Volume 103 -- Aug 15, 2008
The Turn 10 Weekly Pitpass Report
By: Landin Williams, Turn 10 Community Lead
The faint sounds of high powered engines echo in the distance as every last drop of horsepower is transferred through the driveshaft of a yellow 350z, right to the ground -- leaving a trail of shredded tires and smoke in its wake. Only a few feet and a big concrete barrier stand between yours truly and a 2500lb drift machine as it navigates the technical infield section at Evergreen Speedway with amazing speed and perfect angle. The wind blows “win” in my face as the Rockstar 350z, driven by Tanner Foust, clears the course during an early practice run.
Welcome back to this edition of the weekly Pitpass Report, and if you haven’t already noticed, the description above talks about my recent experience with Formula D -- the premier drifting organization in North America. Last weekend was possibly one of the best of my life, simply because I was surrounded by amazing drifting machines, amazing drivers, and of course amazing drifting. Being a fan of the sport for a few years now, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the best in the world, and let me tell you the event easily surpassed my expectations.
Check out Tanner Foust shutting it down last weekend at Round 5 of the 2008 Formula D championship at Evergreen Speedway. I had a chance to sit down with the man himself to get an inside look at the life of a professional drifter, so check back next week for full coverage!
Overall the event was incredible, and with so much content to include I have decided to put together a standalone article that will cover the entire weekend. The article will include a whole slew of pictures among other things, but specifically it will contain audio interviews with two of FD’s top drivers, Jim Liau, Co-Founder and President of Formula D, and finally one of the judges in charge of making sense of it all. As you can see it was a great weekend, and I am super excited to share it with everyone, so make sure to check back sometime next week for full disclosure!
If you have spent any amount of time clicking around the news and articles section here at Forzamotorsport.net, then you already noticed that Turn 10’s summer of speed is well underway. Car shows, and automotive lifestyle events are popping up as blips on our radar constantly, and we have changed a few things around to reflect our content. A few noticeable changes have taken place to this section of the website, like the creation of the "Community" channel to house all Forza 2 community article's -- but the addition I am most excited about is what we like to call “Car Culture”. This section will provide shelter for all the awesome automotive content to hit the front page, and with so many events on the horizon we plan to continue adding lots of content to this section over the summer; all of which will involve stories of cool cars and the people that drive them.
Take a look at this perfectly restored 1937 Maserati 6C Monoposto, one of nine cars fighting for the 2008 MSN Auto's Peoples Choice award from the 2008 Concorso d'Eleganza car show in Pebble Beach California. Check out the other candidates here and vote for your favorite vintage ride!
In fact the next stop for Turn 10’s Game Director Dan Greenawalt, and the people’s champ Che Chou, is the glamorous “Concorso d'Eleganza” car show in Pebble Beach California. With a name like Eleganza you can probably already picture the line-up of cars that will be present at the event (see above), but for the sake of simplicity, consider this as a place for millionaires to show off their vintage toys. This prestigious event is more than just a gathering of classic cars in immaculate condition; it is a journey through automotive history. For a glimpse of what this show is all about, check out the 2008 People’s Choice Poll over at MSN Autos and vote for your favorite classic ride. Then stop by our discussion thread here to talk about your choice. A special prize will await you on Forza 2 if you vote and discuss, so get to it! Dan and Che will be there for all the action, so you can expect to see full coverage in the weeks to come.
Speaking of coverage, last Friday we put together a mega gallery to expose all of the hottest rides from the recent Hot Import Nights car show here in Seattle Washington. As you may remember Turn 10’s Lead Software Development Engineer, Colin Reed, was present at the event along with his seriously clean Infiniti G35 Coupe that was entered in the competition. A first glance you may underestimate Colin’s G35, and that’s exactly why we gave it a shakedown to expose what this ferociously clean beast is hiding under its bonnet. Check out the latest edition of "Developer Power" here, to find out exactly what makes Colin's white coupe a thing of beauty.
