A German automotive news site, Auto-Presse.de, may have discovered a new real-world track set to debut in Gran Turismo 5: the Hockenheimring. The rumor comes from an SLS AMG press event hosted at the circuit by Mercedes-Benz, where media members were offered the chance to set a few hot laps of their own before riding along with five-time DTM champion Bernd Schneider. A GT5 demo was also on-hand for handling comparisons.

The Paris Games Week is about to kick off on October 27th, and according to these renderings, plenty of space has been set aside in “PlayStation City” for Gran Turismo 5. Seven-time WRC champion and GT fan Sebastien Loeb will be on-hand at the event, competing head-to-head with the public in the game. (He’d better start practicing, though – at his last event, he fell to a GTPlanet user!)

The 2010 GT Awards are right around the corner, and Sony is taking applications from all SEMA attendees who want a shot at getting their car featured in Gran Turismo 5.

Here’s a rather humorous collection of videos by JDMKING13 showcasing the variation in horn sounds between a Corvette Stingray, Lamborghini Gallardo, Audi R8, and an Enzo Ferrari in what appears to be a GT5 kiosk demo. I’m not sure how closely these sounds match up to the real thing, but this should be exciting for those of you itching to use that horn button on your Logitech Driving Force GT…

British gadget magazine T3 hosted a GT5 competition at the Selfridges department store in London on Thursday, and I’m proud to announce that GTPlanet user Synwraith took top honors (you may remember his interviews with the GT Academy 2010 winners). Check out his extensive write-up from the event for all the details and gameplay impressions from the demo on display. For his efforts, he’s been awarded a voucher for a free copy of GT5, a Logitech Driving Force GT, and has been featured on T3’s website.

Car Magazine has just posted a new interview with Kazunori Yamauchi, as part of their big feature on the Red Bull X1 Prototype. It’s a good read (keep in mind it was conducted before the delay), but the most interesting revelation actually comes from a small new screenshot included in the article, taken from inside the X1’s cockpit at the Monaco F1 circuit.

Schick has just launched a new cross-promotional advertising campaign with Sony, offering up special GT5-themed content if you purchase one of their specially-marked razors. Inside the package, you’ll find a 10-digit code, which you can enter here to receive a free GT5 dynamic theme for your PlayStation 3, a GT5 racing suit for your PlayStation Home avatar, or a PlayStation Network movie rental.

In a knowing nod to those of us anxiously awaiting GT5’s new release date, Sony Australia has announced a new 3D TV / PlayStation 3 promotional bundle – which includes a copy of Gran Turismo 5 – with “guaranteed delivery by Christmas”.

Editors from Kotaku Australia were invited to participate in Toyota’s 24-Hour Gran Turismo 5 Challenge at the 2010 Australian Motor Show, and have already shared their impressions from the event. Even though they were admittedly casual players, they enjoyed it quite a bit:

Alternative rock band My Chemical Romance has announced that “Planetary (Go!)”, from their upcoming album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, will be featured as the “lead song in the opening cinematic” of Gran Turismo 5. Before you run over to YouTube or anywhere else to preview the song – don’t bother. The album will not be released until November 22, and as of right now, there’s no way to listen to it.

The no-holds-barred prototype developed by Polyphony Digital and Red Bull has been revealed in the latest issue of Car magazine in the UK! As you may recall, the X1 is the answer to Kazunori Yamauchi’s question: “If you built the fastest racing car on land, one that throws aside all rules and regulations, what would that car look like, how would it perform, and how would it feel to drive?”

Toyota is hosting a 24-hour Gran Turismo 5 endurance race at the 2010 Australian Motor Show, currently being held in Sydney. Kicking off this Tuesday, October 19th, two teams will compete on the Nurburgring in a pair of Toyota FT-86G Concepts, with driver changes once per hour for 24 hours (with 24 individual drivers for each team). An IGN Australia editor will be competing, but other than a few press releases, I’ve heard surprisingly little about this challenge or its participants.

When the Gran Turismo 5 Collector’s Edition was first announced, Sony said “quantities will be limited”, but they didn’t go into details. It looks like they weren’t kidding, though, as two of arguably the most popular US gaming retailers- Amazon and GameStop – have both stopped taking pre-orders for this version of the game.

Sony hosted a Gran Turismo 5 press event in Taiwan (presumably scheduled before the delay) where a few more new details and screenshots were revealed. Most notably:

Sony hosted a small group of media at their Benelux headquarters in Amsterdam, yesterday, and our own Blitz187 was on hand to catch any and all new tidbits of information that might emerge (this event took place before the delay was officially confirmed). As usual, Sony was extremely tight-lipped about the game’s details and did not use the event to reveal any major new features.

More information is slowly filtering out about GT5’s delay, and it fits in neatly with everything else we’ve learned about the game’s production in the past 24 hours. Here’s what was recently posted by Maximus – a respected moderator at the Blu-Ray.com forums with reported connections to Sony:

A GameReactor associate in Tokyo, Gregor Wildermann, has reportedly made contact with Polyphony Digital and Kazunori Yamauchi for further clarification on Gran Turismo 5’s production status:

As reaction to Gran Turismo 5’s delay spreads around the web, one very important question remains unanswered: why? A detailed explanation will most likely never be given, but that won’t stop us from speculating. First up, Taku Imasaki (North American GT5 producer) offers a vague look at what’s been happening on the “inside” via an interview with the New York Times:

Eurogamer has some interesting comments from financial and industry analysts on what the delay means for Sony and the PlayStation brand this fall during the critical Christmas sales season.

Fans are still feeling the sting from Gran Turismo 5’s postponed November release date, but hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out the game’s new date according to this tweet by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe: