Remember when GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi joined the Lexus team for the VLN race on the Nurburgring last month? AutoExpress has now also posted a complete on-board lap of the Nordschleife with Yamauchi-san at the wheel! As you can see, he’s a smooth, quick, and calm driver in what appears to be a very balanced and composed IS-F on the infamously bumpy track.

Sony is out to find the “ultimate” Gran Turismo fan with their latest contest, and two winners will be walking away with the driving suit, helmet, and gloves worn by Rhys Millen and Tanner Foust in the GT PSP Laguna Seca television commercial. All you’ve got to do is submit a 2 minute video, a 2 page essay, or slide show presentation explaining why you are the “ultimate fan”. Entries will be judged by a panel of “video game industry professionals”, who will score each submission based on the following criteria: 60% for showing that you’re the ultimate fan, 20% for showing that you’re the ultimate car/racing fan, and another 20% for showing off a little bit of creativity.

Even if you don’t pick up the racing suits and helmets, you could still win a GT PSP Entertainment Pack or signed poster. You will, however, need to be a legal resident of the United States in order to participate – see here for all the rules and regulations (the contest ends this Sunday, November 22, 2009, at 11:59 PM PST). Good luck to everyone!

“Night racing is going to be a part of GT5, but with things like dynamic weather, the choice is about whether it will improve the experience. The functionality is not a problem – we’ve got the weather system done – but if we are not sure about the quality of it, and how it improves the driving experience, we are not going to have it in the game.”

He has expressed concern with dynamic weather affecting the “quality” of game for some time now, remarking that Polyphony Digital is simply “experimenting” with such a feature. By confirming that its implementation is actually complete, he may have greater confidence the weather system will, ultimately, make the cut.

Yamauchi also made it clear that he has no intentions of sending GT5 out the door without all of its content and features:

“Let me be clear on this. There is a massive amount of content in this game, I don’t think there are many teams that put as much into a game as we can. The launch of the game isn’t a start, we are releasing a full game. Everything we want to put into the game is on the disc when it ships. Having said that, we do have a sizeable online team that will look after it once it’s launched.”

As you may or may not be aware, there is an ongoing “debate” about updating games via the Internet. On one hand, it gives developers the opportunity to fix any bugs or problems after the game hits store shelves. On the other hand, they may be more likely to sell a game with known problems or with a lack of content just so they can meet a particular deadline. Fortunately – and perhaps, unsurprisingly – Yamauchi remains focused on quality.

One final comment, however, does cause concern:

“They’re spending less time with a single game and this is reflected in the design of GT Mode.”

Although see GT5’s “GT Mode” surely won’t be as inconsequential as what we saw in GT PSP, this statement still makes those of us who enjoy the enduring challenge of GT games just a little bit uneasy. Thanks to calvins48 for sharing this interview!

Here’s a look at the Akiba Grand Prix, held the Akihabara district of Tokyo last weekend. Making excellent use of GT PSP’s multiplayer functionality, the Akiba GP led a group of players around a “circuit” of stores, shops, and restaurants, competing in different race events at each location. The final event of the day involves a showdown with two-time Super GT Series world champion and Best Motoring presenter Juichi Wakisaka.

Needless to say, it sounds like a really fun little competition, but that’s not all: the winner gets a trophy, 229 rare cars in GT PSP, a PS3 Slim, a free copy of Gran Turismo 5, and their name forever etched in the ending credits of the game. Check out Japanese GT PSP site and the article at Gigazine for more.

(No, I’ve got absolutely no idea what’s going on in this picture. Caption contest, anyone?)

Kazunori Yamauchi’s participation in the VLN’s BFGoodwrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft event on the Nurburgring Nordschleife last month is carefully documented in the latest issue of Auto Express. Editor Owen Mildenhall, who shared the car with Yamauchi and Peter Lyon during the 4 hour endurance race, has posted about the experience on the magazine’s website. Unfortunately, the differential on the team’s Lexus IS-F wasn’t up to the task, forcing Yamauchi to retire the car after just 40 minutes behind the wheel.

It wasn’t all for naught, though: Yamauchi still learned from the intense experience, which he hopes to be able to simulate in Gran Turismo 5:

“I feel like I am in a dream, driving as fast as I possibly can. The only time I get in this trance-like state is when I am racing a real car. I want to understand what makes me feel like that, and ultimately feed it back into Gran Turismo 5.”

Of course, this actually isn’t Yamauchi’s first event on the Nurburgring – he also competed in another VLN race in the IS-F last August, with the team finishing first in their class (Yamauchi blogged on preparations for the event here and here). His ultimate goal is to compete in the Nurburgring 24-hour Endurance race next May, and, hopefully, we’ll all be able to follow along at home with fresh copies of Gran Turismo 5!

Since GTPlanet users first picked up on the fact that you’d be able to play Gran Turismo PSP online with Ad-Hoc party, one tiny little thing has been holding people back: it was only available in Japanese via the country’s PSN Store. Needless to say, this language barrier prevented many from giving it a shot, leaving those who did with a limited selection of opponents.

That should be changing, though, as Sony has finally announced Ad-Hoc Party is coming to North American and European PSN Stores this month (the exact date hasn’t yet been released). With more users, online racing events in our forums should really start to pick up! Just make sure that you can connect your PlayStation 3 to the Internet directly to your router via an Ethernet cable, however, as the Ad-Hoc Party software will require exclusive use of the system’s wireless connectivity in order to work. Stay tuned for another update as soon as this is available for download.

The first highlight comes when Geddes tries to dig deeper into the often-debated “20 locations, 70 variations” comments regarding the number of tracks in Gran Turismo 5:

“As I mentioned before there will be 20 different types of scenery the game will be set in, and in those 20 different locations there will be 70 different layouts of tracks that will be available to play.”

As always, when evaluating quotes, remember to take the issue of translation into consideration. Regardless, “20 different types of scenery” appears to support a more narrow interpretation of the word “location”. Geddes continued digging deeper, addressing the track editor:

IGN: “Have you finalized plans for a track editor?”
Yamauchi: “Things like that I can’t really discuss yet. This can be said about all the GT development. Until we’re very close to release we won’t have a finalized decision on a lot of things.”

IGN: “If there is a track editor, that will make your job easier, right? Because you can make fans design the tracks instead of your team.”
Yamauchi: “[Laughs] A lot of the courses we set up, we take a long time fine-tuning the details and building the track, so it would probably be a bit different than the types of tracks the users will set up in the game.“

The key word in Yamauchi’s response to the last question is, of course, “will”. I don’t want to focus on this too much (once again, within the context of translation), but it is an interesting word choice given the recent track editor rumblings… He also provided a hint at where Polyphony Digital is at in the decision-making process regarding dynamic weather and lighting:

“Technically it’s already possible to do in the game, it’s just how we’re going to have that have meaning in the game.”

It also seems Yamauchi got a chuckle out of the excitement and interest around the mysterious Gran Turismo 5 packaging which a GTPlanet reader originally noticed in a video by Mercedes-Benz:

“[Laughs] That’s something else we can’t really talk about yet, but I’m surprised at the level of detail everyone is focused on.”

Oh yes, sensei, we are focused!

Enjoy this second round of SEMA Gran Turismo 5 screenshots in their full, 5760 x 3240 resolution. The details which emerge at this size are, as always, breathtaking!