GT Academy European Race Camp

  • Thread starter Tom King
  • 93 comments
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han32solo
What? Care to explain in detail what happened? :/
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Partly down to the fact that the cars could not run in the day due to the heat. Meant basically we were doing nothing. I expected the tv stuff as i understand they need to make a show of it but the amount of track time(or lack of) was a pisstake.
 
Tom King
Partly down to the fact that the cars could not run in the day due to the heat. Meant basically we were doing nothing. I expected the tv stuff as i understand they need to make a show of it but the amount of track time(or lack of) was a pisstake.
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Cant believe they didnt think about that in when they decided to do the finals in Abu Dhabi..
 
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Basically they tell you you need to have a strong mental, the will to be a driver blablabla. So? We ended in a beautiful hotel with nothing to do other than spa, eat, swim, visit Ferrari world, and doing sport. This lasted 3 days, and on end of third day wooohoooo we had a 1m30 drive of a juke. We had to drift it with special tyres, and I did the best time of French team.
Next day I was told that the juke performance was not used anyway, they will kick 2 guys out of 8 directly through the physical challenge! No problem I trained like hell! But usually they wanted good drivers and just used sport to judge the mental... Not this time!
So anyway I ran, I swam, I paddled in a raft lol. 90% of the course I was 3 over 56 with plenty of juice to push. But... Got trapped in a water stream for a few inches and went dropped miles away in the lake. Do they want lucky or physical guys? Of course we didn't have a chance to discover the course before.
Anyway pushed like hell to get out of the stream while the other guys were passing partly climbing the walls to pass the stream which we were told was forbidden. Got the last helmet!

So I was now sure to save my ass on the next driving challenge! Huh? What? Drag??? Yeah the next elimination was on a drag race!!! LoL.
We had one test run end of the day, went again doing nothing in some hotel, and came back for the show by night with changed conditions. My run was pretty good except a bit of wheel spin quickly controlled on first gear, did second time of French team... But lost my duel as my colleague just had the perfect run out of nowhere. This is luck only on an unknown drag course, still I was out. No need to add we were still with our desert challenge huge running shoes LOL.
Did a 15.20 run which is good. Lost against a 14.7 which the Nissan guys couldn't do when they tested the drag.... Some drivers were qualified with some 17s run which is just hugely slow on a 400m drag.
Well: this is luck only and in the end I just did 14 hours of flight to win a 1m30 juke driving challenge.

Note that a lot of drivers that did extremely good at the juke were also just droped out on the drag race lottery. Others that spun on each of the 3 tries were qualified... And just imagine that a Wolf Reip could have been quickly eliminated if it were the same in 2012...

I'm disgusted, will burn the PS3 straight away. Gimme a car and a track, don't care your damn hotels girls and damn glamour that's all!

Last day after eliminations we get to the Ferrari world karting track, beat every mentors and coaches times on our first sessions, and ended with 1 3 4 5... best times of all times.

Best of the luck for the winner that will probably be a really fast guy in the straight lines!
That's all folks!
 
Crocket_PS
Hey! I bet you are the Tom with the fastest lap time ever at Ferrari world :D. Was a pleasure showing them with you that we are faster than mentors. They have no more excuses than us on a drag strip hehe.
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Yea man it is! Was lovely to see you at ferrari world!
 
ToyGTone
Turns out that i was true about GT Academy European finals being in UAE was a bad idea...
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I think it's the end of an era here... Don't expect anything from GtAcademy now, or go there as you would apply the lotterie but don't spend any time on preparation. Lost 4 month of my life in that joke.

Talked off record with some coaches and Nissan guys... They were as sorry as we were to see this joke...
 
image.jpeg
Ferrari world laptimes. No more mentors lol. May be max=max chilton?
Tom King is first, I'm third, two other French guys eliminated are 5 and 6 :)
 
Crocket_PS
I think it's the end of an era here... Don't expect anything from GtAcademy now, or go there as you would apply the lotterie but don't spend any time on preparation. Lost 4 month of my life in that joke.

