The trouble about whispering around the water-cooler about new car concept models is that you’ll probably never actually lay a hand on one. Nor will you probably get to the feel the sensation of sitting in a brand new Ferrari 458 Italia, for instance. For those of us who don’t have millions in the bank, settling for a virtual drive in our living rooms is as close as we’ll get to Ferraris and Koenigseggs and Lamborghinis. –Sorry to break it to you.

Not to worry, for $300 you can grab yourself a PS3, for $3,000 you can grab yourself a 60″ LCD HDTV, and for $60 pick up a copy of Gran Turismo 5 when it’s released this March (fingers severely crossed.) Sony has announced they will release a demo of Polyphony’s $60 million production at the PlayStation Store on December 17th. They call it “Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge.” –Confusing for people who raced to Best Buy to get Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, and ended up disappointed without major game features like 1080p graphics, skid marks, car damage, and a crap online experience. The GT5 Time Trial Challenge is announced as a chance for us to compete online around a portion of track in the Nissan 370Z using a new physics engine. No word yet if it will include the car damage engine Polyphony has been working on for the better part of the last century. The winners of the USA challenge will win a trip to attend the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race with VIP pit-area and Victory Lane privileges. Nice prize? –Well not compared to the European challenge. The winners in Europe will win a chance to attend the GT Academy. They’ll get to race real cars and attempt to get their racing licenses for free. A pretty big prize for the winner, who will predictably be 10 years old.