The first piece of content is Car Pack 3 for $5.99, featuring six new cars from both past and present. Download Car Pack 3 to get your hands on Lamborghini’s latest flagship model, the Aventador, along with the Jaguar XJR-9 LM racecar, Aston Martin V12 Vantage, the 66′ Volkswagen 1200, Mini Cooper S Countryman, and the new Nissan Leaf.

The second piece of new DLC is the Speed Test Course Pack featuring the Route X test course, which will be available for $3.99. If you caught the PDI-made promotional trailer for the new Acura NSX Concept vehicle (that’s right, the NSX is back!!), you’ve already seen a sneak peek of this new track. Route X is a massive oval with giant banking corners, allowing you to test your vehicles’ maximum speed and performance, plus some beautiful vistas to rush by at 200mph. You’ll be able to use this track online, and in Arcade and Practice modes.

And since the Speed Test Course Route X is the perfect proving ground to test the performance of your vehicles and all of the custom tuning and modification you’ve done, we’ve gone one step further and made that even easier for you. You’ll be able to track things like your mile and quarter-mile time, acceleration and g-force.

Also coming next week is the XL Edition of GT5 for $39.99, along with a minor update to Gran Turismo 5 via free downloadable patch. Check here for more details on the new improvements coming in next week’s patch.

If you’ve missed the first two DLC drops in October and December, check here for more information about all the great new content available for Gran Turismo 5, including the new car and track packs.

Finally, GT Academy USA winner Bryan Heitkotter is gearing up to take on the 24H Dubai endurance race this weekend, taking turns with fellow GT Academy Europe winners. Follow GT Academy on Facebook to find out how they do in this grueling 24-hour race.

Gran Turismo 5 XL Edition Contents

• Original Gran Turismo 5 game, featuring more than 1,000 cars, 20+ locations with 70+ track layouts, diverse racing styles including rally, track, karting, NASCAR, and more, deep online community features and online racing, plus Gran Turismo TV, Course Maker and more.
• All of the new and improved features and functionality from all free downloadable game updates up through Spec 2.0 included on the disc.
• Voucher good for over $20 worth of DLC content, including the Racing Car Pack, Car Pack 2, Course Pack, Racing Gear Pack, and Paint Pack.

The XL Edition will also feature a new reversible inside coversheet featuring the new Red Bull X2011 supercar, to add a different look to your game library shelf.

You’ll be able to pick up the XL Edition of Gran Turismo 5 after January 17 for just $39.99. Watch the blog and the official GT website for more news about Gran Turismo, DLC, and new Gran Turismo TV content available exclusively within the game.

There’s more good news, because as a special gift anyone who purchased anything from the first batch of DLC will get unlock the Gran Turismo Racing Kart 125 SP and five New Car Refresh cards in the game for free. The refresh cards will take any car back to being ‘as good as new’ while maintaining any modifications or paint jobs you have given your motors. To take advantage of this offer, you’ll need to install the new downloadable update hitting next week.

The free downloadable update coming next week will also add several new enhancements to GT5 as well as correcting some reported issues. A few examples of the benefits of update 2.02 include:

• Users can now change wheels on Standard cars
• The settings sheets will include a new ‘copy’ feature
• In GT Auto, players will be able to see how the oil changes, aerodynamic parts, engine overhauls, and racing modifications will affect performance points and engine power, before and after their application
• Free coupons have been added that allow you to wash cars, change oil, overhaul your engine, or refresh the car body in GT Auto (10 coupons will be distributed for free to each of those who have downloaded the 2.02 update)
• Pressing the Square button in the car coupon selection screen of the Car Delivery will now allow you to exchange all car coupons at once, rather than doing one at a time
• In screens where the [Garage] and [Driver List] buttons are displayed in the A/B Spec events, Special Events, and Seasonal Events, pressing the Square button will now show the [Garage], and pressing the Triangle button will bring up the drivers list
• In My Lounge, the room settings will feature a new ‘Max. number of participants’ setting
• In the event selection screen of seasonal events, there are now ☆(star) marks that show the number of Gold Trophies attained in each event
• Improved racing sound effects
• Elements of the steering assist controls (used when using certain controllers on Racing Karts) have been tweaked

As an additional gift to players this holiday season, everyone who downloads the 2.02 update will also receive the stunning Toyota FT-86 2012 to add to their in-game collection.

One more note: Those who purchased the course and/or vehicle DLC that was released in October will be able to download Family Upgrade unlocks for free from the store. This means that if you bought the Racing Car Pack, Course Pack, or the ‘Complete Pack’ that contained both of these, by downloading the free Family Upgrade items, the content will now be accessible to more than just the user account that purchased the content. Family members or friends using the same PS3 can all use the courses and cars. Note that the upgrade doesn’t apply to the Racing Gear Pack or Special Paint Pack, and starting next week, new purchases will not have the restriction in place.

