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First things first: two independent sources have privately confirmed to me that the GT5 Demo Collection is real.
This collection is also providing a closer look at things we only got to peek at during the shows where these demos were originally featured.
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At VisionRacer we are
really excited about the Nissan Driving Academy. This is the
VisionRacer's home ground, bring it on. It will take the best possible
driving and tools to win the event.
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We say "train and visualize" your perfect deal drive. That will
take hours of practice. We are predicting that mashing a hand controller is not
going to take the first place prize. |
 The demo will be available to download for free by on December 17, 2009 in Europe, Australia/NZ, and North America. Availability in local PSN Stores in other regions -- including Japan -- is not yet confirmed. However, you can easily create a new account on your PS3 associated with any country, so it will technically be available to everyone simultaneously. You will only be able to download the demo between December 17, 2009 and January 25, 2010. After that date, the demo will be playable indefinitely, but it will no longer be available to download for others who missed out. This is a demonstration of Gran Turismo 5 and its new physics engine -- it is not just a new track or car inserted within the world of GT5: Prologue. The demo will feature one variation of a new track in Gran Turismo 5 and two cars: a stock and tuned version of the Nissan 370Z. Winners will be determined by the fastest
combined time with the two cars. In other words, your fastest laps in
each car will be added together, and the fastest total time wins
GT Academy competitors will try to set the fastest lap in their respective country. The top 20 fastest laps recorded in each country will be invited to a national final where, according to the official press release, another new track will be used to host the second round of the competition. The fastest driver from each national event will move on to Silverstone to experience GT Academy -- an intensive 5-day program (you can watch last year’s GT Academy finals here).
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You must be over the age of 18 and you must have never held a
national or international racing license of any kind to be eligible for
GTAcademy. It is not yet known if Gran Turismo 5’s new damage engine will be shown off in this demo. The tires visible in the rendering of the tuned 370Z in the demo appear to be mounted backwards, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Looking at the tread pattern, the tires can be identified as Yokohama ADVAN A048s and -- sure enough -- according to their TireRack description,
they can be mounted “inside-out” to prolong their life. Why Polyphony
Digital would choose to render the tires this way, however, remains a
mystery. Now,
a few things remain unconfirmed -- most notably the circuit which will
be used in the demo. Before the public announcement, it was revealed to
me that either the Indianpolis GP Circuit or Spa Francorchamps
would be featured.
After putting the rest of the pieces of the puzzle
together, it’s quickly becoming obvious to that Indy will be the one
available to the public. First, Indy was the only track which was
explicitly revealed by name in the Gran Turismo 5 E3 2009 Trailer. Second, the “Time Trial” prize for U.S. residents is a trip to the Indy 500 race. And, finally, the European PS Blog announcement carefully described the track as “a specially created section of a new Gran Turismo 5 circuit”. Indianapolis Motor Speedway,
of course, hosts three configurations: the famous oval, the GP circuit,
and the counter-clockwise MotoGP circuit. Spa Francorchamps, then,
would provide an “unseen” challenge for all GTAcademy participants and
would help even the playing field when they meet in their national
finals. Unfortunately, however, that suggests the rest of us will have
to wait until March to try out Polyphony Digital’s version of this epic
track…
From GTPlanet. |
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Thurs at 12:27
Nissan and PlayStation® announce the return of GT Academy – the ultimate racing prize
Nissan and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) have joined forces again to bring gaming and motor sport fans the ultimate racing competition. GT Academy 2010 will go live on 17 December, 2009 and will use the virtual world of the new PlayStation® Gran Turismo®5 game to find a real-world racing driver. The stakes are high, with an intensive race training programme and a season-long drive in a full race-spec Nissan 370Z in the European GT4 Cup as the ultimate prize. GT Academy 2010 is the second instalment of this incredible competition. In 2008/09, Lucas Ordoñez, a 23-year-old Spanish student, graduated from his PlayStation®3 (PS3TM) console to become a full-on racing driver via the GT Academy. Lucas is living proof that the answer to the question posed by PlayStation and Nissan - “can the world of virtual racing unearth a real racing talent?” - was a resounding “yes”. After a debut in the Dubai International 24 Hour race alongside former F1 driver Johnny Herbert, Lucas teamed-up with British driver Alex Buncombe to campaign a Nissan 350Z. Driving for the RJN Motorsport GT Academy team, the pair took part in the full European GT4 Cup season, mostly run alongside the prestigious FIA GT series. Their stunning performances included two race wins and two second-place finishes that left them an agonisingly close second in the drivers’ classification, but winners of the Teams’ Championship. The success of Nissan and PlayStations’ ‘experiment’ spurred them on to make GT Academy 2010 even bigger and better. The competition falls into four main stages: Stage One - will offer Gran Turismo fans a sneak preview of the hotly-anticipated Gran Turismo 5 game, due for release during 2010. Competitors will record flying laps on a time trial-based track available via PlayStation®Network, accessed through PS3. Unlike the first GT Academy, participants will not have to enter the competition using the GT5 PrologueTM game itself, and so even more hopeful racing drivers are expected to take part. Stage Two – the holders of the twenty fastest online lap times from each participating country will qualify for their national final event. Tensions will run high as they battle each other on another exclusive Gran Turismo 5 level for the chance to move to the next phase of the competition. Stage Three – twenty finalists, chosen from each of the national finals events, will head to the world famous Silverstone circuit for the GT Academy itself - a five-day, comprehensive race driver ‘boot camp’. They will have a chance to develop new driving skills in an array of Nissan, and other, hardware, while also being judged on fitness and mental attitude. Stage Four - For the two competitors that display the talent, fitness, aptitude, drive and determination to succeed in motor sport, the action will hot-up even further. A UK-based intensive driving and racing programme will prepare them to qualify for an international racing license.  |
