About two weeks ago, I posted a first story on Atari’s upcoming Test Drive Unlimited 2 title that will once again enable racers to freely drive on a very detailed island.

Now, Atari has confirmed initial rumors that the island that will be included in the upcoming title is indeed Ibiza. Located in the Mediterranean Sea, Ibiza is one of the Balearic Islands, a popular tourist destination among Europeans.

The island is 571.04 square kilometers in size and inhabits 114.000 people. That makes the virtual world in Test Drive Unlimited 2 more than two times as big as the Hawaiian Island of Oahu that was featured in the first Test Drive Unlimited title.

Test Drive Unlimited will be coming to the PC, the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 this fall. New features include the brand-new island of Ibiza, vehicle damage, weather and a full 24-hour day & night cycle.

Team CC is working on the BMW 2002 Tii race car to GT Legends, giving the already available cars even more competition. Below is a first batch of previews, showing the car on track and in the showroom.

Build between 1966 and 1972, the 2002 was not just a very popular street car but also succesful in racing competition. Many well-known BMW racing teams made their name racing the 2002 including Schnitzer Motorsport and Alpina.

 

Back in December, a very interesting new sim racing development studio opened as Renato Simoni and Fernando Oliveira Jr. managed to get some of rFactor’s most famous modders on board to start commercial projects.

In January, Reiza Studios released a first teaser video of their upcoming work, showing a mysterious open-wheel car at Jerez. Our friends over at DrivingItalia.net had the chance to talk to Renato Simoni, hoping to get some answers for the countless community questions regarding Reiza Studios.

In the interview, Simoni explains how the idea to start his own studio came to fruition and shares some insight on their first commercial project. Even though he won’t reveal the exact content yet, a first render you can check out below has been released. Furthermore, Simoni reveals that the title will be using ISI’s trusted gMotor 2 engine and will most likely be distributed using the Internet instead of a publisher.

Click here to read the full interview for more on Reiza Studios (don’t worry, it’s in English!)

 

Toyota, the biggest car maker in the world by sales, has sold almost 10 million vehicles world wide during the past year.

For all of you not having the luxury to own a Toyota vehicle, a new Toyota driving simulator lets you experience how it feels to drive a road car made by the world’s biggest car company.

While the simulation’s graphics can’t compete with titles like Gran Turismo 5, the physics have been carefully modeled to give players the unique and realistic feeling of driving a current Toyota model. The simulator is available for all types of operating systems, click the link below to give it a try.

Enjoy the ride

Click Here to Visit The Toyota Driving Simulator

2010 will see the first ever season of the FIA GT1 World Championship that will have up to 24 GT cars competing for the World Championship title on ten tracks around the world.

The new championship might be coming to sim racers around the world too as organiser Stephane Ratel has recently spilled the beans about an upcoming video game deal for the new championship.

Even though his brief statement on the French Endurance-Info website offers no info about which platform the new title will be on or who will be working on it, this is definetely good news for the community.

The FIA GT is no stranger to driving simulations as Simbin’s GTR & GTR 2 already brought the 2003 and 2004 FIA GT seasons to the PC. Furthermore, the FIA GT has recently been working with iOpener, allowing one of the championship’s cars to be equipped with the company’s real-time position data system during a practice session at Zolder.

Atari has announced the newest title of their Test Drive franchise as Test Drive Unlimited 2 will be coming to the Xbox 360, the Playstation 3 and the PC this fall.

Developed by Eden Games, the second installment of Test Drive Unlimited will once again give players a variety of sports cars and luxury automobiles to drive on a massive, fully modelled, island.

New features in TDU 2 include vehicle damage, day & night circles and weather. While the first TDU enabled players to explore the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, the new title will feature a brand-new island for the players to drive on. Even though Atari hasn’t revealed the location yet, rumors suggest that TDU 2 will be based on the Spanish island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean Sea.

Below are first previews of the new title, showing the Gumpert Apollo, a Dodge Viper and a Mercedes Coupe at sunset. Even though Test Drive Unlimited does not qualify as a simulation, the title brings something unique to the table of racing games as none other title features such a big, freely driveable world to explore instead of relying on fixed circuits for racing.

 

Radiator Springs Racing is making great progress with their Mugello track project for netKar Pro, proving it by showing off a bunch of new previews showing the Formula Renault car on track.

Located near Florence, the current 15-corner layout of the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello was opened in 1974. The track hosts annual rounds of the MotoGP and DTM touring car series and is used as a Formula One testing venue, mainly by the Scuderia Ferrari.

 

Via Radiator Springs Racing

A month ago, iOpener briefly announced to have signed a deal with the World Rally Championship regarding the usage of their real-time positioning data technology in Black Bean Games’ upcoming WRC title for the PC and next-gen gaming consoles.

Now, the deal has been officially announced as players will be able to race the stars of the World Rally Championship thanks to iOpener’s innovative technology.

“This study should take us a step closer to our goal of allowing WRC fans anywhere in the world the opportunity to become part of the action,” commented Simon Long, CEO of WRC rights holders North One Sport Ltd. “Using the internet they would be able to compete in the rally on the same stages against some of the best drivers in the world. If this test is successful then we hope in the future to crown our first virtual rally champion.”

iOpener CEO Andy Lürling added, “Together we aim to configure North One Sport’s systems and iOpener’s patented technology to capture high accuracy live action GPS which can then be integrated into the next generation of WRC video games.  These games will allow fans to drive, co-drive, manage or simply watch the WRC from the heart of the action.”

