For Gran Turismo fans and hopefully a few soon to be fans, I’m delighted to confirm that today is the day: at 5pm BST / 6pm CET GT Academy 2012 will go live.

GT Academy, as some of you will be aware, is a special competition that PlayStation and Nissan created to turn PlayStation gamers into real drivers. Over the last three years, we have unearthed some real genuine racing talent and now this could be your chance to make those racing fantasies a reality or, failing that, earn some bragging rights against your mates.

The first stage of Academy is an online qualification event and, this year Yamauchi-san and the Polyphony team have created an exclusive, feature packed new piece of Gran Turismo content that promises to be a lot of fun. What’s even more exciting is that the content is free to download and you don’t need to have a copy of Gran Turismo to play the game.

Here’s how everything works – the exclusive Gran Turismo content will be available to download from PlayStation Store, free of charge, from 17.00BST / 18.00CEST on May 1 until 23.59BST / 00.59CEST on 24 June. You can download and take part at any time during this period, so even if you miss the start you can still play catch up and get involved.

Once you have downloaded the content, Polyphony Digital will release new rounds approximately every two weeks; in total there are eight rounds and within each round there are five sections.

Here’s a list of the rounds and when they will be available:

Round 1 and 2:

1/5 (Tue) 17.00BST – 24/6 (Sun) 23:59 BST

Round 3 and 4:

14/5 (Mon) 00:00 – 24/6 (Sun) 23:59 BST

Round 5 and 6:

28/5 (Mon) 00:00 – 24/6 (Sun) 23:59 BST

Round 7 and 8 (ROUND 8 IS FINAL/QUALIFICATION EVENT):

11/6 (Mon) 00:00 – 24/6 (Sun) 23:59 BST

Each of the rounds features a different racing skill to learn and master. You will need to clear a round to be able to progress to the next one.
If you are able to complete all events in a round to Gold standard, you will receive the car from that round for use in GT5, but even if you manage to just get through at Bronze level, there are special in-game treats to unlock.

Throughout the May – June period you will be able to check how you are doing compared to your PSN friends and others from all over Europe – but you will not be competing at this point; you will, of course, be honing your skills though.

And you will need to have done some serious honing as things will get very interesting in the very final event of the eighth round.

This is where you will have to show your game face. Pull out all the stops in this final event and place within the top 16 places, then you’re in with a chance of progressing to the National Final event in July, the Silverstone Racecamp in July and the the Driver Development Programme from September to December, all culminating the starting grid for the Dubai 24HR race for one skilled driver.

More information on GT Academy will follow very soon so and you can read up at gran-turismo.com and also get involved with the Academy community at facebook.com/GTAcademy and over at the official PlayStation Forums in the following languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish.

It’s time to get your race face on!

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I hope you all had a great Easter. I am absolutely delighted to share some news that will be as mouth-watering as the chocolate treats you hopefully received last week.

The great news I can reveal today is that in just a few short weeks (May 1, so three to be precise), we will see the return of GT Academy.

GT Academy, as some of you may recall, is a remarkable PlayStation and Nissan competition that intends to take gamers from sofa, bedroom or other suitably domestic environment, to the high-octane world of international motorsport.

Now entering its fourth year, the competition has so far unearthed three real-life racing drivers from Europe and a fourth US driver from amongst the massed ranks of global Gran Turismo gamers.

The first ever GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez managed an incredible podium finish last year at the world famous Le Mans 24H and the subsequent winners Jordan Tresson and Jann Mardenborough have both gone on to establish themselves as genuine racing talent whose blossoming racing careers will continue in 2012.

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Hello Gran Turismo Fans.

As posted last week I am very pleased to confirm that lots of great new GT5 DLC is in PlayStation Store update.

So what’s in this batch of new content? Well firstly there is a brand new car pack (Car Pack 3) featuring stunning new additions to the Gran Turismo car line-up. Vehicles offered in this pack include one of the most exciting cars of recent years – the outrageously quick Lamborghini Aventador. Lining up alongside that fine motoring specimen is perhaps one of the most potent vehicles ever released by Aston Martin, the beast-like Vantage V12.

Adding to the attractive line-up are two classics, the Jaguar XJR9 1988 LM and ‘vee dub’ 1200 1966 and finally if all this power and grace was not enough, completing the pack are the innovative Nissan Leaf electric car and Mini Cooper S.

The whole exciting package comes in at €5.99 or equivalent within your local currency. That’s a whole lot of hot virtual metal or bang for your buck – choose your own description!

The second DLC being released today is the Speed Test Pack. The Speed Test Pack features an oval enigmatically named Special Stage Route X. What it is behind the name is a beautifully rendered massive oval with extra-long 7.5 mile straights and large radius curves which mean you don’t need to lift off at any point. This pack also features a performance measurement mode that will allow you test top speed, acceleration and whole lot more.

Is there any better location to test the Red Bull X2011, Bugatti Veyron or possibly another much cherished, much enhanced motor from your garage?

The Speed Test Pack is priced at €3.99 or equivalent within your local currency.

And finally to top off all this great new DLC is the brand new FREE Functionality Update 2.03 (which you will need to install to run the new DLC). In addition to enabling the DLC, the new update features a host of improvements and new features.

Full details of all the great new content can be found on gran-turismo.com and more news will be coming soon on Gran Turismo, so of course keep checking back here on PlayStation Blog.

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If you saw the GT Academy post last Friday you will know that this weekend, history was made with a race team composed entirely of PlayStation gamers taking to the track at the Dubai 24H as the final act in the GT Academy competition run in conjunction with Nissan.

The record breaking team included Lucas Ordoñez, winner of the first GT Academy in 2008, and 2010 winner Jordan Tresson. The remaining two berths in the team were taken by Jann Mardenborough and Bryan Heitkotter, the winners of the 2011 GT Academy contests in Europe and America respectively.

Following a weekend of drama and tension, the four Academy winning gamers managed to achieve an outstanding third-place in class podium finish. The chequered flag was eventually taken by British driver Jann Mardenborough.

Reflecting on his incredible journey from Gran Turismo 5 gamer to real-life professional racing driver an ecstatic Jann had the following to say:

“That was without doubt the weekend of my life, the only thing that compares to it is winning GT Academy last June. It feels like pure joy. This is just the first step for me and now I hope that my performance in Dubai can take me further.”

The race marks the end of this particular chapter of the GT Academy story for both Jann and Bryan Heitkotter, but I’m sure it will not be the end of their journey.

More news on GT Academy will be coming soon and will be found here on PlayStation Blog and gran-turismo.com.

In the meantime I hope you will join me in congratulating our four gamers on their outstanding, record-breaking achievement.

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Hello Gran Turismo fans,

Firstly I would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a belated Happy New Year.

I hope you had opportunity to check out the December festive gift that was Functionality Update 2.02 with its host of new features and perhaps also the new cars of DLC Pack 2.

The great news I want to share with you today is that for GT fans the new year starts much like the old one closed – with brand new DLC. I can confirm today that there is another DLC pack winging it’s way to PlayStation Store very soon, 18th January to be exact.

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