The date is locked in: Gran Turismo 5 will go on sale throughout North America on Wednesday, November 24th.

That means you’ll be experiencing over 1,000 cars, including karts and select NASCAR cars, scores of tracks, the all-new Course Maker, a dynamic weather system, a robust online community, and everything else Gran Turismo 5 has to offer in less than two weeks.

Along with confirming the November 24th date, Kazunori Yamauchi, President of Polyphony Digital Inc. had this to say:

Gran Turismo 5 is an ambitious project, with challenges and complexities which have made it our version of the Apollo Space Program! When we created the original Gran Turismo back in 1997, we wanted to set a completely new precedent for the racing genre. With the technological leap onto PlayStation 3, our objective with Gran Turismo 5 was to create another great revolution which would not only satisfy our own high expectations, but would meet or even exceed the anticipation of the fans. Satisfying the loyal Gran Turismo followers is at the heart of all of our efforts, which is why it was such a difficult decision to delay the release of the game, and one which we did not take lightly. I can only apologize to everyone for making you wait so long, and I hope that when you try out the wealth of driving experiences available in Gran Turismo 5, you will not be disappointed.

Don’t forget to pre-order Gran Turismo 5 if you haven’t already to ensure your copy day one and receive a voucher for one of five free downloadable cars with a custom Stealth Model skin.

We’ll have much more on Gran Turismo between now and launch, so please stay tuned to the PlayStation Blog and the official Gran Turismo site.