For those of you still scratching your pretty little heads, there was no Weekly Rewind last week. How could there have been with all of the news coming in left, right and sideways regarding the GT6 reveal at last week’s 15th Anniversary Celebration at Silverstone? The Rewind would have been a tight squeeze in the midst of that onslaught of news.

This week I’ll be doing things a little bit differently, steering away from the established formula as it were, because all we’re going to be talking about this week are Gran Turismo 6, the Xbox One reveal, and the upcoming Forza Motorsport 5. There’s a lot to get through in this week’s installment so you’d better grab some popcorn and your favorite drink and get comfortable.

Gran Turismo 6. The next chapter in the franchise is going to be released on the PS3 around the same time the PS4 is going to launch and many have been left wondering whether or not this was a smart move on the behalf of not only Polyphony Digital by Sony as well, and the answer to those questions of possible confusion is yes, it was a smart move. Why? Because there’s a far larger install base on the PS3 there’s going to be with the PS4 at launch. Yes, Gran Turismo would move consoles just as any other in-house blockbuster title but it’s a risk neither pair was willing to take.

Do I agree with it? Yes and no, but most of all, yes. The install base is there with the PS3 and to then essentially forego that install base wouldn’t make a whole worth of sense when you’ve considered the additional expense of an entirely new platform. On the other hand, Gran Turismo has never been a launch title for the three Playstation platforms and there’s nary a doubt in my mind that it’d move a significant number of PS4 consoles at launch.

Combine that with the fact that regardless of how much GT6 improves, it’s still going to be working within the confined limitations of the PS3′s hardware which basically amounts to there’s never going to be any leaps and bounds advancements. Once all of that is taken to light the arguments for both sides of the coin become far more interesting.

GT6 is going to bring with it not only some new vehicular faces, but a complete overhaul to the game’s physics model. Partnerships with KW Automotive and Yokohama Rubber will bring the franchise to a new plateau of realism, something I am most assuredly looking forward to.

GTPlanet Picture of the Week

The first break in this week’s Rewind. Don’t worry all of the familiar faces are going to be present, so you’ll have plenty of time to catch your breath  and take in the sights.

Back to business, this week’s fantastic image comes to us courtesy of SMfan and features the spectacular hindquarters of the Ferrari SP1 (Special Project No. 1) designed by Leonardo Fioravanti. The body of the SP1 shares a likeness to the Fioravanti F100.

Have a suggestion for next week’s featured image? Drop me a private message, entitle it “GTPlanet Picture of the Week” and fill it out with your two choices and they’ll be featured in upcoming Rewinds. NOTE: You cannot elect your own work.

GT Academy: Champions Race

If you follow the prospects of the GT Academy and it’s winners at some point you may have wondered who the fastest graduate is, well that’s finally being put to the test.

In this Champions Race which combines both the real and virtual worlds, the key is to find out who the fastest GT Academy driver is. Would it persuade you to watch if you were told the drivers are doing laps around Silverstone in GT6? Granted, you’re not going to see full laps nor are you going to get anything more than a taste of what’s to come, but the fact is there.

GTPlanet Weekly Race Series (WRS) Week 118: Roma 300 GT

You’re going to to need something to take off the edge while you patiently await the arrival of Gran Turismo 6, are you not? That’s why this week’s challenge is all about Rome and the GT300 class Subaru Impreza: a vehicle new to the WRS. Take the twists and turns as quickly as you can, and use any runoff to your advantage because by the sounds of things you’re going to have your hands full with this purebred racer with a slight understeer bias.

What more do you need to know? Get out there and have some fun! Stop by the official thread here and remember that you NEED to be registered before officially participating in the WRS, and that can only be done by submitting a time for the official GTP Registry Qualifier.

You may recall a couple of weeks ago where I brought this WRS event to light, and with the actual F1 weekend looming about it’s time for a reminder, wouldn’t you say? But this isn’t just any old reminder, no, what I’m bringing to light now is the upcoming Grand Prix of Monaco live broadcast on Twitch.tv courtesy of oink, with live commentary. Highlights will be featured on his Youtube channel after the event has concluded.

