As of July 24th, we’re now less than 100 days away from the launch of Gran Turismo 5 and sales already off to a great start, with pre-orders alone  holding the game steady in the top charts of the web’s largest retailer, Amazon.com. GT5’s already broken into the top 50 best-selling games on the site, and it’s dancing around the PlayStation 3’s top 10 list (these lists are updated hourly, making it difficult to pin anything down to a specific rank). It’s even more impressive when you consider this is only the Collector’s Edition we’re talking about here, which commands a $40.00 premium over the regular game.

Before Kazunori Yamauchi created the first Gran Turismo, he began his career with a title known as Motor Toon Grand Prix. Produced by “Polys Entertainment” (later to become Polyphony Digital), it’s a cartoon racing game featuring 8 karts and 10 tracks. Sony has just announced the game’s availability for download as a “PSOne Classic” on PSN for $5.99. So, if you want to see how it all really got started, grab the 251 MB download and give it a go.

Mercedes-Benz continues to take full-advantage of its newfound affiliation with the Gran Turismo series with cross-promotions and online games, and this may be the best yet! Visitors to the Mercedes-Benz World in Weybridge, Surrey, UK get a chance to drive the SLS on GT5’s Nurburgring Nordschleife, recording an official time. The three fastest drivers (along with two more contestants randomly selected from the top 100 times) get to drive a real SLS AMG on Mercedes-Benz World’s test track.

Sony UK has announced a special event known as “PlayStation BETA”, to be held for a select group of gamers on July 30th-August 1st in Birmingham. It’s basically a chance for members of the public to try out the company’s biggest upcoming titles, and you guessed it: Gran Turismo 5 is on the list. Here’s the press release:

Sony’s showing off GT5 and several other big upcoming titles at a private media event on Tuesday night, and one of the editors of the company’s official PlayStation Blog has opened the floor for questions. From his post:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibi9cLBlFy8

A few more interesting quotes have emerged from the GT5 article in the latest “PlayStation: The Official Magazine (UK)”. According to Kazunori Yamauchi, Polyphony Digital has essentially future-proofed the game’s 200+ “Premium Cars”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd0fscJeyxg

If you watched all the coverage from E3 2010, you’ve probably seen some of these shots before – but, as usual, I’m posting them up again here in their original, watermark-free, 18-megapixel glory so you can take in every detail. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8padDk9ZakE

Thanks to gamer28 for digging up this short-but-sweet interview by AOL Autos with Kazunori Yamauchi, as he discusses the role that hybrid cars will play in Gran Turismo 5. Most notably, he also mentions you’ll be able to “tune” hybrids – with the recommendation of turbo-charging the new Honda CR-Z which will be featured in the game.

The Gran Turismo 5 Collector’s Edition was announced at E3, but now it seems that may not be the only special version of the game Sony has plans for. Speaking in an interview with IVG, head of Sony Computer Entertainment India Atindriya Bose clearly discloses that there are “two collector’s editions” in the works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1OZCwRGFUA&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY7pxuKUkX0

InsideSimRacing.tv has just published their extensive Gran Turismo 5 E3 2010 Special Report, filling more than half an hour of footage with their detailed impressions and thoughts on the demo featured at the big show. It’s a refreshingly detailed look at the latest build of the game by “hard-core” sim racers, as they discuss everything from physics, to head-tracking, to 3D gameplay – it’s the best impression of the demo you can get short of getting your hands on it. Thanks for the GTPlanet shout-out, guys!

If you’ve been closely following the news over the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen some of these images before – but not at this resolution. The detail that lies in these 5760 x 3240 shots from GT5’s “Photo Travel” mode is remarkable, and they make for great desktop wallpaper! To see some of these locations in motion, don’t miss the short video clip below.