Yamauchi is of course no stranger to racing cars, but still. That's quite an achievement. I get antsy driving for 25 minutes. He of course didn't drive the entire 25 hours all by himself; he was a member of the "Spoon Sports" team, and shared duties with a car journo and two other Japanese race drivers.

"Not having a lot of experience in circuit driving, and not knowing what to expect in a 25-hour race, I was very relieved to find that I was able to reduce the 20-second gap between my laptimes and my teammates' at the beginning of the practice to almost zero at the start of the final race", he said. "It was a great feeling to confirm first hand that "Gran Turismo" has a positive effect in not just learning specific tracks, but also in raising the level of driving technique in the drivers themselves."

Always working, that Yamauchi. Always on the marketing trail. That's his car up top, with some footage of him driving round and round and round below.

If you've figured out how to create a Japanese account (here's a guide if you haven't), you can get the demo right now, and do so in the knowledge that the whole thing is in English (like the Prologue demo, it detects your system's language and adjusts accordingly).

Strangely, though, the demo is only a bit over 200mb in size, and is...well, as you'd expect from 200mb in 2009, it's pretty scarce. Actually, it's very scarce, as after only an half an hour I was already bored with it. Unless you're genuinely expecting to compete in the Time Trial Academy (the winners of which will get a shot at racing real race cars), there's not much here to keep you busy.

Maybe they should have thrown another track in there, add another car or two...

Sony Computer Entertainment America's Chris Hinojosa-Miranda has told Destructoid that the game is currently - and vaguely - gunning for a "summer 2010" release.

Which, if correct, means June 2010 at the earliest. Bummer.

Wonder if the European version will be out earlier...

Gran Turismo 5 gets targeted for 'Summer 2010' release [Destructoid]

See, there's a little confusion as to whether this is a GT5 demo or just some new, GT5-flavoured content sprinkled atop the existing GT5 Prologue. The download is called the "Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge" in the US, and in Europe, "GT Academy 2010". Not, as you'd think it'd be called, the "Gran Turismo 5 Demo".

Indeed, the European release doesn't mention the download having anything to do with Gran Turismo 5 whatsoever, while the US info only says the download is "powered by Gran Turismo 5's brand-new physics engine".

Only in the European comments section do things get a little more specific, where it's said "this is a downloadable time trial featuring new content from GT5 not GT5 Prologue" and "this time trial is a section of a track from the forthcoming GT5 game".

So...it's mostly GT5? Partially GT5? All GT5, with a really poor marketing message attached? Thanks, GT5 Prologue, for making this so confusing.

Guess we'll find out on December 17.

In an interview with IGN, the Polyphony Digital boss was asked about the possibility of bikes making their way into the game, to which he responded "If that's what users really want in the game, I think that's a possibility. Or we could consider making a Tourist Trophy 2 as well."

Might be best sticking to TT2. GT5 is late enough as it is.

Q&A With Gran Turismo's Kazunori Yamauchi [IGN]

That's according to series creator and Polyphony Digital head man Kazunori Yamauchi who, speaking with Autoweek, said "We will release [GT5] in March in Japan but for other regions, it has not been decided yet". Asked by the motoring mag what was holding up the Western release of the game, Yamauchi responded "That's more depending on SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America) marketing decisions".

SEMA show: More news on the much-anticipated Gran Turismo 5 video game [Autoweek, via CVG]

You are reading Kotaku's once-weekly (sort of) journey back to yesteryear.

Here's the Toronto Star in December of 2001, covering the release of Gran Turismo 3:

Gran Turismo 3 is the grandchild of the original, and seminal, Gran Turismo of 1998, the game that made the PlayStation the market leader that it is.

That's just one of dozens of expressions of Gran Turismo's dominance that I was able to find in a search of news clippings. GT used to be unstoppable and untouchable. Maybe it still is, but 2009 shows how competitive things can be. Between the release of GT4 and the eventual launch of GT5, Microsoft will have launched three Forza games, closing the gap, at least critically, on what the team at Polyphony Digital built for the PlayStation brand.

There was a time when reports of a Gran Turismo were coupled with references to the competitors' inability to compete. Is that time over? A new Gran Turismo might mean as much to Sony as the old ones did. So, will the old lines from 2001 and other years be written again once GT5 shows up?

The Gran Turismo fan site spotted the game's box in the hands of game creator Kazunori Yamauchi on a Mercedes-Benz video that talks about the inclusion of the Mercedes SLS AMG.

Gran Turismo 5 Packaging Reveals Three Discs [GT Planet]

The game will be out in Japan in March 2010. Which is still months away. A shame, we know, but then, GT fans have been waiting years for this. They can wait a little longer.

Only the Japanese date was revealed. If any info on a Western release pops up, we'll let you know.

This would be a first for the series, whose last outing - GT5 Prologue - was released in the US four months after it was out in Japan.

Speaking with Multiplayer, Yamauchi said that "its release is not too far away - it will be after the PSP GT release - and, most likely, it will be a simultaneous worldwide release".

If you can handle a bit of Italian (or Japanese!), the full interview is below.

Gran Turismo - Videointervista a Kazunori Yamauchi [Multiplayer, via 1UP and GTPlanet]

Before you ask, yes, it means Q4 2009. And before you ask, yes, it's a real Sony pamphlet, not a work of Photoshop fantasy. Now, whether the game is actually released later this year is another matter - it is Gran Turismo 5 we're talking about, after all - but with the PS3 Slim soon to be with us and a "mainstream" gaming market to win back, there's no better way to combine the two than with a new Gran Turismo game on shelves.

Or maybe even a Gran Turismo/PS3 Slim bundle!

Gran Turismo 5's Q4 2009 Release Date Confirmed [gtplanet]

In an interview with an official Audi promo piece on the Audi R8 from earlier in the year (February), Yamauchi says that GT fans can not only expect to see in-race weather changes in the future, but "we will soon be able to simulate damage to the cars" as well.

Course, this was meant to happen in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. Then didn't. Then it was meant to be released later, via a patch for the title. Hasn't happened. Which leads us to think he probably means it'll be introduced in Gran Turismo 5 proper. Whenever that turns up.

FÜNF FRAGEN AN KAZUNORI YAMAUCHI [Audi, via VG247]

In an interview with Spanish financial site El Financiero, SCEE's James Armstrong has said that the company expects Gran Turismo 5 to be out next Christmas.

Now, what Sony expect and the traditionally fastidious Polyphony Digital deliver might be two completely different things. But hey, they might not be.

By then it will have been nearly five years since the release of Gran Turismo 4. They can't develop it forever.

España reduce las previsiones de crecimiento de Sony un 6% [El Financiero, via Evil Avatar]

ComputerAndVideoGames.com talked to GT creator Kazunori Yamauchi, who said there's hope that GT for Boys will be a feature within Gran Turismo 5. The point of a "for Boys" GT would be to give younger kids — and spazzy adults — a pick-up-and-play version of GT, without the unforgiving realism of the original.

Yamauchi's comment came in a broader interview with CVG about GT5.

Question: Can girls play too? Just askin' ...

Gran Turismo for Boys Still Coming [CVG]