Top Gear

Playground Games has begun July with a preview of the next major Forza Horizon 4 update. Series 11 arrives tomorrow, July 2, and it’s bringing a whole bunch of Top Gear with it.

After four successful seasons on Top Gear, Matt LeBlanc has announced that the show’s next run will be his last.

Since 2002 the Top Gear Test Track, at Dunsfold in Surrey, stood among the ranks of tracks like the Nürburgring for benchmark lap times. Now that status is in jeopardy, and Top Gear may also soon find itself homeless.

What do you get when you cross a speed-obsessed television show and some of the slowest vehicles on the road? A new land-speed record.

The Alpine A110 might be the hottest thing in sports cars at the moment. It’s safe to say that the hosts of Top Gear weren’t expecting it to be so hot it was actually on fire.

Last month we gave you the first sneak peek at the upcoming season of Top Gear. Now, a new teaser trailer posted to YouTube gives us a more in-depth look at Series 25.

Season two of the Grand Tour is in full swing on Amazon Prime. However, rival show Top Gear is just around the corner and just put up a new trailer on its YouTube channel.

There is a new definition of insanity, courtesy of Bugatti. Named ‘Chiron’, Chris Harris recently got the opportunity to shake the cylinders of this beast in Oman, following a Top Gear TV filming.

During the month of December, the Top Gear website counted down its own version of the top 50 driving games ever made. The range of games included in its list was varied with realistic sims like GTR2 being placed alongside all-out fantasy games like Super Mario Kart. With so many different driving games included, the number one spot would have to be something truly special, and what better winner than the original timeless Gran Turismo on PlayStation—the game that redefined the genre.

Forza 6 launched in September of last year with three distinct digital flavours. The Ultimate Edition came bundled with the Car Pass: a $30 upfront cost to cover the first six months worth of Car Pack DLC’s, which are normally priced at $7 each. The four packs that are currently available – the latest being the Polo Red collection – have been received favourably, while the fifth is set to be revealed next week. Now, Top Gear magazine has revealed that the DLC program will extend at least one more month.

Kazunori Yamauchi was in California yesterday for the official debut of the Mercedes-Benz Vision Gran Turismo concept car, which will be featured in Gran Turismo 6.

Gran Turismo 5 and the Red Bull X1 Prototype have both been featured in the latest issue of Top Gear magazine, and the dramatic screenshot above introduces several important new cars to the game. Most notably, you’ll find the new McLaren MP4-12C, a Lamborghini Murcielago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce, the 1965 Alfa Romeo TZ2 (2009 winner of the Polyphony Digital Trophy at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance), the Lexus LF-A, and Philip Koenen’s 1970 Ford “Trans-Cammer” Mustang.

During his time at Snetterton to watch the two GT Academy 2010 finalists compete for the top spot, Kazunori Yamauchi talked with quite a few journalists. His last interview to be published is with BBC’s TopGear. As you would expect, there aren’t any bombshells, but here’s the most notable quotes:

The GT Academy 2010 Silverstone Finals are getting an extra boost of star power this year, with long-time F1 team manager Eddie Jordan, Nurburgring super-star Sabine Schmitz, and F1/sports car driver Johnny Herbert joining the team. Of all the new judges, the introduction of Eddie Jordan is perhaps the most significant, given his uncanny ability to choose and develop world champions. Eddie has worked closely with successful drivers such as Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill – he even gave Michael Schumacher his first season in Formula 1. He also worked with Johnny Herbert, who himself enjoyed an 11-year career in F1 and a victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Now it’s time for something that’s strange, funny, and disturbing all at the same time!  In his weekly column for the Times Online, infamous Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has told a bizarre and hilarious tale on himself.  It all started when Clarkson’s wife purchased an offensive t-shirt for him, with a nasty word in big, bold letters on the front.  Of course, he couldn’t help but wear it to work for Top Gear rehearsals, providing lots of laughs until Kazunori Yamauchi and his team dropped in for a visit…

If you’ve lamented about missing the GT Academy, relax – you could be the next Lucas Ordoñez!  A new article in Top Gear explains the competition, and if you’re a regular reader of GTPlanet, it won’t tell you anything you don’t already know.  However, in the last paragraph, the author mentions an exciting bit of information from Nissan’s own Darren Cox:

A new study by CIS Insurance and endorsed by the British government has uncovered a remarkable link – people interested in automotive video games and television shows like Gran Turismo and Top Gear are much more likely to break the speed limit.  It accuses such media of creating a “cachet of excitement and glamour around speeding”,  which presumably translates into death and destruction: