GTPlanet has dug up an interesting rumor as several sources are suggesting that Australia’s famous Mount Panorama Circuit at Bathurst could be on the way to Gran Turismo.

GT creator Kazunori Yamauchi has expressed his interest in Bathurst before, commenting that “Bathurst is in our roadmap” all the way back in 2006. Since then, not much has happened until the Bathurst 12 Hour race last month where information surfaced that Polyphony Digital had both filmed and photographed the track as well as signed a licensing agreement with the track operators.

A new feature will appeal to all the Gran Turismo shutterbugs, named “Photo Stream”.  This feature allows you to share your finest images, anonymously, with the entire Gran Turismo community through an as-yet unpublished URL:

With the coming Gran Turismo 5 update planned for March 2012, we will be starting a new service on gran-turismo.com worldwide, called “Gran Turismo 5 Photo Stream”.

In GT5 Photo Stream, photographs taken in the photo mode of Gran Turismo 5 and set to “Share” will be shown in a list on a webpage, and be made possible to view by anyone.

The photographs will continue to change periodically, the online ID’s of the photographer will NOT be shown or made public, and there is no evaluation system or the like for the photographs. This is a service which simply introduces what kinds of photographs are being taken in Gran Turismo 5 by players around the world.

Polyphony Digital has released a new version of their popular Gran Turismo 5 racing title.

This month’s update focuses very much on bug fixing and other improvements, including better online performance and improved support for Thrustmaster’s T500 RS steering wheel.

Changelog

• Improved the performance of online races to provide a better racing experience. However, please note that using voice chat with 12 or more players can reduce screen refresh intervals.
• Reduced wobbling of the screen when using the Chase view (The Chase view is when the car is viewed from the rear during races and replays, selected by using the SELECT button).
• Electric cars (opponent cars and your cars in B-Spec) will now pit-in automatically to recharge the battery.
• Reduced the amount of steering pull when using force feedback steering wheel controllers in banks on courses such as the Special Stage Route X Oval.
• When driving formula cars using the Logitech steering wheel controllers, the initial force feedback amount has been lessened and adjusted to make it easier to drive in a straight line.

US automotive giant Ford is the latest car manufacturer to acknowledge the effect that video games have on brand recognition and vehicle sales, particularly in the 20-30 demographic.

In this November article in the New York Times, Ford cited research showing that the presence of their models in video games boosted brand awareness, brand loyalty and purchase intent by around a third, with gamers agreeing that certain models from the range were more fun to drive from their experiences in games alone. Since Ford’s official gaming debut in 1995 – with Sega Rally – they claim over 250 million copies of games with Ford models featured have shipped and with Ford a permanent fixture of Gran Turismo since the second game, 54 million of those games are Gran Turismo games. Ford even merited a cover car, with the iconic GT adorning the boxes of Gran Turismo 4, and has recently increased its PlayStation presence with a virtual showroom on PlayStation Home.

A couple of days ago, we reported that the new Acura NXS concept video featured some tracks that we had never seen before in Gran Turimso 5. Now, we have full details on the next batch of GT5 DLC, which includes some new cars and a new track.

 Car Pack 3 will sell for $5.99 and includes:

At the Detroit Motor Show today, the new Acura NSX concept was revealed (finally!). Along with the reveal came a video (seen below) made by Polyphony Digital using GT5. Eagle eyed viewers will notice that there are a couple of new circuits that are unfamiliar to GT5 fans.

Work on the third issue of the popular grass-roots “GTlife” magazine (the first two issues received over 230,000 collective downloads) is now complete!

This issue features car reviews, a stunning collection of GT5 Photomode images, and a closer look at how you can make the transition from “sim” racer to “real” racer, even on the smallest budget. As always, the magazine is completely free, so you’ve got no reason not to check it out:

Polyphony Digital has updated their title sales list, and the new numbers are impressive. Between January and September of 2011, Gran Turismo 5 moved an additional 1 million copies. This brings the game’s total sales up to 7.3 million, and helped push the entire series past 64.7 million sold.

Despite the big numbers, GT5 still falls quite short of Polyphony Digital’s highest-selling game, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, at 14.8 million copies, and remains the fourth most popular game of the series. However, as GT5 stays in the news with frequent updates and new downloadable content, it may hold sales momentum throughout 2012.

FVA’s Ferrari F10 on the Nürburgring Grand Prix Circuit alongside the same car in Gran Turismo 5.  Brought to you by MotoGamesTV.

U.S. Gran Turismo producer Taku Imasaki shared an interesting statistic about the game’s recent batch of new content, which included Spa Francorchamps and 15 new cars. As of November 3rd, two weeks and two days since its European release, it had received over 1 million downloads.