The VisionRacer Blog

The GT Academy 2010 Experience [Video]

Monday, May 03, 2010
Lets take a look at the GT Academy five day event.  This is one set of dreams coming true.  We expect this type of event to be a natural way for motorsport to progress.  Other manufacturers will work out that connecting via sim racing to there public will net huge results.  One look what Nissan have achieved in terms of "standing" by GT5 drivers for the Z cars.  The PR is huge but more importantly the "love" is being built.  (Not that we required too much convincing on the new GTR!)

Additionally, the driver gene pool is increased dramatically.  That was proven with Lucas Ordanez's performance last year.  The virtual to real is possible but wait until the sim drivers achieve star status it will make for a whole new motor sport world.







Jordan Tresson Wins Final Stage of GT Academy 2010

Friday, April 30, 2010
Jordan Tresson has been announced as the winner of GT Academy 2010. The 21-year-old Frenchman completed a short head-to-head test today on Silverstone’s new Grand Prix circuit against friend and rival Luca Lorenzini. The pair drove five flying laps each in the 420bhp Nissan 370Z GT4 race car that Tresson will now campaign in the 2010 European GT Cup series.

GT5 Creator Kazunori's Latest Interview

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

By Dean Gibson 20th April 2010


Gran Turismo is one of the biggest video game franchises in the world, having sold more than 53 million copies worldwide since the first game was released on Sony PlayStation in 1997, but the series has gone beyond the realms of the gaming world, and Gran Turismo’s creator, Kazunori Yamauchi, has become involved in projects with real-world car manufacturers.


From the centre console display on the Nissan GT-R to Toyota’s forthcoming data logging system, and even the GTbyCitroen concept car, Kazunori and Gran Turismo’s influence is firmly felt in the motoring mainstream.


Another avenue being explored by Gran Turismo is the concept of turning a computer gamer into a fully-fledged racing driver. The GT Academy by Nissan found its first star last year with Spaniard Lucas Ordonez, and now the contest is in its final week to find this year’s winner. The final two, Luca Lorenzini from Italy and Jordan Tresson from France, are competing for a seat in a Nissan 370Z run by RJN Motorsport, and will take part in the European GT4 Cup, which starts on 2 May at Silverstone.


Both drivers were competing in the Britcar championship at Snetterton, Norfolk, as part of their training, and Kazunori was there to check them out. We caught up with the Gran Turismo creator for a quick chat.


Have you been keeping up with news on the competitors in GT Academy?

Yes, it’s great to see Luca and Jordan transferring their skills in Gran Turismo to the real world. And it looks like it’s going to be a tough decision to pick a winner from the pair of them.

The GT Academy opened with an online time trail that more than a million people entered, and you posted a time on there for people to aim for. How much practise did you put in to set that time?

Only about an hour or so.

This is the second year of GT Academy in Europe, do you have any plans to run similar competitons in Japan or the US?

The GT Academy came about because of the collaboration between Sony Europe and Nissan. To set up similar packages in Japan and the US will be a lot of work, but we’re working to make it happen and we would like to see an international contest take place next year.

As well as GT Academy, you worked with Nissan on the centre console display for the GT-R. Plus, you’ve collaborated with Toyota on a data logging system and Citroen on the GTbyCitroen concept. Do you feel that these collaborations encourage other car manufacturers to get involved with Gran Turismo?

I think one of the reasons car manufacturers are interested in the GT series is that while it’s basically a video game, it has a far greater reach into the mainstream than you would expect from other video games.

How is your training for the Nurburgring 24 Hours going? (Kazunori is set to race a Lexus IS F in this year’s event (15-16 May), and will co-drive with Auto Express road tester Owen Mildenhall)

It’s going well. I tend to divide my time between practise playing GT and the physical training in the gym.

Does real-life competition help you to guide the way the GT series goes?

It’s certainly an inspiration. From my point of view, you have to try the real thing to convey what it’s like when playing the game.

How are you finding Snetterton today? How does UK motorsport compare with Japanese club racing?

In general it looks like people are having a lot more fun here. Sometimes racing in Japan can get very serious and they look like they’re not having that much fun.




Do you like to have fun when you race?

When you’re racing competitively it’s serious, but I know it’s not just about winning and losing. The fun factor you feel when racing is something that I want to bring across in GT.

On the subject of Gran Turismo, how do you decide which cars you are going to include in the game?

There are three factors, my personal choice, the cars that players want in the game and of course what the manufacturers want to see included.

Have you bought any cars lately that you want to add to the game?