So if you’re looking to see what goes on in the WRS because you’re still on the fence this will be the perfect opportunity to do so, and with that you might want to subscribe/follow oink’s channel for future broadcasts and videos.

Xbox One and Forza Motorsport 5

This is going to be Microsoft’s next generation offering, the Xbox One. It’s floating. Which means you just have to go out and purchase it once that’s possible, because who in their right mind wouldn’t want a levitating console that can play games?

Joking aside I’m actually rather excited for this, and without getting into a verbose display of techno-babble (which we all know I’m more than capable of doing without so much as batting an eye) I’ll tell you why: I’m intrigued by the possibilities. I’m a PC guy more than anything else but I’m well aware of the advantages a console possesses. Such as every single Xbox One is going to have the same hardware, the same limitations, and the same potential – meaning consoles are all the lowest and highest common denominator.

The presentation for the One was a bit TV-centric but I was never expecting a full blowout considering E3 is so close by, coupled with the fact that Microsoft had already curbed high expectations by announcing it was going to be a two-part reveal; one at this past Wednesday’s special event, and the last part at E3.

Even with it’s somewhat overwhelming focus on the TV capabilities of the console I’m already sold but it’s not because of anything relating to TV or how they’re making achievements better or streamlining the entire user interface, no the entire reason I’m sold on the One as a launch day purchase is entirely because of this…

Forza Motorsport 5. Much like Gran Turismo, Forza had never been a launch title for the Xbox – that is until now. I was already excited for what might have been the day before the One’s reveal after coming across McLaren Automotive’s Facebook page and noticed their hinting at having some kind of presence during the event. You should also take notice of the opportunity to take a ride in the actual P1 supercar.

So we already know the all-new McLaren P1 is going to debut in the game, but what did I think of the announcement trailer? Well there wasn’t much to take from it as it was simply a teaser of things to come, however, from what little was shown we know three things: the McLaren P1 and F1 are in, Prague is a new city-track, and John Hindhaugh of Radio Le Mans apparently has some kind of involvement in the game. Everything else is borderline guesswork until things are elaborated on at E3.

Another tidbit that’s come to be known over the past 30+ hours is the Top Gear partnership will continue, but to what degree remains to be seen. E3 can’t come soon enough: more Xbox One and PS4 news, FM5, GT6, it’s all going to be a very not-having-any-money holiday season I fear.

There won’t be much for me to swoon over until E3 is said and done but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to talk about; speculation is apart of the fun and games so if you want to keep tabs on Forza Motorsport 5 you’ll definitely want to stop by the official forum for in-depth discussion!

Closing Thoughts

This week definitely strayed away from the winning formula, but you were already warned such was going to take place. Don’t worry because that formula will return next week and it’ll be like it never took a break.

Although it’s likely been noticed by now, there isn’t an official inductee for this week’s “Member of the Week” segment, however, because the Rewind was delayed last week we welcomed W3HS into the fraternity so you’ll definitely want to check out that interview and be sure to have yourself a shemming good time in the process!

So I’m sure some of you are wondering what my true preferences are when it comes to the heavy-hitters of console sim-racing nirvana, and the answer to that is simple: neither. I love them both. Yes, I grew up with Gran Turismo and because of it I’ve been introduced to manufacturers I’d never ever heard of until laying my hands on the game, but the same rings true for Forza. Both have their advantages, disadvantages, eccentricities, and utterly profound annoyances. It’s really just as simple as that.

Having said that I won’t pretend that I’m not slightly more excited for FM5 than I am for GT6, but that largely boils down to the possibilities of the new platform it’s being developed on.

