Sony Hong Kong is launching an interesting new “online tournament”, starting September 1st, open to players from Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. The tournament consists of three regional and cross-regional rounds of competition, with some hefty prizes up for grabs, including a GT5-Edition Tissot watch, an Apiga AP1 racing seat, a Thrustmaster T500RS steering wheel, and over HK$10,000 in PSN vouchers.

The latest version of Gran Turismo 5, 1.11, is now available as a free download, weighing in at 62MB. As Kazunori Yamauchi previously announced, this minor update is focused on fixing bugs and glitches within the game, with more “features and content” expected to arrive in the next few months.

As was suspected when Polyphony Digital announced GT5’s online maintenance schedule earlier this week, Kazunori Yamauchi has now confirmed, via Twitter, the game’s next update should become available on August 29th/30th.

European GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough’s bid to make the jump from PlayStation gamer to real racing driver took a massive step forward on Sunday when he contested a round of the Nippon Challenge national series at the UK’s Rockingham Circuit. The 19-year-old from Cardiff had an almost faultless day in the Nissan 370Z taking pole position and dominant wins in both races and recording the fastest lap of race one in the process. Jann’s American counterpart, Bryan Heitkotter, completed an excellent weekend for the PlayStation® Nissan Team taking second on the grid, second place in both races and the second fastest lap.

Some small down-time with the GT servers doesn’t stop Photomoders! On this, the last full week of August, we’ve got four new interesting themes, with our usual varying levels of editing allowed. Just like last week, there will be in-game prizes for both the PMC and 2.0, which will be announced later this evening in the Photomode Competitions sub-forum. What are the themes, though? Read on…

Polyphony Digital has, curiously, announced a special “NASCAR-themed online racing event” to be held in GT5’s Seasonal Events next Monday, August 29th at approximately 8:00PM PST. Though specifics remain sparse, they have confirmed a unique prize for the event will be available in the form of Jeff Gordon’s 2010 driving suit and helmet. Kazunori Yamauchi has also commented on the event via Twitter.

Polyphony Digital has taken an unusual – though certainly welcome – opportunity to announce scheduled downtime for Gran Turismo 5’s online services through mid-September. While it is not clear what, if anything, these maintenance periods will bring with them in the form of software updates, it’s worth noting the release of new GT5 versions have frequently been released after network downtime.

At the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance yesterday, Kazunori Yamauchi awarded this year’s Gran Turismo Trophy to a head-turning 1960 Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster concept car. Created by influential car designer Virgil Exner (hence the concept’s name), it was intended to preview the direction of Chrysler’s designs in the 1960’s. It had enough muscle to back up its dramatic, asymmetrical look, producing 250 horsepower from a Valiant 225 Slant Six (more details on the car are available here).

Though Gamescom 2011 wasn’t nearly as exciting for GT fans as it was last year, Sony and Audi did use the event to launch an impressive new GT5 simulator built around an R8 LMS race car, similar to the one found in the game.

In an interview with VG24/7, Shuhei Yoshida, President of SCE Worldwide Studios, made some interesting comments regarding the future of Gran Turismo 5 and Polyphony Digital’s next project:

An interesting new GT5 Seasonal Event became available earlier today, featuring high-powered cars (750PP or less) on some of the game’s real-world race circuits:

A long summer break for the Photomode Competition news entries – but we’re back! For those that don’t know, our forums have a very healthy Photomode sub-section, and within it, a Competitions area, where users enter their best work for the chance to pick themes… and win in-game prizes! Each week, a previous winner provides a theme, giving users 7 days to submit their single entry. Once that’s ended, said theme provider picks their top images, and a poll is then made for the entire registered community to vote on. The winner then picks a new theme, and so on and so on. So, let’s take a look at what’s up this week in the 4 official competitions, shall we?

European GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough and his American counterpart, Bryan Heitkotter, are now one race weekend away from gaining their International race licences after a metronomic performance in the Britcar Dunlop Production GTN championship race at the newly-refurbished Snetterton circuit in Norfolk.

Remember when Marco Calvo took home a real-world SLS AMG last month, in Mercedes-Benz’s GT5 Signature Edition driving challenge? They’ve since released a video of the finals – hit play above to see how it all went down.

Germany’s famous touring cars have been featured in the latest GT5 Seasonal Event races, which take place at the following circuits:

Kazunori Yamauchi made a wise statement on Twitter today, offering up information on when the next Gran Turismo 5 update will be available while simultaneously tempering expectations. Here’s a translation of his post by Shirakawa Akira, in response to a question on the subject:

Mercedes-Benz has just announced a new Gran Turismo 5 contest (for UK residents only) featuring former F1 star David Coulthard. The contest starts out with a familiar formula: 24 entrants will be chosen at random, then brought to Mercedes-Benz World where they’ll be tested in real and virtual driving challenges to determine the top 6 contestants.

It’s time for another GT5 Seasonal Event – the latest of which features Mazda’s ever-popular MX-5 sports cars. Races take place at the following locations, in eligible roadsters of 450PP or less:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo8BVV602Oc

Kazunori Yamauchi is back in action on Twitter today, re-confirming one of the most-asked-for features in Gran Turismo 5 is still “under development”. Via Google Translator: