GT Academy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy1JwoQMk9s

New Seasonal Events are available in Gran Turismo 5 to GT Academy 2012 participants who achieved all Gold times in Round 5 of the competition and were awarded with the Nissan SKYLINE GT-R (R34) (GT Academy) ’02.

The second phase of GT Academy 2012 is now complete, with no less than a dozen national finals taking place across Europe and in the United States.

The famous Silverstone Circuit has just been added to Google Maps’ Street View, which now lets you virtually tour the entire length of the 3.6-mile Grand Prix course.

August is the big month for the race camp finalists from the four GT Academy regions – Russia, Germany, the USA and the eleven eligible European countries – this year, but Sony and Nissan have revealed a surprise for hitherto excluded gamers.

After a spectacular opening to the 2012 Spa 24 hours, the GT Academy RJN Motorsport team were forced to retire from the race with undiagnosed electrical issues.

As reported earlier in the month, 2009 GT Academy champion and LMP2 racer Lucas Ordonez has joined the RJN Motorsport Blancpain Endurance team for the Spa 24 Hours this weekend.

A new bundle version of GT5 has been announced this lunchtime for Europeans – the Academy Edition, to celebrate the fourth year of the Sony/Nissan tie-in of GT Academy.

Although Gran Turismo players from Asia didn’t have the chance to become a racing driver, the top players in the region still have an interesting prize to look forward to.

If you thought the 33rd “Racer X” wildcard position brought a dramatic twist to the U.S. GT Academy finals in San Diego last weekend, you’ll be very surprised to find out what the competitors in Portugal had to contend with!

Six UK and Republic of Ireland players have booked their places for a Silverstone return at next month’s Boot Camp, following two days of gruelling virtual and real driving and fitness challenges.

As those of you who tuned in to the live stream already know, the top 16 finalists in the U.S. region of GT Academy 2012 were determined this weekend in a dramatic event held in San Diego, California during Comic-Con.

After eight long weeks of online time trials held in the GT Academy 2012 mini-game, the top 33 Gran Turismo players in the United States have earned their place in the National Finals.

A series of special new Seasonal Events have just been announced for Gran Turismo 5, which feature the prize cars earned in the GT Academy 2012 mini-game.

The one and only U.S. GT Academy 2012 wildcard event is taking place today, Thursday, July 12, in San Diego, California! The winner, who will be known as “Racer X”, will take home the custom HumanRacing GT Chassis pictured above and join the top 32 U.S. contestants in the finals this weekend for a chance to go to Silverstone.

The top 32 drivers from Spain met last weekend in Barcelona for their regional GT Academy 2012 finals.

Yesterday, the first prize (a Nissan Leaf) earned by participants in the GT Academy 2012 mini-game was distributed to players in Gran Turismo 5, but it wasn’t yet clear when the others would become available.

If you achieved “Gold” times in the GT Academy 2012 mini-game, your efforts are about to be rewarded! Prizes earned in the competition’s time trials are now being distributed to players in Gran Turismo 5.

As announced by Nissan earlier this week GT Academy’s first winner, Lucas Ordoñez, will be reunited with his Le Mans teammates Martin and Alex Brundle. The trio will be driving the Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan for the next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Silverstone on 26th August.

Kazunori Yamauchi will be attending GameLab 2012, a video game developer’s conference to be held this weekend in Barcelona, Spain. He will be receiving an Honor Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and will be delivering a speech on the Gran Turismo series and GT Academy.