GT Academy 2011 - General Discussion

[Dessy182]

Some great points there.

With all that in mind, I still had no proper race experience in karting or a license, and I still managed to top the overall results in driving, fitness and media combined.

I see this competition as my best chance to have a career in motor sport, so I am already focusing on next year.

I feel that my failure this year as a blessing in disguise - I probably would not have went all the way at Silverstone and thus ruled out any chance of competing in future finals. I plan to improve my consistency in the gaming element and next time around dominate in all fields. Nothing is ever certain, but I know that deep down I have with it takes and thats all that matters.

 

[Hugo Boss]

I take it you're feeling better again?

I'd say this disappointment made you mentally stronger, making you better prepared in case you'd make it to Silverstone next time.
Don't become too confident though, as I plan on making it to Silverstone as well next time

 

[Tidgney]

There is still pressure at home, obviously not as much but theres still some pressure when on a super flying lap. Especially with the competition this year as it was extremely close, and a long long.

@ Dessy and Hugo Ill join you both at Silverstone next time hopefully !

 

[spyrrari]

I take it you're feeling better again?

I'd say this disappointment made you mentally stronger, making you better prepared in case you'd make it to Silverstone next time.
Don't become too confident though, as I plan on making it to Silverstone as well next time

(((as I plan on making it to Silverstone as well next time)))) Oh reallyy???.....


👍👍👍



spy.

 

[Timppaq]

Congratulations to all who has made it through this far! 👍 Great job! That's all I can say!

Reading all these stories of the national finals make me happy, the whole event is clearly going into the right direction and I can't imagine how great is it to drive a real car against your fellow gamers

Many GTP'ers have made it through already but surely would have liked to see even more familiar faces from here to proceed to the next stages. Hopefully this format has generally been proven to be a great way of advertisement for Nissan & Playstation and therefore should hopefully continue in the future also.

The 2nd stage of the competition is always fierce and you'll never know what's going to happen. This time though you can really see the step forward that the organisation has taken. Bringing the real driving & the fitness & the media to the picture already at this point must only mean even more fierce competition @ Silverstone and in my mind was a major step forward. Of course coming from a small country I hope that we will not be forgotten in future any more and as many countries as possible will be eglible to participate again.

Anyway, well done everyone who made it to the stage 2 and if you didn't make it to the next round, hopefully there will be a next time. And also, I'm sure there is still a lot of hidden talents out there for Sony & Nissan to find..

 

[mrngorickets]

Hi,

Thanks very much for this comment. It help me to think about my ideals.

Tks again and pls keep posting.

 

[Ingram]

This is not horribly disimilar to the path that Lucas took, in his second year Lucas wasn't even starting in the most current Nissan GT4 car, he had the 2009 350Z. Lucas got an opportunity to race the LMP2 Nissan at Silverstone and his current path to Le Mans started there. Jordan may well receive that opportunity too

In addition to this, Jordan recently got a job working as an engineer for a GT3 Porsche team in France, so he already has his foot in the door in a class one step up from where he currently is. Considering his ability, I would be surprised if they didn't at the very least let him have a test in their car..

Nothing is ever certain, but I know that deep down I have with it takes and thats all that matters.

A strong self belief is very important to succeed, and this statement suggests you'll do fine on that front. If you have doubts about whether you will win, it is almost certain that you wont. If I can put a positive spin on things for you, if the only thing letting you down slightly is GT5, then you can improve this much more easily than, say, if you weren't any good in the car, or were unfit.

 

[Dessy182]

A strong self belief is very important to succeed, and this statement suggests you'll do fine on that front. If you have doubts about whether you will win, it is almost certain that you wont. If I can put a positive spin on things for you, if the only thing letting you down slightly is GT5, then you can improve this much more easily than, say, if you weren't any good in the car, or were unfit.

Cheers Alex, it's nice to hear that coming from someone like yourself.

Yes, overconfidence is never good, so all I can do is simply make sure I am in the best physical and mental shape when the time comes and also play GT5 every now and then along the way. 👍

 

[Spud_Skills]

What an amazing 2 days! I didn't really know what to expect before going as I had never been to an event anything like it before, but wow. Not only was the gaming side of it a lot of fun, but the fact there were always cars/bikes going around the track as well made for some great spectating (including the lotus/ferrari drama that happened!) Not only that, but the passenger laps in the 370Z were insane (Alex was a beast).

