Remember GT5 Signature Edition Challenge, which offered the chance to win a real-life Mercedes SLS AMG? The unique B-Spec competition took place in January and the next stage has finally been announced, with the top-placed finishers headed to the Red Bull Ring in Austria for their chance to compete for the top prize.
As Mercedes-Benz has announced on their Facebook page, they’ll be in very good hands. Former F1 driver David Coulthard and five-time DTM champion Bernd Schneider will judge their on-track performances, all of which will be carried out behind the wheel a real SLS AMG.
The contest begins July 11th. Until then, you can take a look at the competitors or chat with most of them here in our forums. Good luck, guys! Thanks to Daniel for the tip.
See more articles on David Coulthard, GT5 Signature Edition, GT5 SLS AMG Signature Edition Challenge, and Mercedes SLS AMG.
Go Steven,make S.A proud
Lets see. 97 3rd in champ. 2000 3rd, 2001, 2nd and beat mika hak in same car. 2002 5th and beats kimi in same car. 2006 beats webber in same car with double his points. 2007 beats webber in same car with 1.4 times his points. Its a pity he happened to retire when he did. who would have guessed red bull would become the powerhouse they did. I reckon that based on his past performances that he would have been right in the hunt for the title last year.
Cold Turd shouldn’t be judging ANYONE! He sucked while in F1 and should be counted lucky to have had a good paying job for so long. He’s not even a HAS BEEN; he’s a NEVER WAS.
If winning 13 grand Prix F1 wins is sucking, I want to suck at F1 as well.
He sucked for way too long, and he was only looked good because his car was good. In an average or above average car, he stunk. Look at his record compared to his teammates: he got owned. So yeah, he sucked.
Wow, DC looks thrilled to be involved with this.
>_>
So much begrudgery, how sad.
Go Irish Guy.
Hey, give them a little credit. Nobody can change the radio station in a car faster. At least not without a script……..
Err slight query. The first line in the trailer is “they proved their skills in a game”. Simply not true. Their B-spec drivers did
:rolleyes: I can assure you that every one who qualified put 100+ hours into perfecting racescripts and improving their times by analysing the b-spec game mode and their input timing. Sure it is not as “pure” user input as A-spec, but we proved our skill in b-spec (also a game). Getting a bit fed up with the elitist hate towards us finalists, we did not make the rules, but we won with the rules we were given. I agree that even if the competition meant to show off B-spec, there should have been an A-spec part of the qualifing process, but nothing I can do about that.
B-spec is a game, it’s different, but it was very, very, very challenging. Hundreds of hours put in and I’d say i had 100’s of pages of notes too.
Proving your skills in B-spec or in A-spec really makes no difference, they’re both games when it comes down to it.
some say he has a huge chin, and he does because he is David Coulthard.
But thats not Coulthard… that Kryten from Red Dwarf ;)
Now this gives me motivation to do the B-Spec races that have two more laps than the A-Spec races!
Using a computer is hard for you I see. Such effort for such a crapolla troll post. Get a different hobby. Something involving crayons mabey……….
B-spec is crap and a waste of time.
Pure crapolla!
Pure crap. All of it.
So how old will this car be by the time they give it away?
@Sjur Breivik; where did you hear that there is an A-spec time trial part to the event? I’ve heard nothing of the sort. As far as I’m aware, it’s all real driving.
You did not get the Schedule?
Day1 July 11
17.00 –18.30 – Meet & Greet, introduction to AMG Driving Academy and presentation of the event schedule
18.30 –20.00 – Dinner
20.00–21.30 – CHALLENGE 1: GT5 Time Trial
I got the schedule but it did not include anything about a time trial.
Actually, guyfos got the same schedule.
Personally I was hoping it would all be real driving events, looks like there’s 1 time trial and 4 other real driving events.
Cool, looking forward to the two racing legends comment on the contenders track performance.
The fails on you. He was saying that he thought this was cool, and now he’s going to go play GT5. He was NOT saying he was first.
Nice each-way bet on the fail there loser.
