That's right folks, there's now a Forza Paintshop emblem. It's not officially anything to do with this union, but would you believe I had something to do with the naming and description of it?

Red ones go faster. This person has it all figured out where Forza Motorsport 3 is concerned. It's not about driving fast, it's about driving however you like so long as you look good doing it. Awarded to racers who have impressed GameSpot editors with their car designs, regardless of their skills behind the wheel.

Unless someone else wants to organize one, I'm gonna wait a week or two before the next race weekend - it's still really busy working on reviews here right now, Brian is on vacation somewhere with an Internet connection even worse than mine, and I'm hoping to check out some Modern Warfare 2 at some point as well. I'm definitely planning to keep the race weekends going though, and the best designers each week will get one of these currently very rare emblems.

Thanks to everyone who showed up for the first FM3 race weekend. I had originally planned to wait a couple of weeks before the next one, but after talking to Brian we're gonna go ahead and plan another for this weekend. Same format as the first, but with a different car:

Dates: November 7 & 8

Cars: 2009 Ford Focus RS (level 5 prize car)

Times: 9am Pacific (Saturday), 11am Pacific (Sunday)

More info in the full version of this bulletin, click on the title above for that.

Just a quick one to let you all know that on November 10, the featured game of our regular Community Game Night will be Forza 3. Brian and I will be playing, and I wouldn't be surprised if other GameSpot staffers find their way into some of the races as well. If you're interested in gatting in on the action, you can find the info on our Game Night page.

Hey Guys,
Brian, Tyler and I were talking earlier about what form our first race weekend with Forza 3 should take, and we think we've come up with a winner. We'll wait on figuring out exact start times til we hear from you what's gonna work, but the details are gonna look something like this:

**UPDATED WITH TIMES**

Dates: October 31 & November 1
Cars: 2010 Fiat Abarth 500 esseesse
Times: 9am Pacific (Saturday), 11am Pacific (Sunday)

More info in the full version of this bulletin, click on the title above for that.

Forza Motorsport 3 will be here in less than 3 months! It's time to revive this once great union with a new name, a new banner (see my sticky post on the board), and a new race meet schedule. Hopefully most of you are planning on getting Forza 3 when it comes out, and even if you're not, maybe we can organize some race weekends with Forza 2 in the meantime.

Here's the press release:

LONDON - 1st August, 2007 - Thanks to Xbox LIVE, Nissan, and the team at Turn 10, the very first downloadable content for Xbox 360's acclaimed racer "Forza Motorsport 2" is now available. Speed on over to Xbox LIVE Marketplace now to download the all new free Nissan car pack, featuring three premiere Nissan models: the 2007 Sentra SE-R, Altima, and 350Z.

To celebrate this release, Xbox and Nissan will be hosting several activities focused around these new additions to "Forza Motorsport 2's" already extensive car list. The first of these activities will be a Nissan Sentra SE-R tournament on Xbox LIVE. Fans are encouraged to customize and upgrade their Sentras and then race head-to-head in an all-out Nissan Sentra brawl. The 32 bracket 256 player tournament will kick off on 18^th August and take place over the course of seven weeks. It will finish on the 6^th October with a championship race live at the L.A. Auto Show. Finalists will compete for a series of prizes including a chance to win a new Nissan! Full tournament details, registration and rules can be found at http://www.xboxlivetournament.com/ starting on 10^th August.

(there's more)

For the record, all of you should feel free to organize your own race meets and such when Brian and I aren't able to. This coming weekend is tough for me, so the details for the next race weekend that I'll be organizing are as follows:

Saturday July 28, 10am PST
Saturday July 28, 6pm PST
Sunday July 29,12pm PST (EDIT: Please note that's NOON, not midnight)

I don't suppose many of us will be able to make all three races, but by mixing the times up a bit I'm hoping that as many peeps as possible can make at least one of them. Since previous race meets have used cars from Europe and Asia respectively, we'll be using North American rides this time. Car restrictions are as follows:

Year: <1976
Car Class: B
Region: North America

The goal, clearly, is some kind of muscle car event. The class restriction is there not only to keep things close, but also to ensure that everybody doesn't just jump into a GT40. Since most of the muscle cars are around class D when you buy them, this should give us plenty of scope to upgrade them according to our own preferences.

EDIT: There's a good chance that I won't be able to make either of the Saturday races unfortunately, but I do hope to be around on Sunday. Hopefully those of you racing on Saturday can get together and make sure it all runs smoothly. I suggest using a forum thread to get names/gamertags of those wishing to take part in each session. Sorry about that, hopefully see you Sunday. Justin

Looks like the earlier time proposed on the board works for a lot of you so our second race weekend will take place this Saturday and Sunday morning. Start times are as follows:

Saturday July 7, 10am PST
Sunday July 8, 10am PST

Sorry that this is kinda short notice (things are just a little busy at GS right now), but hopefully everyone can still get at least one car ready in time--even if the paintjobs aren't quite as spectacular as those that we managed on the old Porsches. Car restrictions are as follows:

Car Class: B
Power: 200-300 hp
Region: Asia

Hopefully the power restriction isn't gonna upset anyone, it's just an attempt to keep the races closely contested to some extent.

EDIT: And yeah, since is the paintshop union please try to at least stick some numbers on your cars or something.

I was only able to attend the Sunday race for our inaugural race weekend but I had a great time. The above video is a quick highlight package from the Sunday's different races. I tried to get everyone's car in--including Aaron and Vinny, who split to a different room early. Sorry if I missed anyone, though.

Already looking forward to this Saturday's race!

Another of those Game with Fame press releases from my inbox. One that I actually wish I could be a part of, perhaps for the first time...

MOTOR RACING LEGEND SIR STIRLING MOSS GETS READY FORZA ULTIMATE CHALLENGE - RACING GAMERS ON XBOX LIVE

Veteran racer gets behind the wheel of Forza Motorsport 2 for a high speed 'Game with Fame'

LONDON, 27 June 2007 - It was today revealed that British motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss will be taking on Xbox Live® players at their own game, in an exclusive Forza Motorsport^TM 2 'Game with Fame' event taking place tomorrow, Thursday 28 June.

The 77 year-old racing veteran who competed in 74 Formula One Grand Prix races throughout the 1950s and is considered by many as the greatest British racing driver of all time, will take on Xbox Live players at Microsoft's super-realistic driving sim, Forza Motorsport 2 on Thursday June 28^th in a connected gaming session. The event is just the latest in a series of 'Game with Fame' sessions which has seen top stars like the Scissor Sisters and Enter Shikari taking on fans on the latest next generation high definition games on the Xbox 360^TM.

Just found this press release in my inbox. It's almost certainly of no interest to any of you, but hey, it is Forza 2-related. Ish.

What: Xbox LIVE "Game with Fame" with Australian Trio Wolfmother
Gamertag: WolfmotherGWF
Game: Forza Motorsport 2
When: Saturday, June 23, 2007 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. EST/4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. PST.

And the Forza 2 Paintshop Union is Go! I guess the first thing we need to do is have one of you creative types (that's all of us, right?) create a banner. So yeah, whoever wants to, go for it.

I'll probably have a crack at doing one tonight, but having seen some of the cars that you guys have been working on I know you can do better.