At the 2011 SEMA Show last week, I had the very special opportunity to – for the first time – personally interview the master himself: Kazunori Yamauchi. We had a great chat, and I am happy to report that Kazunori seemed happy, relaxed, and in good spirits.

The 2011 Gran Turismo Awards were held last Thursday night in Las Vegas, and Kazunori Yamauchi himself selected this year’s “Best in Show” winner: a 1971 Chevrolet Camaro, customized and tuned by Mary Pozzi of Salinas, California.

Polyphony Digital has just released a new set of Time & Drift Trials and a refreshed Online Car Dealership. Here’s a look at all the details:

The 2011 SEMA show kicks off this week in Las Vegas, and the Gran Turismo Awards – where a custom car from the show is awarded immortality in a Gran Turismo game – are almost here!

One of the obvious stars of Gran Turismo 5’s first DLC car pack is the new-and-improved Red Bull X2011, but until now, it wasn’t clear exactly what changes have been made to the car’s design.

The latest version of Gran Turismo 5, version 2.01, has just been released. Weighing in at 112MB, it provides a number of bug fixes, patches, and tweaks. Here’s a complete change log:

Just as the North American gamers are getting to grips with yesterday’s DLC addition, Kazunori Yamauchi has announced a game update. The update will address issues gamers have brought up with the Spec 2.0 version of the game released earlier this month:

Though there’s still been no explanation from Sony regarding the delay of Gran Turismo 5’s first batch of DLC in North America, its release date of October 25th is finally here. The exact time the new content will become available in the PlayStation Store is not known, though it will likely be in the afternoon, Eastern Time (Edit: Confirmed as 14.00PST through Twitter).

Gran Turismo 5 took top honors in the Racing category at the 2011 Golden Joystick Awards, one of the gaming industry’s highest-profile awards ceremonies (congratulations, Polyphony Digital!).

It’s true, it’s true… the Tournament has come and gone. In its place, our community is taking advantage of the biggest overhaul to GT5 since its release, with the Spec 2.0 update adding some features, and the DLC packages this week (and next for North Americans) bringing even more content. What better way to show off your new rides?

New Time Trial and Drift Trial events are now available in Gran Turismo 5:

Following the community reaction to some of the intricacies of the downloadable content released earlier in the week (or next week for North America), Kazunori Yamauchi has been busy working on solutions and responding to complaints via Twitter. The latest of these includes a nod to the present, one-off nature of the car pack:

To celebrate the official conclusion of the North American GT Academy competition on Speed TV (hopefully you were able to join GTPlanet’s live viewing party!), Polyphony Digital and SCEA have now made the Nissan GT-R GT500 Stealth Model available as a free download in North America.

The North American GT Academy finale is about to begin on Speed TV, tonight at 10:00PM Eastern Time. As announced yesterday, GTPlanet and Nissan are hosting a live viewing party on Twitter (where Nissan is about to give away even more prizes), and I hope you’ll join us!

Although Sony has still not explained the seemingly bizarre last-minute delay of Gran Turismo 5’s DLC in North America, they have now detailed the “special bonus” the region will receive when the content is eventually released next week on October 25th. From the company’s latest PlayStation Store Update:

Since Sony Computer Entertainment America’s surprise announcement regarding the delay of GT5’s DLC in North America late last night, it’s been a rocky road for fans eager to enjoy the new content.

Only hours away from release, Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced via Twitter the release of Gran Turismo 5’s first DLC – including the highly anticipated Spa Francorchamps circuit – has been delayed in North America until October 25th, 2011. No further explanation is offered, but the tweet does mention the content will include a “special bonus” when it is eventually released next week:

It’s been interesting and entertaining to watch America’s fastest Gran Turismo players make the transition from virtual to reality over the last four weeks, and now the final episode of GT Academy on Speed TV airs this Tuesday, October 18th at 10PM Eastern Time. If you haven’t been able to watch, don’t worry – all the episodes are right here.

Since Amar212 offered our first hands-on look at Gran Turismo 5’s new DLC content, he’s been hard at work with R0M of TaxiGamer capturing more top-quality videos of Spa Francorchamps which showcase the track’s weather changes. You can watch a few of the clips on YouTube below, or head over to TaxiGamer to grab the direct, 60FPS, 720p video files.

GT series guru Amar212 has managed to unlock Gran Turismo 5’s upcoming DLC, and has shared the very first hands-on videos of Spa Francorchamps on behalf of GTPlanet and his own Croatian GT community, GTSurgeons. Amar is documenting his discoveries here in our forums, and I’ll continue updating this blog post as he goes over all the new content.