From a post by Gran Turismo European Brand Manager, Penrose Tackie, on the European PlayStation Blog, PS3 owners will be able to sample Gran Turismo 5 this month with the launch of GT Academy 2010 on December 17th.

Through a downloadable Gran Tursimo 5 time trial demo, users will be able to post their best times, and if you measure up, you could be on your way to qualify for an entry into the GT Academy to race real-life cars around real-life circuits!

The time trial features two versions of the Nissan 370Z, and you can watch a quick video talking about the history of the GT Academy below:

There’s a bunch more information on the blog post, as well as a list of participating countries, so check it out over here.