Once again I forgot to mention that I’m on Twitter now. What was once going to be a bit of parody account (because I don’t use Facebook or Twitter for any reason whatsoever) has quickly turned into me using Twitter rather effectively. So, follow me and suggest all things Rewind-worthy from the comfort of your tablets, phones, or Skynet-linked computers. Remember, when the machines finally rise you’ll need someone to write pieces regarding the matter littered with Armageddon-y undertones and I can be just that guy! What were we talking about? Right, Twitter, so if you’ll follow me here the Rewind can be delivered to you in a timely fashion not seen since snail mail. Wait, that’s not the right thing to say!

You will be showered in Rewind, Seasonal Event and future article goodness courtesy of yours truly though so there’s that worth looking forward to – once I’ve bothered to get the thing up and running. It can also be used to suggest things for upcoming Rewinds, so that’s now two ways you all can keep me on my toes.

That’s all I’ve got for this week and you can rest assured that I’m looking forward to E3 with the best intentions, and I’m also going to announce this now: there will be another “Special Edition” Rewind the week of E3 that’s going to cover everything related to the PS4, Xbox One, GT6 and FM5 – oh, you’d better believe it.

Every week the Rewind’s title pays some form of respect to something related to pop culture, but this week’s title wouldn’t have been given a second glance given the circumstances. Did you even for one second think to yourself “Hey, you made a reference to the eighth generation of consoles and Star Trek in this week’s title; that’s two for the price of one”? I bet you notice it now, don’t you?

Until next week keep racing! Snake Eater!

GT5 Photomode images by jBhIpS and Racingworld88.

As you may have seen by now, an extended version of the GT6 trailer was released a few days after the game’s big reveal on May 15th.

It offers a longer and more detailed look at Polyphony Digital’s new Silverstone circuit and the first batch of cars revealed in the game.

In addition to the 1080p YouTube clip above, you can also download the uncompressed, 1080p, 60 frames-per-second version of the trailer right here (461MB).

While you may still be coming off of the excitement from the GT6 reveal from only a week ago, GT5 is still being updated with weekly Seasonal Event challenges and this week is no different.

The latest challenges are five expert level events featuring the vast assortment of Japanese vehicles built in 1979 or earlier. Cars are limited to a maximum of 400PP and Comfort/Soft tires or less. The challenges are as follows:

• 400PP Japanese Classics: Grand Valley East Section / 5 Laps
  Period of Availability: 2013/05/22 23:00 -
  1st: Cr.250,000  2nd: Cr.137,500  3rd: Cr.100,000
• 400PP Japanese Classics Eiger Nordwand Short Course / 5 Laps
  Period of Availability: 2013/05/22 23:00 -
  1st: Cr.252,000  2nd: Cr.138,600  3rd: Cr.100,800
• 400PP Japanese Classics: London City Course / 5 Laps
  Period of Availability: 2013/05/22 23:00 -
  1st: Cr.255,000  2nd: Cr.140,250  3rd: Cr.102,000
• 400PP Japanese Classics: Deep Forest Raceway / 5 Laps
  Period of Availability: 2013/05/22 23:00 -
  1st: Cr.258,000  2nd: Cr.141,900  3rd: Cr.103,200
• 400PP Japanese Classics: Aso 102A / 5 Laps
  Period of Availability: 2013/05/22 23:00 -
  1st: Cr.260,000  2nd: Cr.143,000  3rd: Cr.104,000

Note the “Performance Difference Bonus” applies, so more credits will be awarded for using a slower car below the maximum allowed PP value.

The game’s Online Car Dealership has also been updated with new inventory. As always, stop by our GT5 Seasonal Events forum for more analysis and discussion!

GT5 Photomode image by DogZy.

It’s easy to lose track of things when you’re still coming off of the sheer excitement surrounding the GT6 reveal at Silverstone last week, and it’s possible that you may have missed this interesting bit of news regarding the muscle Mercedes-Benz’s AMG division is bringing to GT6.

In addition to the SLS AMG GT3 we’ve already seen in the GT6 launch trailer, a Mercedes-Benz press release also confirms both the E63 AMG and A45 AMG will be making their first-time appearances in the game.