I haven’t bought any cars lately, the last car I bought was a Nissan GT-R!

We have seen preview pictures and videos of Gran Turismo 5 that feature new cars such as the Ferrari 458 Italia, Lamborghini Gallardo and Mercedes SLS. These are pretty exciting models - are there any more cars that are still to come?

Yes, we’re holding back more exciting models for when the game is released.

A Japanese release date of March was announced for GT5, but this didn’t happen, can you offer any explanation why?

Deciding a release date for a game is always difficult, as it’s not something I can decide on my own. The agreement on a date comes between various parties at Sony, and it’s not necessarily a date I would be hoping for.

Would you have liked GT5 to be released by now?

Actually, I think that March would've been too early. We could have produced the game in time to make that deadline, but the finished product wouldn’t have had everything that I wanted to include.

You’ve been to the Pebble Beach Concours in California a number of times. Is that an indication that more classic cars will be making an appearance in the GT series?


There are a lot of cars that I’d like to see in the game, but it’s a long waiting list, and there’s not enough time to get them all in.

Are there any car makers that won’t be appearing in GT5 that you’d like to see in GT6?

GT5 will have a few historic models in it, but looking back at automotive history there are a lot of cars that would be nice to have. I couldn’t narrow it down to one manufacturer, but Porsche is definitely at the top of my wish list.


Thanks to: Rupert at Jardine International and Jordan at GTPlanet


Read more: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/251008/kazunori_interview.html#ixzz0lhjvVWoQ

GT5 Tokyo circuit on a VisionRacer VR3

Thursday, March 25, 2010
A lap around Tokyo in a Nissan 370z on the pre-release version of GT5. Filmed at the GT Academy in New Zealand. The rig is a VisionRacer VR3.

Motorsports Stars to Judge GT Academy 2010 Finals

Tuesday, March 02, 2010
The GT Academy 2010 Silverstone Finals are getting an extra boost of star power this year, with long-time F1 team manager Eddie Jordan, Nurburgring super-star Sabine Shmitz, and F1/sports car driver Johnny Herbert joining the team. Of all the new judges, the introduction of Eddie Jordan is perhaps the most significant, given his uncanny ability to choose and develop world champions. Eddie fostered the careers of Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill -- he even gave Michael Schumacher his first season in Formula 1. He also worked with Johnny Herbert, who himself enjoyed an 11-year career in F1 and a victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

From GTplanet

GT 5 – Full lap of Nordschleife

Sunday, February 14, 2010

This is the first video of a full lap on the Nürburgring Nordschleife in Gran Turismo 5, that shows a ride around the Green Hell from bumper cam view.

While the first video was filmed in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, this footage originates from the Nissan GT Academy finals. This results in neat driving as the driver obviously knows his way around the 16mile Nordschleife, driving the Nissan 370Z sports car.

Yep and coming to your home with head sensing and in 3D. Superb!



More Detail Nissan Academy Detail

Wednesday, December 09, 2009
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.

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.

GT Academy - More Detail

Tuesday, December 08, 2009


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

If you’re from one of these countries, you will get to compete for a chance to race with Nissan via the GT Academy driver search program. If you’re in the United States or Canada, you win…two tickets to the Indianapolis 500.


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).



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.


The Official GT Academy 2010 Press Announcement - Non US & Canadian Countries.

Monday, December 07, 2009
This announcement is directed at NON US & Canadian countries

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.



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.”

Kazunori Yamauchi, president of Polyphony Digital and creator of the Gran Turismo series, shares Wijnen’s enthusiasm. “This has been a very rewarding partnership. The whole GT Academy concept is very close to my heart. Our target with the Gran Turismo series has always been to come as close as possible to a real driving experience. To witness the level of driving achieved by GT players after a relatively short space of time at the GT Academy was very satisfying for me and I look forward to seeing the 2010 finalists in action. I am also very happy to have the opportunity for our GT community to have a preview of the Gran Turismo 5 game.”

The online section of the game will run from 17 December until 24 January with national finals following soon afterwards. The GT Academy itself takes place from 26 February until 3 March. The two winners will have to quickly clear their diaries, as their intensive training programme will start immediately and culminate in one driver racing in the opening European GT4 Cup race that could be at Silverstone on 2 May.

Ends

GT Academy 2010 Launches December 17th With Downloadable Time Trial

Friday, December 04, 2009

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.




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
www.facebook.com/GTAcademy
www.twitter.com/GTAcademy


GT fans get ready to start your engines!

Endquote

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