Heads-up to all of you GT Academy hopefuls out there – the first round of the competition is now over, and it’s time for you to register with Sony if you want to compete in your national final. It’s easy enough: just go to the official GT site, select your country, click on the “National Finals Entry Form” image, and follow the instructions. You only have until midnight GMT on Tuesday, January 26th to complete your registration, so get this done as quickly as possible. Remember: they are accepting entries from the top 30 players (in case anyone from the top 20 is disqualified or doesn’t show up), so double check your ranking to see if you made the cut.

Remember the “Ultimate Gran Turismo Fan” contest Sony held back in November? They set out out to find the most dedicated fans of the series, and this past Friday, the winners were finally announced. First place went to Michael Blevins of Colorado, who started dirt track racing after years of playing GT, and second went to Samuel Sligh III, a passionate Ferrari fan from North Carolina. For their dedication to the series, they’ve been awarded the two very sweet racing suits and helmets worn by Rhys Millen and Tanner Foust in the GT PSP commercial filmed at Laguna Seca.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5H5AGaaiio

Thanks to forum user bladecerco for capturing the first in-car gameplay footage of the Motul Nismo GT-R at CES 2010!

Here’s a closer look at GT5’s “Data  Logger Visualization” feature that was just announced at last weekend’s Tokyo Auto Salon, complete with video of a Lexus IS-F outfitted with the necessary gadgets doing a lap around Fuji.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwLtnur5F84

Here’s some quite literal “screen shots” of the Gran Turismo 5 demo at the European Motor Show 2010 in Brussels, taken by our own Vince_Fiero. He’s taken the novel approach of focusing on in-car game play shots, providing us with a look inside cars we have not yet seen.

Yamauchi’s presence at CES 2010 provided quite a bit of media access and interviews. I’ve already covered the best ones, but there’s a few more small quotes which are also worth mentioning:

Here’s some of the first news to come out of the Tokyo Auto Salon 2010: Polyphony Digital has partnered with auto technology company Denso to develop a “GPS-track day unit”, one of which will be included in the new Toyota FT-86G. It works by monitoring your position as you put in hot laps around a real-world track (which is also in GT5, of course). Pull the memory card out of your car and plug it into your PS3, and the data collected will be used to reconstruct your lap within the game. From there, you’ll be able to watch your replay or compete against yourself by loading the replay as a “ghost” car.

Here’s a new clip of the Toyota FT-86G SPORTS Concept car in Gran Turismo 5. Considering the Tokyo Auto Salon – where GT is expected to make a big showing – is just hours away, assume this car will probably be playable in the latest demo. The video shows no new tracks, but we do get to see the car in the mysterious wind tunnel that’s been spotted in several GT5 clips now…

Our forum user John Parry just picked up on a small update in the US PSN Store – there’s now a free “car pack” available for Gran Turismo PSP that includes the following exotics:

Here’s another look at Nordschleife game-play from the GT5 demo running at CES 2010, via TheBitBag. Thanks to Lord Von for sending this in!

MotorTrend’s latest interview with Kazunori Yamauchi is, thankfully, a great read. By opening the floor to questions before their meeting, editor Nate Martinez was really able to hit all the high points – bravo! Here’s some of the most noteworthy quotes:

As the news of GT5’s Japanese delay spreads across the web, one question persists: why? Here’s a closer look at each of the three possible reasons:

In a statement posted on Polyphony Digital’s website today, they’ve announced the Japanese release for Gran Turismo 5 has been “postponed three months”. Originally set for March, this now suggests a June release – which just happens to be the most logical time we expected the game to hit North America and Europe. In other words, it looks like Sony just might be gearing up for a simultaneous, worldwide release and marketing campaign.

The free Gran Turismo 5 demo used to host the first round of competition in GT Academy 2010 has been downloaded over 1 million times in Europe within the first three weeks of its release (that’s one download approximately every 2 seconds), according to SCEE. Here’s what Yamauchi had to say about the milestone:

While digging through TechCrunch‘s live CES coverage, I uncovered one of Kazunori Yamauchi‘s most unique interviews. It’s live, uncut footage, showing everything from the moment TechCrunch editors first meet the Sony press representative, talking with the infamous “Translator” alone before Yamauchi arrives, to a funny interruption at the end. Although no new information was revealed, I found it enjoyable and refreshing to watch and I think you will, too.

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiEI1DrL1zg