Each year at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance – the world’s most famous and prestigious car show – Kazunori Yamauchi selects a car to be awarded the “Gran Turismo Trophy”, after which it will be digitized and immortalized in the Gran Turismo series.
The award has brought us some of the most unique and historic cars in the past few GT games, including the 1965 Alfa Romeo TZ2, 1952 Abarth 1500 Biposto Coupe, and 1960 Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster.
This year’s award goes to a 1954 Maserati A6GCS Spyder, owned by Dean Meiling of Incline Village, Nevada.
Built as a Maserati works racing car for Luigi Musso during the 1954 racing season, it competed with great success in some of the most challenging and famous races of the era, with a class win in the Targa Florio and a second-place finish in the Mille Miglia. It also won first-in-class or first overall in 7 other events on the Italian racing circuit that year.
Eventually the car made its way Dean Meiling, who purchased it from an Italian businessman in 1998. Under his ownership, the little A6GCS has spent a lot of time back on the track, racing in various historic events nearly every year since it completed restorations in 2000.
Of course, it may be some time before we see this car in a Gran Turismo game in the future, but its racing pedigree will likely make it a highly anticipated addition to the franchise. Congratulations, Dean!
See more articles on Gran Turismo Trophy, Kazunori Yamauchi, Maserati, Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, and Polyphony Digital.
Great choice, this will be a wonderful addition to Gran Turismo.
I love those fat tyres.
No offense to anybody, but people who think this car looks similar to the Cobra really don’t know their classic sports cars. It’s the president to the pope, not at all the same.
That’s true but the front wheel wells and grill resemble the cobra. But u can defiantly see that it’s not a cobra. Just resembles a little.
If you were to cut off the car from the beginning of the side exhaust pipe, and look at it from the side, it would look like it.
Sweet ride. I have to admit that I never get excited over these cars. I cant recal one that has made it to the game in GT5 or 6. I don’t give them a second thought.
Maybe one day the will fall out of a DLC or update.
I’m waiting for the McLaren, Aston, Ferrari and Lambo GT3 cars to show up.
Hell, there’s even Camaro and Vett GT3’s. Now that’s exciting and worth ranting about.
I can’t wait to drive this car in GT46
Truth
I can think of a Mercedes, Aston, Jaguar, Porsche, Chaparral and a few more cars that look like this that would look great on the track together for a little historic race. Mabey around Cote´ D Azur.
Wow that is very beautiful car. The shape of the car just screams 1950’s and early 1960’s.
Great car… to drive at Zahara…without helmet…
I read what you wrote there. ‘Zahara’ ;)
It’s always taken some time to get these cars in the game but that’s no reason to suspect that they’re not coming. That’s the way it’s always been I don’t see why we need to get all upset about it now.
Who else thinks this was picked because PD can reskin the Shelby Cobra to make this?
Not even remotely close…
First thing that came to my mind when I saw this car was Shelby cobra….and the guy that says not even remotely close, really??? Definitely similarities.
The Cobra was a result of cars like this but their proportions are very different. To say that it would be as simple as a re-skin simply means you have not spend enough time with either to spot the differences.
I am pretty sure that all they have to do with this car is to change a few numbers around, and then they can call it new…
It isnt something new to PD i can assure you that…
Although they look somewhat similar aesthetically Hastatus, they both share many characteristics which can be transferred from one to another..
No it’s new to PD, this car isn’t even remotely a Shelby Cobra. The only thing similar is that they are old post-war open top sports cars. Otherwise it’s comparing the president to the pope, really not similar at all.
Great car – but no Targa Florio to drive it on….
Just like the Option Stream Z since GT4 with no Silver State Challenge. This is something that needs to be fixed – getting the good, long courses in games. The driving sim/simcade world is catering too much to the “gamers” and not the “drivers” – everything is being shortcutted (i.e. – 24 minute races instead of 24 hour endurance right here in GT6).
Probobly because its a videogame nothing more if someone wants the real thing then they need to put in the work and get out to track and drive.(not sit on the sofa and pretend to really be out there).
“…if someone wants the real thing then they need to put in the work and get out to the track and drive.”
Not entirely true. Some people want a GT that has past features (24 hour endurance, b-spec, etc.) and new ones (historic endurances, current racetracks, etc.) – not the abbreviated experience that GT6 is becoming.
The reason why we don’t have the previous two cars is probably because they were not ready to be implemented into the game yet. When kaz gives the award to a car at pebble beach, I would imagine it would be a good few months before they even start testing the car and taking reference.
The other reason is that just because they have a car ready to be implemented into the game, it doesn’t mean it is going to happen straight away. I mean, it doesn’t make sense, why give us a bunch of cars for free when they can hang on to em and then ship them with next game of the series.
In the time gap between the launches of GT5 and GT6, PD had created roughly 150 new cars, on that basis they will most likely have a good bunch of new cars ready in the office that we don’t know about.
As I’ve said many times on here, PD like to shelve most of the content for future iterations of the series. In this regard though, I wouldn’t mind having paid DLC packs, I can understand them wanting to make money.
Great choice ! The former winner Alfa TZ2 is one of my favorite Cars
I know PD has slowed down/stopped putting the Concours d’Elegance winners in GT but PLEASE put this car in the game!! Awwww man I want to drive that Maserati soooo bad :(
Another empty promise…anyone remember the Mach 40 that was supposed to make it into GT6? That announcement was made back in March, I believe…of LAST year.
Again? Who promise us anything about those cars?? Mach 40????
The Miura and the TZ2 was added back in GT5.. the Abarth and Playmouth are in GT6. What do you want? Ok the Ferrari and Aston Martin are still missing but I don’t see the point.
