An interview and overview from Italy on the upcoming game.

The video from Gameswelt.tv features Slightly Mad Studio’s producer Suzy Wallace who talks about several aspects of the title’s development as well as her personal experience with driving Ferrari’s.

For even more insight into the upcoming title, Outcast.it has interviewed Creative Director Andy Tudor who shares plenty of very interesting details with us.

Both videos also feature plenty of gameplay footage, showing the upcoming title in action.

The title will include 51 Ferrari road & race cars that can be raced on 36 circuits including variations. You can find a shot of each car below, make sure to also check out the car list & track list.

Test Drive Ferrari will be coming to the PC, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, the release is scheduled for June 30 according to various retailers.

Slightly Mad Studios have released a new development build of Project CARS for all members with Team Member status and above, adding a brand new car and two tracks to the developing title.

The new build features the Gumpert Apollo Sport, a 750hp sports car powered by an Audi V8 bi-turbo engine. The new car can be driven on two new tracks as the build also includes two early versions of Spa Francorchamps and Willow Springs International Raceway.

Version 91 also introduces improved physics for all Racer cars and the Ariel Atom, as well as a more-progressed version of Bathurst and a first evolution of the user interface.

Changelog

Build 91 (11/11/11, Team Member+)

I'll admit this right off the bat: I've only been hardcore into sim racing for about a year. Prior to this past year, sim racing on a console and PC was so frustrating to me because I could barely control the cars with a gamepad or a keyboard. It almost seems silly now when I think back; I can't believe I was trying to race a Le Mans prototype on a keyboard with all assists off. And yes, I was too stubborn and prideful to even consider turning the assists on. 

2 racing wheels and one rudimentary racing stand setup later, I am now happy as a clam, with a wealth of sim racers at my disposal. 2011 has been a great year so far; not only did Forza Motorsport 4 come out, but Gran Turismo 5 is still being updated regularly, and all those great PC sims (iRacing, GTR, Live For Speed, ETC.) that I couldn't play before are now all a fantastic addition to my racing library. 

One PC sim has caught my eye in particular. I was already familiar with Slightly Mad Studios since I am a fan of the Need For Speed: Shift series (yes, I know the physics are less than realistic, but I like the excitement of the game...and prior to the latest GT5 DLC, it was one of the few places I could race at Spa), and was interested to see that they were working on a new racing game, C.A.R.S. This game caught my eye because of the way the game was presented to the public. 

Rather than releasing a bare bones demo, rather than hosting signups for a beta test, SMS has done something that I personally have never seen before. Users sign up for a membership at the World of Mass Development forum (the cheapest package will get you in). As a member, you now have access to the latest alpha build for C.A.R.S. As the developers add more features and fix bugs, they will release a newer build for you to download. As active forum members, the development team will also interact with the rest of the forum members and toss ideas back and forth. 

Basically, you have a say in the development of C.A.R.S. 

Needless to say, this is exciting news. Go to any forum for any sim racer and you'll see a host of complaints, suggestions, etc. The one thing that I've noticed is that players rarely feel as if developers listen to them, and SMS looks to remedy that. Jump into any thread in the C.A.R.S. forum and you'll see active participation from many of the team members, especially from Andy Garton, the development director, and Ian Bell, head of the studio. Sure sometimes Kazunori Yamauchi or Dan Greenawalt will tweet something about a new feature or bug for GT5 and Forza, but not to this degree. I've never seen a level of participation like this before.

Slightly Mad Studios have announced a licensing deal with the British Motorsport Vision group to allow four popular UK tracks to be added to their in-development C.A.R.S. title.

Motorsport Vision operates five race tracks in the United Kingdom, four of which will be drivable in C.A.R.S. as Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Snetterton & Cadwell Park have been announced as upcoming additions to the title.

The choice of tracks provides an interesting variety, including a well-known international touring car venue like Brands Hatch and less-known but stunning driving venues like Cadwell Park which has earned a reputation for being Britain’s mini version of the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

SMS is cutting no corners in terms of production as all four tracks will be laser-scanned for maximum accuracy, allowing the developers to capture the smallest details down to 2mm. For more info on C.A.R.S. and the recently-launched WMD portal, check out this story.

Check out gorgeous DX11 driven vides's below. 

We really like the idea of a like mined "community" owning a share of the venture.   We are right behind Slightly Mad in there proposal.  The future of technology is about how a community feels about its acceptance.  It really putting the heart on the sleave and constantly saying "are we worthy" versus this is what "we think you should have".

We will talk about this more in upcoming blogs but here is an article from Game Industry News.  We will sign up in some shape or form.

"Need for Speed: Shift developer Slightly Mad Studios is embarking on an ambitious project to create technology and video games via crowdsourcing.

The community assisted and crowdfunded technology will be released to subscribers who can then work alongside the studio itself, develop games from scratch and be financially rewarded once the titles are live.

The first project is racing game C.A.R.S. but Slightly Mad hopes the project - dubbed World of Mass Development - will be used for future first-person shooter, adventure and role-playing games.

The community will also be able to play the game as it's being built, from the first track and cars up until the final build. 

Slightly Mad Studios have released new two high-resolution previews of their upcoming C.A.R.S. title on VirtualR.

The new previews show off the historical Lotus 49 Formula One car, including a shot of the car’s very detailed cockpit.

The model seen in the previews is made up of around 250.000 polygons and will run in-game in this kind of quality, thanks to DirectX 11 and the complexity of the used shaders as SMS is aiming to set a new benchmark in visual quality. Aside from pushing the limits in terms of graphics, the studio is also putting equal efforts into the input & physics department.

C.A.R.S., which stands for Community Assisted Race Sim, is a new project by Slightly Mad Studios that will allow sim racers to invest in an upcoming simulation title. In return, the investors will get to have a major say in the direction the title will be taking, get development builds and get to follow a completely transparent development process that shows the SMS team at work.

Slightly Mad Studios will be launching the project’s website in a few weeks, for all the details on this groundbreaking new project check out this article.

Slightly Mad Studios’ Ian Bell shared his vision of a community-funded simulation title right here on VirtualR. What many may have dismissed as a very much utopian vision has gotten extremely real as the studio has been hard at work for the past few months to turn a great idea into a working project.

Named Community Assisted Race Sim, or C.A.R.S. for short, the project will allow ordinary sim racers to become investors in a racing simulation title and get a share of the profits and unmatched access to the development process and a say in the title’s direction.

For the past few months, the guys at Slightly Mad Studios have been hard at work on all fronts as Ian Bell has revealed some exclusive details on the team’s progress. The legal work on the project has just been completed and SMS is ready to launch the project’s website and accept investors within the next 2-3 weeks.

The studio will be offering investment options that will fit any budged, starting out with a 5€ option ending with gold-level commitment of 1000€ and beyond. All investors will be getting access to downloadable development builds throughout the development process, the level of investment will determine the amount of influence each member has though.

While every investor will get to vote on the direction the new title will take, gold members get to participate in board meetings where the bigger calls will be made, always considering the requests from the regular investors. Gold members will even get source-code access to the simulation while smaller investors will be given script access to play with.