Kazunori Yamauchi will be returning to the gruelling Green Hell this year. Polyphony’s man in charge took 2015 off, after an accident during the qualifying session the year before. In a surprising turn, however, Yamauchi will be slotting in behind the wheel of a Bavarian motor for the ADAC qualifier this weekend.
The new M6 GT3 has enjoyed reasonable success across the globe so far, and the Walkenhorst Motorsport outfit will be entering two examples in the top SP9 class alongside one older Z4 GT3. Joining Yamauchi in the #101 car will be Matias Henkola, George Richardson, and Max Sandritter. Henkola is graduating from the Cup 5 class, where he helped bring the M235i to a second-in-class spot in 2015.
SP9 is set to be even more hotly-contested than previous years. Certainly 2015 winner Audi Sport Team WRT will be looking for a repeat in the R8 LMS (the same car that showed up in the GT Sport debut video). Newly-christened Top Gear host Sabine Schmitz joins the fray in the Frikadelli Racing Team 911 GT3 R. GT Academy 2013 winner Florian Strauss finds himself with the Zakspeed squad in a GT-R, while the GT Academy Team RJN car will be shared amongst Lucas Ordonez, Michael Krumm, Kazuki Hoshino, and Alex Buncombe.
Meanwhile, 2010 GT Academy winner Jordan Tresson will join the evergreen Schulze brothers in the SP8T class.
Saturday and Sunday will each feature a qualifying session, while the six hour race begins at noon local time.
See more articles on 2016 Nurburgring 24 Hours, Alex Buncombe, BMW, Florian Strauss, Kazunori Yamauchi, Lucas Ordonez, Michael Krumm, and Polyphony Digital.
I guess this means there will be too many BMWs in the game now.
He should switch to keeping people informed about his “yet to materialise” game.
BMW GT Academy?
Just watched the videos uploaded where VR was used…..is it just me or does the actual driving part have a very little difference to normal game play?
The inside cockpit view is quite cool though…
I don’t use VR but to me it’s dramatically different. With a monitor you have fixed points of reference. You enter a corner and it looks the same every lap. The curb is at the same place on the screen as are the shadows, trees etc. With VR you move your head so you move every point of reference potentially every corner on every lap. It’ll take some getting used to for sure.
Ok, for the haters, do you remember back in 2013 when the Schulze GTR GT3 helped with the physics for GT6 by it’s telemetry??. THIS will be the same, so Kaz is helping developing GT while doing the 24h, and doing it now in a all-new-for-GT BMW rather than the GTR makes it even more special. Remember almost each car the boss touches, and drives, ends in a GT, and this WILL NOT be the exception, because it’s an awesome car, and it will help GT. In resume, he will spend 4 days of fun, and work for GT ;). Period-
Did you drive that car in the TT? I remember I maxed out front ride height, minimized rear ride height to get my fastest laps as did everyone else at the top of that TT. Is that the physics development we benefited from?
I’m honestly getting to the point where GT is starting to lose its appeal. I keep looking on GTPlanet to see if there’s any news about GT6 and Sport, but I find myself disappointed all too often. At 42, I think it may be time to find something else that isn’t full of empty promises and waiting in anticipation for something else to be disappointed in.
I might check to see where GT is in the future, but my respect for Yamauchi and PD has hit an all-time low. I hope that those of you who continue to play enjoy your time. Good luck to you all.
Could not agree with you more. I personally think that PD under estimated the competition and have been caught on the back foot as far as the quality of other games that have been released since the inception of GT6. My opinion they are playing catch-up….long way to go before you see GT7 or in fact GT SPORT……
Who cares about making a game eh?
Could not agree with you more. I personally think that PD under estimated the competition and have been caught on the back foot as far as the quality of other games that have been released since the inception of GT6. My opinion they are playing catch-up….long way to go before you see GT7 or in fact GT SPORT……
This is good news! Kaz returning to Germany and in a different type of GT machine… normally aspirated V10? Best of luck to you Sir! ;)
The chance of his new whip being included in the next installment go way up, with yet to be seen, some sort of Sony/PD/GT livery.
But here’s where PD usually let me down. Will a 6series be included? Examples… first they dropped the BMW 840ci and the ’97 R390 (both road and race cars) then dropped the Lister road car. Lastly, they didnt do an LM version of the ’06 Viper… dang! That really got me upset.
*4.4-Litre V8
With a couple of turbos
Giving PD the benefit of the doubt, some cars probably get dropped because a certain car may not be easy to reobtain for modeling on a next gen console.
Secondly, I hope that wasn’t sarcasm, previous winners use a NA V10, the R8. And the M6 is a turbo V8.