For a closer look at the two new vehicles making their way into GT6, check out the videos below:

The new models should be a delight to take around the track with the improvements made to the tire and suspension models, and the SLS GT3 was already present both on track at Silverstone courtesy of professional racing driver and AMG Driving Academy instructor Jan Seyffarth, and on the virtual track in the current development build of GT6.

If you were expecting the damage model in GT6 to have undergone some drastic changes you might want to curb those expectations, as a recent interview conducted by Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo suggests otherwise. When Stephen posed the question to a U.S. PlayStation producer it was met with the following response:

The rather pleasant producer tells me that it’ll be similar to GT5. Polyphony isn’t about smashing cars up…

Gran Turismo has always focused on the unadulterated beauty of the cars, and after experiencing a high speed accident (scroll down to “Gran Turismo Behind the Scenes”) there’s no wonder why extensively modelling damage would be the last thing on the minds of the staff at Polyphony Digital. As it stands, damage was only included to such a degree largely because it was a requested feature for years.

GT5 Photomode image by SMfan.

Sunday marked the fourth successive entry in one of the world’s toughest circuit races for Kazunori Yamauchi. Since his first attempt at the Nürburgring 24hr in 2010, driving a Lexus IS-F, he’s driven a series of Schulze Motorsport-prepared Nissan GT-Rs, scoring class wins in 2011 and 2012.

For 2013 the team took a step up in speed and category to the top SP9 GT3 class – competing directly for the overall race win with factory BMW entries and world-renowned sports car drivers. For comparison, the fastest lap set in the IS-F in 2010 was 9’48, while this year’s #123 GT3 GT-R was lapping at 8’28 in qualifying…

With their times good enough to participate in the top 40 qualifying session, the team would start the gruelling race from 26th overall and in the early stages had pulled up to 19th – the big Nissan showing prodigious straight-line speed – but calamity struck just seven laps in.

As is often the case in motorsport, the cheapest, smallest possible part that could fail and wreck the car did just that. A small cooling hose popped, dumping the coolant and frying the engine. Recovering back to the pits, the team decided to replace the entire engine and put the car back out to run further – estimated to be an 8 hour job according to driver Michael Krumm.

Pulling out all the stops, the Schulze crew managed to complete the work in just 3 hours, ready to get the car back on track in 160th place – if not for a second bout of misfortune. The rain that had been in evidence since the start at 5pm had redoubled and combined with fog. With reduced visibility also coming about from nightfall, the race was red-flagged before the Schulze had managed a full racing lap.

With the poor weather persisting through the night, racing did not resume until just after 8am – with the field, now including the Schulze – lapping once behind the safety car before being released again. 3 hours down with only 10 remaining would always prove far too tall an order, but in the cold, damp morning conditions, the GT-R had every ounce of pace that the lead group had, sticking to the back of cars that had lapped it several times during the repairs.

Some minor issues near the end of the race caused a small delay for the #123, but they managed to hang on to finish 148th on the road and 136th overall once cars that failed to finish the final lap were taken into account.

The race went considerably better for GTPlanet member and Nürburgring veteran Christopher Zöchling whose #47 Car Collection Porsche 911 finished an amazing 22nd overall, 5th in the SP7 class.

Images courtesy of Red Square Images.

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.

The videos show Kazunori’s Schulze Motorsport N24 GT-R pursuing a Bilstein Audi R8 LMS around various sections of the famous circuit.

GTPlanet user SimsonS51 was quick to capture the relevant video, which was quickly shared in our Gran Turismo 6 forum. Watch it for yourself below!

Part 1/3

Part 2/3

Part 3/3

MotoGamesTV has also assembled a comparison video, which places the new GT6 footage side-by-side with GT5.

