Polyphony Digital has announced an online service maintenance period for Gran Turismo 6, expected to begin on Friday, May 30th, at 04:00 GMT/UTC (click here to convert that to your local time).

The Volkswagen Vision GT car was formally unveiled in the “real world” at the Wörthersee GTI Meeting in Austria today, and Kazunori Yamauchi himself was on hand to launch the car with the executives and designers from VW. The car will be playable in GT6 “mid-June”.

This guest contribution is by Nick McMillen, 2013 United States GT Academy Champion. This is the account of his journey as one of the newest Nismo Athletes. Stay tuned for future articles from our racing driver contributor coming soon as he experiences and progresses through his professional career.

As most readers will recall, the Ayrton Senna Tribute content was originally set for release in GT6 today. Unfortunately, a few regional licensing issues have complicated a simultaneous worldwide launch of the new content, but don’t worry – it will arrive before the end of this week, as I learned after speaking with SCEA today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOWpE9k7U_8

It’s time for one of the biggest online races of the year – the PlaySeat Challenge, hosted by GTPlanet and streamed live on YouTube’s leading car video network, GT Channel!

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

Volkswagen has revealed the final image of their VisionGTI vehicle on their official Facebook page. The car will make its debut at the Woerthersee Festival on May 28th.

If you’re in an eligible European country, there’s a new way to qualify for GT Academy 2014, and you don’t even need a PlayStation 3 or a copy of GT6 – just a Facebook account!

The latest Seasonal Events are now available in Gran Turismo 6, featuring three new time trial events, albeit with a slight twist. This week’s challenges are exclusive to Front-Drive and 4WD non-racing cars, the Toyota 86 or Subaru BRZ non-racing cars, and the Nissan Silvia.

The latest Ayrton Senna Tribute video teaser has been officially released by Polyphony Digital, and it includes our first in-game look at some of the new content, including Senna’s Lotus 97T and 1978 DAP Kart.

After working closely with Polyphony Digital over the past few weeks, I am excited to announce that Kazunori Yamauchi will be answering a selection of the most popular questions posted in a special forum here on GTPlanet.

It’s time to submit your qualifying time for the PlaySeat Challenge!

Round 3 of GT Academy’s online qualification round officially kicks off today, bringing us one step closer to the final time trial which will ultimately determine who moves on to the national finals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7XzavG07-I&cc_load_policy=1

As you’ve probably heard by now, BMW’s new Vision Gran Turismo concept car was released in yesterday’s GT6 update 1.07.

More information on the Ayrton Senna Tribute content headed for Gran Turismo 6 was confirmed in a post on the official PlayStation Blog late yesterday, including a release date of Tuesday, May 27th.

The online services for Gran Turismo 6 will be unavailable during a special maintenance period starting Wednesday, May 14, 2014, at 09:00 GMT/UTC and lasting approximately two hours.