Pitpass Reports Index

Volume 102 -- Aug 8, 2008

The Turn 10 Weekly Pitpass Report

By: Che Chou, Turn 10 Community Manager

Hello Internets! Welcome back to a mid-summer's edition of Turn 10's Weekly Pitpass Report, our cyber-digest of all things Forza and the world of motorsports. Those of you who follow the Pitpass Report know that last Friday, instead of our regularly scheduled programming, we ran an article about James Elterman's gorgeous and blisteringly fast Takata-sponsored Subaru STi. Those of you who haven't had a chance to check out his Forza-designed time-attack monster, do check it out. As Elterman tears up the tracks this season for his time attack division, we'll be bringing you all the latest updates on this excellent ride.

And speaking of which, we've also been releasing in mass amounts a replica of the Takata Subaru STi in the Forza 2 auction house on Xbox Live. This is the original paintjob by Forza community artist Andre "Drizze" Guerrieri with a special A-class, Road Atlanta tuning setup by the fine folks over at Tuning AG. Those who have driven the Takata STi in Forza 2 know that it looks tight and grips like a tenacious beast. So what are you waiting for -- go grab it for a cheap buyout price on the auction house now! One word of caution -- if we catch anyone (or get reports) of anyone trying to re-sell these Takata STi's for a profit back to the community, bans will be handed out swiftly. These cars are for the public enjoyment of everyone in the community and profiteering off of this gesture is... um, frowned upon.

A quick look around the Pitpass Report this week also tells you that last Friday didn't just cap off another ho-hum week here at Turn 10. Like a carnival full of drool-worthy rides and even more drool-worthy booth babes (did I really just say that?), the Hot Import Nights car show/party/tour rolled through town. On-hand at the festivities were a bunch of us here from the studio -- Landin, Fred, and I rockin' our portable podcast audio gear of course -- and a very special entry this year by Turn 10's very own Colin Reed, whose Infinity G35 is every bit as insane, over-the-top, and straight up burly fast as anything else on the show floor that night. In fact, we're going to run a special spotlight piece on Colin's G35 sometime mid next week, complete with full gallery, dyno chart, under-the-hood blowout and interview. For a peek at Colin's G35, check out the panda in the pic below.

Being a Hot Import Nights virgin myself, I wasn't really sure what to expect. The car-show-cum-boy-racer-rave-party has an undeniable reputation that's surely been tainted by Hollywood capitalization (and bastardizations) of the import tuner scene -- and I gotta say, going into the event, I wasn't really expecting anything but a bunch of JDM and Vee Dub jocks posturing with their automotive bling. Instead, most everyone I spoke to at HIN was not only extremely nice, but were more than eager to accomodate in order to show us the extent to which they've tweaked and polished their rides. And that's when it kinda dawned on me: HIN was really just like any other homebrew car show or manufacturer club corral. It was just a huge congregation of hundreds of thousands of hours and equally as much money devoted to these works of art on wheels, populated by some of the most passionate and enthusiastic motorheads you'll ever meet.

As the night spooled up at HIN, we hooked up with Mike Alejos, one of the organizers of HIN, who allowed us to run wild in the Boost Mobile VIP bus, consuming copious amounts of beverages. When we got that out of our systems, we sat down with Mike and his HIN crew to discuss some of what they do for HIN and how they go about doing it. That's right, it's a behind-the-scenes look at HIN you didn't even know you were curious about -- do we know our community or what? Anyway, interviews, soundbites and stories from HIN will be in our next Turn 10 Pitpass Report podcast. In the meantime, we've assembled a two-page gallery of some of the sickest rides we saw at the show... hence, we're calling this the Hot Import Nights edition of the Pitpass Report. Dig it?

Speaking of podcasts, we're currently knee-deep in recording sessions, laboriously producing the best damn thing you've ever heard. Okay, well, that might be overstating it a little, but the sentiment is there. We've gotten your feedback for our last podcast and we totally feel you. Better production values. More Forza discussion. In fact, more motorsport chatter and less dorky videogame chatter. I see how it is and we're slowly evolving the Turn 10 Pitpass Report podcast to suit both our voice and your cravings. We're addressing the production and sound quality issues by throwing money at the problem and I think it's worked out great. We'll try and get this podcast up soon but with so much content that we've gathered, it's going to be hard to cut all of it down to under an hour in length. We'll see how it works out.

And finally, although I was way too decimated from the night before at HIN, Landin and Dan Greenawalt managed to make it out to Pacific International Raceway here in Washington to cheer on Turn 10's content director, John Wendl, as he made his great return to four-wheeled racing in a Spec Miata. Besides being an integral part of Turn 10 and the Forza franchise, having worked on both Forza 1 and 2 since the very beginning, John has been racing for most of his life in one form or another. His typical competitive ride of choice these days is a motorcycle out on the track, but when he's not teaching others how to avoid highsiding their bikes, John does (or did) a variety of racing with cars. But that was nearly eight years ago!

Here's John in his own words:

It was a pretty successful weekend. The car ended the weekend in the same condition it started, which is always good. :) I finished 7th in my novice observation race, which gave me a full regional license, and finished 5th in class in the Special Pro3/Spec Miata combined race on Sat afternoon after starting from last (DFL) since I couldn’t qualify. On Sunday I qualified around 15th for Spec Miata and I think around 20th for ITA (Improved Touring A). I was running in 2nd in Spec Miata when the car broke in the race (broken throttle housing) and I had to retire. I ended up 8th in ITA (3rd Miata).