The 41st Nürburgring 24 Hours gets underway at 17:00 CEST (15:00 GMT/UTC) today, with the #123 Team GT Academy GT-R GT3 26th on the colossal 176-car grid

Stepping up a class into the top SP9 GT3 group, the quartet formed from Tobias and Michael Schulze, GT Academy Le Mans driver Michael Krumm and Gran Turismo founder Kazunori Yamauchi set a fastest lap time of 8’27.497 in the top 40 qualifying sessions earlier in the week – 40 seconds faster than last year’s car.

With a considerable speed improvement, the team looks set to eclipse their own distance record of 136 laps – though their chances of managing a third successive class victory are less clear, given that they’re now competing directly with factory teams for the overall race win.

Gran Turismo fans will want to check on the progress of Academy judge and Queen of the Nürburgring Sabine Schmitz – qualified in 13th in the #30 Frikadelli Porsche 911 GT3 – while GTPlanet users might also like to keep an eye out for the SP7 class #47 Car Collection Porsche 911 driven by GTP member Christhedude (Christoper Zöchling) – no stranger to the ‘Ring.

The following resources are available for anyone looking to keep abreast of the race:

Live Commentary, Timing & Scoring

• Radio Le Mans’ Live Race Commentary
• Live GPS Car Position Data
• Official Live Stream and Timing & Scoring

Other Live Video Streams

• SportAuto.de Livestream (Germany Only)
• Nissan’s Live Stream
• Subaru’s Live uStream

GTPlanet founder Jordan is also at the race, and will be tweeting progress from the official @GTPlanetNews Twitter account.

The race starts at 15:00 UTC/GMT (convert to your local time here). Head on over to our forums too, to participate in the race weekend discussion thread.

Race Status Update: The Schulze GT-R was crippled on lap 7 following a cooling failure that cooked the engine. They returned to the pits to swap the entire engine. Having been raining harder and harder since the 2nd hour of the race, finally the mixture of rain, fog and darkness made the race too dangerous to continue and the red flag was brought out during lap 34.

No restart has yet been announced, though it’s expected at or around sunrise at 05:50 CEST (03:50 GMT/UTC). Restart positions will be the race order at the end of lap 32 – though the clock continues to tick during red flag conditions – and the Schulze car has been repaired, ready to resume from 160th place, 25 laps down.

Race Status Update: The race has resumed in the early hours of the morning following an easing-off of rain and lifting of fog. Substantial surface water remains – and the #123 GT-R is back on track and lapping as fast as the lead group!

Qualifying photographs courtesy of Red Square Images and Nürburgring.

While this week’s Weekly Rewind may very well have taken a backseat to the influx of news relating to Gran Turismo 6, there was no way I was going to let this slip through the cracks without the proper acknowledgement.

After three months of hard work, GTPlanet’s own jBhIpS has created an exciting video celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Gran Turismo franchise and the end result clearly pays dividends to the amount of work involved as it comes across as an official piece of work; not an easy feat by any stretch.

For those that are interested in the amount of work that went into creating this piece, here are the facts about the video:

• More than 50 cars
• Absolutely all the tracks from the game including DLС and track editor
• Everything in the video was shot of the game plus the 3d render
• Driven over 1200 rounds on all routes to find the best shots
• Also in the video are 5 different music tracks from various GT games
• In one of the highlights of the video used 52 logos for all premium car brands available  in the game
• In the video you can also see some more mention of anniversaries: Lamborghin’s 50th anniversary, 50th anniversary of Autodelta, 100th anniversary of Bertone, and the 90th anniversary of Le Mans races
• Important addition: I have used basically just blue and red colors of cars to pass the color of the logo (GT) and the spirit of competition (it was difficult because I used only the original car colors)
• Total recorded and selected footage: 395 uncompressed files or 217GB of data

Should you want to commend Illya on this spectacular tribute video then be sure to stop by his video thread, Ferino Design, and let him know how much his hard work has paid off!

At the “15 Years of Gran Turismo” event which saw the announcement of Gran Turismo 6, GTPlanet joined a small group of other U.S. journalists to be among the first to ask Kazunori Yamauchi questions about Polyphony Digital’s new game.