If the winner of the AMG is from the US, I would love to see the look on his face when he tries to register the vehicle and is forced to pay a use tax. A $500,000 USD car at approx. 8% = $40,000 USD. Now, I’m not advocating setting up an offshore account with a foreign corporation or anything, but…
Well, I just looked at the list of competitors, and there are none in the top 15 from the US. I don’t know the laws of these other countries, but perhaps they have a similar tax?
Since noone from the US is among the final 15, that will not be an issue :) however, Taxing the car in Norway costs more than buying the car in Germany, so I will have issues with that as well.
Good luck with the race Sjur! Hope you do great.
Thank you Primus, so do I. Rented me an E-class and have memorized the Red Bull Ring from the DTM there, wish i could prepare more but I have no racetrack near me, Norway sucks at tarmac based motorsports. It will be fantastic fun no matter how I do in the competition.
Note the SE competition was never open to U.S. residents (nor was the SE edition of GT5 available here).
plus winner will have to report to IRS $500,000 USD gift and pay tax on it.
Do you think thats much,
for example a Camaro SS’ price starts at 31000 US Dollars,
In the Netherlands the Camaro costs 86000 euro’s converted thats 123000 US Dollars !!!
@mclarenfreak HOLY CRAP
Lykke til Sjur !!!
No one from Sweden :(
oh well. Go Sjur from Norway!
Thank you, Johan, I will do my very best. :)
This is gonna be epic. I wonder when the contest will actually be finished. Also, were there any pictures of the prize car released?
They said they honed their skills in GT5? They pressed buttons to command the AI on what to do for qualifying!!! Can we please drive the SLS for a competition next time please.
Yeah, and we did that better than the rest of the ones who entered. The competition was on equal terms for all participants, if it makes you feel any better, the first part of the Driving event will be A-spec time trials on GT5.
Hey! This doesn’t look anything like my dualshock 3! What the heck are all these extra buttons on the dash, and which one makes the car speed up and pass….? XD
Good luck to those finalists. It’ll be such an awesome experience for you all.
To an extent I have to agree with ‘This is so fake’. They shouldn’t have said that their skills were honed in GT5 (video above) when the first part of the competition was more of a role-playing game than a driving simulator.
B-spec will hone your driving skills as much as A-spec does (zero). At the end of the day it’s a game.
@danben – Disagree. Perfect example is Dan Holland. Alien quick in GT5, barely any experience in real life driving but would have been a contender for the GT Academy contract in 2010 if he didn’t cock up the media stuff.
what do you mean would’ve been a contender? Was he winning? I don’t know the story
I don’t call people repeatedly pushing each other off track “media stuff”, but it does reflect some of the online races, so I guess you could draw a connection between GT5 and real life in that regards. lol.
From the forums in reference to GTA 2010:
“This is what attending “Vrrm” from TORC had to say about the battle between Dan and Steven.
“Many thought the Australian final might be a Dan Holland white wash, but not so. GTP_Devie (Steven Devjak) fought to and fro all day during the heats. Indeed during the first of the semi’s an incident resulted in Dan going off while Devie won. This meant that Dan had to win the 2nd semi just to get into the final, starting from 3rd on the grid he managed to get the win, but not without controversy, as Devie was nudged off the track during the event.The final which included tepez1985, joshmuggo, GTP_Devie and GTP_Holland was tooth and nail, all took a turn in the lead and during the middle laps of the 8 lap race Dan Holland and Devie were wheel to wheel, until in another racing incident, Devie went off.””
@Clunk – The “media stuff” was from the GT Academy 2010 in Silverstone. Dan Holland was 2nd quickest in the 370Z time attacks in the first 2 days but they didn’t take him through to the next day because he failed to show up to the judged media events on the evening of day 1 (because he was fatigued or something? He could’ve won the thing outright had he made it through to the 3rd day).
I think the point was that he shouldn’t have gotten that far in the first place. That kinda racing gets you kicked from many a room. I don’t think it’s coincidence he didn’t make it to a simple media event after that either.