And don’t forget, there’s only one week left to compete in the special GT5 Time Trial Challenge and unlock a special edition Nissan GT-R for your garage. We hope you enjoy the free game updates, new cars and new batch of DLC. Drive safe!

The Gran Turismo Awards recognizes the best vehicles at the SEMA SHOW (Specialty Equipment Market Association) in five different categories: Best Hot Rod, Best Asian Import, Best European Import, Best Domestic Automobile, and Best Truck/SUV. After the five category winners are judged, one winner from each category is selected on performance and style by leading automotive media. From there, it falls to Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi to select the overall GT Awards “Best in Show” winner. Walking the show floor, Kazunori-san views each of the category winners and selects a vehicle that best represents the Gran Turismo brand; one that will be immortalized as a fully playable part of the Gran Turismo franchise for millions of fans around the world.

In addition to the music acts following the awards ceremony, guests will have a chance to check out the latest new features and content for Gran Turismo 5, including our recently released GT5 DLC.

For those who didn’t attend last year, here’s a look at our 2010 GT Awards “Best in Show” car, Mark Stielow’s red 1969 Chevy Camaro…

For those of you in town to attend SEMA this week, come on by with your badge to check out the awards event and a great concert. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

The Spec 2.0 update enables you enjoy a new and improved GT5, including interior views for all standard cars, improved physics and AI, faster menus and load times, additional functionality and control in the online racing mode, updated 2011 NASCAR cars, a gorgeous new opening cinematic movie, and much more.

I mentioned last week that we also have a slew of downloadable content releasing on the PlayStation Store. Here’s an update on the content you can expect next week on October 18th.

Course Pack

The Course Pack ($4.99), will include two courses completely new to Gran Turismo. The first course is the world-famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps located in Spa, Belgium. At 7km long, this course is widely known as one of the most challenging race courses in the world due to its many twists and turns and elevation changes. And every inch of the track has been painstakingly recreated as only Polyphony can.

The second course is a flashy indoor karting arena designed by Polyphony Digital, and comes with two layouts to race. Lit with neon lighting, the kart arena not only showcases the beauty of GT5’s graphics and lighting engines, but also adds a crazy twist to the outdoor karting areas that shipped with GT5.

Racing Car Pack

The Racing Car Pack ($7.99) adds 11 custom PDI-designed custom touring editions of fan favorites like the Mazda RX-7, Subaru Impreza, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, Dodge Challenger SRT8, Nissan GT-R, Honda CR-Z, and even a race tuned Toyota Prius, among others. The pack also includes three new racing karts. But what makes the Racing Car Pack really cool is that it also features the never-before-seen Red Bull X2011 Prototype vehicle. The Red Bull X2010, a machine built for pure speed, was the ultimate prize in Gran Turismo 5, and the Red Bull X2011 Prototype is the next evolution in design. In other words, that’s 15 new vehicles to add to your collection and master.

Racing Gear Pack

Also available will be the Racing Gear Pack ($2.99), which features 90 pieces of racing gear, including racing suits and helmets, for your in-game drivers. Included are GT original design helmets and suits, white and black Alpinestars suits, the official 2010 and 2011 season racing suits and helmets of 4 top NASCAR drivers, and racing gear of 4 other celebrity race car drivers including Sebastien Loeb and Peter Solberg.

Paint Pack

And last but not least is the Paint Pack ($1.99), featuring 100 paint colors to customize your cars with. The pack includes new shades of matte, chrome and aluminum colors. It’s time to breathe some new life into your car collection.

While you can buy individual DLC packs, you can also buy it all at once as a bundle for just $11.99. PlayStation Plus subscribers will also get a nice discount on the bundle for the first month of release – more details on that soon.

And if you haven’t heard, this week is your chance to grab the Red Bull X2010, Sebastian Vettel model, which we are giving away for free this week to commemorate Vettel’s historic F1 championship win over the weekend. The Red Bull X2010 is a racing machine built for pure speed (up to 280mph, 0-60 in 1.4 seconds), built as a special partnership between Polyphony Digital and Red Bull Racing. If you haven’t completed all of the in-game challenges to unlock it in the game on your own yet, this is your chance to add this speed demon to your collection. See here for instructions on how to add it to your garage. This promotion is good this week only, so be sure to grab it before time runs out!

Finally, don’t forget to watch GT Academy Tuesdays on SPEED, and download full episodes from the Video Store side of PSN. Episode 4 debuts tonight at 7:00pm PST on SPEED and will be available this week on PSN, with the thrilling final episode premiering next week.

