If you have been keeping up with GT5, you know Polyphony Digital has been very diligent about releasing free updates to improve the game, especially the online racing mode. Ever since the launch, Kazunori Yamauchi and his team have been carefully studying posts on forums, reading comments on PlayStation.Blog posts and across Twitter, talking to fans at events, and more. The game has evolved a lot since last November, thanks in part to the dedicated GT fans voicing their opinions.

Now I’m here to share with you some very exciting news about the biggest FREE update yet, releasing in the next few weeks. It will add new features and even more functionality to your GT5 experience.

Polyphony learned that a lot of fans out there love driving using the game’s interior view, and has given some serious thought to it. With this new update, all cars in the game will now have interior views. Although the level of visual details will vary based on what car you choose, you can now race from behind the wheel of any car in the game. In addition, you’ll be able to get the 2011 season versions of the 11 NASCAR race cars for the first time.

Some of the other improvements introduced are greatly reduced load times when loading races, quicker menu response times, and adjustable opponent AI in Arcade Mode. Players will now have the option to save their progress during lengthy racing events so they can come back and finish at a later time, and can also adjust weather conditions for races using a slider function that goes from mild to severe.

The wildly popular Photo Mode has been updated to allow players to take pictures with their personalized driver avatars with customizable racing suits and helmets. You can even fast-forward and rewind race replays now to better capture that key moment in the race.

For those who enjoy racing online with your fellow gearheads, we’re expanding the shuffle race mode. As with the same feature in Gran Turismo PSP, this allows friendly competition between players of different skill levels. Players setting up online races will also have a host of new regulations available to customize their own events. New bonus incentives are introduced for players who log in and play on a consistent basis.

Truly hardcore racing fans will be stoked to hear that GT5 will now officially and fully support the Logitech G25 and G27 Racing Wheels.

The final piece of big news is that there will be a full batch of downloadable content for Gran Turismo 5 in the coming weeks. This DLC will of course include new vehicles and tracks, plus some additional surprises.

We’ll have more details very soon on the specifics of the DLC, so stay tuned, and check the blog and the official Gran Turismo website for further details.

I am ending this post with a comment from the man himself, Kazunori Yamauchi, president of Polyphony Digital and creator of the Gran Turismo franchise:

The coming Gran Turismo 5 Spec 2 update is an update that contains the feedback from the users playing GT5 online every day. We have added cars such as the newest NASCAR race cars, but many of the updates are those that improve usability and expand the field of game play. I believed from the initial release of Gran Turismo 5 that it would be the users that would make the game grow thereafter, and we added things like interior views for the standard models because there was a lot of request for it from our users. You could say that this update is the shape and form of GT5 that was created through the opinions of our fans.

And if you don’t have Gran Turismo 5 yet, now is the perfect time to get into the best-selling racing game. In addition to all of the great new content and free updates, as of this week you can pick GT5 up for only $39.99.