You think you know a lot about the Gran Turismo series? This jaw-dropping collection of GT games and memorabilia collected by GTPlanet’s own edward_v12 will educate even the most hard-core fans.

Before you ask in the comments below, no – the PlayStation Network isn’t back up yet (not as of writing, at least). While you wait, check out this slick video tour of Gran Turismo 5’s real-world Tokyo R246 circuit, put together by Caterham Japan to feature their Superlight R300. For comparison, here’s a lap of the track in GT5:

What started as downtime in the PlayStation Network last Thursday has gradually snowballed into a very serious problem for gamers. The inability to connect to PSN has rendered Gran Turismo 5’s online features and races useless, with angst is growing in our forums and around the world.

This interview conducted with Kazunori Yamauchi shortly after the release of Gran Turismo 5 has been flying under the radar since it was published back in February. It was just recently brought to my attention and, though there’s obviously no bombshells, it provides a few interesting details worth highlighting here:

Winner of the first GT Academy “Wild Card” was just announced last week, and I’m very happy to report the award goes to GTPlanet’s own James Hudson. Hudson, who goes by TwinturboCH here in our forums, has now become the very first confirmed national finalist in all of Europe. The second UK “Wild Card”, of course, is still up for grabs in the GT5 time trials currently underway at GAME retailers around the country.

I’m very excited to announce that GTPlanet has partnered with GT Academy and the Gran Turismo Boutique to run two special challenges alongside this year’s GT Academy 2011! Here’s an overview of how each works:

If you’ve ever taken a look at photos of Gran Turismo 5’s real-world locations, you were surely impressed by the accuracy of the game’s city environments. When Russian ad agency SmartNewSolutions was tasked by Sony to create a banner ad for GT5, they wisely chose to highlight this trait in a 300×600 banner ad using Google Street View.

While many complain about the shortcomings of modern games, it’s way too easy to forget just how good we have it. For some perspective – and a good laugh – check out this video trailer for an 8-bit version of Gran Turismo 5, created by 797Productions and uncovered by GTOne2Three.

As I announced a few weeks ago, Electronic Arts invited GTPlanet to a “community day” event for their latest driving game, Shift 2: Unleashed. I took them up on the offer, and I’m eager to share my impressions of the game. There’s a lot of eyes on Shift 2 after the series’ first title, billed as a realistic simulator, was highly criticized by “sim racers” for its too-friendly physics. According to EA’s marketing, these issues have been addressed, going so far as to call it “the most realistic racer ever”.