Now I’m here to share with you some very exciting news about the biggest FREE update yet, releasing in the next few weeks. It will add new features and even more functionality to your GT5 experience.

Polyphony learned that a lot of fans out there love driving using the game’s interior view, and has given some serious thought to it. With this new update, all cars in the game will now have interior views. Although the level of visual details will vary based on what car you choose, you can now race from behind the wheel of any car in the game. In addition, you’ll be able to get the 2011 season versions of the 11 NASCAR race cars for the first time.

Some of the other improvements introduced are greatly reduced load times when loading races, quicker menu response times, and adjustable opponent AI in Arcade Mode. Players will now have the option to save their progress during lengthy racing events so they can come back and finish at a later time, and can also adjust weather conditions for races using a slider function that goes from mild to severe.

The wildly popular Photo Mode has been updated to allow players to take pictures with their personalized driver avatars with customizable racing suits and helmets. You can even fast-forward and rewind race replays now to better capture that key moment in the race.

For those who enjoy racing online with your fellow gearheads, we’re expanding the shuffle race mode. As with the same feature in Gran Turismo PSP, this allows friendly competition between players of different skill levels. Players setting up online races will also have a host of new regulations available to customize their own events. New bonus incentives are introduced for players who log in and play on a consistent basis.

Truly hardcore racing fans will be stoked to hear that GT5 will now officially and fully support the Logitech G25 and G27 Racing Wheels.

The final piece of big news is that there will be a full batch of downloadable content for Gran Turismo 5 in the coming weeks. This DLC will of course include new vehicles and tracks, plus some additional surprises.

We’ll have more details very soon on the specifics of the DLC, so stay tuned, and check the blog and the official Gran Turismo website for further details.

I am ending this post with a comment from the man himself, Kazunori Yamauchi, president of Polyphony Digital and creator of the Gran Turismo franchise:

The coming Gran Turismo 5 Spec 2 update is an update that contains the feedback from the users playing GT5 online every day. We have added cars such as the newest NASCAR race cars, but many of the updates are those that improve usability and expand the field of game play. I believed from the initial release of Gran Turismo 5 that it would be the users that would make the game grow thereafter, and we added things like interior views for the standard models because there was a lot of request for it from our users. You could say that this update is the shape and form of GT5 that was created through the opinions of our fans.

And if you don’t have Gran Turismo 5 yet, now is the perfect time to get into the best-selling racing game. In addition to all of the great new content and free updates, as of this week you can pick GT5 up for only $39.99.

Tune in tonight as Gran Turismo 5 makes its primetime television debut on Speed Channel with GT Academy, a five-part reality show featuring GT Academy and the fierce competition that gave the nation’s top 16 Gran Turismo drivers a chance to become a professional race car driver. The first episode airs tonight at 10 pm EST, followed by new episodes airing every Tuesday on Speed Channel during the same timeslot (please check your local listings for timing and updates).

Take a look at the video below to catch a glimpse as to what’s in store for you on Speed Channel:

And for those of you who can’t make Tuesday nights, the PlayStation Store will make the previous night’s episode available for download every Wednesday.

In December, Sony Computer Entertainment LLC and Polyphony Digital Inc. – in association with Nissan North America – launched the first GT Academy program here in the US. Over 53,000 aspiring race car drivers competed in the GT Academy online time trials in Gran Turismo 5. Thirty-two of the nation’s best players moved onto the National Finals event in Orlando, with 16 of the fastest racers emerging and moving onto the finals at the Silverstone Circuit in England. The grand prize? A shot at becoming a professional race car driver.

Tune in to GT Academy on Speed Channel to follow GT Academy’s Sweet 16 as they endure a slew of mental and physical challenges, as well as go behind the wheel of real race cars such as Nissan 370Zs and GT-Rs while being closely watched by an expert panel of racing veterans. It’s truly a race to the finish as they prove they have what it takes to become the next professional race car driver.

Last week at Silverstone, the 16 finalists were put through their paces in a week’s worth of physical and mental endurance challenges, and of course, a host of driving challenges and short and endurance races behind the wheel of real race cars including Nissan 370Zs and GT-Rs. Closely watching over the finalists’ every braking point and turn of the wheel was an expert panel of racing industry veterans, judging skill, raw talent, potential, dedication, attitude and passion.

Although all 16 finalists were extremely talented, in the end there could be only one winner — one GT Academy champion. Yesterday, Bryan Heitkotter from California was crowned the first US winner of GT Academy. His raw talent, attitude, and the promise he showed the judges won him the podium in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Congratulations to Bryan Heitkotter, and his 15 competitors who gave it their all, on and off the track at Silverstone.

