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'Gran Turismo' movie trailer: No surprises, but more cars onscreen is a good thing

More movies about cars and racing is always a good thing in our book. The first trailer for the "Gran Turismo" movie dropped today, and while it focuses a lot on the gaming backstory, it looks like there will be a decent amount of actual wheel-to-wheel action as well. The movie is, of course, based on the hugely popular PlayStation series of video games. Now in its seventh installation, it revolutionized the racing game world with its massive library of playable cars, digitization of real tracks, and sound effects recorded from actual exhaust notes. Unlike other recent video games that have been adapted into blockbuster movies or TV shows with actual depth, "Gran Turismo" the game doesn't have a plot.  This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The movie follows the real-life story of Jann Mardenborough, a British "Gran Turismo" player who in 2011 became the youngest winner of the Nissan GT Academy. The program funnels gamers into real driver's seats, and Mardenborough beat out 90,000 global contestants. He's gone on to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the British GT Championships, and Formula E.  In the trailer we see what is likely a heavily dramatized version of the events. Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) faces skeptical parents, skeptical driving instructor Jack Salter (David Harbour of "Stranger Things''), and a skeptical rival who doesn't believe gamers can really race (Josha Stradowski). About the only one who does believe in him is Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom), a marketing exec based on GT Academy head honcho Darren Cox. An obligatory love story is also wedged in there.  Since the real GT Academy was sponsored by Nissan, when Mardenborough graduates to real cars we see plenty of R35 GT-Rs, a 370Z NISMO, and a Ligier-Nissan LMP racer. Mardenborough's rival's car is perfectly cast as a chrome gold-wrapped Lamborghini Huracan. Background cars include an Audi R8, Porsche 911, Ferrari 458, and more. Surprisingly, there's no new Nissan Z, even though it seems like it would be the perfect car to include in a movie like this. The trailer reveals almost entirely how Mardenborough will overcome the odds, not that the end would have taken a genius to guess. At the same time, motor racing is an inaccessible sport for the average consumer.

Nissan Altima takes first V8 Supercars win

The V8 Supercars championship used to be strictly a contest between Holden and Ford. But just as BMW crashed the Audi and Mercedes party in DTM, so has Nissan (and for that matter, Mercedes) pushed past the door into Australia's popular touring car series. And like BMW, Nissan hasn't waited long before notching its first victory.
Nissan claimed the checkered flag this weekend in the first of three races at Winton, the ninth stop on the calendar. And what a spectacular win it was: not only did Nissan take the checkered flag, they finished one-two. James Moffat drove his Altima to the finish line just ahead of teammate Michael Caruso. It was Caruso who lead the first half of the race after qualifying just behind defending champion (and current points leader) Jamie Whincup, who suffered a gearbox malfunction and retired on only the ninth lap.
Of course that's just one race out of 27 so far and 37 scheduled this season, so that won't be elevating Nissan or any of its drivers to the lead the same way that BMW did upon its return last season to DTM, but it's a good start and a cause to celebrate for Nissan. Mark Winterbottom (Ford) and James Courtney (Holden) won the following two rounds at Winton as Jamie Whincup (Holden) leads Will Davison (Ford) in the standings.

Renault-Nissan debuts new Common Module Family for future vehicles

Platform sharing is nothing new for the 14-year-old Renault-Nissan Alliance, but this partnership is set to introduce new modular platform components that will eventually underpin 11 Renault models and three Nissan vehicles by 2020. Rather than being a typical platform, the Common Module Family (CMF) actually represents five segments of a platform that can be used in various applications, and one of the first vehicles to use this architecture will be the 2014 Nissan Rogue (spy shots of which are shown below) when it arrives "in late 2013."
As pictured in the image above (click to expand), CMF is composed of four chassis component, principally the front underbody, rear underbody, engine bay and cockpit as well as a common electrical system. Besides the next-gen Rogue, future Nissan models to share CMF will include the Qashqai and X-Trail, while Renault models will start using the platform next year on vehicles including the Scénic and Laguna. The CMF architecture is expected to help the Alliance reduce the parts cost of a vehicle by up to 30 percent and reduce the entry cost by up to 40 percent. The official press release with more details about CMF, and what it means for Renault-Nissan, is posted below.