@Chris – I think the original point was if you’re very good in a game called Gran Turismo 5 in A-Spec mode then it’s more likely than not that you’ll be good in driving in real life also (ie – You can hone your driving skills playing GT5 A-Spec. Not B-Spec).
………….and become a real life punter.
@Chris – Stop going of topic. The article is called the Mercedes’ GT5 Driving Challenge, not “Dan Holland shouldn’t have made it to Silverstone in 2010”.
To sum it all up: A-Spec -> Can hone real life driving skills. B-Spec -> Most likely doesn’t. Therefore the Mercedes’ GT5 Driving Challenge is a -> Sugar coated event that doesn’t tell us the full story in order to co-promote Gran Turismo with Mercedes-Benz.
Anyway good luck to the finalists. I hope that if they have events like these in the future; we get less of the sugar-coated BS that these corporations give us.
In otherwords: Don’t go off topic with points that counter his off topic topic. Oh, and there are only two people who read/post on these pages. Him and Chris.
Actually, the title is “David Coulthard, Bernd Schneider to Judge Mercedes’ GT5 Driving Challenge”, not “Playing a video game will give me the delusion that my driving has improved to pro levels has a result.”, or “A-spec is better than B-spec for making better drivers.”
But anyway……If your driving has improved by any measurable amount from playing GT5, or any other driving game, your a pretty bad driver in the first place, and most likely still are a bad driver after the fact as well.
@Facepalm – You’re doing the same right now you hypocrite (you’re reading this page AND going off topic). Please read my posts as they don’t go off topic despite countering danben, clunk and Chris.
@GTP_Brick – I didn’t see your username in any of the GT Academy National Finals…In my opinion you’re not really in a position to give a definitive answer regarding how ‘honing’ one’s skills in Gran Turismo 5’s A-Spec mode directly translates in someone being a bad driver in the first place. Your commenting fashion on this specialist game website suggests that you’re in no real position anywhere at all (in terms of judging how honing driving skill in the virtual world affects driving skill in the real world). Please give substantiated examples along with your claims before making them (as I have done so with my ‘opinions’ in my previous posts). Otherwise you are just wasting the website owner’s server space and hosting bandwidth in making a comment that doesn’t add much value to the discussion.
EVERYTHING the kid has posted in his last seven posts is off topic, unsubstanciated, drivel, but the rest of you people are not allowed to discuss it because all of your opinions are unqualified and wastes of server space. Now THAT’S funny……..
I know, right? Technically it was all off topic.
But hey, I only spend 40+ hours a week in a patrol car, and teach high speed driving to rookies when not doing that. Not dedicating my off time to pursuing a career I don’t want, via a video game, means I am not qualified to know the difference between real life and a game. How dare I post an opinion. So yah, we’re all hypocrites blah blah blah. Excuse us for not dedicating our lives pretending to better ourselves with 60 dollar software on a PS3 game console. Forgive us for living in the real world.
This^^
Ouch! XD
Be carefull guys. Have too much fun jerking the fanboys chains and Kaz might get the idea we want him to add it to GT6 has a new event/feature. That could translate to an additional year of dev time minimum. Rofl
I love the part where GTKM either doesn’t understand what hypocrite means, doesn’t know what sarcasm is, or just plain lacks in reading comprehension in general. And following it up by telling people that they don’t count because they don’t have A VIDEO GAME RECORD, lol, classic. Such statements just go to show the level of ignorance a person can sink to when their beliefs are threated, but they have no real argument to defend their faith with.
@GTKM_ I really doubt any good driver would hone their real life skills in A-spec, unless they were a poor driver, or an inexperienced driver in the first place.
HOWEVER, I will say that talented real life drivers have a natural advantage in A-spec. GT5 plays to drivers skills, which is good, but it won’t teach a kid how to drive.
umad A-Spec noobs?
