Video removed at the request of Sony Computer Entertainment America.

I don’t have any specific updates about the GT5 disc revealed yesterday, but that hasn’t stopped quite a few interesting tidbits from bubbling up around the world. First up, word from “distribution sources” indicate more than half a million copies of Gran Turismo 5 are headed to France. More specifically, there will be 450,000 standard copies, 100,000 Collector’s Editions, and 5,000 Signature Editions available in the country. (Amazon.fr is still taking SE reservations, so hop on that if you’re interested.)

The image of the disc has been temporarily removed.

The 8th annual GT Awards were held in Las Vegas last night, and Kazunori Yamauchi gave top honors to Mark Stielow for his custom 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. Check out the complete press release and the first pictures from the event below. Expect a lot more media, video, and interviews to start popping up from SEMA in the next few days.

Most people have given up on release date news to emerge from Paris Games Week, and with only two weekend days left in October, there’s not much time left for Sony to follow up on their tweet. Regardless, if you’re up in Scandinavia, don’t let that stop you from checking out the Gran Turismo 5 demo on display at the 2010 Oslo Motor Show this weekend.

A stream of interesting tidbits have been trickling into our Gran Turismo 5 forum today via several new magazine articles. First up is the December 2010 issue of PSM3 magazine, which provides a few details as highlighted by our own Dessy182:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvxMEOO4a_E

On October 6th, Sony launched a giveaway competition for a free Gran Turismo 5: Signature Edition package. Since that time, the competition was set to end on the old Australian release date, November 4th. That end date has remained unchanged (confirmed by Google’s cache) – until now. The legal terms and conditions have just been quitely updated to list a new ending date of December 9th.

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.

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.