We covered how GT6 will deal with the “Standard”/”Premium” car issue, the future of the Gran Turismo series on PlayStation 4, and a lot more.

Not all of the questions are my own, but what follows is a complete transcript of the interview session.

Can you explain the game’s new lighting engine in more detail?

It basically means the energy expressed in each one of the pixels is going to be represented more accurately. When the focus on the camera is on a certain item, the blurring and brightness of the area around it and how lights affect the environment will be rendered with more accuracy.

Is there going to be more car customization options? Are you going to be able to swap the engine or put decals on the car?

Both are technically possible, and we might be preparing it (laughs).

Will there be “Standard Cars” in GT6?

We won’t be making all the Standard cars from GT5 into Premium models, and we won’t make all of the GT5′s Standard cars fully “Premiumized”.

Up until now, we used to categorize them as Standard and Premium because there were functional differences between them: some of the Standard models might not have tuning parts, or couldn’t be used in Photo Mode.  That will all be cleared so every model can be used in Photo Mode, and every car can have parts fitted for it.

In terms of graphics quality, the bad quality Standard models we’ve updated so they look better.

Will all of the cars have interior views?

No.

(Editor’s note: This apparently does not apply to all of the cars which were listed as “Standard” in GT5. For example, two cars which were prominently featured in the GT6 trailer and its first official batch of screenshots, the Lamborghini Countach LP400 and Alpine A110 1600S, both appeared as Standard cars in GT5 but have apparently been converted to “full” Premium models – with interiors – in GT6.)

While improving the physics model, how do you keep the game accessible to a wide range of players?

I’ve mentioned some of this before but we are improving a lot of the driver assist functions for GT6.

The other thing is that it’s sort of wrong to assume that making it more real will make it more difficult to drive. Everyone here, I am sure you all drive; it’s not that difficult – but people who can drive cars straight suddenly can’t drive in a video game! That’s because the reality isn’t really all there.

Now that we know GT6 is a PlayStation 3 game, can you explain to fans why that is? Do you have any plans for PS4?

We do have plans for PS4, but, of course, we have an order of things.

First we’ll be releasing the PS3 version for the PS3, which has a huge audience already, and we’ll be providing updates every month and DLCs every month.

Once players have played it all out and enjoyed themselves on the PS3, then the PS4 version might come out naturally around that time (laughs).  Focus on enjoying the PS3 version.

What’s the reason for the dramatically shorter development time frame for GT6, compared to GT5?

GT5 was really hard to develop, because the PS3 is a really complex piece of hardware, and it was the first time we built anything with an extensive online component.

What was the most complicated thing about developing the first game, and what was the most complicated thing about developing GT6?

It’s hard to look back to GT1 now!

I think the hardest part of GT1 was to make something out of nothing, and to shape it and figure out exactly what a Gran Turismo game was going to be.

The main difference between GT1 and GT6 is the scale of the game, it’s about 100 times bigger in scale. Initially we had 15 people working on the game and now we have 150 working on the game. But i think the one thing that hasn’t changed is that everyone working on it really enjoys the hard work.

Are there other plans to bring the game’s GPS functionality to more real-world cars?

I can’t really talk about it today, but aside from just GPS, we have a lot of different things planned with different manufacturers. I can say you will see a lot of interesting things come up in the months ahead.

What’s the hardest element to re-create in the game: tire dynamics, suspension behavior, or aerodynamics?

That’s actually the three things that are really mystical about creating the physics in a car racing game. Actually the damper characteristics are one of the most difficult to re-create.

What is it like working with different manufacturers to get their cars in the game?

It’s been twenty years since we started developing the first GT, and it’s been 15 since the release of the first game.

We have a 20 year relationship with car manufacturers all over the world, and I think a lot of people who were involved with the first game in the series are still working at those companies today. Our relationships have become closer and closer, and that has given us a lot more access to the information and access to the automotive world.