As my preparation for the event was terrible, I was just glad I didn't finish last in all of the rounds! The fact I normally use the braking line (no hate ) and the pad left me a slight disadvantage when it came to the gran turismo aspect of it, which is a shame as I felt I could of done well in the other areas of the competition. Still great fun though and met loads of cool people, think I should of gone to sleep earlier than 4am though for day 2!

Only criticism was that credit system at the hotel, it was a mission just to get a single drink, much preferred the free Sol's that were handed out at the track! 👍

 

[Capp96100]

you know the provisional standings of Italian gtacademy? just finished the first phase.
ps: sorry for my english!

 

[MarkWebber]

Daniel,i am a bit amazed YOU wrote this...

As you've been thru this gtacademy proces yourself,you know that your initial qualifying time set at home in all comfort etc etc,has nothing todo with how you perform during the national finals where you have to deal with the stress,background noises,flashing camera's,limited amount of laps,etc etc etc....

Yes there are probably always faster guys around for that 1 super lap,but to win your national final and achieving the goal of winning in silverstone,requires other things than being the fastest hotlapper in gt5...doesn't it??.... 💡





spy.

%

^Percentage? What happened to my 100 ish word post? Oh well. Anyways Spyrrari, hope you had an enjoyable experience in the national final, I still stand by my word in that the Online TT is a good predictor in who will eventually win or feature highly in a head to head racing format in Gran Turismo, only If its run fairly ofcourse.

 

[davissi]

Guys, I'm not gonna lie, I'm having a tough time here - I've been on a massive low for the last 2 days. I'm finding it very hard to stop thinking about it and move on.

I finished 2nd in driving to a professional drifter
I finished =1st in media to a television presenter
I finished 3rd in fitness behind a pro decathlon athlete

If it was judged just on the real world challenges I would have came in first, but I had a bad day in GT5. I got knocked out in the quarter finals - so did 3 other guys at the same time but I guess my time was slower than theirs because of my little spin.

It just absolutely kills me to think that I could be going to Silverstone if I had just kept behind the leader and didn't push. I had already lost so I wasn't even thinking about the gap.

Obviously I'm not alone, 19 others like me missed out too - everyone else has their own lives and problems. I just put so much in and now there's nothing to show for it...

There's always two ways of looking at things really though Des, those fitness tests certainly weren't what myself or Ed expected, I know Ed tried later to do the plank with a his stomach almost hitting the floor like Dave Rose instead of being a 'plank' and lasted 4 and a half minutes, the media thing was odd because it was just open to interpretation. For example, my interview went really really well, I answered immediately with comprehensive enthusiastic confident answers wasn't nervous and engaged with everyone in the room and got some very positive acknowledgement but I was off their Radar in the first place so why give me any points ? (6th)

In terms of the gaming I spoiled it for myself no-one really helped me into that, I wouldn't have won day 1 because of Cape Ring which I refused to risk the curbs took me ages to get up to speed in that car, but I could've easily won day two as easily as come last. Ed got ripped off by being forced to overtake when he should've been put in front on the grid for the first knockout.
As for the real driving well cones isn't really a test of potential racing talent especially if you're up against people who've been drifting for years or have done many driving experiences like yourself this year. I've done 2 track experiences both on circuits with limited laps, deciding for us to chuck it around a load of cones I'd say is more about budget than finding talent I would've thought. Ed's last but one lap (before he hit the cones on his last) was 29.5 seconds but he came last ? It is odd this competition when it comes to the finals they didn't get it right in '08, '10 or '11. I did really well last year and kinda messed it up for myself by getting tangled up with Dan Hyperspeed which is another thing but again the format was poor, many fast solid racers who made no errors got turfed out by over enthusiastic desperate moves by much slower drivers, I got through to the final final but not after getting rammed twice into turn 1 at Fuji sending me down the field and scrapping for 4th and 5th so qualified on laptime.

Nevermind, the only answer is to keep on trying, not myself, the people who really want to get to Silverstone now should just keep on trying until they get a better format, they keep changing it anyway that's a start.

 

[Piket]

Congratulations to the winners and also to Rutter for being the fastest @ the game.

I'm amazed at the fact that the guys were evaluated on fields like media and fitness. About fitness, i understand , they probably wouldn't want a 300 pound racer heading to Silverstone, but it should work like as a pass/ fail test and not be evaluated in the overall performance(at least at this stage of the competition). As for the media thing, it's just a joke.

 

[Stotty]

Just read through the last few pages to catch up.