OK thanks guys. The E63/64 is the old M6. My bad… the new F12/13s are turbo charged 8s… got it! I never thought BMW would race this fat bastard. The 850Csi was a heavy weight as well…but its nice to see a big M on the track finally ;)
Im still more interested in a road car version of this particular model. Lol, its just what theyd do too since theyve already went the other way with the Viper (no LM offering). It just figures.
BTW Keith, l think it was corporate pride to omit the ’97 R390s because they were TWR originals. As far as whats available for future GTs… i wouldnt trash any old laser scans. Would you?
I smell the brand new M6 GT3 in GT Sport. The Vision GT project really helped PD because they might have access to new cars. And on the economic side this also helps ( although I’m that good in companies’ transactions ). No need to rush just let them do their job & let’s just wait! After all the game will go out eventually.
I think any car is available to any developer, outside of Porsche of course, so long as they can come to terms. The M6 GT3 you speak of was just announced for RaceRoom for example, an incredibly tiny dev relative to PD.
He is so much ahead with developing Gran Turismo, that he can take part in a race thousands kilometres away from Japan.
He must know that gtsport will be the best game ever…
I refer my friends to remarks I made some moments ago.
Sector3 recently released news that this car will feature in Raceroom. Can’t wait!
Seems to me that Nissan is slowly dropping or at least giving less importance to the GT Academy…
What did you expect? it was just a matter of time. Also the death on nurb did not help that.
It was just a PR stunt.
@karelpipa Nothing, actually I don’t care much about GT Academy. If GT6 can do it, there are so many other sims that could do it better with a proper program as well.
Interesting!
I hope this BMW is added to the game.
With the FIA-license going on, there is a big chance it will be.
Jarnowke..The FIA licence of GT is only for certain tracks ho passed the FIA certification and for doing a oficial online championship. The license for the cars has to be approved by the manufacturer.
And my thinking about the news…
Come on kazonuri… Less Racing and more making games! Give more information about your next game, or why you stopped suddenly with introducing vision GT and new car in GT6…
Or the delay of the GT Sport beta…
You really want even less sales and users than GT6 got??
The last game was garbage! Lear how 25 people maked a better simulation game with less money called Assetto Corsa and give users feedback on oficial forums and social networks!
You’re becoming a real joke kazonuri Yamahuchi!
@Donnced Do you really think him taking part in a ADAC event hampers or delays the Gran Turismo developments in any way. Let him race. And that’s not how you spell his name.
I was going to comment about it as well. He ´s concentrated in racing rather than gaming development
@JockeP22 yes indeed.. If Kazonuri isn’t Racing he comes to Monaco for the new Alpine presentation, then he goes giving some trophies and goes receiving others.. Sema…Tokio motor show, Geneva motor show.. Etc.
Now a participation in a classifier race to go race the Adac 24H of Nurburgring.. And all that needs also preparation…
So,yes, no doubt that all this affects the development of GT Sport and the Beta of it.
But hey.. Let hem have fun Racing with the money of the user’s ho buyed his game… While the list of vision GT isn’t completed in GT6 while he promised in 2013 that it would be completed in a maximum of two years (the game has + 3 year’s) , new cars he promised a year ago in Goodwood, the FIA championships where promised for spring 2015…the Online servers of GT6 sucks.. (most cars are standard and recycled from GT4 era).
The beta and more news of GT Sport in the early 2016 promised… Come on.. That’s beginning to be a bad joke.. And Mr Kaz isn’t even capable to give explanations to his fans and users.. Pathetic really.
@Donnced He’s (one of) the producers of the game, it’s not as if he makes everything on his own. I’m sure the team can work on their own for a week or two while he’s off racing.
Besides being a car and motorsports aficionado, and Vice President of SONY Computer Entertainment – should he drop that position too? – Kazunori is also trying to intertwine the gaming and automotive world in Gran Turismo. And make connections, lots of connections, with the real world of all things automotive. Car manufacturers, racing teams and leagues and administrative bodies. Besides all that, I’m hopeful that being in a real life serious racing event, and on perhaps the most challenging and technical course on the planet to boot, he can try to bring that experience to life in Gran Turismo.
So poop on you. ;-)
^The best Nurburgring experience is on assetto corsa and iracing… Both laserscaned.even Project C.A.R.S is a good step above GT..
GT6 = lots of quantity and bad quality…
GT now got a lot of competition, and the most of them are stronger in simulation and track accuracy than GT.
And a lot of people start to say it
http://www.videogamer.com/ps4/assetto_corsa/news/assetto_corsa_could_be_a_wake-up_call_to_forza_and_gran_turismo_says_dirt_rally_lead.html
Connections made by Kaz don’t mean diddly unless they have a positive effect on game play. So far it seems to me that these connections have mostly led to additional content and have had little to do with game play and the core elements that drive game play.