For the record: A-Spec rules, B-Spec’s for nerds, and Mercedes’ GT5 Driving Challenge is a complete marketing rip off!!! aahhahahahaha
For the record, illiterate trolls, posting crap in half english, when they obviously have no clue what the conversation was about in the first place, do a wonderfull job of making fools of themselves, while also proving low maturity and ignorance does little for debate, but makes for excellent examples of how too much dedication to video games causes brain damage. (aahhahahahaha)
On the bright side, the rest of us can rest assured “Brick Diller” is NOT going to be one of future leaders of tommorow. Future prison inmate mabey, but leader, no, not even in prison. (Yet again, aahhahahahaha)
Alrighty, Let’s get the ball rolling again. You fail^^ – have you ever stopped to consider where the name “Brick Diller” was from? Scroll up and you’ll see GTP_Brick and Ben Diller. HINT HINT? GTP_Brick, Ben Diller, Brick Diller?!?! Ring any bells!?!? Quite a sophisticated troll you were dealing with IMO. Definitely more creative than someone who posts under the “You fail^^” pseudonym. Anyway less focus on ‘You Fail^^’. Don’t want him to receive too much attention now ;)
GTP_Brick’s turn. Y U LIE? Y U SAY U DRIVE PATROL CAR WHEN U PROLI DON’T?!?!? The GTP_ tag on your name may suggest that you occassionaly compete in one of GTPlanet’s weekly race series; which may suggest that you take a keen interest in the A-Spec section of Gran Turismo (ie – the simulated driving part); which may suggest that you get a reasonable amount of practise in that section of the game, which may suggest that you’re pretty handy in A-Spec, which may suggest that you wouldn’t have minded to give a couple of online time trials a crack. Can I now ask you, GTP_Brick, why is your username non-existent in the GTPlanet username database? And why is it non-existent in any online leaderboards? I’m willing to bet cold hard cash that GTP_Brick is an alter ego of someone who’s posted on this article before. Perhaps one of the B-Spec wh0r3s that made it in the Mercedes’ GT5 Driving Challenge final; just backing themselves up because GTKM_’s arguments are sound?
Another thing that got me thinking…anyone who reads and comments beyond this post (gtplanet.net/david-coulthard-bernd-schneider-to-judge-mercedes-gt5-driving-challenge/#comment-84246) with a counter argument (counter troll?) to GTKM_ has not done a thorough investigation of the topic in hand and/or has a heavy bias towards being correct. Sounds like you who commented after GTKM_’s reply (linked above) have a reasonably vested interest in the topic of “A-Spec is no better than B-Spec” and/or “Dan Holland isn’t all that he’s cracked up to be” (excluding the Sherlock Holmes nature of Peanut Gallery’s post; the Sunday sermon style post of Dan K.; and the completely underwhelming impact of what “d” had to say). I’m not sure if this is the place for A-Spec and Dan Holland haters to congregate :/. GT5 is an A-Spec focused game (and therefore GTPlanet is an A-Spec focused website) after all.
Anyway, stream of conscience over. We’ll see how some of these adamant B-Spec fanboys fare in that marketing stunt they call the Mercedes’ GT5 Driving Challenge this weekend anyway. Good luck to the ones with very little experience on the seat of a €150,000 sports car (or something of a comparable performance). You’ll definitely need it after doing all that B-Spec BS and reading the replies to this article hhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Allways great when the kiddies get blindly led into total meltdown. A four paragraph tantrum is always a great way to destroy any hopes of maintaining credibility to boot. Especially when the topic you replied to was “This is gonna be epic. I wonder when the contest will actually be finished. Also, were there any pictures of the prize car released?” and you go on a multipost rant about a-spec vs b-spec, people who have credentials are liars, obvious trolls are somehow superior in creativity some way, and everybody else is some kind of idiot. And of course everybody that puts “GTP” in a username must make use of leaderboards and such, so there must be some kind of conspiracy. It couldn’t be that they just like GTP.
But thanks for the wee bit of reading entertainment on this lazy afternoon . Somehow I don’t think the ball “will get rolling again” though. Obviously you are not prepared for any serious discussion, given you just hijacked somebody elses unrelated post, started an argument about things not even remotely included in the main article, then rather childishly attacked almost everyone that didn’t agree with you instead of trying the more adult route of mature debate. Obviously now your just trolling because you got your can handed to you on a platter. Have fun trying though.
L8R…….