The famous GT Academy Race Camp gets underway Saturday at its now traditional home, the world renowned Silverstone Circuit in the UK. Over 830,000 people from across Europe entered the fourth iteration of the European competition this year, and only the best 36 remain.

The latest special GT5 Seasonal Events are now live for players who achieved all Gold times in Round 6 of GT Academy 2012 and have received the Nissan GT-R Black edition (GT Academy) ’12.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbkwrsjUb-4

Powerful pickup trucks take the spotlight this week in Gran Turismo 5’s latest Seasonal Events. The races are open to trucks with no more than 470PP and no better than Sports/Hard tires.

A team of Sony / Polyphony Digital engineers were spotted at a high-end tuning shop south of Los Angeles, capturing exhaust sounds for the Hyundai Veloster Turbo and Genesis Coupe on a dynamometer.

While speaking in an interview with VG24/7, Shuhei Yoshida, President of SCE Worldwide Studios, made some encouraging comments regarding the Gran Turismo series:

The focus of the automotive world will be on Monterey, California this weekend for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and accompanying historic races at Laguna Seca, with the Shelby Cobra as this year’s featured marque.

As more Japanese speakers have had the opportunity to review the stream from the GT Asian Championship 2012, Kazunori Yamauchi’s comments on Gran Turismo 6 have been clarified.

The 2012 Gran Turismo Asian Championship was held at Nissan’s global headquarters on Saturday afternoon in Yokohama, Japan.

The broadcast has finished.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy1JwoQMk9s

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: