SEMA

There’s a rare opportunity to pick up a piece of Gran Turismo history this month, with the first ever SEMA GT Award — the 1962 Buick Special Bu’Wicked — coming up for sale on Bring a Trailer.

Early November is always a special time of year for automotive enthusiasts. It’s when car manufacturers and aftermarket equipment suppliers descend on Las Vegas to show off their wares.

We’re always excited when any new car is making its way to Gran Turismo. When it’s a SEMA GT Award-winner, it’s even more exciting. These are cars which aren’t just some stamped-out piece of metal or carbon-fiber, but unique pieces of automotive art made with a passion by a small group — or even just one person.

Gran Turismo Sport players already have five new cars to look forward to later this week. Now comes news that another car is en route to the franchise, and it’s one we’ve known about for a while.

With the next update for GT Sport due any day now, players might have something else to look forward to as we approach 2018. If you guessed more cars, you could be onto something.

It’s that time of year again! The 2017 Gran Turismo Awards were held at SEMA last week, and another custom car was tapped to be featured in a future game.

Every week we read loads of automotive news stories here at GTPlanet that we can’t fit into their own articles. In a new feature, we’ll be bringing you a quick round-up of things we might have otherwise missed.

It was 2002 when Ted and Sue Richardson decided to take an ordinary 1962 Buick Special and convert it from top to bottom into a spectacular 550 bhp machine. Today we recall what we love about this car as it appears on sale for $150,000 at the Barrett-Jackson Collection Showroom.

Last month, Polyphony Digital employees descended upon Las Vegas for the 14th Gran Turismo Awards. While Kazunori Yamauchi himself was not present — he was presenting London with the world’s first look at GT Sport utilizing PS4 Pro and PSVR — the party was just as large as it has been in previous years. You can see for yourself up top.

It’s been another crazy year at SEMA in Las Vegas, and the show is going to bring another crazy custom car to the Gran Turismo series: Bruce Levens’ 1951 Ford Coupe.

The yearly festivities got underway here in Las Vegas yesterday, as the 2016 SEMA Show brought hundreds of modified cars together in Sin City. As usual, the Gran Turismo team is here, whittling down the list of finalists for this year’s GT Awards.

It’s hard to believe, but SEMA has been holding the ceremony of the annual “Gran Turismo Awards” for more than a decade now. What car is going to claim the “Best in Show” at the largest automotive exhibition in Las Vegas this year? We’re going to find out next week — Wednesday, to be precise — when the 14th iteration takes place in Sin City.

I believe many of you will recall our report from the 2015 SEMA automotive show several months ago when we closely followed the battle between five 2015 GT Awards finalists, all brought together from various categories. Presented by Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi himself, the ”Best in Show” crown was awarded to a painstakingly-modified Datsun 240Z, which is owned by popular Fast & Furious movie star Sung Kang.

UPDATE: The “Fugu Z” was scanned by the Polyphony Digital team on November 7, 2017 in Long Beach, CA. It was finally added to Gran Turismo Sport in the game’s 1.31 update, released on December 5, 2018.

It’s been a busy day at SEMA, as Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi toured the show floor visiting all the finalists for this year’s GT Awards.

It’s that time of year again! The 13th annual Gran Turismo Awards have become a special tradition at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, and the details for this year’s competition have just been announced by Sony.

As most readers will recall, a new Safety Car based upon a special edition of the BMW M4 was announced for Gran Turismo 6 a few weeks ago. Many of you were quick to notice, however, that the car shown in the screenshots did not contain a flashing LED light bar on the roof, as could be seen on the real car which BMW debuted at SEMA the following day.

The 2014 Gran Turismo Awards were held at Drai’s Nightclub on the Las Vegas strip Wednesday night, where Kazunori Yamauchi announced a custom car from SEMA 2014 – the world’s largest aftermarket automotive industry event – would be featured in an upcoming Gran Turismo game.

Another new car carrying the special dark blue 15th Anniversary livery has been announced at SEMA 2013 in Chevrolet’s latest press release.

Each year at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, the Gran Turismo Awards are held to honor some of the best custom vehicles on display – one of which gets immortalized in a Gran Turismo game.