The North American GT Academy finale is about to begin on Speed TV, tonight at 10:00PM Eastern Time. As announced yesterday, GTPlanet and Nissan are hosting a live viewing party on Twitter (where Nissan is about to give away even more prizes), and I hope you’ll join us!

Although Sony has still not explained the seemingly bizarre last-minute delay of Gran Turismo 5’s DLC in North America, they have now detailed the “special bonus” the region will receive when the content is eventually released next week on October 25th. From the company’s latest PlayStation Store Update:

Since Sony Computer Entertainment America’s surprise announcement regarding the delay of GT5’s DLC in North America late last night, it’s been a rocky road for fans eager to enjoy the new content.

Only hours away from release, Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced via Twitter the release of Gran Turismo 5’s first DLC – including the highly anticipated Spa Francorchamps circuit – has been delayed in North America until October 25th, 2011. No further explanation is offered, but the tweet does mention the content will include a “special bonus” when it is eventually released next week:

It’s been interesting and entertaining to watch America’s fastest Gran Turismo players make the transition from virtual to reality over the last four weeks, and now the final episode of GT Academy on Speed TV airs this Tuesday, October 18th at 10PM Eastern Time. If you haven’t been able to watch, don’t worry – all the episodes are right here.

Since Amar212 offered our first hands-on look at Gran Turismo 5’s new DLC content, he’s been hard at work with R0M of TaxiGamer capturing more top-quality videos of Spa Francorchamps which showcase the track’s weather changes. You can watch a few of the clips on YouTube below, or head over to TaxiGamer to grab the direct, 60FPS, 720p video files.

GT series guru Amar212 has managed to unlock Gran Turismo 5’s upcoming DLC, and has shared the very first hands-on videos of Spa Francorchamps on behalf of GTPlanet and his own Croatian GT community, GTSurgeons. Amar is documenting his discoveries here in our forums, and I’ll continue updating this blog post as he goes over all the new content.

It’s been a busy week for racing game fans – that’s by bad excuse as to why this week’s Round-up is late. But, here we are! In the midst of literally dozens of Schulze N24 GT-R’s running around online, our 2nd Photomode Tournament is just wrapping up. There’s only a few hours left to vote, so help decide the winner of the matches below…

Last weekend, 2010 GT Academy winner Jordan Tresson became the second of Nissan’s graduates to win an international championship. Along with his RJN Motorsport team mates, Alex Buncombe and Chris Ward, he took the Nissan 370Z to the GT4 title in Sunday afternoon’s season-closing Blancpain Endurance Series race at Silverstone.

Hot on the heels of the massive Gran Turismo 5 Spec 2.0 update, Polyphony Digital has just released all the juicy details on the game’s first batch of DLC, or “downloadable content”. It will all be available to purchase via the PlayStation Store, starting October 18th. Here’s a closer look at what’s coming:

Gran Turismo 5’s biggest update yet, Spec 2.0, is here! It weighs in at exactly 1192 MB, and is available now at no charge – just load up your game and put your Internet connection to work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcI-rHO0yko

Hot off the heels of the formal Gran Turismo 5 Spec 2.0 announcement, Polyphony Digital has just made two new Time Trial and Drift Trial events available in the game:

Kazunori Yamauchi has been sharing a boatload of new details via Twitter this morning on the previously announced Gran Turismo 5 Spec 2.0 Update coming later this month. Here’s an overview of what we can expect from 2.0, which will be made available to everyone for free:

Would you look at that – a mention of the year anniversary approaching last week, and the very next day, the bombshell hits: Spec 2.0 is coming! While we’re all wondering what Kaz & Co have in store for us, the Photomode sub-forum continues to bustle. So much so, in fact, that we’ve had to add a new Official competition. But first, some Tournament news:

The Signatech Nissan team has won the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup LMP2 title after a strong finish in yesterday’s Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, USA.  The team started the season focused on a single goal: to win the title.  The fact that it is ‘mission accomplished’ with one more race remaining is testament to the work that has been put in by every single member of the team.

Fulfilling his pledge to make important Twitter posts in English, Kazunori Yamauchi has just announced some interesting plans if Sebastian Vettel wins the 2011 F1 World Championship:

A new Seasonal Event has been made available in Gran Turismo 5, featuring Japanese cars from the 1990’s with no more than 450PP at the following tracks:

The GT community has been eagerly awaiting news of the next significant update following last month’s announcement hinting at new content and features for us this fall. According to a very rare English-language tweet from Kazunori Yamauchi this morning, that new content and features will be a “Spec 2.0” update to the game in October and downloadable content shortly after:

Two months away from the big one-year anniversary of GT5’s official release, the Photomode sub-forum continues to draw new members each week, as more players begin to explore the in-game mode, and even more excitingly, share their works with the community. The competitions heated up too, seeing old veterans bumped by new members in the polls. The Tournament continues, so coverage of that comes first, followed by our usual weekly competitions. Let’s see here…