Nissan GT-R

Cue the Darth Vader music: the gauntlet has been laid down! Ahead of the upcoming Bathurst 12H race, a confident Jann Mardenborough has challenged all Gran Turismo 6 players to beat his time on the famous Mount Panorama Circuit in Australia.

The racing season is continuing to heat up for Nismo. While last weekend’s tough Dubai 24H race saw the GT Academy team finish 8th in the SP3-GT4 class, the next event will up the pace for a once-around-the-clock run around Mount Panorama.

The season finale of the Pirelli World Challenge took place last earlier this month at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. While the hunt for the title was essentially a two-horse race between McLaren pilot Alvaro Parente and Porsche driver Patrick Long, few would have predicted quite how the final standings would shake out. Parente emerged victorious, snatching the title from the 2011 winner as well as putting an end to Johnny O’Connell’s four-year-strong title run with Cadillac.

The penultimate round of the Pirelli World Challenge took place a few weeks ago at the sunny, rolling hills of Sonoma Raceway. Continuing a trend set by GT Academy grad Bryan Heitkotter at the previous race weekend in Utah, veteran GM racer Johnny O’Connell swept both races in California in his bright red Cadillac ATS-V.R.

Last weekend saw a landmark achievement for one of the most promising graduates from the GT Academy programme, as the 2011 U.S. winner Bryan Heitkotter was able to to take his first overall win in professional motorsport — which was then swiftly backed up by a second win the day after.

Revealed yesterday the Nissan GT-R 2017 is an absolute beauty. Slightly tweaking the iconic design of previous models, the new bodykit and vastly improved interior has car fanatics drooling. Those wondering about the vehicle’s digital debut need worry no more – EA’s Need for Speed has the honors of putting the latest GT-R in player hands around the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjkfOY5vNXM

It wasn’t all sunshine and smiles in Florida this past weekend. After a solid season opener the week before in Texas, Heitkotter and teammate JD Davison faced stiff competition on the tight street circuit of a cloudy St. Petersburg. While outright victory would evade the GT-R’s in Florida, the two drivers made points progress nonetheless, including a podium finish.

The Le Castellet circuit in France, better known to the motorsport community as the Circuit Paul Ricard, was this week’s home to the Blancpain GT Series as the official pre-season testing began for the upcoming season.

The Pirelli World Challenge season got underway this past weekend, bringing more success for GT Academy grads and Nissan’s 2016 motorsports teams. Bryan Heitkotter was bumped up to the top GT class in the PWC mid-season last year, where he ended the series in a respectable 10th place. For 2016 however, Bryan started on an equal footing against other professional drivers, and wasted no time establishing himself as a contender with an award-winning drive in Texas on Saturday.

2016 will see Nissans of all manner of shapes and sizes take to the track all over the globe once more, as the manufacturer, aided by the NISMO Athletes, aim to top a hugely successful 2015 with 34 drivers across 14 series.

The #23 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 line-up of Alex Buncombe (GB), Katsumasa Chiyo (JAP) and Wolfgang Reip (BEL) has won the Blancpain Endurance PRO Driver’s Championship. Third place in a nail-biting, season-closing race at the Nürburgring in Germany sealed the title win for Nissan after a season of hard racing in what is accepted to be the biggest GT championship in the world.

https://youtu.be/OzFvuioE9hM

Nissan’s radical Le Mans challenger, the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, is coming to Gran Turismo 6 in just a few short weeks, when the final round of the GT Academy 2015 online qualifier kicks off on June 2, 2015, at 07:00 GMT/UTC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gx_E23VpQQ

The next generation of the Nissan GT-R will be heavily influenced by the design of the Nissan “CONCEPT 2020” Vision Gran Turismo car released in GT6 last July, according to a report from Motoring.com.au.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvZwkh4gebA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY4YXl_YZd8&feature=youtu.be

One of the repeated points of Kazunori Yamauchi’s presentation at the Gran Turismo 6 reveal at Silverstone earlier this month was the growing connection between virtual simulations and reality, and how Polyphony Digital can benefit from increased collaboration with motorsports teams and real-world automotive engineers (and vice-versa).

The famous Silverstone Circuit has just been added to Google Maps’ Street View, which now lets you virtually tour the entire length of the 3.6-mile Grand Prix course.