Nurburgring 24 Hours

This weekend, for the first time in almost a decade, the Nurburgring will be blessed with the presence of gamers taking on the famous and arduous 24-hour race.

Shortly after the Gran Turismo movie has its premiere in August, you’ll be able to buy one of the film’s main “hero” cars which has the very unusual provenance of being driven by both Jann Mardenborough and Jann Mardenborough…

A number of members of the Gran Turismo live events team have been spotted filming what’s described as “promotional material” at the Nurburgring, ahead of the annual N24 endurance race set for next weekend.

If you were watching the heavily interrupted Nurburgring 24 Hours this last weekend you might have seen something a little familiar: a glimpse of Gran Turismo’s broadcast graphics.

The measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 across Europe are stepping up a notch this week, impacting more of our favorite events. This time it’s the Nurburgring 24 Hour race that’s on the shelf, and it may have further consequences.

Polyphony Digital has shared a new video covering the atmosphere and excitement of one of the world’s largest and most popular endurance races, the Nurburgring 24 Hours.

https://youtu.be/KI-WquCdBPo

Schulze Motorsport has published a video which documents the team’s dramatic experience at this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours.

Polyphony Digital has launched a new blog called the “PitStop” as a place to provide more frequent and informal communications with the public. A “variety of authors” from around the world will be contributing to PitStop, and comments can be posted via Facebook.

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).

Gran Turismo’s logo was prominent around the Nurburgring this weekend at the 24 Hour race, and Polyphony Digital  surprised viewers of the race’s live broadcast by showing off what appears to be the first-ever video of the Nordschleife Gran Turismo 6.

Kazunori Yamauchi, the father of Gran Turismo, and his teammates Tobias Schulze, Michael Schulze, and Opera Performance founder Yasuyoshi Yamamoto, finished first-in-class in the 2011 Nurburgring 24 Hours! It was a dramatic race for Team Schulze, who were forced to spend a concerning amount of time in the pits addressing mechanical issues with their race-modified Nissan GT-R.

Just as it was with this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, Gran Turismo fans have another driver to cheer for in the Nurburgring’s 24-hour race: Kazunori Yamauchi. Here’s all the links you need to follow along:

If you’ve spent much time online in GT5 or our forums recently, you may have seen one of the latest “glitches” discovered in the game (there’s more on YouTube). With a little help from a friend, you can “break out” of the Nurburgring using a high-powered car (usually the X2010) to explore or – unfortunately – acquire a lot of money very quickly. The glitch appears to work just as the one discovered at SSR7, which was just patched last week in GT5 v1.08. Watch the the video above to see how it’s done – hopefully this is an issue that can be resolved soon.

As you may recall, GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi joined the Team World Car Awards for the 24-Hour Nurburgring race just a few weeks ago. Despite some mechanical troubles, they finished fourth in their class, with Yamauchi himself setting the team’s second-fastest lap at 9:48. Check out on-board video of one of his laps below, featuring his signature smooth-and-steady driving style. Congratulations to the whole team, and thanks to all who sent this in!