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Stage Five – There is only one place available for the driver with the
most potential to compete on an international stage. The overall GT
Academy 2010 champion will race a full season in the European GT4 Cup
in a Nissan 370Z prepared by RJN Motorsport. The opening race is
currently scheduled for May, 2010. The GT Academy competition is open to participants from the following
territories: Austria; Belgium; France; Germany; Ireland; Italy;
Netherlands; Portugal; Spain; Switzerland; UK; and Denmark, Finland,
Norway and Sweden. Also joining in will be Australia and New Zealand to
make it a truly international promotion. This year’s rules stipulate
that anyone who holds, or has held, a national or international race
license will not qualify for GT Academy. This rule is aimed at
maintaining the purity of the “virtual to real” concept. Nissan International’s Vice-President of Marketing, Vincent Wijnen, is
excited to be embarking on the GT Academy 2010 journey. “Following the
success of last year’s GT Academy programme, we had no hesitation in
working with PlayStation on GT Academy 2010,” he explains. “The idea
behind GT Academy is a natural extension of our approach to sports cars
– we’re determined to challenge the traditional way of doing things.
Both the GT-R and 370Z are authentic sports cars combining performance
with accessibility for drivers who are serious about driving enjoyment.
Similarly, GT Academy makes the dream of becoming an authentic racing
driver more accessible than ever thanks to Nissan, PlayStation and the
stunning Gran Turismo’s online capability. Nobody else could deliver
this programme.
“The original GT Academy exceeded expectations. We did not expect to
find a driver of Lucas’s calibre and it was a real bonus for the
programme that we were able to help him demonstrate his potential over
a full season with the European GT4 Cup drive. We are even more excited
about GT Academy 2010, and I would encourage anyone who has ever
wondered if they might have what it takes to be a racing driver to give
it a go.”
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Breaking news from
PlayStation. One real good reason to get a VisionRacer and get driving
fast! Just announced is the start of the lead up to GT5. Check our
the Euro GT5 Managers blog entry.
Quote from Playstation EU
"Hello everyone, its Penrose Tackie here Gran Turismo, European Brand Manager.
Following the groundbreaking success of the GT Academy last year and as part of our activities around the forthcoming launch of Gran Turismo 5, I am delighted to officially unveil GT Academy 2010.
On 17th December exclusively via the PlayStation store,
we will be launching the GT Academy 2010 Time Trial. The time trial
will be the only way into this year’s Academy, and if you’ve got what
it takes it could be the start of a life-changing journey.
Last year the GT Academy programme unearthed a real driving talent
in the form of Lucas Ordonez from Spain, who after winning the GT
Academy went on to drive for the Nissan PlayStation race team and take
an astonishing second place in the GT4 Championship – all in his first
season!
This time around the Academy is even bigger and better, and
competition is bound to be pretty fierce – perhaps best of all though
for Gran Turismo fans, it will be the first opportunity to get a
hands-on taster as to what Yamauchi-san and his Polyphony team have
been carefully crafting and polishing at their Tokyo base.
Qualify in the top twenty within your country and you will be invited to a national final event, where you will pit your wits against the best Gran Turismo drivers in the country. If you make it from there only then will you join the elite 20 that will be taken into the GT Academy 2010.
Only the two best drivers will make it out of this 5 day test of
nerve and skill. From there will follow an intensive driver training
schedule from which we will select our one GT Academy ace.
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The time trial features the stunning Nissan 370Z in two guises.
Firstly a blisteringly fast, race-tuned monster and secondly an only
slightly less fearsome non-tuned version. The 370Z is the most recent of the new range of cars wearing the
famous ‘Z’ brand revived by Japanese manufacturer Nissan. The car has
been specially chosen for its challenging but hugely entertaining
rear-wheel drive dynamics and the time trial should allow GT novices
and veterans alike to get a real idea of what its like to get to grips
with this sensational car.
To enter the Academy racers will have to post their best overall
leaderboard times negotiating a specially created section of a new Gran
Turismo 5 circuit. This best time will be a composite of two separate
runs – one with the tuned vehicle and the other with the non-tuned
version. You will have the opportunity to keep refining your overall best
time from the launch of the demo right up until the close of this time
trial stage at 24.00 CET on 24th January 2010. To give a flavour of what the GT Academy is all about, check out this trailer.
Click YouTube logo to watch in higher resolution
The GT Academy will run in the following countries:
UK, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Italy,
Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal,
Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, New Zealand However gamers in countries not mentioned on the list need not fear
as there will be a special Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge for them
to get to grips with it, too. If you want to keep up to date with what’s happening with GT5 and the GT Academy 2010 keep checking back on the PlayStation.Blog and also check out the following links. www.gran-turismo.com GT fans get ready to start your engines! Endquote |
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