Archive for April, 2010

In an interview with Japanese show “Love Cars!”, Yamauchi hinted at updates to*GT5’s damage modeling:

“In GT5, NASCAR cars will able to smash into little pieces – some the size of a bolt.”

This sounds like a significant progression from what we’ve seen on the WRC cars so far, and it actually isn’t the first time he has mentioned a more violent damage model. He also states he will be able to reveal the release date of the game “soon” (presumably at E3 in June). The problem is that this interview is on video, so we can’t rely on bungled Google translations to see if there’s any other tidbits that we might be missing. You can see the full unedited clip right here, so if you speak Japanese, please check it out and let me know if you hear anything else of interest.

Thanks to Denur for the tip, and Famine for the clarified translation above!

Related posts:

1. More Gran Turismo 5 Damage, NASCAR Details
2. All Cars Get “Damage” in Gran Turismo 5
3. New Gran Turismo 5 NASCAR Video

NOTE: This post is from GT Planet.

Filed under: Motorsports, BMW, Racing

It’s official, they’re finally here: Racers of the roundel can buy BMW Motorsport parts at four locations in the U.S. The catalog selection includes the 2008 BMW Z4, 1995-2010 M3, and the 3 Series sedan from 2006 onward. You’ll need to get yourself to Illinois, Atlanta, New Hampshire, or Solon, Ohio to pick your parts by hand… but you want to win, don’t you? Follow the jump for the press release from BMW.

Gallery: BMW Motorsport parts available in the U.S.

[Source: BMW]Continue reading BMW Motorsports parts now available in the U.S.

BMW Motorsports parts now available in the U.S. originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Motorsports

Here’s a story you might expect more from Formula 1 than NASCAR: team owners say that you simply can’t be competitive in the sport if you don’t have a plane to shuttle your crew around. Rick Hendrick, for instance, has three 50-seat regional jets, Joe Gibbs has another three, and Jack Roush has two Boeing 727s. Meanwhile, Formula 1’s Jensen Button and Ross Brawn left the Malaysia after the grand prix on commercial flights.

The key is the schedule: NASCAR has races just about every weekend, making every available moment to work on the car an awfully precious one. Having a transportation fleet that can fly crews out the morning of the race, land and get them straight to the garage a few hours before the race, doing so without all those commercial glitches, can make the difference between podium and also-ran. Team owners say they actually save money using the planes, not having to book hotel rooms and pay for food. That means NASCAR has opened the door for us to use “it’s thrifty” and “we’ll need a private jet” in requests to our bosses from now on…

[Source: Jacksonville.com]The key to NASCAR competitiveness is… an airplane? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Always good to get a look at the finished product, after first hearing about Darton having sleeves for the VR38DETT some time back now, here’s the first photos I’ve personally seen of them actually fitted up.

These photos are courtesy of Jotech Motorsports based in Texas who are now offering the sleeving service for $1,100 in labour plus $1,325 for the sleeves themselves provided you deliver them your OEM block. If you want them to provide a block it’s another $3,231 on top.

Hit up their website for their contact details linked below…

Link: Jotech Motorsports Website

View Entire Article: Jotech Gives us a Peek at a Darton Sleeved VR38 Block at GTRBlog.comOriginally appeared on and © GTRBlog.com. 2010. | Read comments.

NOTE: This post is from an outside source.

Don’t blink, or you may just drive past the sign (like I did) that marks the entrance to the track.

Last week I was “burdened” with the task of scoping out the brand new racetrack that has surfaced in Desert Station, California. Chuckwalla Valley Raceway (CVR) has been a long-time dream of owner and company president Micky Grana, and as of April of this year, it’s now as real as sand in a desert with 2.68 miles of flawless asphalt and newly painted black and yellow concrete roll curbing accenting the track’s 17 technical turns.

Not that we don’t have any good tracks around here already, but the surfaces of some of the existing local tracks in Southern California are beginning to show their age. Bumps and crack sealant present new challenges when they appear mid corner, and if you’re running on two wheels (as in motorcycles), it makes things even hairier.

Turn 4

CVR’s desert location within the Chuckwalla Valley offers plenty of safe runoff area, not to mention available real estate (1,100 acres I’m told) with which to expand. Future facility plans include 2 additional racetracks (tracks 1 and 2 will be a linkable to form a 4.3-mile course), hot pit and storage garages as well as an 18,000 sq.-ft. clubhouse with observation deck. If you hadn’t guessed it, CVR is also offering track memberships akin to what we experienced during our nationwide Audi R8 Odyssey.

A glimpse at the CVR’s generous paddock space

As of right now, there’s little more than a front office building, a few port-o-potties in the paddock area and the nearest gas station is roughly 25 miles away (though there is some fuel available on site with an on-site fueling station in the works), but I suspect those things are small sacrifices to make for any track junkie that shares my excitement for this sort of stuff.

The majority of my 8-hour visit was spent squealing tires in a Subaru WRX STI Special Edition around the track’s only configuration (though it’s designed to run in both directions) and I instantly became a fan. The track spans 40 feet with an imperceptible 1 degree of banking at 10 of the 17 turns. The slight elevation changes throughout make many of the turns blind and the track seem narrower than it is.

To be quite honest, a car that is less prone to understeer would’ve been a better choice for this track, though the STI’s all-wheel drive stability did offer some advantages in the sections that soon became my favorites. Turn 9 (in the clockwise direction) is an off camber (by -2 degrees) uphill left turn that crowns in the middle. It’s the 2nd turn in a series of 3 that follows the 3rd longest straight of the track. If you’re not careful, it’s one of the easier places to spin (as a Nissan 300ZX demonstrated right in front of me), and if you apex it too early, there’s a good chance you’ll drive off the track at turn 10. The Subaru actually benefited from the off camber slant of this turn, as it helped me rotate the car over the crest and set up for the entry to turn 10.