Talked off record with some coaches and Nissan guys... They were as sorry as we were to see this joke...
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about this mate, that's dissapointing.
 
Crocket_PS
I think it's the end of an era here... Don't expect anything from GtAcademy now, or go there as you would apply the lotterie but don't spend any time on preparation. Lost 4 month of my life in that joke.

Talked off record with some coaches and Nissan guys... They were as sorry as we were to see this joke...
Click to expand...

Dude...try 5 years...

It seems like you've got the skill to keep going with racing if you really wanted to. In the end of the day only one guy will win the European Race Camp and there will be 30+ odd guys who will be in the same boat as the rest of us who don't get crowned GT Academy champion.

Cross your fingers, arms, legs and everything else for a GT Academy "Lap 2" where real characters during the past seasons get invited back but by all means don't wait for that idea to actually materialize. Network like crazy during the rest of your time there. That's what I did after my eviction on the penultimate day 👍.
 
Hi guys, my name is Florian and I'm the German who was eliminated at the street race challenge. First of all I guess everybody who knows GT Academy is aware of the fact that a significant part of it is the TV show. Hence we know you're at risk of being eliminated by such kind of challenge. So what I'm about to write now has nothing to do with the fact that I got eliminated this way, because as I said I knew before that it could happen like this. As probably most of the contenders I've been following GT Academy in the past and had certain expectations of the competition. And in the past it seemed to me that proper driving on a circuit as well as handling exercises were as much a part of the competition as the TV show. Actually to me they seemed to be the fundamental part of GT Academy. When they said that this years European final would be in Abu Dhabi I thought cool, the track there looks nice, weather conditions will be great and you'll be in a place that you've never been to before which is always exciting. I expected having to arrange myself with the TV show stuff and in return get to do what to me is the actual purpose of GT Academy: find out and show what I'm capable of in a car on a racing circuit. But in fact what I experienced had not much to do with the spirit of GT Academy. In the 4 days that I was in the competition I only had two runs with four timed laps each in the 370z on the circuit and that was it. Yes I enjoyed every second of it because it was what I came there for. That feeling of being out there and do what I've dreamed of for all these years gave me huge satisfaction. Only for this moment I put in all the effort to make it to Abu Dhabi. I felt good in the car and I was also really pleased with the results and the feedback of the instructors.. So at least on that occasion I got what I expected. But half of the contenders didn't have that chance. They were sent home after only shooting plenty of show footage. It really disillusioned me to see the TV show elements being exploited to such extend that it really wasn't enjoyable anymore. It's a real pity... I know that GT Academy is a business in the first place, yes. But it seems to me like they forgot about their actual purpose and now it's really just a reality TV show and nothing else.
 
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DBCooper
Hi guys, my name is Florian and I'm the German who was eliminated at the street race challenge. First of all I guess everybody who knows GT Academy is aware of the fact that a significant part of it is the TV show. Hence we know you're at risk of being eliminated by such kind of challenge. So what I'm about to write now has nothing to do with the fact that I got eliminated this way, because as I said I knew before that it could happen like this. As probably most of the contenders I've been following GT Academy in the past and had certain expectations of the competition. And in the past it seemed to me that proper driving on a circuit as well as handling exercises were as much a part of the competition as the TV show. Actually to me they seemed to be the fundamental part of GT Academy. When they said that this years European final would be in Abu Dhabi I thought cool, the track there looks nice, weather conditions will be great and you'll be in a place that you've never been to before which is always exciting. I expected having to arrange myself with the TV show stuff and in return get to do what to me is the actual purpose of GT Academy: find out and show what I'm capable of in a car on a racing circuit. But in fact what I experienced had not much to do with the spirit of GT Academy. In the 4 days that I was in the competition I only had two runs with four timed laps each in the 370z on the circuit and that was it. Yes I enjoyed every second of it because it was what I came there for. That feeling of being out there and do what I've dreamed of for all these years gave me huge satisfaction. Only for this moment I put in all the effort to make it to Abu Dhabi. I felt good in the car and I was also really pleased with the results and the feedback of the instructors.. So at least on that occasion I got what I expected. But half of the contenders didn't have that chance. They were sent home after only shooting plenty of show footage. It really disillusioned me to see the TV show elements being exploited to such extend that it really wasn't enjoyable anymore. It's a real pity... I know that GT Academy is a business in the first place, yes. But it seems to me like they forgot about their actual purpose and now it's really just a reality TV show and nothing else.
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Exactly correct mate! This years competition was a joke. They didnt care about finding the best driver. I knew there would be a tv element, i understand it was a marketing exercise but the amount of driving was a piss take. Hope gt academy change this for future years. Either lower the amount of people going to race camp or dont EVER hold it Abu Dubai wheres you cant run the cars during the day time! Also base the elimination on an overall look on a competitors performance not one stupid mickey mouse event. Otherwise you risk your best drivers going out. Quite frankly people like you and me picked the worst year to qualify for GT Aacademy!
 
