Sony is celebrating Gran Turismo->ke3689's 15th anniversary with the announcement of the sixth installment of the series. Gran Turismo 6 was announced today by legendary Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi and will be released later this year. Sony’s exact wording in the press release was “Holiday, 2013,” but we are unsure if that is a typo or if it means Christmas of another holiday. We are awaiting a reply from Sony on an exact release date.

Gran Turismo 6 will bring a total of 1,200 cars; it will retain the models from Gran Turismo 5 and will add new ones, including historic, road and race cars. The game will also offer a stunning new tracks and cars, and a revised user interface.

The new GT6 will also add 33 locations - including seven all-new ones, with 71 different layouts available; 19 of the layouts are brand new. There will also be regular additions of new tracks available online.

The celebration of 15 years of Gran Turismo event at Silverstone included a demo of GT6, featuring the famous Silverstone circuit itself. Guests were able to play the game in the familiar circular Gran Turismo race pods before having a chance to take to the real track in cars provided by Audi, Ford, Jaguar, KTM, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Toyota.

Click past the jump to learn more about the new Gran Turismo 6 features.

Cars featured on the GT6 Silverstone demo (* denotes new to Gran Turismo):

-Acura NSX ’91

-Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale ’11

-Alpine A110 1600S ’68

-Audi Sport quattro S1 Rally Car ’86

-Ferrari 458 Italia ’09

-Ferrari Dino 246 GT ’71

-Ford GT ’06

-KTM X-BOW R ’12

-Lamborghini Countach LP400 ’74

-Light Car Company Rocket ’07

-McLaren MP4-12C ’10

-Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 ’11

-Nissan 370Z (Z34) (GT Academy Version) ’08

-Nissan 370Z Tuned Car (GT Academy Version) ’08

-Nissan GT-R Black edition (GT Academy Version) ’12

-Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 N24 Schulze Motorsport

-Nissan Leaf G (GT Academy Version)

-Tesla Motors Model S Signature Performance ’12

-Toyota 86 GT ‘12

Summary of new Gran Turismo 6 features announced by Kazunori Yamauchi:

New Game Engine

-Refactoring

-Compact, nimble operation

-Flexible expandability

-A new rendering engine that pushes the limits of the PS3

New Physics Engine

-New suspension and kinematics model

-New tire model

-New aerodynamics model

-Technical partnership with Yokohama Rubber and KW Automotive

1200 Cars, abundant custom parts, and on-going DLC

- From historic cars to the latest racing cars, the game contains a total of 1200 cars.

- Multiple aerodynamic parts and custom wheels will be available for almost all cars.

- Players can create their own personalized custom car in the game.

-Cars will be continually added online

33 locations, 71 layouts

- 33 Locations and 71 layouts will be provided from day1 (7 more locations and 19 more layouts than GT5)

- More new tracks will continue to be provided online

New Course Maker

-Massive scenery spanning several tens of square kilometers

-A new course generation algorithm

Community/Club/Race Organizer

- Players can form their own communities

-Various community levels from local and domestic to global

-Players themselves can create and manage their own online events

New User Interface

-Balancing directional key operation and touch operation

-Quick response

-Shortening of loading times

Multi Device Compatibility

-PlayStation®

- Smart Phone

- Tablet

- PC