New Seasonal Events are available in Gran Turismo 5 to GT Academy 2012 participants who achieved all Gold times in Round 5 of the competition and were awarded with the Nissan SKYLINE GT-R (R34) (GT Academy) ’02.

The latest Seasonal Events have just gone live in Gran Turismo 5, featuring rear-wheel drive cars with no more than 450PP in new Time and Drift Trials.

The second phase of GT Academy 2012 is now complete, with no less than a dozen national finals taking place across Europe and in the United States.

European GT Academy 2011 champion Jann Mardenborough and his teammate Alex Buncombe were back in action last weekend, competing at Snetterton in the latest round of the 2012 British GT Championship.

The famous Silverstone Circuit has just been added to Google Maps’ Street View, which now lets you virtually tour the entire length of the 3.6-mile Grand Prix course.

August is the big month for the race camp finalists from the four GT Academy regions – Russia, Germany, the USA and the eleven eligible European countries – this year, but Sony and Nissan have revealed a surprise for hitherto excluded gamers.

Another special GT5 Seasonal Event has just gone live for GT Academy 2012 participants who scored all-Gold times in Round 4 of this year’s competition. These players have been awarded the Nissan 370Z (GT Academy) ’08, and can now participate in the following events:

After more than a year and a half of regular software updates to Gran Turismo 5, they have become increasingly infrequent since 2.05 was launched back in February.

The latest GT5 A-Spec Seasonal Events are now available, featuring Japanese cars produced in the 1980s with no more than 420PP. Here’s a closer look at the races:

GTPlanet’s Gran Turismo 5 forum was a critical hub of activity for news and rumors in the months and years before the game’s release. Now hosting over 2.2 million posted messages, it’s a massive resource, and continues to be the ultimate source for breaking news of game updates and downloadable content.

After a spectacular opening to the 2012 Spa 24 hours, the GT Academy RJN Motorsport team were forced to retire from the race with undiagnosed electrical issues.

As reported earlier in the month, 2009 GT Academy champion and LMP2 racer Lucas Ordonez has joined the RJN Motorsport Blancpain Endurance team for the Spa 24 Hours this weekend.

The latest special Gran Turismo 5 Seasonal Events for GT Academy 2012 participants are now available. Of course, this week features the Nissan Skyline GT-R V-spec II (GT Academy) ’94, which was awarded to all players who achieved Gold-level times in Round 3 of the competition.

Kazunori Yamauchi is attending ChinaJoy 2012, one of Asia’s largest video game shows, in Shanghai this week.

New Time and Drift Trials are now available in GT5’s latest round of Seasonal Events, one of which features the G Trail rally circuit at Eiger Nordwand. Here’s a complete overview of the new challenges:

While helping out with the Polish GT Academy 2012 finals, Lucas Ordoñez made an interesting comment about Gran Turismo 6’s development, which he’s reportedly involved in.

A new bundle version of GT5 has been announced this lunchtime for Europeans – the Academy Edition, to celebrate the fourth year of the Sony/Nissan tie-in of GT Academy.

Earlier this year, the Mazda 787B was released as the first car in Autoart’s Gran Turismo 5 “stealth model” series. Today, two more stealth models are available to purchase: the Nissan GT-R GT500 and McLaren F1.

Although Gran Turismo players from Asia didn’t have the chance to become a racing driver, the top players in the region still have an interesting prize to look forward to.

A series of special GT5 Seasonal Events kicked off last week, featuring the GT Academy 2012 prize cars.