Nissan GT Academy show versus What Really Happened

[Lord Grey]

Based on some of the comments I've read (like here most recently) it seems that a great deal of reality was left on the editing floor while creating this 'reality show.'

I would be very interested in hearing about this from the guys who made it to Silverstone. Choate51's comment about going through many more driving challenges than what was shown was great, as the impression I got from the TV show was that there was very little car driving at all.

What else happened that we didn't see?

 

[95BlkMiata-038]

Hear, hear! I would love for some gaps to be filled in. But I wonder if they are allowed to say much until the series is done airing.

 

[G.McGee]

Hey Lord

yeah, they only showed little snipts of the drifting, slalom, and a head-to-head autocross competition(the later of which which honestly probably have looked boring on TV as the course was extremely slow and made worse by the fact that they forced us to run with full safety features turned on, not sure what was up with that) but at least there was an element of competition

you also saw some short shots of our first baseline runs on track with the cars, but the production had to cut the session short so everyone was only allowed a single lap. again, with full safety features turned on, which was a shame as it really took away all the fun and any ability to make an honest evaluation of the 370 and GT-R

 

[G.McGee]

They may very well show more of these events as the series goes along?

i'm not sure why they spent so much time on the personal stuff, when they could've expanded on these events and shown more of the digital portion of the competition

 

[BlacqueJacques]

Still enjoyed the show though; maybe some of the competitors had trouble switching from bumper cam to real life cockpit view, as I noticed the contest clips most used bumper cam and roof cam?

 

[CodeRedR51]

i'm not sure why they spent so much time on the personal stuff, when they could've expanded on these events and shown more of the digital portion of the competition

Yeah, all that filming in Florida and they hardly showed any of it. I expected the first episode to start with that.

 

[Lord Grey]

Great stuff. Thanks guys! Keep 'em coming, at least as the episodes are aired (to avoid any spoiler problems, if any).

By chopping out the baselines I guess the editors decided to make it look like you all just more-or-less jumped into the 370's and took off. More of the virtual-to-reality theme.

I was disappointed to not see more the round in Florida. Hey, maybe they'll cut a DVD with the extra footage and send it to you guys. That would be neat.

 

[CudaMan]

There's a somewhat longer web video on the national finals in Florida:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KzasiDfkRI

Still so much left uncovered though. I still want to see the race replays someday, but they're probably gone by now. That was some great racing.

 

[z06fun]

I'm wondering if they didn't show much of the driving on that second day because of the issues Rob had with the film crew delaying us so much and then him not allowing that to happen the second day. Its really unfortunate because that second day was almost entirely driving except for the triathlon thing, and an awesome fun day at that.

They could have easily made 2 episodes before the first elimination though with all that went on plus the finals. Would loved to have seen some more from the finals.

 

[CodeRedR51]

I'd like to correct something that was shown on last night's episode:

When I was shown during the SAS drills on the ground and being helped away, that was because my gallbladder was not liking the "bear crawl" and I decided it was best that I stopped before I really hurt myself. The interview video they showed after that with me taking about eating cereal was incorrect, that should have been shown after the run on the first day. Figures they would mess something up.

 

[BlacqueJacques]

Shame that Driscoll stayed in because of immunity 👎

I think Gomez was trying to get feeling in his hands on the go-kart endurance race, when he took both hands of the wheel.

I enoyed the single seater portion of the show; looking forward to next single seater challenge. One day I'll go take the Jim Russel Racing School course and get into a single seater too

Surprised that when eliminated 'last night'; not one competitor shook hands with the selection panel and/or said 'thanks for the opportunity'

I also appreciate Danny Sulivan's questions and encouragement of the drivers 👍

Irregardless of who wins, well done all of you 👍

 

[CodeRedR51]

Irregardless of who wins, well done all of you 👍

Thanks. I really wish I would have picked a different GT-R for the second round of the time trials, as the car that I picked had been run really hard for the first round and the brake pedal was pretty much non-existent. My confidence in the brake zone went to hell and it showed unfortunately.

