23 current and former Super GT drivers to tackle 2018 Nürburgring 24 Hours

The 46th running of the ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24 Hours is the greatest challenge for endurance racers of all skill levels and production based cars of all kinds.

This year, a contingent of 10 current and 13 former drivers from the Autobacs Super GT Series will take part in this year’s running of the great race around the fabled “Green Hell”, including four former champions of the series and several other former race winners from both the GT500 and GT300 class past and present.

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Lexus Gazoo Racing reshuffles chief engineers

Just one week after the sudden and tragic passing of Lexus Team LeMans Wako’s chief engineer Kenji Yamada, Lexus Gazoo Racing have installed their succession plan, beginning next week at the Fuji GT 500km Race.

Championship-winning engineer Kotaro Tanaka will join Lexus Team LeMans as their new chief engineer, in an official press release from Saturday. In a corresponding move, Lexus Team SARD have promoted Akinori Kasai to chief engineer in place of Tanaka, that announcement also put out by SARD on the same day.

Super GT arrives in Gran Turismo Sport update

The Autobacs Super GT Series has been featured in Sony’s multi-million selling Gran Turismo franchise for two decades, with the exposure of their most popular cars owing to the growth in popularity in Super GT outside of Japan.

And for months since it was released, the latest installment of the series, Gran Turismo SPORT for the Playstation 4, has been beckoning for the return of contemporary GT500 cars that have been a staple of the franchise.

On Tuesday, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Polyphony Digital confirmed that the 2016 Lexus RC F GT500, the 2016 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT500, and the 2016 Honda NSX Concept-GT will be added to the game for free as part of the Version 1.15 update which will be available starting tomorrow, 29 March 2018.

Turbulent Jet Ignition: The next stage in GT500 engine development

Since its introduction in 2014, the Nippon Race Engine (NRE) formula, the two-litre, turbocharged, four-cylinder engines that power every car in the Autobacs Super GT Series’ GT500 class, have been a roaring success – reliable, efficient, and powerful beyond comprehension.

This generation of GT500 cars is already the fastest in Super GT history, thanks in large part to the new engine formula, combined with the ever-escalating tyre war between Bridgestone, Michelin, Yokohama, and Dunlop.

But believe it or not, a new breakthrough in the engine development battle between Honda, Nissan, and Toyota could result in even more record-breaking performances and higher speeds from the fastest GT race cars on earth: The introduction of Turbulent Jet Injection, or TJI, which was a breakthrough in Formula 1 engine technology in 2014 – and has now made its way into GT500.