Gran Turismo 5 will be getting an update (version 2.02) on December 20th and with it will come the addition of Toyota‘s GT 86 to the game for free. A new downloadable content (DLC) Car Pack 2 will also be available for just $3.99 adding four new cars to your collection.

The second Car Pack DLC will add the 2012 Nissan GT-R Black R35, 2010 Volkswagen Scirocco R, 2010 Volkswagen Gold VI R and the 2011 MINI Cooper S to your garage. In addition, those that purchased the first DLC will receive the Gran Turismo Racing Kart 125 SP in the 2.02 patch.

The update will also come with some interface tweaks and will award virtual racers with 10 oil change and car wash coupons.

Click here to read AutoGuide’s 2013 Scion FR-S Review

Happening right now out in Cologne, Germany is Gamescom, the world’s largest trade fair and event for video games and entertainment. And with all the passionate automotive enthusiasts in Germany, it’s no surprise that Sony wanted to make a statement in their booth by teaming up with Audi to show off a whole new way to play Gran Turismo 5. Custom built by quattro GmbH in Neckarsulm, the PlayStation Racing Simulator that’s currently setup at the booth is a full-on carbon-black Audi R8 LMS imitation race car.

The cockpit features the same bucket seat that one would find in the GT3 car, while they’ve added an additional one for a passenger to spectate. The roll cage has been simplified to make it easier to get in and out of the simulator, but players get to hold onto an authentic race steering wheel that’s been hooked up to the PlayStation 3 and enjoys full Dolby Surround Sound as they power their way through twists and turns.

What puts it altogether though are the pneumatic cylinders located where the race car’s suspension would be. This allows the virtual racer to really feel the physics of driving while in the cockpit of the simulator. That means they feel every bit of the centrifugal forces while cornering, braking and accelerating. According to reports, it took Audi and Sony six weeks to assemble the entire unit, far longer than it takes to build a real car.

The famed creator of Gran Turismo, Kazunori Yamauchi, has returned to racing on the track with a Nissan GT-R that has clearly been inspired by the GT500 “Stealth” GT from Gran Turismo 5. His team recently participated in the four-hour Nurburgring VLN race and looks poised to compete in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring.

Yamauchi competed in several VLN races last year in a Lexus IS-F and even took a class victory in the four-hour event. His team also took 4th place in their respective class at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring.

This year Yamauchi will be with teammates Tobias, Michael Shulze and Yasuyoshi Yamamoto in the #71 GT-R. Hopefully Yamauchi will draw some inspiration for a much better Gran Turismo 6.

[Source: GTPlanet via Autoblog]

AutoGuide.com is giving you the chance to own THE driving simulation game. That’s right, with GT5 having just launched, AutoGuide has obtained two copies and we’ve giving them away to our fans on Facebook.

To enter to win, all you have to do is visit AutoGuide’s Facebook page here and click the ‘Like’ button. It’s that easy.

Winners will be drawn from our list of Facebook fans with one draw on December 15th and another on January 4th. (Anyone who already ‘likes’ AutoGuide on Facebook has been automatically entered – aren’t we nice!)

Already own GT5? We’re sure you could use an extra copy to give as a present over the holidays; using the world’s greatest racing simulator to buy the love of a friend, relative or even a stranger.

And why not? That’s what we’re doing.

Get full details and enter to win GT5 here.

After having been delayed more times than the second coming, Sony recently announced the official launch date for Gran Turismo 5 as November 24th. But with that many delays there are still skeptics and so Sony has now rolled out its adds in an effort to drum up interest in what will no doubt be the most popular gift this holiday season.

The spot features PlayStation 3 front-man and “VP of Add More Awesome” Kevin Butler, who has made us laugh in pretty much all of PS3′s earlier commercials and this one is no different.

See the commercial, plus an extra Japanese-market ad after the jump:

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The time has come for automotive enthusiasts and gamers alike. Gran Turismo 5 has been given an official release date for the umpteenth time this year, with November 24th as the official date.

