First art imitates life and now video games do the same, with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Nissan having joined forces to create the GT Academy. Over the course of eight months, the academy culled a group of wannabe racers from a field of entrants who posted the best lap times in GT5 Prologue. Then, for five days at Silverstone, the finalists competed in the game and on the actual track, watched by ex-F1 racer Johnny Herbert and a panel of five judges.

The two winners were just announced, and Top Gun status went to Lars Schlomer and Luis Ordonez. Schlomer is a taxi driver in Bonn, Germany; Ordonez is an MBA student from Spain. Now that they've won, they'll be thrown into boot camp for four months to learn to how to race for real silver: in four months, they'll have to earn their racing licenses and get ready to drive a factory-backed Nissan 350Z in the 24 Hours of Dubai this coming January.The rest of us will have to be content with GT5 Prologue for now...

Nissan announced today a price increase for the 2009 GT-R, raising the MSRP nearly $7,000 from $69,850 to $76,840. The price for the Premium model has been increased even more, going from $71,900 to $79,090 in one fell swoop. Fortunately, the adjusted prices do not affect customers who placed their orders with dealers before September 5. Nissan cited increased material costs as the reason for the adjustment.

Since the GT-R is already one of the best performance bargains on the market today and customers are paying a premium to own one, we doubt that the price increase will have any effect on sales. Still, $7,000 is a serious chunk of change that could go towards aftermarket toys from Cobb Tuning or HKS.

Serious Nissan GT-R tuners aren't coming out of the woodwork – yet – but one of Japan's largest aftermarket firms has thrown its hat into the ring, and to good effect. HKS will begin offering its GT570 kit to consumers in Japan later this year (no word on U.S. distribution) and as it's name implies, output is getting close to the 600 hp mark. The package includes new wastegate actuators for the stock turbos and an electronic boost controller, along with aluminum intercooler piping, silicon hose couplers and straight pipes that replace the stock catalytic converters, reducing back pressure, but negating the GT-R's road-legal status.

All of those tweaks add up to a total of – you guessed it – 570 PS, or 562 hp and 540 lb.-ft. of torque at the wheels. Check the gallery below to see the dyno charts and a few shots of the wastegate and plumbing mods.

Wald International has never been one to offer subtle styling. Whether it's the Lexus IS-F or the Mercedes-Benz CL, the Japanese tuner loves to create a bold look with vents, wings and wheels. The tuner recently turned its attention to the Nissan GT-R, and while we don't have official information on the car, the photos offer a good look at what the package will include. A vented front fascia and splitter, side skirts, rear fender flares, a rear diffuser, carbon fiber rear spoiler and 22-inch wheels all lend to the more aggressive look. We actually like the majority of the body kit, although we'd prefer the rear fender flares to be the same color as the body, and the larger wheels probably don't do much for the performance of the car. In the end, though, we'd probably spend our hard earned money on some of the Club Sport components from NISMO.

NISMO has finally released all the details on its line of upgrades for the R35 Nissan GT-R, and per usual, there's good news and bad news.

On the positive side, the parts are the typical blend of OEM quality and fitment, with a focus on tighter handling and weight reduction. The Club Sport tuning package includes the Chassis pack made up of race-tuned Bilstein Damptronic adjustable dampers sheathed in 18.5kg/mm (front) and 9.6 kg/mm (rear) springs. The combination of rock-hard coils and adjustable damping at both low and high speeds should make the GT-R stickier in the corners and more stable while bombing through a fast sweeper. Rounding out the handling package is a set of Rays forged aluminum wheels, sized 20x9.5-inches in front (+45mm offset) and 20x10.5-inches (+25mm offset) in the rear, and wrapped in Bridgestone RE070R run-flats, sized 225/40 and 285/35, front and rear. These are rumored to be the same rollers we'll see on the Spec-V when it's unveiled in Paris this October.

The rest of the parts focus on weight reduction, beginning with a lightweight axle-back exhaust that drops 11 pounds from the GT-R's curb weight, along with a carbon fiber undertray that reduces air turbulence and parasitic drag. Upgraded carbon-fiber backed and leather-trimmed seats are also part of the package, which retains the side airbags but nixes the electronic controls, reducing weight by another 13 pounds total. Naturally, some NISMO badging rounds out the upgrades.

Now here's the bad news: the parts are only available in Japan as a package, can only be installed by 12 NISMO-authorized shops and come in at a whopping ¥5,460,000 (over $50,000). However, some U.S. importers have already worked out a distribution deal with NISMO, but for those of us in the States, we don't get the added benefit of the three-year/60,000 km warranty.

Sensing the ripe market opportunity, Nissan will start producing various light-commercial and medium-duty trucks in 2010. The targeted segment is currently dominated by Ford and GM, where the miscellaneous cabs and frames are used to produce such vehicles as dump trucks, tow trucks, and school buses. Now, Nissan wants a piece of the pie. Larry Dominique, Nissan's VP of product planning, wouldn't disclose details right now, but he did say that a handful of new products will be needed to satisfy the new commercial truck dealers – and Nissan is more than willing to oblige. Joe Castelli, the former director of Ford's commercial trucks (and now a VP of commercial trucks at Nissan), said the Japanese automaker will be pulling from their global stable of commercial components (branded Atlas and Atleon in other markets) to quickly adapt them for the U.S. market. Nissan's official commercial truck plans will be announced in January at the Detroit Auto Show, and we'll be there to judge reactions.