Radiator Springs Racing has released a new preview video of their Mugello track project for netKar Pro, showing us plenty of footage of the famous Italian track.

Located near Florence, the current 15-corner layout of the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello was opened in 1974. The track hosts annual rounds of the MotoGP and DTM touring car series and is used as a Formula One testing venue, mainly by the Scuderia Ferrari.

Via Radiator Springs Racing

Rallysim has released the third update for their RSRBR 2010 mod for Richard Burns Rally, fixing various issues with their popular mod.

Update 3 does not just add lots of stuff as listed below, it also contains all changes introduced with the first two updates – All you need to get started using it is the RSRBR 2010 base pack.

Changes in this Update:

- Correction of image for 207 RC R3T
- Correction of gearbox for Ford Focus packs A8W-08 et A8W-09
- Correction of sound of Subaru Impreza 95 pack A8_2
- Correction for the bug on 207 pack D1-RC2
- Correction of the picture of 207 RC R3T pack A7_2
- Inscriptions (adding character _ which currently appear in invalid + change in the number of characters for the password)
- Name Display Lyon Gerland in the game (currently, it displays Joux Plane)
- The FOV on cars (which do not work on this 1st version 0.1)
- Added Spanish language (es.lang)
- Change the sound file fiat.eng which raised problems
- Changes on physics for the Subaru N14 URT pack N4_2
- Correction of the gearbox for the 307 pack A8W-05
- Internal corrections for RSCenter
- Correction on picture for Opel Corsa pack A6K_2
- Correction on physics for C2 S1600 in pack Trophy
- Adding R3 folders in the SavedGames folder
- Correction on physics for 207 RC R3T in packs R3 & Trophy
- Correction on physics for Lada Samara in pack A5_1
- Correction in Setup Manager

New in this Update:
- Add Subaru Impreza S14 in pack A8W-08
- Add new 3D for Toyota Corolla
(packs A8W-99, F2000_12_1, F2000_13_1, D3-RC1, PROTO_1)
- Add Skoda Fabia s2000
(packs A7S_1 et N4_s2000_1) (Garyson)
- Possibility to freely edit the ini files for each cars.
- New 306 GrN pack N3_2 (Roysteph)
- New Ford RS 200 pack Group_B (Jalonso)
- New version the super stage RSI – Slalom PLP (by Gaiabio)
- New tracks RSI 2, RSI 3 et RSI Drift (by Gaiabio)
- New Renault Alpine A310 (chewcrout)
- Management for 2 new packs of BTB tracks (BTB Stages 3, and 4)

Important: This is just an update for the base package, make sure to have the initial version and at least one car pack installed. For more info on the mod and it’s packs, click here.

 

Download RSRBR 2010 Mod Update 3 Here

Screenshots via Simscreens

Radiator Springs Racing has released a bunch of new preview screenshots of their Mugello for netKar Pro track project, showing the excellent progress they´re making with their scratch-made track.

Located near Florence, the current 15-corner layout of the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello was opened in 1974. The track hosts annual rounds of the MotoGP and DTM touring car series and is used as a Formula One testing venue, mainly by the Scuderia Ferrari.

 

Via Radiator Springs Racing

Team 21 & friends have released their Opel Kadett C-Coupe for GT Legends, adding another high-quality addon car to Simbin’s simulation.

Built from 1973 through 1979 by German auto maker Opel, the Kadett C was a popular car in several motorsport disciplines including hillclimbs, rally and road racing.

The mod comes with plenty of skins and different sounds to choose from, matching templates will be released in a few days.

 

Download Opel Kadett C-Coupe 1.0 Here

JimmyC is giving away a one-year license for Virtual Grand Prix 3 to a lucky VirtualR reader who proves his speed with the free VGP3 demo.

The lucky winner will be receiving a one-year license for Virtual Grand Prix 3, including one year of free updates – A 14,90€ value.

How it works:

1. Download the Virtual Grand Prix 3 demo Here

2. Set a quick lap at Imola

3. Make a video of your lap using software such as Fraps and upload it to Youtube or any other video hosting site

4. Post your video link in the comments, the video must include the start and finish of your hotlap, the laptime must be clearly visible

5. The quickest driver will be rewarded with the full version license

The contest is open until March 13th so there’s plenty of time to practice and post a good lap. If you haven’t given Virtual Grand Prix 3 a spin yet, this is your chance to give it a try and win the full version of this excellent simulation.

Good luck to all participants!

Update: Contest is closed, congrats to ennisfargis for winning the one-year Virtual Grand Prix 3 license!

SimHQ.com’s Dan “Chipwich” Blake has put together three very interesting articles on Richard Burns Rally.

The first part of his work takes a look back at the history of Richard Burns Rally and what happended since the title hit the market in 2004. The second part of the article centers around Rallysim’s popular RSRBR 2010 mod that is one of the reasons the simulation is still very much alive.

The story is wrapped up with an interview with Rallysim’s Antoine Buob – All in all a very interesting read for RBR fans and those who want to give the sim a try.

Click here to read “A History of Richard Burns Rally”