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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Hello Gran Turismo fans,

As you may have read or seen there is new incoming content for GT5 and I am very happy to confirm that the date for the new content will be 21 December.

So what’s coming up? Firstly, we’ll have a second DLC Car Pack which follows on from first Racing Car Pack in October. Car Pack 2 will contain a new and improved 2012 Nissan GT-R Black edition R35, 2011 MINI COOPER S, 2010 Volkswagen Golf VI R, and a 2010 Volkswagen Scirocco R. Priced at €3.99 in Europe, the pack can be purchased from the PlayStationStore.

On the same day, a ‘Family Upgrade’ will be made available for free from the store. This means that if you bought the October DLC – Racing Car Pack 1, Course Pack 1, or the ‘Complete Pack’ that contained both – more than just one user per PS3 can now access the content. This means that family members or mates sharing the same PS3 can use those courses and cars as they will no longer be limited just to your particular PSN ID. The upgrade doesn’t apply to the Racing Gear Pack or Special Paint Pack and if you buy the new Car Pack 2 then this sharing function will be automatic.
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If you’ve had a passing acquaintance with PlayStation Blog over the last few weeks you might well have noticed some of the exciting new content being released for Gran Turismo 5. Initially there was the bumper pack of free content within Update 2.0 that became available last week. At the same time last week we also confirmed exactly what was coming your way within the new DLC packs for the game.

Well folks today is DLC day and I am happy to confirm that all of the five packs are now available. So (making sure you have downloaded Update 2.0) head over to PlayStation store and take your pick of the Racing Car, Course, Racing Gear or Special Paint Packs…heck you might even throw caution to the wind, go the whole hog and bag yourself the entire set in the Complete Pack. The choice is yours…

To set the decision making process off (and to see some of the new content in action) check out the re-worked GT5 opening movie that was included in Update 2.0. Enjoy!

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Last week I made a post that outlined all the great new content incoming for GT5, well today is the day for the first wave of that new content – Functionality Update 2.0 is out now, so make sure you are online with your PS3, load up GT5 and it should update automatically.

As you know, you can always check which version of the game you are running by pressing the “Manual” button at the bottom of the main menu screen. The version number will be located on the upper left of the index page in this manual. If the number starts with Ver. 2.00, you know you’re up to date.

If not, press the PS button and quit the game. The game will be updated automatically when you restart it with your PS3 system connected to the Internet.

Update 2.0 is a fairly major enhancement for GT5 with some great new features and free content, as well as some popular improvements and fixes. Enjoy it!

In my last post I also promised to give you more details of the DLC that will be released on PlayStation Store on 18th October. There are four new packs plus a ‘complete pack’ that bundles them altogether at a discounted price.

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