MINI, the fabled british manufacturer, has joined the Vision Gran Turismo project with a new concept car now scheduled to be in Gran Turismo 6. The company was added to the Vision GT list in the game’s 1.09 update, as spotted by GTPlanet member X-DEVIL7675.

The latest round of GT6 Seasonal Events went live yesterday and take full advantage of the free new cars added to the game in update 1.09, while celebrating last weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans and this weekend’s Nurburgring 24 Hours. Here’s a look at what’s new:

Polyphony Digital has launched a new blog called the “PitStop” as a place to provide more frequent and informal communications with the public. A “variety of authors” from around the world will be contributing to PitStop, and comments can be posted via Facebook.

The patch is available as of this very moment and weighs in at 598Mb. An install phase of around 30 minutes is also required and gamers are advised that this may differ from what is displayed on screen.

Austria’s Red Bull Ring circuit is coming to Gran Turismo 6 in the game’s next update, as announced by Red Bull Games.

Polyphony Digital has announced a maintenance period for GT6’s online services this Wednesday, June 18, 2014, starting at 07:00 GMT/UTC (convert to your local time) and lasting for approximately two hours.

The “NISSAN CONCEPT 2020 Vision Gran Turismo” has been officially unveiled, and will be coming to Gran Turismo 6 next month, according to the latest announcement from Polyphony Digital.

Race Coverage

If you watched the Gran Turismo documentary KAZ: Pushing the Virtual Divide and took note of the music, you’re not alone – it’s been a frequent topic of discussion around the film, and the full versions of the songs have not been available anywhere – until now!

GT Academy 2014’s final qualifier, featuring RJN’s NISMO GT-R GT3 car at the always challenging Spa Francorchamps circuit, is one of the toughest in the competition’s history, and time is running out if you want to make the cut for regional finals.

Time and Drift Trials have dominated all the Seasonal Events published in GT6 so far, but that’s finally come to an end with a new batch of A-Spec races just added to the game, available through June 26, 2014:

Sony Computer Entertainment UK and the hugely popular Gran Turismo series return to the Goodwood Festival of Speed as an official partner for the second year running, and you can be there to join them!

The new T300RS introduces full compatibility with the PlayStation 4 with the addition of the console’s new “Share” button, while retaining PS3 and PC compatibility as well. Angle rotation of up to 1080-degrees is supported, and the wheel is interchangeable with Thrustmaster’s Ferrari F1 Wheel, Ferrari GTE Wheel, and T500RS GT Wheels.

Last week, the official Gran Turismo Facebook page first hinted that the “next chapter” for Nissan was in the works, and provided a rough outline of a new sports car under cover.

The Toyota FT-1 Prototype caused quite a stir when it became available to drive in GT6 simultaneously with its public reveal at the North American International Auto Show back in January.

A special Aston Martin Seasonal Event is now open in GT6 to players with SEN/PSN accounts registered in the United Kingdom. It celebrates the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and takes place with a time trial on Goodwood’s famous hillclimb circuit (which is about to get an update in GT6).

It’s been a while, but we’re back bearing gifts, GT Academy champion interviews! We get all TMZ on the two latest American Champions and dig into their psyches! Or just talk a lot about racing, Gran Turismo, preparing for this year’s Academy, and such…

What an unbelievably exciting week! Not only are we on the tail-end of another Formula 1 weekend, but there’s been tasty news morsels left, right, and center concerning games of varying natures; all of which deserve a sliver of attention, and that’s not even mentioning that the Super Bowl of video gaming nirvana takes place next week.

A new Nissan is coming to Gran Turismo, according to the latest post shared on the series’ official Facebook page:

The latest Seasonal Events are now available in Gran Turismo 6, featuring four new events; two time trial events, and two drift trial events. This week’s challenges are exclusive to Rear-wheel drive, BMW’s M-series, 1960’s American cars, and French non-racing cars.