1995 Porsche 911 GT2 by Duffers999 - Porsche Gallery
Takata Time Attack Competition Week Wrap-Up
While I was out at Evergreen speedway having the time of my life, James Elterman, amateur racer driver and fan of Forza 2, was hard at work, shaving every last tenth off his lap times. Armed with his killer STi that was recently featured here on Forzamotorsport.net, James competed in the NASA Time Trial event, hosted in Braselton, Georgia at everyone’s favorite Road Atlanta. This is the second stop for Elterman this season, and after a great performance in Nashville, I was very excited to hear the results. Here is what James had to say about the event last weekend:
"The Road Atlanta event was great. It appears that we have all the major bugs worked out. We cured the overheating with a new Koyorad radiator and heat wrap on the exhaust. We cured fuel starvation by employing a new fuel pump controller. We cured oil catch can overfill by replacing the catch can with an oil/air seperator. The car ran perfect all weekend once we made these changes.
"To conform to the horsepower to weight limitations of the NASA TTS class, we ran our 93 octane 340hp fuel map all weekend, and had a great finish with 2nd place in TTS. My best lap was a 1:36.200, but it would have been interesting to see what the car would have done on high boost. I think we would have been capable of a 1:32.00."
Check out this winning submission to our Takata Photomode Comp, taken by forum user mnkpro. View all the other winning submissions and honorable mentions here.
Congratulations to James Elterman for taking second place in class at Road Atlanta. This event is also used to qualify cars for the Super Lap Battle, and Elterman's STi qualified in first place for the "limited" class. Up on deck for the Takata STi is a time trial event at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia this weekend. If your a local then make sure to stop by and check out the STi in person. Results from this event will be posted next week so stay tuned!
So I am sure that plenty of you are excited to hear the results from all of our Takata sponsored competitions that ended early this week. Our Hotlap Challenge saw some great driving from the fastest in the world, while our photomode contest saw a slew of great entries from our community. All in all we hope you enjoyed participating, and congratulations to all the winners who will receive some great prizing courtesy of Takata!
Takata Time Attack Challenge - Top 10 Qualifiers!
1- R2P JED
2 - V12 D4Rk SP33D
3 - R2P PoTtHeD
4 - VVV AlpineArts
5 - TRC Greekman
6 - MonoPeak BR
7 - V12 SGATTO
8 - SqR LukeJS
9 - AJ The Boy
10 - VVV Lunoc
Bonus Prize Winner: The player closest to James Elterman's real time on Road Atlanta was DeathlikeRoom with a time of 1:36.218. Elterman's best time was 1:36.200.
Click here to see if you have been selected as one of the "Random 30" from the Takata Time Attack Challenge!
Takata STi Photomode Competition Top 5
mnkpro
MaxAttack
Munky
skywalker1230jh
Lambos R Cool
Bonus Prize Winner 2: Congratulations to Forza 2 photographer Darth Eletius for winning our photomode bonus challenge with this nearly identical replication of a photo taken of the Takata STi on Road Atlanta! Below you can see the real shot provided by Elterman himself, and the in-game shot from Darth Eletius who has not see the real shot until now! Good stuff.
Photo by: Finish Line Photography - Road Atlanta
Photo by: Darth Eletius, winner of the Takata Photomode competition bonus prize!
So I guess you’re all wondering how to get your hands on your hard earned prizes right? Of course you are…here’s the deal. Within the next week we will be reaching out to everyone who is eligible for prizing over Xbox LIVE. The message will come from our good friend “phREDESIGN” (Fred Howell for the noobs), so stay on the lookout for confirmation. We will handle all of the specific details from there on out, so the bottom line is check your messages! I want to send a big shout out to Bret from Takata for hooking us up with all this great prizing, and also to all those who participated in our contests!
Speaking of contests and prizing, the folks from Xbox.com have put together a great event for players located in Australia and New Zealand -- and as a special promotion we will be launching an in-game Hotlap Challenge this Sunday. The Xbox 360 Bathurst Challenge is giving racing fans a chance to race a Go-Kart at Mt. Panorama during the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 weekend! For all the details regarding the Xbox 360 Bathurst Challenge and information on how to sign-up, visit the official contest website here. Then jump on Forza 2 and set your best time in our R3 Hotlap Challenge around Silverstone Grand Prix! Good Luck.