The date conincides with the start of the Thanksgiving holiday, giving you a convenient excuse to ignore family, eat lots of turkey, and sit in front of the television.

We’re anxiously awaiting the chance to experience the game, as well as Fanatec’s wheel and pedal package . Plus, you have another reason to avoid Black Friday shopping – you’ve already got what you need to keep you satisfied for the rest of the year.

[Source: Playstation Blog]

While we’ve seen many e-retailers do this before, both Target and Amazon have updated the release date of Gran Turismo 5 to show January 1st, 2011 and December 31st, 2010 respectively. It sounds as if they plan on releasing the game at midnight on New Years Day, or this could just be Target and Amazon’s way of playing it safe since Sony did somewhat promise us that GT5 will be released around the holiday season and before year’s end.

Whether or not this will play out to be true, we’re going to guess many of you out there are still clinging onto your pre-orders and hoping that the game will come out during the holiday season so you don’t have to take any more sick days off to collect your licenses and build your garages with over 1,000 cars in the game. Will GT5 really live up to its hype? We only have a couple more months to wait… we hope.

Worth noting is that the above image seems to be an official game disc along with the box art out in Europe. Rumor has it that some European gamers are already playing through the game.

[Source: Target and Amazon via WorldCarFans]

Game developers never get much time off, and it looks like the development team for Gran Turismo is already hard at work on the successor to Gran Turismo 5, a game we still have yet to even touch. But now that GT5 has probably gone gold and game discs are being produced, Kazunori Yamauchi, the creative force behind the video game franchise, recently commented in an interview with Autoweek that GT6 is already in the early development stages.

In the rather lengthy interview, Yamauchi reveals Polyphony’s relationship with SEMA and discusses the process of perfecting Gran Turismo 5 and the reasons behind its constant delays. He did reveal that a new release date will be announced soon and that we could possibly be playing it by Christmas time, but we’re not overly optimistic.

But the biggest reveal came from a one-word answer to the question, “I know you’re trying to push GT5 out the door. Is development underway on GT6?” With the answer of “Yeah,” it’s no surprise that there are plans for a 6th rendition of Gran Turismo, but we are shocked that the development process is already underway.

And what we can possibly expect? Well, considering Yamauchi claims it took around 2,000 days to get GT5 the way he wanted it to be, he says it’s way too early to even speak about GT6. So let’s start the five years of speculating.

[Source: Autoweek]

Back in September, we were teased with Gran Turismo 5′s ultimate car – Red Bull’s X1 Prototype. Then we found out that Sony was just teasing us on Gran Turismo 5′s release date. In a bid to keep up interest and try and make us believe GT5 will ever arrive, they’ve released the official photos – and a whole lot of them – of Red Bull’s X1 Prototype. If we weren’t already anxious to play the game, we most certainly are now.

The X1 Prototype features a 3.0L V6 powerplant that gets a pair of turbochargers. The result is a mind-boggling 1,483-hp with 526 ft-lbs of torque. All this will be in a 1,355 lb chassis (gross weight) with a top speed of 249 mph.

From the screenshots it also seems like Red Bull will have a bigger role in the game besides just the awesome car. It looks like a Red Bull museum will also be recreated in the virtual GT5 universe, including their famous airplane.

Needless to say, we still can’t forgive all the delays that they keep pushing out on Gran Turismo 5, but we’re glad they’re at least adding some content that will hopefully be worth the wait.

GALLERY: Red Bull X1 Prototype

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Let’s go ahead and add Gran Turismo 5 delays alongside death and taxes as life’s certainties. Taku Imasaki, Producer over at SCEA has posted the following information up on Sony’s official Playstation blog:

“We can confirm that Gran Turismo 5 will not be available this November 2nd, but the game’s release will be coming this holiday season.”

[Source: Playstation Blog]