Next Gen NSX Makes its Way to GT5
Did all of you catch Acura's triple whammy yesterday? The RDX gets a cleaner design and ditches its turbo for a V6, the Civic matures into the all new ILX, and the 2nd generation NSX was announced. No one ever expected Honda/Acura to pull such an impressive 180 after such shortfalls of killing off the Integra/RSX, letting the RL stagnate for what seems like decades, and shoe horning a carrot peeler onto every Acura nose. Granted the NSX will feature a hybrid powertrain, but if "Earth Dreams" is as good as Honda has led on then we can expect a decent competitor to Nissan's GT-R or Lexus' LF-A. We can only look back and be somewhat relieved we didn't get the front engine, RWD, V10 batmobile. This concept keeps the mid engine, low slung look we all expect out of the NSX without compromising too much to price/packaging. Even more surprising is that Acura is confident in its Ohio team to develop and produce this car within the next 3 years. That's quite impressive and shows Honda/Acura means business with this NSX - tailored for us by us. So until we get to sit in one of these and dream of a exotic sports car lifestyle at an affordable budget, let's watch it virtually spin around the tracks of GT5! Pretty....
GT5 Pre-Order Bonus Round
Gran Turismo 5 is slated to hit the PS3 on November 2nd and you thought you had it easy with putting up some hard earned cash for the Standard Edition or a little more on the Collector's Edition chock full of GT5 goodness. Well if it were only that simple: the major stores out there are out to get your hard earned cash by offering bonus DLC for your GT5 garage. There is always the possibility that these cars will become available to everyone later on, but if you can't wait to get your hands on Joey Logano's NASCAR you might want to pay attention where you are pre-ordering!
GAMESTOP - Standard/Collector's Edition. DLC Extra: McLaren F1 Stealth & Joey Logano's #20 NASCAR
BEST BUY - Standard/Collector's Edition. DLC Extra: Nissan GT-R GT500 Stealth
AMAZON - Standard/Collector's Edition. DLC Extra: Mercedes SLS AMG Stealth. Bonus: $1o Amazon Gift Card.
WALMART - Standard Edition. DLC Extra: Honda NSX GT500 Stealth. Bonus: $10 Walmart Gift Card.
TRU - Standard Edition. DLC Extra: ???
TARGET - Standard Editon. DLC Extra: ???
So 4 out of the 6 stealth models are being offered as pre-order DLC in America. Does that leave Target and TRU to fight over the Mazda 787B and the Audi R10 TDI? One can only hope.
GT5…Dated…Pigs Fly.
After what seemed like an eternity, Gran Turismo has finally gotten it's release date: November 2nd. Announced at Sony's Press Conference at E3 2010, this will be just in time for my birthday 
*hint hint* I'll be expecting the collector's edition pre-order which includes the game, a 1:43 scale diecast of the 2009 Nissan GT-R Spec V, a 300+ page car guide, a keychain, and 5 DLC cars with special GT livery.
Video Games. Don’t Bother Me.
Its been a busy week with things outside of Import Junkiez and hopefully as things start winding down with real life, we can get back to the regularly scheduled posts. Boss Lady came into town for a friend's wedding and that pretty much took up a lot of last week into today. So as I try to recover lets take a look at this clip from Game Trailers.
Oh God of War...did you come out today? I think its time to put Import Junkiez back on hiatus.
Make.Believe You Can Be a Real Race Car Driver
Dear Sony - Why isn't this ad on TV? Awesome clip - way better than what Sony's pushing out right now.
If you are not sure who Lucas Ordonez is: Back in 2008, Nissan and Sony held a competition across Europe to create a race car driver out of video gamers called the "GT Academy." The task? Beat 25,000 other gamers to the fastest lap in GT5 Prologue for the PS3. Twenty-two gamers had the fastest laps and were then given physical, mental, and driving challenges. The winner of these trials was Lucas Ordonez. He did pretty good in his debut at the Dubai 24hr 2009 by finishing 45th and 9th in class. He then went on to take 2nd place in his 2009 campaign in the Euro GT4 Championship. Impressive.
GT5 + NASCAR = zOMG! Want Now!
So, another trailer dropped for Gran Turismo 5 and this time it features the newest race series to the GT franchise: NASCAR. Are you excited for some left-turn racing? I am…unless I’m stuck simulating a 500 lap series just to get a license to move to the next level. Then I wouldn’t be happy - just dizzy from all that turning. Regardless though, this game needs to come out now…Dirt2 and NFS:Shift can only hold me over for so long.
Turbo’d FT-86 Debuts @ Tokyo Auto Salon
Fresh off the pages of FT86club.com: Toyota surprised the crowd at the Tokyo Auto Salon by displaying the FT-86 G's Concept powered by a turbo boxer engine paired with a 6spd MT. Not a bad looking car, but we are still looking at a year or two before a production model is released. Also of interest is that it will include "GPS-Track Day," which was co-developed with Polophony Digital. Basically, it will record you as you race around a real track in your FT-86. All that race data is placed on a memory card which you can then place into your PS3, and ta-da! your real world race data is now accessible through GT5. That's right, you can watch a virtual replay of your time at the track or take on your real world driving by racing a ghost car. Gimmicky? Maybe, but it does sound pretty cool. Coincidentally, Polophony Digital has released another GT5 trailer with the Auto Salon FT-86. Enjoy!
from FT-86 Club
GT5 Box Art Revealed
Nissan 370Z Debuts…on a video game?
So it seems that we'll get a glimpse of the new Z from Nissan on the popular (but I don't know why) series, "Need for Speed." That would seem like a decent news story since most sites are reporting the great marketing aspect between video games and cars (see: Mitsubishi EVO) but looking through the comments on these articles, I think everyone is talking about it's "love it or hate it" styling. Which is alarmingly becoming the thing for auto manufacturers. The interior looks like it was recycled from last year's interior parts bin and those bommerang headlights/tailights - where was the focus group on that. I do like the retro nod to the old Z just behind the skyline roof, but other than that, other than specs, this is a car I probably would not want to be seen in.
Oh and about Need for Speed...not my game. Call me when GT5 comes out.
Waiting Patiently…
So for those of you who own a PS3 and still waiting for the GT5 Prologue to drop, you'll still have to wait. In the meantime tho, Polyphony Studios debuted a new trailer for the Prologue during Spike's Video Game Awards show. I have a feeling we'll be seeing the demo drop sometime next year... 