanet Picture of the Week” and fill it out with your two choices and they’ll be featured in upcoming Rewinds. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

GTP Pure Racing Evolution

This week’s focus is, of course, the doings of the GTPlanet community, more specifically the doings of the guys involved in Pure Racing Evolution, one of the most dedicated OLR groups here; the events are taken seriously and are comprised of only the most cleanest and noble racers around. Coincidentally, the series is also comprised of over 10 GT Academy graduates but don’t let that stand in the way of wanting to have a good go-around with folks who will not only give you a challenge worth remembering, but will also respect  the sport every step of the way till the last car crosses the finish line.

I’ll let Wardez explain things a bit more:

…because of just one bad race I had in another league. I ragequit the series, never did that before, then my friend saw how upset I was over how much time I put into it (I was one of the league’s few organizers) just to get punted around Monaco by a guy who didn’t care. So we started Pure in order to bring in as many of the cleanest, noblest, drivers on GT5 and it proved to be a hit. We’ve made around a dozen successful racing leagues from 5 weeks to 10 weeks long (most of them surpassing 2,000 posts) and supported dozens of other struggling series with help in organizing, structure, and rules.

If you’ve been looking for a stellar group of individuals to race with who you know you’ll have a good time with look no further. For more information or if you just want to ask a whole bunch of questions be sure to stop by the official Pure thread here.

Disco Volante coming to GT5?

Uncovered just this past week, and then perhaps proven not long after having been brought up, lies the possibility of a new vehicle making it’s way into Gran Tursimo 5. What car you ask? The Alfa Romeo/Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera Disco Volante (what a mouthful), a two-seater coupe styled after Alfa Romeo’s own 1953 coupe of the same name. Note, this is not confirmation of any sort. Whether the car actually makes it’s way into GT5 remains to be seen, but for the time being it’s definitely something to think about.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Disco Volante click here for the original coupe, and here for the 2012 part.

GTPlanet Vehicle of the Week

Speaking of Alfa Romeo, look what we have for this week’s featured vehicle—an Alfa Romeo. Recommended by good ol’ Bobert (Kimi) power and courtesy of TeamVMS76, the Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ2 was the lighter, lower and more powerful progeny of the original Tubolare Zagato. When compared to the original, the TZ2 did not only employ fiberglass for the body unlike it’s predecessor, but was more of a muscle car due to it’s slightly altered proportions and as such was commonly referred to as a mini-GTO.

It continued the winning ways of it’s predecessor, albeit shortly, by claiming victories at every one of the five international events it was entered into in 1966, and victories at the Nürburgring 1000 km and Reims 1000 km in 1967 and would dominate the 1.6-liter GT class for almost two years before being taken out of the spotlight to make way for the Tipo 33.

Have a suggestion for next week’s featured image? Drop me a private message, entitle it “GTPlanet Vehicle of the Week” and fill it out with your two choices and they’ll be featured in upcoming Rewinds. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

GTPlanet Tune of the Week

Another tune done by resident tuning addict, praiano63. This time the focus is on the Infiniti Coupe Concept, an apparent grip monster at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in it’s 480PP trim fitted with your choice of Sports tires. With it you should be able to breeze right past the competition without missing a beat or ending up sideways.

Exactly like the Picture and Vehicle of the Week features, if you have any suggestions for the upcoming Rewinds be sure to drop me a private message, entitle it “GTPlanet Tune of the Week” and let me know. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

GTPlanet Photomode Competitions

In Week 114 of the Standard and Advanced competitions you are to put your best foot forth and show the community just how seriously you take your in-game photography. All you need to know is as follows:

Week 114, Standard: Race Mod: Before and After – Simple, yet fun is this week’s flavor as you are to travel to any virtual track on the GT globe and take a photo of a car with it’s race-ready brethren, whether it be an RM, TC or an actual racing variant – if it has a number and is the racing variant of the vehicle you have in mind you can use it!

Week 114, Advanced 2.0: The Referendum – I’ll let Miklad take reigns on this one: “Ok – quite topical this week. Should Britain stay in the European Market or not? Who cares? But who makes the best sports cars? Europe, or dear old Blighty? You decide! Take any British or European Sports Car, Saloon or Racer and show them off at their sexiest best. Remember – choose your side wisely!”

For all of the relevant information pertaining to this week’s challenges be sure to stop by here and here.

Closing Thoughts

So I’m really out of it right now, and if you’re wondering why the Rewind is so late this week (I know I’ve made mention of this already, just recapping) it was postponed to make way for the upcoming possibility of the Playstation 4 being revealed or hinted at later on this month; a story that you’ll find just underneath this one. You’ll also notice that there’s no video this week, and for that I apologize but the Rewind being postponed really threw me off my natural flow when I write these up and I wasn’t expecting that whatsoever. You’ll see in the opening thoughts that I kind of ran out of things to say that I felt wouldn’t have been better served here – when was the last time that happened?

At least now I’m prepared should this ever happen again, but enough of my silliness because Formula 1 season is almost here. The cars, especially Ferrari’s F138 look much better over last year’s chassis’, while others look almost identical to those used in last year’s season, albeit with apparent changes here and there… once you’ve noticed them. Needless to say, I’m very much looking forward to the season opener next month and finally I don’t have to worry about the abysmal coverage FOX does when they air the dated event in the afternoon. I hope NBC does things just as good, if not better than SPEED’s coverage.

On a completely separate note this week’s title, “Weekend Warriors” is an homage to Ted Nugent’s album of the same name; that’s right, the Motor City Madman himself, and on that note it’s time to end.

…I just realized what I did there, that was completely unintentional. Until next week keep racing!

GT5 Photomode image by GPR.

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