View from the top of turn 12 heading into the 10-degree banked bowl of turn 13

Turns 11 and 12 were where I had the most fun in the Subie. Both turns are banked at 3.5 degrees with a total elevation drop of 18 feet. Here, I could just throw the STI sideways “rally style” and let the camber of the road slow my slide down with plenty of run out to spare.

In the bowl (turn 13)

In the Bowl (turn 13)

I could go on and on about CVR’s specific track elements, but I fear I’ll lose the rest of you who’ve actually made it this far through the blog. I’m also thinking that you’d rather drive it for yourself than to hear me babble on about how fun it is, so go here to find more information on available track dates.

For those of you who actually want more, I just happened to bring a video camera with me that day. You can watch my in-car lap right here.

No related posts.

We know the GT Academy 2010 Silverstone finals were intense, but what was it really like? For those of us who couldn’t make it (or were geographically excluded from the competition…), here’s the complete experience on video, showing what the competitors went through during each day of the finals. Watch all of the clips below, and don’t forget to check out video from the first GT Academy finals as well!

Related posts:

1. GT Academy 2010 Silverstone Finals: Day 1 Pictures, Results
2. GT Academy 2010 French/Swiss Finals Video
3. GT Academy 2010 Finals: Day 2, The Field Narrows

NOTE: This post is from GT Planet.

Tanabe Japan together with Top Racing Hong Kong “GT-R Professional Workshop” has developed the new anti-roll bar specific for the R-35 GT-R. These newly released anti-roll bars were developed from the data gathered by Top Racing on the race track and after severe abuse, it’s been proven that the increase width and stiffness will enhance the handling of the R35. It’s easier for the driver for the turn in and at the same time easier to predict with the increase feedback given from these anti-roll bars.

The front bar is 36.2mm in diameter, which adds an additional of 2.1mm comparing to standard. In the rear, the diameter is 18.2mm, an bump of 4mm.

Hit up the link below to contact Top Racing for more information…

Link: Top Racing HK Website

View Entire Article: Tanabe Release Sustec Stabilizer Bars for Nissan GT-R at GTRBlog.com Originally appeared on and © GTRBlog.com. 2010. | Read comments.

NOTE: This post is from an outside source.

There is a very fun event coming up this week that I want to get the word out on. I hinted to this on Friday’s Week in Review and I finally have the the full details on this Thursday’s “Game with Turn 10” event. Throughout the games release you might have played with Turn 10 but this time it’s going to be a little game of hide and seek. This Thursday night a few members of Turn 10 will be hitting a select group of multiplayer lobbies. If you’re online see if you can find one, if you’re wondering how you can identify a member of the team, well it’s easy! You can identify a Turn 10 employee quickly by checking for a Turn 10 logo in the place of the VIP crown next to their name. If you see one, toss them a hello and get ready to race! We’re all here to have a good time!

The game night begins at 6:00 PDT on Thursday the 29th and will continue until around 8:00 PDT. If you regularly read the week in review you might know where I will be hanging out in but here is the full list of where you can find us. I will be dropping hints on the Turn 10 twitter this Thursday night with clues to the whereabouts of the staff members that are currently racing. Here are 4 gamertags to get you started, be on the lookout for these four names in any of the lobbies listed below: Turntenstudios, Phredesign, Ayo Jube and Ayrton2222. These won’t be the only names you see online, so again, be on the lookout for anyone with a Turn 10 symbol next to their name.

The game night will be focused around specific arenas, here is a list of the lobbies that we will be hitting so you have an idea on what cars to prepare. So, over on the Playground expect some T10 activity in Tag Virus, Cat & Mouse, Drag racing and Stock car lobbies. On the circuit side of things you might spot an elusive staff member hanging out by Laguna Seca in one of the B, C, D and E class lobbies. Finally, the Multi-Class lobbies will become part of the mix with races going on in the R1 – A, S – D and B – F class hoppers.

There will be some prizes that we will be sending gamers through out the night ranging from credits and unicorn cars to Car Pack DLC codes (for both the Road & Track pack and the Jalopnik car packs). Hope to see you online!

How to access the online lobbies: You can find the lobbies by going to “Go Race”, selecting “Multiplayer” and then “Find Race”. From there pick a room and you are ready to go.

To access the online section of Forza Motorsport 3 you will need to have an Xbox Live Gold subscription and internet access.

NOTE: This post is from Forza Motorsport.

Filed under: Motorsports, Performance, Chevrolet

And not just a track, either. The National Corvette Museum wants to build an entire motorsports complex, including two road courses, a kart track, a ten-acre autocross course and a quarter-mile drag strip in Bowling Green, Kentucky. If that wasn’t ambitious enough, the museum wants to do it on the opposite side of I-65 from the main museum and Corvette manufacturing plant. If the plan goes through, the two will be connected via a series of bridges and tunnels.

The main track borrows elements from some of our personal favorite courses, including the Carousel from the Nürburgring and the infamous Bus Stop from Watkins Glen. Even better, the museum says its courses will be FIA and SCCA compliant, meaning that when finished, we may actually see some impressive competitions take place on the new grounds.

The whole kit and caboodle is expected to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $35 million, excluding the price tag of all those bridges, etc, and the Corvette Museum has to come up with the majority of that figure before breaking ground. We’re not sure exactly how the non-profit plans to come up with all of that coin, but we’re betting Corvette owners can expect a polite request for donations sometime soon.

[Source: Motorsports Park]Corvette Museum wants to build race track across the highway originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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