We'll have full coverage (read: pics, interview in podcast, etc.) soon. In the meantime, enjoy the HIN pics for this week's edition of the Pitpass Report. Check you next week!

The Turn 10 Community Update

By: Landin Williams, Turn 10 Community Lead

It was a weekend of automotive bliss for the Community Team here at Turn 10 Studios, and as you can see from Che’s description we had a great time checking out Hot Import Nights, and the Spec Miata Race. The combination of impeccable rides, mixed with the excitement of racing was definitely a great way to spend the weekend. It was almost surprising for me to walk around the show floor at Hot Import Nights, mainly because the style in the aftermarket industry seems to have changed over the past few years. I say almost because there has always been a segment of the tuner population who pride themselves on keeping their rides clean and professional, but it’s almost like the over the top style is slowly diminishing. Of course there will always be cars with monstrous LCD screens that rise up from the trunk, and crazy paintjobs with matching neon lights, but it was really refreshing to see a good selection of cars that focused on the clean side of things.

From the world of Forza Motorsport 2 came this incredible livery design that can now be seen on the Takata Time Attack STi. Find out how this design was transformed into reality here.

The Takata Time Attack STi – Officially revealed!

Speaking of clean I am sure that most of you have already laid eyes on the 2008 Takata Time Attack STi, but if you haven’t already been graced by this beauty you should really check it out. For those that are just joining, the livery for this car was created right here on Forzamotorsport.net (with Forza 2 of course), by community painter Andre "Drizze" Guerrieri, and the results are amazing to say the least. Check out the Takata Time Attack STi Profile here, and get the full story on this incredible creation.

In celebration of the release of this car we have put together a bunch of cool community competitions, and have also been uploading the in-game version of this car to our Auction House. You can get your hands on one of these bad boys for only 50,000 CR, so make sure to pick one up and take it for a spin. Courtesy of the folks over at Takata we have also got some great prizing to give away to the community, so here’s what’s going on this week in the form of community competitions:

Takata Time Attack Challenge – Road Atlanta

Takata Time Attack STi Photomode Competition

And quickly on a related note, we have received multiple reports of users deliberately buying huge quantities of the Takata car, thus diminishing the cars available to others. This is a community initiative, meaning these cars are not meant to fill your bank account with credits, and if you are caught doing so you will be removed from the Auction House.

Join Turn 10 at Formula D in Seattle!

Formula D is coming to Seattle, and Turn 10 will be there to catch all of the action first hand. If you’re in the area come out to Evergreen Speedway in Monroe Washington, and take in the delightful sounds of cars being pushed beyond their limits. The main event is on Saturday August 9th, so reserve a block of time to check out the madness. Yours truly along with a few others from the studio will be present, so flag us down if you see someone rocking a Forza 2 shirt.

For those of you close enough to make the trip to Evergreen make sure to put our discount code to use when purchasing your tickets. Use the code “forza” and you will receive a discount off the ticket price courtesy of the folks over at Formula D! We will be covering the event from top to bottom for our readers to enjoy, so if you’re unable to make it out then check back here within the next few weeks for full coverage.

Tune in to watch as Team T10 takes on the Gearbox Grinders!

The Team Challenge has been really well received by the community, and with some great racing so far things are only getting better. In fact last week’s race on Road Atlanta was at times sloppy, but nonetheless close and exciting to watch. The grudge match was equally exciting, so if you missed the live feed last Friday you can catch the instant replay right here. In the end it was Team 10 who took home the win with a “1 2 3” finish over Team Exor, who respectfully disregarded some nasty contact between drivers.

With a record of 3 wins and 2 losses, Team T10 takes to the track with confidence and determination! This week we face off against the Gearbox Grinders, in a 10 lap battle around the legendary Laguna Seca in A class Mazda’s. This race will be broadcast live for all to watch, and recorded for those that missed out, so stop by our official channel (www.justin.tv/turn10studios) to see what happens in this week’s challenge. Fred will be manning the chat room and giving away some free cars, so stop by and join the fun!

A big congratulations going out to Team V12 for taking home the honors for a second time in a row, as yet again they gathered enough points to take home the championship in our Official Hotlap Challenge. With 7 drivers in individual top 10, Team V12 has once again proven that they will not give up the title that easily, however with Team GSR hot on their trails it will be interesting to see how things pan out in Season 5. Speaking of our next season we are looking to get feedback from the community on how we can improve our challenges, so stop by the discussion thread here and let us know what you think.

Additionally we have recently caught up on some of the missing random 30’s from past weeks, so check this thread to see if you have been selected to receive a free gift car of choice! If so send us an e-mail at forzafb@microsoft.com with your gamertag and car request. You know the drill.

And with that said it’s time to wrap things up and head on over to Evergreen Speedway to catch all the intense action. With summer in full effect you can expect to see oodles of car related content appearing on our front page and on our blogs. For now it’s time to get sideways with Formula D! Thanks again for reading and have a great weekend.

Peace

Landin