Slightly Mad Studios have announced a new licensing deal with Caterham as their WMD-powered Project CARS title will feature three of the British company’s lightweight sports cars.

Project CARS Team Members will soon be able to drive both the Caterham Classic and the R500 Superlight, both based on the legendary Lotus Seven. While the Classic is powered by a 105bhp Rover engine, the R500 Superlight is powered by a two-liter Ford engine putting out 263hp and helping the nimble Caterham to race car-like performance.

The third car in the mix is a true race car as Caterham’s brand new SP/300.R is build in co-operation with Lola Cars. 

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+)

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’ 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.