Nissan GT Academy - Turning gamers into real racecar drivers

Check this out (if you didn't already know)

Sign us up , all of us!

http://www.perthnow.com.au/technology/gaming/nissans-gt-academy-turns-gamers-into-real-racing-drivers/story-fnjwmf7g-1226826990734

Haha i'd buy a PlayStation for that

This essentially started in 2008.

I KNOW!!! whats wrong with us, I thought you guys were on top of this sort of shit hahaha
we could all be professional race drivers by now!

Look what the guy gets to drive...jaysus!
https://www.facebook.com/notes/gt-academy/lucas-ordonez-to-race-nissan-zeod-at-le-mans/10152729563558504

Haha didn't think I seen it in the article. 

Because Forza is better than GT?

I searched the Nissan GT academy and it does reference Forza within their own site and facebook profile.

we should be able to get a gig, weve been professional now since forza 2 .....surely? hah

Thats pretty cool. Like talent scouting of the digital era

TEEROY 34 wrote:I KNOW!!! whats wrong with us, I thought you guys were on top of this sort of shit hahaha
we could all be professional race drivers by now!

Look what the guy gets to drive...jaysus!
https://www.facebook.com/notes/gt-academy/lucas-ordonez-to-race-nissan-zeod-at-le-mans/10152729563558504

And he is also racing in Super GT this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPyKQNIawSY

And there is a big possibility that he will be doing the Pirtek Endurance Cup in V8Supercars with Nissan  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YQMXCXvtBE

Jann Mardenborough is closing in on the ultimate target for most any aspiring racing driver, he now has a clear path under his feet that leads straight to an F1 racing seat for the first time.

He is starting with GP3 for the 2014 season, where he’ll be joining Arden International owned by Red Bull Racing’s Team Principal in F1, Christian Horner. MW Arden has won the last two drivers’ championship in GP3 so Jann is likely in a good position for the chance to impress with his first year in the extremely competitive field.

“I feel ready for GP3,” said Mardenborough.

“I’ve prepared well and I have all the right people around me to help my development, so I can fully focus on my racing. I haven’t raced the GP3 car yet but, going on initial testing, I prefer the GP3 car to an F3 car. The power is very addictive! This season is my opportunity to impress more people in the sport who make the decisions on who makes it into F1 and who doesn’t and I’m going to give it my best shot.”

The 2011 British GT Academy Winner has worked hard for the opportunity, putting in excellent drives in Formula 3, the Toyota Racing Series, and testing much more powerful GP3 and World Series by Renault machinery, to name his single-seater experience alone. He has showcased raw talent with his performances matching much more seasoned up and coming drivers.

Now Red Bull’s taken an interest in developing a driver from a new perspective, with a custom program meant to truly take advantage of Jann’s unique background and skill set. They want to keep a close eye on how Jann works with his engineer at Arden for the GP3 season and how he utilizes time in the simulator, where he will be training a lot this year.

“They were really interested in me because of where I have come from and the PlayStation side of things so they were quite interested in my thoughts on their simulator. We are going to be working quite closely together throughout the season and it will help me learn the new tracks like Russia and the Hungaroring that I haven’t been to before and get me ready for GP3.”

The project is separate from the famous Red Bull Junior, or “Young Driver,” program which launched drivers such as Sebastien Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo. Red Bull Racing’s driver development manager Andy Damerum talks about his impression of GT Academy.

“We have been tracking Nissan’s innovative approach to motorsport and in particular GT Academy that challenges the status quo of motorsport. The traditional route to F1 of karting and single-seaters is a tried-and-tested success but Nissan and PlayStation have gone down a very different road and started to find some very talented drivers who have been doing all their practicing on a games console. I’m very interested to see how Jann fares on our programme and in GP3 this season and I look forward to taking him under the Infiniti Red Bull Racing wing to further progress his career. ”

One of Jann’s original mentors from GT Academy, former F1 driver Johnny Herbert, comments on Jann’s progress.

“I have been mightily impressed with what Jann has achieved since winning GT Academy. For someone with Jann’s experience doing so well is very rare to see. Last year he raced in the European F3 series which is hell of a tough challenge during your first season; the fact that it was Jann’s first season in any kind of single-seaters is incredible.

Whilst he has had a very successful first year in GT racing and he has now got an amazing result at Le Mans 24 Hours under his belt, he is competing against drivers that have grown up with seasons of karting and single-seater experience behind them. His talent has not only impressed me, but has now got experienced figureheads in motorsport talking about what Jann, Nissan and GT Academy are achieving.

The world of motorsport is recognising that GT Academy is helping bring talented young blood into the sport. The success of Jann and other GT Academy winners is also inspiring a new legion of gaming and motorsport fans by giving them a new route to becoming a professional racing driver. The only question that remains unanswered is ‘Can a gamer make it all the way to F1?”

Jann will be teamed with GP3 race-winners Robert Visoiu and Patric Niederhauser for this season. In 2013 he finished sixth in British F3, 13th in the European championship and completed the 2014 Toyota Racing Series as runner-up to Andrew Tang.

that's awesome, instant fan!
how many GT academy people are there racing atm?

One

TEEROY 34 wrote:that's awesome, instant fan!
how many GT academy people are there racing atm?

http://www.gran-turismo.com/au/academy/graduates/

But I think they build the enduro teams out of people who went through the program in general, not just the winners.

To be fair you could use any sim to achieve this really, just that PD along with Kaz and his Nissan connections have put together the framework to make it all possible. I have no doubt that T10 or Kunos could set up the same thing and achieve success. I'm not 100% sure but i think iRacing has something similar, or at least they've funded some publicity stunts with the same concept.

The good thing about the events that they run for the GTA is that its an incredibly tightly controlled environment. Theres no tuning, no assists, and i don't think you're even allowed the braking line. The people who normally top the leaderboards abusing the assists (in particular the anti-skid assist) won't do well here. Wish they did more events like these in general really, sucks to know that you won't get a good ranking because you're not using assists.

I consider myself to be not to bad at racing games, but I enterd gt academy and after spending the day trying my hardest I was sitting around the 160thousand mark. I guess im no good

STONDKIWI wrote:I consider myself to be not to bad at racing games, but I enterd gt academy and after spending the day trying my hardest I was sitting around the 160thousand mark. I guess im no good

I wouldn't feel too bad about it, every sim is different and have different nuances in their simulation. I wouldn't be surprised if you went back and did that event now with some healthy GT6 experience to your name that you'd be significantly faster.

gee it would be nice just to give it a crack wouldn't it.

wonder if we could drum up some interest for them for a prize of some sort, perhaps a day pass to their facility/factory/lolly shop.
Wheres Danno, he knows everything, he'll know someone fo sho ha