Too Human TME Supply Shortage – Out of Stock!
The gatekeeper of all our Turn 10 custom Unicorn cars, Fred “Redesign” Howell, has recently closed up the paint booth to pursue others endeavors. He came to me this week with some breaking news. There is a serious shortage of Too Human TME’s, and as a result he has made the decision to pull them from the shelves. All remaining copies will be used as contest prizing for specific Turn 10 competitions, or randomly uploaded to the Auction House...none will be gifted upon request. Cherish your copy, as it is still unknown if this car will ever arise from the catacombs of Turn 10’s garage again.
But don’t fret if you didn’t get a chance to snag a copy of the Too Human TME, as there is more on the horizon from our friend Freddy. In fact he has already started to mold his latest creation, but this time it will remain a mystery. We will not be providing any detailed information regarding the concept for this design, but the teaser below may give you an idea. No firm ETA on when this car will hit our virtual shelves on the Auction House, but more details will be released as they become available. For now check out the ultra teaser of Turn 10’s next official Unicorn car.
And finally before I jump out of the Matrix for the weekend, I wanted to get caught up with some community events that are underway. There is always so much to cover, but Fred and I have scoured the net for any cool Forza 2 related competitions…and here they are! Remember if you have a nifty community event planned shoot us an e-mail with a brief description and a link. We can’t guarantee coverage, but we’ll try our best :)
Community Livery Contests – Comedy and Famous Sports Figures: A pair of fantasy livery competitions, hosted by toyotaracer247 have started to attract some attention, as the first contest is rapidly reaching the end of the community voting stage. The Comedy Livery contest includes a bunch of artwork based around comedy flicks of the past, so check out the voting thread here to see the finalists! Secondly we have the Sports Figures contest that is currently accepting entries. All of the details regarding this livery contest can be found in this thread, so check that out to get involved!
Pink Panther 1991 BMW M3 E30 - Artist Unkown - Comedy Movie Contest
Moment of Impact – Photomode Contest: Forum user and photomode guru BULLETSnZOMBIES has put together yet another unique contest for you photographers out there. The title says it all. All submissions must depict a car making contact with another object and must show visible damage. It’s an interesting concept to say the least, and so far the entries have been pretty unique, so stop by the submission thread here. Alternatively if you prefer the painting side of things you can donate some artwork to help with prizing. See the design request thread here for details.
60 Million Cr. Template Car Contest: This unique competition gives users a unique challenge of creating a stylish livery that must contain certain elements from the template car. Certain things can be added and changed, and other things can’t. Make sure to read the rules carefully to figure out the restrictions. A bunch of credits are on the line courtesy of Jizzy Shizno, so check out the template car here to get in the mix!
2005 BMW M3 E46 by Lethal Industry - Forzacentral
Tuning Marketplace – Free Tunes Database: Forum moderator and Tuning Marketplace mastermind DOA KappaTango is back in the mix here at Forzamotorsport.net and his latest project has been to organize a list of free tunes released by the community. This list contains some great set-ups that are free for anyone willing to buy the upgrades and copy the settings, so if you find yourself getting left in the dust on Xbox LIVE then go ahead and try them out. You can find the free tunes database here.
DMR Cars of Tomorrow Series 3: The folks from Team DMR have recently announced their latest season of spec racing that is currently open for sign-ups. With a bunch of race restrictions and a clean racing policy, the DMR series is a great way to get involved with a crew of good clean racers. You can sign-up by visiting their website here, however you will have to sign-up on their forums in order to find the information you need.
And that’s it for this week’s Community Update, but make sure to check out the events posted above if you’re looking for new ways to enjoy Forza Motorsport 2. Also check out the latest broadcast from the folks over at the Cyber Racing World Championship by visiting their site here. Thanks again for reading, have a good weekend, and we will see you out on the track!
Peace
Landin