Sounds like the finalists had a cracking time this year

Congratulations guys

 

[PR1VATEJ0KER]

Congratulations to the winners and also to Rutter for being the fastest @ the game.

I'm amazed at the fact that the guys were evaluated on fields like media and fitness. About fitness, i understand , they probably wouldn't want a 300 pound racer heading to Silverstone, but it should work like as a pass/ fail test and not be evaluated in the overall performance(at least at this stage of the competition). As for the media thing, it's just a joke.

Sure the media part isnt anything to do with your driving ability, but teams need charming friendly drivers that can attract sponsorship and are very likable. As well as winning races, sometimes the attraction of sponsors with a driver can be just as important to a team.

 

[Capp96100]

GT Academy Italy:
1° Bordins
2° Svarios by GTClub!!!!!!!!!

 

[Charliesan21]

Hey guys, was great to see you all at the event, and well done for the two finalists! For the rest of us, a bit of a dissapointment of course, but looking at it as a sportman, this should just make us even more determined for the next year (let it be) !!!

As I only have the game for a few moths, I knew I need some kind of a miracle to get to top10, so now I have some time to learn the tracks, cars, tyres, settings etc...

Hope once the PSN is back I can catch up with some of you for some online fun, as I never raced this game online...

Also a question, just realised the 370Z GT Academy edition is not in the game, is there any chance to "buy" one? Or any way to get it? Would be a big help, would love to try it!!!!

For all the organisators, well done guys, great effort and a really professionaly organised event! I pointed out some suggestions for the next year in a private letter, hope thouse helped and will see you again next year!

Just an idea, would you guys mind to drop your real names as well? Quite difficult to match the faces with two names, maybe we should post up the group photo and we can all mark ourselfes with names )

 

[Jools_75]

Maybe you can obtain this last edition GT Academy 370Z with a level ticket when a new update for gt5 will be released. I have all of three Academy cars, the previous two can be find with the PP17 ticket if I remind correctly. Actually it's quite some time I don't play GT5.

By the way, italian people have their two finalists for Silverstone, today (I was in Rome attending italian finals) I can tell you these winners: GTCM_Bordins and Svarious. I'm quite proud to say that FIVE of the last ten qualified for the final italian event are member of my GT5 fan group: the GT5 GT Club Motorsport (gtclubmotorsport.forumfree.it) better known as GTCM.
GTCM_Egeo_226, leader driver of the team, first place in italian regional time trial contest since day one, placed third in that last final.

Sorry if I may seem a little off topic, just want you to know who represents my country lol!

 

[marsal10]

Congratulations to the Italian winners!!

I have been checking the GT Academy facebook and there is no information about the Italian final. Hope they update the information soon to now the details.

I´m waiting for the Spanish&Portugal finals, in which I have been invited through a Wild Card. They communicate me last week that I would be in the Finals, what a surprise! As you can guess, I didn´t expect to be there because my time trial was 2,18.1...

 

[Synwraith]

Hey guys,

Here are two articles from MSN Cars writer Dan Trent who attended the second day of the GT Academy 2011 UK/Ireland territorial finals:

MSN Cars:
http://cars.uk.msn.com/news/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=157442118

MSN Cars Blog:
http://cars.uk.msn.com/blog/inside-track-blogpost.aspx?post=c216a073-4257-4a98-a18f-e285d65aa467

Dan Trent himself, and Media competition winner Chris Knapman (from the Telegraph) were pretty handy on GT5 and had clearly dedicated some hours to it before

All the best
Maz

 

[Herbok9]

PSN back up now guys im just downloading update now. Im going to send a few friend requests to a few people I have met here, so I can race some of you finalists.

After reading all the recent comments I think the national finals were almost perfect for filtering out the talent. all the aspects included were all important to becoming a real racing driver.

I do think it is slightly unfair that there was a semi-pro drifter. The advantage he had over the other finalists will have been throttle control in the real car driving.

While typing this I downloaded the update on the PS3 but signing in after the update still says under maintenance???

Edit: So PSN is not back up

 

[spyrrari]

👍

%

^Percentage? What happened to my 100 ish word post? Oh well. Anyways Spyrrari, hope you had an enjoyable experience in the national final, I still stand by my word in that the Online TT is a good predictor in who will eventually win or feature highly in a head to head racing format in Gran Turismo, only If its run fairly ofcourse.

