Citroen GT

If you’re not familiar with Takumi Yamamoto, chances are that you’re familiar with his work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipuiRogHJ3I

Sad news: remember the Polyphony Digital-designed supercar, the Citroën GT? After it was first revealed in an update to GT5 Prologue, it was widely publicized and praised in the media as the physical prototype made its way around the world at various car shows and events. It even floated around Venice, and this video I uploaded to YouTube (also embedded below) of the car driving around the streets of London has received more than 1.5 million views.

Remember the Photomode location in Gran Turismo 4, which let you place your car on a boat in front of the famous Rialto Bridge in Venice? Citroen managed to re-create this scene from the game in the real world earlier this week, with the radical Citroen GT concept car designed by Polyphony Digital.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is something that’s almost too good to be true – it’s the world’s largest gathering of the mostexotic, rare, and desirable cars you can imagine, and it takes place every summer in the beautiful English countryside.  Of course, it always attracts some of the biggest stars from motorsports, but Kazunori Yamauchi, GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez, and the Citroen GT made this year’s show all the more special for GTPlanet members in attendance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO26tmL-_gE

Polyphony Digital’s Citroen GT concept car has been busier than ever – first appearing at the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, hitting up the 24 Hours of Le Mans a few weeks ago, and now stopping traffic as it drives the London street circuit from GT5 Prologue.  Of course, this made for some pretty impressive photo ops, which you can see below.  The car is slowly making its way to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, taking place July 3-5.  Full press release after the jump…

The Gran Turismo brand once again made a strong showing last weekend at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans.  Trackside banners could be seen all around Circuit de La Sarthe – most notably at the chicanes down the  Mulsanne straight.  Sony also continued their strong support of the Pescarolo Sport racing team’s Peugeot 908 LMP car, in the quickly-becoming-classic light blue/green/white livery that you probably remember from GT4.  Polyphony Digital’s Citroen GT also made the rounds this year, (supposedly) doing a honorary lap around the circuit (still waiting on pictures of that) and appearing in a local driver’s parade.

Citroen continues to promote their popular Citroen GT with increasingly high-profile events.  Just last weekend, Polyphony Digital’s real-life concept car helped kick off the infamous 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, and was on public display during the entire event.  This is the first of several appearances for the car across Europe – coming up next, it will take part in the driver’s parade of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and will attend the UK’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in July.

If you’re a regular GTPlanet visitor, you already know about the Citroen GT.  It’s a monumental and unique achievement for a video game production company – the one and only Polyphony Digital.  However, you may be surprised to learn how many “real world” projects the Gran Turismo master minds are responsible for.  Tucked away on their Japanese website is a fascinating timeline of  collaborative projects, from the Nissan GT-R concept in 2001 to the Citroen GT today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeXaKFWg9NE

We reported last December that Polyphony Digital’s Citroën GT may actually be headed for production.  That’s now confirmed thanks to Citroën Product Manager Vincent Besson‘s recent comments to Autocar.  Of course, no pricing or official specifications have been released, but we do know that it won’t contain the futuristic fuel-cells that we’ve played with in GT5 Prologue.  Instead, the French company will enlist V8 power from a GM or Ford motor, much like the one found in the concept that the car magazines have been playing with.  As was originally speculated, production will be limited to no more than 20 units, so you’d better get those orders in right away…  Thanks to Alex P. for the tip!