They said the Mach 40 would be in the game eventually. I don’t remember if they specifically mentioned if it would be in GT6 or in any other future game. I’m a busy guy and don’t have time to dig up on old posts, but it was certainly “promised” (at least they made it clear) that car would be in a Gran Turismo.
Now, if you’re asking what the Mach 40 is; it’s that metallic gold Ford Mustang/GT40 fusion with a Ford GT engine.
I know Husky what a Mach 40 is. Well I’m also too lazy to shearch the whole forum for the promise. I will try with Google. :P
Ok I found the news. On GTP nobody mention anything about the car coming to GT6. On the oficial GT site they mention something about securing his place in a future release of the Gran Turismo franchise. You can iterpretate this as you want, but for me t doesn’t sound like a promise.
Another Mille Miglia racer! Fantastic car. Makes me want to do a Mille Miglia mock-race with the future Sierra track coming soon.
Great car – lets hope they remember to put a small group of rival cars in the game at the same time so this one has some appropriate opposition – hopefully cars from Ferrari, Jaguar and Mercedes.
I bet it’s going to cost something like 20mil…
Indeed.. with the current credit system I have hardly been able to buy the cheaper cars and tune them let buying Ferarris and Maserati’s at 20 mil a pop.. so how does this constitute over 1200 cars.. Box should read “over 1200 mostly innaccessible cars for the first 5 years of gameplay”
Gods, you do talk some nonsense at times…
I’m not massively into grinding or online racing – so I only have seasonals to earn from; yet I still manage to get plenty of the lower, middle and upper cars that I might want. I wanted the Zonda racecar today – the seasonals provided plenty of cash for that little purchase. That’s 1 million, so plenty of cheaper cars could have been bought for that cash, and tuned up.
I fully agree with those who say that getting a car on the dyno might be preventing some (or at least the Ferrari) from getting into the game, but this guy actually RACES this car, so I don’t think stressing it a bit on a dyno is his biggest fear. ;)
This could be a neat car to drive! :)
:O OH YEAH BABY
We should remember though, that just because Mr Yamauchi shows up in your face with a trophy and the unexpected announcement that your car is going to be “imortalised” electronically is no gaurentee that some of these old timers will agree. I imagine their faces increase in shock and horror as Mr. Yamauchi explain how they have to “rev the car across the rev range so we can capture the sound of the intake”. I mean, are you kidding me? Some of these old timers would keep the car wrapped in bubble wrap for most of the year if they could.
Yes I agree that any owner should be proud but to some of these old timers electronic games are about as foreign as the eating habits of the Mashco-Piro tribe in the Peruvian jungles …it is meaningless …they understand Pebbles Beach type events and not games. I hope I am wrong but I get the feeling there is no automatic agreement that the owner will agree simply because a prize has been awarded.
Good point, probably the reason we have not seen all the previous winners in the game..
I agree 100%. Pebble Beach is held every year and I’m guessing GT awards are handed out every year as well so there should be a lot more cars with these awards in games GT5 and GT6 but that hasn’t happened. So owners of these multi-million $ cars are maybe reluctant to let some Japanese dudes’ grubby mitts all over their precious investments….
Codswallop.
Old cars aren’t as fragile as you think and, the owners aren’t afraid to push them hard on occasions.
It may be Codswallop but I can’t see any other reason why some of the winners of the GT award are in the game and others are not, has to be a reason and seeing as it is an annual event I can’t see it being a time issue…
Pd please put words into action!!!!
Beautiful car, I would prefer the inclusion of more classic cars over new models TBH, GT is as close as you will get to one of those history of car books but there are a few missing beauties from Maseratti, Aston Martin etc as well as missing marques such as De Tomaso, would love to see the Mangusta and Pantera make it into GT7.
If it gets a Gran Turismo award, it’s going to be in GT.
We still haven’t seen the 2012 Winner Ferrari 500 Mondial Pininfarina let alone the 2013 Winner Aston Martin DB3S.
Having said that I will remain positive about all of them. Such beauties…
I’m really hoping to see this in the upcoming Gran Turismo. It’s such a beauty.
It’s another beautiful Maserati. I’m delighted to see this won as I’m a huge Maserati fan and getting this in GT7, fingers and everything crossed, will be quite an occasion for me.
It might even wake PD up to the incredible cars in Maserati’s history. You have to hope I guess…
inb4gt7
It really bothers me how PD doesn’t stay up on these cars. I mean they didn’t even get the Ferrari that won in 2012 into GT6, so if GT7 comes out next year you culd very likely not see this car until GT8. Yes that’s right, GT8 speculation. But I just wish PD could scan the car now that its won the award and get it in the game in the next 6 months or whatever. Why they don’t stay up to date on the cars that win Gran Turismo’s own awards is beyond me. You think Kaz would care about seeing cars that he himself picks as winners into the game, but I guess he doesn’t, because he sure doesn’t give it the effort. I just don’t understand, and its super annoying too because these Pebble Beach cars especially are the ones I want to see more than almost any others, and certainly a lot more than another freaking Nissan who cares what.
Cannot agree more, we are missing out on two magnificent cars (not including the Maserati), and it’s highly likely we won’t see them until GT7. Another standard Japanese duplicate car will be added before the 3 Gran Turismo Award cars get added into ANY GT game. And thats coming from someone who always supports PD…
Exactly my stance.
It could be other factors, such as scheduling the scan for when they are in that part of the world again and the car is avialable. Possibly also the constant whingers carping on about things that need attention in the game straight away – I’m sure that doesn’t help either ;)
True though, a tigher turn around would keep most happy. I’m sure it’s not on purpose however.
Seeing how they didn’t add the Ferrari 500 Mondial Pinin Farina Coupe (yet), I doubt this will make its way into Gran turismo, although the Maserati section in GT6 is quite stark…
Nevertheless, this is a gorgeous car from what Many would consider Maserati’s golden era.