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Good news for gearheads: the demo for Gran Turismo 6 is now available for download on the PlayStation Store. However, if you're searching for it, look under GT Academy rather than Gran Turismo. That's because, once again, the demo acts as both a taster for the upcoming PlayStation 3 game and also as a qualifying event for SONY and Nissan's GT Academy project.

That means the fastest drivers on the leaderboards by July 28th will be invited to take part in a live final. The winners of that event will then be whisked away to train in the Driver Development Programme, where the best of the best will earn what is perhaps the greatest prize in video game history: the chance to spend a whole season racing a Nissan GT-R GT3 Nismo at championship level.

This is no idle promotion - the GT Academy is now well established as a way into the sport for skilled young drivers. 2008 winner Lucas Ordoñez and Jann Mardenborough, who won in 2011, both raced for the Nissan Nismo team at the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours.

Ordoñez also takes on the mentor role in the demo, which features Nissan cars and the Silverstone race track, joining the Gran Turismo line-up for the first time. So even if you don't fancy yourself as a real life racing driver, this is still your chance to get hands on with what promises to be the swankiest racing game of the current console generation.

The GT Academy demo is available until July 30th, with Academy entry closing on the 28th. Gran Turismo 6 is set for release on PlayStation 3 this winter.