Wow, what on earth happened to this competition?

I remember GT Academy 2012 when everyone at Race Camp had plenty of opportunities to prove their abilities, with all eliminations decided by the judges and not by any gimmicky events. Likewise in 2013, though the day 1 eliminations were a bit harsh. 2014 took a step backward with multiple elimination challenges, but I was still enthusiastic about the competition. Now though, I'm almost glad I wasn't allowed to compete this year.

I feel really sorry for all of the 28 competitors who were eliminated before they even made it to the Yas Marina circuit.

I have just lost all my remaining respect for this competition. Ruling out previous national finalists was one thing, but this takes the cake.
 
And people wonder why I never bothered attempting to play this year. This so called 'competition' has turned into a complete joke. The online time trials are decent, and I will continue doing them, but beyond that I will never go further. GT Academy is well past its prime. It's a silly TV show now. I feel so sorry to anyone who got eliminated for such stupid reasons. Nissan and Sony better be ashamed of themselves. 👎
 
Tom King
Mate from rumours ive heard you were plain unlucky in not winning ft acade

Hi mate were you the guy who beat matt simmons?
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Nah It was the turkish guy, I had simillar overheating issues like Matt during the final race.
 
Pretty unfortunate hearing this negative feedback about GTAcademy. I enjoyed reading about the behind the scenes stuff in recent years but it seems they've jumped the shark.
 
Aderrrm
How was the final race @Ben Bishop?
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Rubbish because I came 2nd! Only messing ;).

It was good fun, but it was only a 6 lap race, so it's quite limiting what you can do with such a short amount of time.

I made a mistake at turn one because I couldn't see Romain and was worried about hitting him, focussed so much on that I ran wide and then paid the price.

Spent a couple of laps defending quite a lot so lost some time, towards the end I managed to get a bit of clear air and was making some progress but just ran out of time.

Felt honoured to get the chance to represent the UK and a shot at achieving my dream. Gutted I messed up but thankful for the opportunity.
 
As I said on Facebook, you held your own in that race mate, was really nice to see! Represented the UK very well, be proud!

Never give up on racing, it's tough to get involved in it but keep pushing and you can still race, @Dessy182 is a great example and is doing fantastic! Personally I'm in talks at the moment with a personal project! Lets see you racing to Ben, I'll bob down and come watch you or maybe race together in the future ;).
 
Tidgney
As I said on Facebook, you held your own in that race mate, was really nice to see! Represented the UK very well, be proud!

Never give up on racing, it's tough to get involved in it but keep pushing and you can still race, @Dessy182 is a great example and is doing fantastic! Personally I'm in talks at the moment with a personal project! Lets see you racing to Ben, I'll bob down and come watch you or maybe race together in the future ;).
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Thanks mate, I won't be giving up that's for sure, I look forward to seeing you out on the track too, keep us posted with your plans.
 

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