After a short trip home, Heitkotter will be headed back to England to start intensive training to learn everything he’ll need to know in order to perform at his potential during his debut, a grueling endurance race, as part of a racing team. And who knows, maybe he will follow in the footsteps of the 2008 European GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez, who has turned his win into a full-fledged racing career. Ordonez has helped earn his team many podium finishes since he debuted, including the win that secured their spot at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race this coming weekend.

Again, Sony, PlayStation, Gran Turismo, and Nissan congratulates Bryan Heitkotter for his brilliant performance at Silverstone, and all 15 of the other finalists who gave it their absolute best and showed that playing video games isn’t always a waste of time. We look forward to seeing how Heitkotter progresses during his training and does in his debut race.

Be sure to check watch the full competition in the GT Academy reality show, debuting this September on the Speed Channel and PlayStation Network. And you can visit the GT Academy page on Facebook now to see updates, pictures and videos straight from the event last week, and keep up with the latest news on Bryan Heitkotter and the GT Academy program.

The time has come! We are now a little more than a week away from crowning the first winner of GT Academy here in the US. This weekend, the nation’s top 16 Gran Turismo 5 players will be making their way across the ocean to participate in the final phase of GT Academy, an intense week-long racing camp to be held at the Silverstone Circuit in the U.K. Participants will be judged by an expert panel of racing veterans, judging each competitor’s performance behind the wheel of real Nissan race cars, as well as through other grueling challenges designed to push their physical and mental stamina to the limits. The person who is judged to have the most natural talent and potential to succeed as a professional race car driver will be crowned the first GT Academy champion in the US.

Watch a recap of what went down in March at the National Finals event, where the nation’s top 32 GT5 players, who made it through a field of over 53,000 entrants, faced off to determine which 16 would make the trip to Silverstone to compete in real cars for a shot at being GT Academy champion.

The GT Academy champion will go on to train with elite race coaches and drivers before competing as part of a professional racing team. If the champion truly has what it takes, he will go on to take part in major international races like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, just like the first European GT Academy winner, Lucas Ordonez, who will race at Le Mans in a few weeks. In just three short years, Lucas has gone from grad student to making his first appearance on Le Mans… and the US GT Academy champion could be joining him there in a few years!

Congratulations from Sony, Polyphony Digital and Nissan North America to these truly amazing 16 individuals. We wish them all good luck.

The top 16, in no particular order:

Bryan Heitkotter, Christopher Roberts, Jason Miller, Andre Gomes, John Wilding, Christopher Morton, Kris Norris, Gregory Russell, Connor Clifford, Phillip Arscott, Nick Fontana, Rich Pratt, Glenn McGee Howle, Steve Driscoll, Sean Johnston, Jose Cedeno

Join us on Facebook to stay up to date with the latest news and happenings direct from Silverstone next week, and watch for the GT Academy reality show to debut on the Speed Channel this fall.

The top 16 will now prepare for a trip to England for the next phase of GT Academy, to be held at the Silverstone racing circuit in the U.K. this summer. Participants will join an intense, week-long racing camp where they will be judged by an expert panel of racing professionals, rating each competitor’s skills, performance, and overall aptitude for the requirements of a professional racer. The person who is judged to have the most natural talent and potential to succeed as a professional race car driver will be crowned as the first GT Academy winner in the U.S. After that, he will start down the grueling path to train, obtain a racing license, and make his big debut behind the wheel in a major endurance race.

Here are the 32 competitors who participated in the tournament with the top 16 advancing to the final phase of competition in Silverstone (ranked in order of placement):

1. Bryan Heitkotter
2. Christopher Roberts
3. Jason Miller
4. Andre Gomes
5. John Wilding
6. Christopher Morton
7. Kris Norris
8. Gregory Russell
9. Connor Clifford
10. Phillip Arscott
11. Nick Fontana
12. Rich Pratt
13. Glenn McGee Howle
14. Steve Driscoll
15. Sean Johnston
16. Jose Cedeno
17. Damian Gosztyla
18. Derrek Dalton
19. Emerson Trimble
20. Ryan Gordon
21. Matthew Wright
22. Kyong Oh
23. Iliya Bridan
24. Brett Jones
25. Nick Tenhulzen
26. Tom Carstensen
27. Carl Posey
28. Darryl Southerland
29. James Edwards
30. Landon Harrison
31. Brian Rice
32. Brock Harrison

Taking one step closer to possibly becoming a part of a professional race car team, these 16 finalists emerged from a pool of over 53,000 hopefuls who competed for a top spot through Gran Turismo 5, battled their way through 2 days of intense racing, and earned a spot as one of the final 16. Congratulations from Sony, Polyphony Digital and Nissan North America to these truly amazing 16 individuals.