When the Nurburgring Nordschleife was first revealed in Gran Turismo 4, it was hard to complain about the missing GP circuit.  However, you’re lying to yourself if you haven’t wished to drive through those tire barriers separating the Nordschleife from the rest of the track, and everyone has been anxiously hoping for it to appear in Gran Turismo 5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV4L5GZ_1B4

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The Goodwood Festival of Speed is something that’s almost too good to be true – it’s the world’s largest gathering of the mostexotic, rare, and desirable cars you can imagine, and it takes place every summer in the beautiful English countryside.  Of course, it always attracts some of the biggest stars from motorsports, but Kazunori Yamauchi, GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez, and the Citroen GT made this year’s show all the more special for GTPlanet members in attendance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hiczWWlsJw

In a dash of bittersweet news, we can all collectively stop hoping for an “Update Available” message to appear one day when we fire up Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.  The game’s “US Producers”, Chris Hinojosa Miranda and Taku Imasaki confirmed that the team is now completely focused on getting Gran Turismo PSP and GT5 out the door in this Q&A session on the official PlayStation Blog.

Now it’s time for something that’s strange, funny, and disturbing all at the same time!  In his weekly column for the Times Online, infamous Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has told a bizarre and hilarious tale on himself.  It all started when Clarkson’s wife purchased an offensive t-shirt for him, with a nasty word in big, bold letters on the front.  Of course, he couldn’t help but wear it to work for Top Gear rehearsals, providing lots of laughs until Kazunori Yamauchi and his team dropped in for a visit…

When we saw Gran Turismo 5 for the first time last month, there was quite a bit of discussion about the impressive graphics from the trailer.  It was certainly in Polyphony Digital’s visual style, but was it “real”, or had it been rendered independent from the game’s visual engine?  That’s what IGN editor Chris Roper got to ask Kazunori Yamauchi during a recent interview, to which he answered “of course it’s real”.  To verify that answer, Chris began a frame-by-frame analysis of the trailer to see what he could find for himself -discovering some interesting imperfections that support Yamauchi’s comments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrfTr6rBusk

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Just want to remind everyone that GTPlanet’s Facebook Page officially launched last week – if you’re on Facebook, please become a fan!  Much like our Twitter feed, you’ll find more interesting links, forum threads, and videos that didn’t make their way onto the main news blog here.  When you become a Facebook fan, some of our updates will appear on your main “news feed” for the site, just like those from your friends so you won’t miss a single bit of GT news.  As you can see, our Wall is also open, so feel free to use it to spread the word about your latest forum topic or competition.

The Logitech G25 was one of the first steering wheels to introduce a clutch pedal and gated 6-speed shifter.  It’s success has prompted other wheel manufacturers like Fanatec to jump in the game, fueling competition in this niche market to new heights.  Now, with the G25 pushing 3 years old, everyone is watching Logitech to make a move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO26tmL-_gE

In a short but sweet interview with AutoWeek magazine which must have fallen through the cracks with all the other E3 news, GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi stated that “We will give the release date of Gran Turismo 5 soon.”  The question remains, though – just how soon is “soon”?  Speculation is mounting in our forums, with many pointing towards the upcoming Tokyo Game Show this September 24-27.  Aside from taking place on Polyphony Digital’s home turf (their offices are located in Tokyo), the 2007 TGS show is where they announced the release date for GT5 Prologue.  While this is just speculation, you can see the pieces of the puzzle would fit together quite nicely.

Since E3 earlier this month, the entire GT community has been looking forward to the release of July’s PlayStation Official Magazine, after last month’s issue promised a major Gran Turismo 5 feature article.  Early this morning, the new French edition started hitting newsstands, and it didn’t take long for scans to hit the web – for all the wrong reasons.  No new information could be found, and the screenshots were simply lifted from the official E3 trailer.  Some are still holding out hope that the UK or US editions will contain fresh content, but that’s extremely unlikely.  We’ll keep an eye out just in case…

This little game just keeps looking better!  Take a closer look at the Ferrari Enzo and the Nissan GTR V-Spec in these impressive new screenshots.  For the skeptics, take a look at this gameplay video footage.

Polyphony Digital’s Citroen GT concept car has been busier than ever – first appearing at the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, hitting up the 24 Hours of Le Mans a few weeks ago, and now stopping traffic as it drives the London street circuit from GT5 Prologue.  Of course, this made for some pretty impressive photo ops, which you can see below.  The car is slowly making its way to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, taking place July 3-5.  Full press release after the jump…

The Gran Turismo brand once again made a strong showing last weekend at the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans.  Trackside banners could be seen all around Circuit de La Sarthe – most notably at the chicanes down the  Mulsanne straight.  Sony also continued their strong support of the Pescarolo Sport racing team’s Peugeot 908 LMP car, in the quickly-becoming-classic light blue/green/white livery that you probably remember from GT4.  Polyphony Digital’s Citroen GT also made the rounds this year, (supposedly) doing a honorary lap around the circuit (still waiting on pictures of that) and appearing in a local driver’s parade.

If there’s one thing the “general” gaming press knows about Gran Turismo, it’s that big news about the series can drive lots of traffic.  Unfortunately, that’s exactly what is happening right now in the Internet rumor mill, and it’s getting fans everywhere stirred up for no good reason.  It all started when Play.com – an online games retailer with of no particular authority – listed Gran Turismo 5 as “due for release on 27/11/2009”.  This isn’t anything new or exciting, as pretty much everyone who has waited on a game to be released is well aware how retailers wrecklessly throw release dates around.  Until an official date comes along, it’s little more than someone’s best guess.

If you’ve been holding off on GT5 Prologue because you don’t want to pay for a “demo”, you are quickly running out of excuses – especially if you’re in the United States.  As has been reported around the web, Target has dropped their in-store price on the game to $9.98.  That’s an incredible $30 less than the old MSRP for the game (and what’s still listed on their website), and $20 less than it’s new Greatest Hits price.