As Gran Turismo fans clamour for the latest bits of news on 2016’s Gran Turismo Sport, the drag nets are cast ever wider, and the search can yield some unexpected results. Case in point: a mysterious Gran Turismo connection to an Acura ILX race car was found at last month’s Montreal Auto Salon, thanks to forum member @Zlork (Edit: the original image was posted by @Zalex on Facebook).
Two factory-backed ILX racers took part in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill last December, with the #28 car finishing 10th in class against purpose-built machinery such as the winning Flying Lizard R8 LMS. This car eschewed the Acura windshield banner of its sister car however, instead running with Gran Turismo scrawled across its top.
Windshield banners bearing the name of Polyphony’s series are hardly new, of course. In 2015 alone, one could spot it on competitors at the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb and the VLN Endurance series, among others. The banner, on its own, is not necessarily representative of a car or track’s inclusion in the series. Pikes Peak in particular has a long, unusual history with Gran Turismo, be it the track itself or certain record-setting cars. To wit, the ILX – in the same spec as the Thunderhill cars – was part of Acura’s 13-car assault on the hill last summer.
What marks the ILX endurance racer as unusual is an information screen presented alongside the #28 car. Front and centre is the GT logo, with “Spec Acura” and “Endurance Racer 2016” framing it.
Could this be part of a dedicated series in GT Sport? Or perhaps a new real-world spec series featuring the car, with Gran Turismo sponsorship? We’ve reached out to Honda for more information on the car, and the GT connection. Stay tuned for more details.
http://www.topspeed.com/cars/acura/2015-acura-ilx-nasa-endurance-racer-ar168516.html
http://www.motor1.com/news/54358/acura-ilx-endurance-race-car-revealed-for-new-york/
The same picture was used early last year in various publications. I’m guessing the GT logo was added because GT is now a series sponsor as indicated by the windshield banner on the car from the Auto Show:
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fscontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-xlf1%2Ft31.0-8%2F12492027_10153386273931519_4907387969246657340_o.jpg&hash=652096a291c4cf210ff50d720ee88e48
It could just be the car is coming to the game.
I can’t wait to see if it Will be in the game !!:)
Can anyone translate what the letters on the bottom say?
“Flyby” “Specs” “Gallery”
Survol means flyby, but it sounds like a bad translation for survey in the meaning of preview.
Thanks Kyle !
I appreciate that. :)
Feel free to use any pics I took of the event, if of any use.
And i’m fine with Zlork that shared it with the comunity.
At start i just thought there my name had been mispelled. Lol
The car looks the be rendered by Gran Turismo Maya engine though. So it’s possible that it’s in the game and probably will be some sort of tie in sponsorship with the game.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GT.Quebec/permalink/559011630913821/
Lol, those are MY PICS !!!
I took them last week at montreal and posted it on facebook last night, did not expected to see it a few hours on GTPlanet ! :)
I do have othe pics but only from the car, not from the frame with GT pic.
See my post on this weekend for the other pictures. :)
Oh, thanks for clarifying Zalex! The original post had no context, good to know it was spotted by a GTP member then. I’ll update the post right away to reflect that.
Wow ta photo fais le tour du monde lol
Probably just the main sponsor.
I hope we will be seeing more of these endurance racers, looks cool!
This is intriguing. Let the hype begin! ;)
All aboard!
Toot-Toot! I’ll ride that caboose! ;)