 

[Lord Grey]

How much encouragement and/or coaching was provided by the judges during that week? The episodes show a little, but it's difficult to tell.

 

[CodeRedR51]

How much encouragement and/or coaching was provided by the judges during that week? The episodes show a little, but it's difficult to tell.

If there was a passenger seat, someone was in it. The cars almost always had the TC/Stability Control on as far as I know. The GT-R wasn't as fun as it could have been because of that. The coaches I had were awesome though, never had any complaints. During one of the challenges (which you may or may not see as it happened after I left) with the GT-R, the coach I had for it really liked how I was doing. After we came in to let the car rest before the second trial, he said I was doing everything right and that the only thing we needed to work on was the braking zones. We just kept pushing the braking zone further back until it was too much. That challenge was my favorite part of the whole thing, wish I could do it again. 👍

 

[SpecMiata-JSW]

Shame that Driscoll stayed in because of immunity 👎

I think Gomez was trying to get feeling in his hands on the go-kart endurance race, when he took both hands of the wheel.

I enoyed the single seater portion of the show; looking forward to next single seater challenge. One day I'll go take the Jim Russel Racing School course and get into a single seater too

Surprised that when eliminated 'last night'; not one competitor shook hands with the selection panel and/or said 'thanks for the opportunity'

I also appreciate Danny Sulivan's questions and encouragement of the drivers 👍

Irregardless of who wins, well done all of you 👍

Hey there!

I did talk to the judging panel fairly in depth at the elimination, they just didn't edit it in. They had reasons they let all of us go, but that also was left out for some reason.

It was fun and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice they were to us (the evictees of episode 2) during the show. They could have edited us much more harshly, especially on the SAS stuff.

Cheers!

 

[Lord Grey]

Did any of you guys ask the judges if they played GT5? And if they did, what did they think of the game (versus reality)?

 

[IceWarden]

Thanks for the candid words guys.

First posts on a GT Forum since probably 2001. I used to play GT1+2 then got married and had kids

So, I just now got back into GT after buying my first console since the PS1 (told the wife it was a blu-ray player and that our 6yr old might like playing games...I neglected to tell her I bought GT5 with it). I then proceed to log on to the GTP Forum and see that apparently there is a new-fangled capability of racing against each other ONLINE (we used to send replays back and forth via Dex Drive and emails...before that we just used the honor system and posted times)!

I then see that some of my old racing buddies in a real competition based on GT5. How far the game has come!

Zo6, Specmiata...I remember you guys from back in the day. Not sure if you guys remember me or not...it's been over 10yrs since I've been around. I'm going to friend you guys in PSN as well as Cuda and CarlP from back in the day. I will friend Glenn as well..I'm in tampa also

JoeW

 

[Louie_Schumii]

So I'm guessing there will be a reunion episode at the end of the series like they do with all other 'reality' shows. Rest of the season should be interesting then

 

[CodeRedR51]

Watched last nights episode. Great collision avoidance by Phil there to miss Steve when he spun in the single seaters. 👍 Those cars on the National Course were awesome.

 

[Lord Grey]

Did any of you guys ask the judges if they played GT5? And if they did, what did they think of the game (versus reality)?

I wrote that question before seeing the second episode. Now that I've seen it and the third, I realize that the judges seemed to have a good opinion of GT5. At least as far as a training tool goes, that is. Or is that an impression delivered only by clever video editing?

I'm a little curious about the timing of things. Was every day full of test/train/whatever and then finished off with an elimination?

Also, what actually happened when you were eliminated? The camera shows everyone packing up their stuff, walking down the stairs, then ... nothing further. Did they stuff you in a windowless van and whisk you to the airport with a bag over your head, or what?

 

[CodeRedR51]

Also, what actually happened when you were eliminated? The camera shows everyone packing up their stuff, walking down the stairs, then ... nothing further. Did they stuff you in a windowless van and whisk you to the airport with a bag over your head, or what?