I did Daniel,very much... 👍

But you ,again, don't get my point man...

let me put it as simple as i can:

There has never been a man winning the GTacademy ,or any other contest like this,who is by talent- the fastest guy/man/dude..in the game...

If they would,you would have won it by a mile last year!!...but....

You are one of the/if not the/fastest gt driver out there...but still,you screwed up(sorry to put it this way)at the silverstone finals...

So am i mistaken to say you were wrong in your statement i reacted to initially?...

Your call mate.. 👍






spy.

 

[MarkW-63]

PSN now back up and running in full, with TT's and Lounge. See you there.

 

[Pippo46]

Gt Academy 2011 final (Rome): best experience in my life! I've met fantastic people with my same passion. After day one I reach the 2 place (Egeo 1) and was a great result because of I use the wheel only for 1 month before the final! Unfortunately I'm not too strong for push ups and I'm not much phisical...so I knew that I can't get the 1 or 2 place...driving the 370z was amazing...what a car man!! It was my first time on a car with 330 hp because of my age (19)!!! Luca Lorenzini and Giacomo Cunial (last gt academy finalist at silverstone) are very nice people and I have to thanks them for some tips during the 2 days! Hope to see all the people next year!!

 

[Rutter200_VR46]

Just a video from the auto test. This was my 3 practice runs, thankfully my timed runs were not caught on camera

Was recorded on a digital camera so quality isn't super.

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

Will hopefully have another video up tomorrow night.

 

[davissi]

That was a good 3rd lap though 28.5 looks like. Very controlled, that cone thing is one of those things where given a chance you could really get the hang of it but 5 laps is just rubbish, barely any feedback to digest at all and everyone is bound to over do it. Should've been 15 laps around a short track or 7-10 laps around Brands Indy. Quite a lot to ask but come on why the hell should we put that amount of time and effort into something and then be given such a poor return.
Seriously shorted changed. Its just asking for people to go out and get experience from somewhere even more than the previous years, totally against the spirit of the GT Academy. Watch next year now they'll all have different levels of experience from somewhere.
Lars was by far the best example of what was asked for, no experience at all just a German Taxi driver, shame it didn't work out for him.

 

[Ingram]

David, the auto tests, from a judging perspective, are very useful for assessing a driver's talent. It enables the judges to assess car control at a low (i.e. safe) speed, and is also a good test for spacial awareness, and how one deals with pressure. It also shows how quickly a driver is able to learn a course/track, which from experience at Silverstone is a skill the judges are very keen to see. Bear in mind that at Silverstone we did two auto tests (one in a GTR, one in a 370) so they clearly have some benefit.

Whilst I agree that driving the Indy circuit would be a good (and fun!) test for the competitors, constraints with time and cost (which would be compounded should someone bin a car in the gravel, or worse still, crash), meant that they made a sensible choice.

Pippo46 - glad you enjoyed your finals! Getting behind the wheel of such a quick car for the first time is always fun Luca and Giacomo are both top blokes, and given their experience in previous finals, you really couldn't take advice from anyone better 👍

 

[davissi]

Well I totally disagree anyway, if they've got too many restrictions then they shouldn't do it at all rather than cut you off so short. There is no judge of physical performance in the world that limited. Surely youre not saying its a coincidence that the guy who has experience of drifting won the event ? By his own admission Ayrton Senna said he was useless in the wet, he couldn't keep up so he went out and practiced as much as he could.

 

[Dessy182]

I don't know why there is argument about this. Firstly I would imagine that you can't drive Brands Hatch on a track day without a national license. Secondly, we all had a fair chance at the cone course. I would have liked more runs because it was so much fun, but 4 practice laps to know the car and 2 timed runs was fine based on time limits.

Fair enough the guy who was fastest drifts and has a had a 350z, but at the end of the day there was still a field of inexperienced guys to compete against each other, one of which was Jann and he finished 3rd in driving right behind me in 2nd. The instructor told us what to do, we listened, we improved and we impressed him. You had that chance too, so please, no more complaining about such a futile topic.

 

[Ingram]

Surely youre not saying its a coincidence that the guy who has experience of drifting won the event ?

Not at all, in the same way that Ed is a Decathlete, so walked all over everyone in the fitness tests. I don't have a problem with either case. James had an advantage in the auto test and made the most of it. Ed was very fit, so won the fitness tests easily. Fair play to both of them.

I'm sure everyone would like a two hour test to prove their worth, but that wasn't feasible, and allowing each person five or six runs each is, at the very least, a judge of potential.