We did in fact pack our stuff immediately, then just waited around to be taken off site to a hotel (nice one too!) where we would stay until the end. During the day we were able to do the same challenges that the remaining contestants were doing, we just came in after they were finished. Although it sucked to be out of it, was still nice to be able to get some time behind the wheel without camera's in your face and the pressure of the competition off your shoulders. 👍

 

[gman07]

Although it sucked to be out of it, was still nice to be able to get some time behind the wheel without camera's in your face and the pressure of the competition off your shoulders. 👍

That's a lot better than I thought it might be. Heck, I think I'd like that almost as much as the competition itself.

 

[Lord Grey]

We did in fact pack our stuff immediately, then just waited around to be taken off site to a hotel (nice one too!) where we would stay until the end. During the day we were able to do the same challenges that the remaining contestants were doing, we just came in after they were finished. Although it sucked to be out of it, was still nice to be able to get some time behind the wheel without camera's in your face and the pressure of the competition off your shoulders. 👍

That's a lot better treatment than the impression given by the edited film. Glad to hear that you got more time behind the wheel as well.

Steve, I give you a lot of credit for how you handled yourself on the show. You can say without question that you gave it your all. You should be tremendously proud of what you have accomplished, and working your butt off to lose weight, running yourself to the point of exhaustion. Big respect to you man. 👍

Nick

I think all of you guys did great. I can only imagine what that was like, with the pressure of the competition coupled with the cameras and whatnot. Lots of kudos for all.

 

[SpecMiata-JSW]

It was crazy...you needed to push, but you knew that any spin could be your last time in a car ("officially").

We knew they were going to let us continue to drive after being eliminated, which made being eliminated easier, but it was still very tough on all of us. It's very bittersweet to see the remaining guys compete on the show, it fills me with regret over any little mistake I made.

Truthfully I just wanted to make it to round 3 in the Time Trial, so the National Finals, and actually making it to the Academy was a complete dream come true. Nissan and Sony really took very good care of us the whole time we were in Orlando and England, they were total class acts! 👍

 

[CodeRedR51]

We knew they were going to let us continue to drive after being eliminated, which made being eliminated easier, but it was still very tough on all of us. It's very bittersweet to see the remaining guys compete on the show, it fills me with regret over any little mistake I made.

Ditto. I'm still miffed that I finished last in the GT-R time trial because of my lack of confidence in braking hard when the pedal was going to the floor...

Nissan and Sony really took very good care of us the whole time we were in Orlando and England, they were total class acts! 👍

Mike Disser is the man!

 

[SpecMiata-JSW]

Truly everyone involved did a great job to get there and compete at the event. With only two months to physically train it wasn't a lot of time to get prepared. I know it wasn't enough for me. The good news is it forced me to get in shape and now I'm going to stay that way. 6 years of office work and being a couch potato can wear you down.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow nights episode.

 

[Louie_Schumii]

Truly everyone involved did a great job to get there and compete at the event. With only two months to physically train it wasn't a lot of time to get prepared. I know it wasn't enough for me. The good news is it forced me to get in shape and now I'm going to stay that way. 6 years of office work and being a couch potato can wear you down.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow nights episode.

How quickly do they get posted up on youtube?

 

[SpecMiata-JSW]

Good question. I haven't been following them on YouTube or the website. If you friend the GT Academy North America they post them there about 5 days later.

I'm sure the timeframes are similar.

 

[NWMann]

I gotta say that show is intense, I swear I have felt the pressure just watching the guys race. But it is amazing you are all so close together in most events, just amazing to see this play out.

 

[xe2bls]

"Gomez wasn't trying to get the feeling in his hands back, he was pissed off about his partner because of some miscommunication and was showing his frustration. That was a little tidbit of info that we all didn't know until after the trip. If your getting feeling in your arms and hands you just release one hand at a time and flex your fist."

That WAS a shot of me relaxing my arms/hands. They don't have a shot of me putting my arms up, and what you all "learned" about after the trip is not true and never crossed my mind to show my "frustration" in the race. In fact, not only was I never frustrated, what you're talking about had not happened until he went for his stint, which was after mine.

?