Although many of us were expecting a start date for the European GT Academy in March, the recent update delay seemed to have put this on hold.
Now, however, Belgian television channel Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF) seems to have let slip a May 1st start date for the European competition during their “Auto Mobile” show. The show features many clips from previous GT Academy events – including the recent Dubai 24 Hr race – and lists the various conditions for entry.
During the GT Academy feature, found at about 10’40 into the show, they say that signups for the competition begin May 1st on the official Gran Turismo website. It is not clear how this affects the rumoured independent German GT Academy event.
Meanwhile, the Dutch GT Academy has unveiled its own surprise – a GT4 class Nissan 370Z to be driven in the 2012 HDI-Gerling Dutch GT Championship by Tim Coronel, Sandor van Es and Bertus Sanders, each renowned racers in BeNeLux series. They will be joined by 2011 Dutch GT Academy winner Thomas Arends.
The series’ first race is at Zandvoort this coming weekend and we wish Thomas luck as he becomes the latest GT Academy driver to enter professional motorsports.
Thanks to Denur and Manuelos for tips and translations.
GT5 Photomode image by Ddrizle.
See more articles on GT Academy 2012.
New Zealand too thanks. Left out in the cold last year with Australia…
the date sucks for me. ive got a week’s holiday commencing the 23rd of April… one week before the competition rumorly starts. Thereafter back to 55hour week’s work so no time. Shame as I was close to getting past phase 1 last year.
Good news !!!
The best of luck to the new Dutch team !!! :-)
One question:
Why is Kazunori so out of touch?
I mean this in the most serious way. It’s not that all of these fans are whiny and spoiled- it’s Kazunori who TOLD THEM that he had plently of stuff in the hopper!
“Its just a matter of releasing it..” Mannnnnnn… come on man! How bout not saying that ish if it’s not true?
We have a GT5 promo video that is nearly TWO YEARS OLD now showing an Enzo tearing up El Capitan! What the heck is going on around here? I would SO rather spend my money on other things besides a new gaming PC and all of the sims that you can get with it… but we are being pushed in that direction by the elusiveness, silence, and outright FAILURE by Polyphony to deliver on their own promises.
Then try making a triple a title under the watchful eye of Sony and manufacturers, an earthquake, and a budget that was strictly monitored by Sony.
Besides the Japanese have their own way of doing things.
Looks like you’re the one out of touch kiddo. If you can’t handle it then maybe you need to get your head out of your ass or just play something else. Understand? Good :)
SO the japanese way of doing things is to tout to the world that you have lots of content in the hopper, and then sit quietly for months with a big smile, while your competition is launching salvos into your yard? I’m doubting all that. This is the information age. Follow through on your own words or don’t say it.
and crcn11- care to elaborate with anything of substance? Cmon. Your sh is weak. I’ve been playing dirt2 alongside gt5 the whole time, you know, when I feel like having some fun? Any of you guys remember that stuff? And no, photomode is not fun. A-spec A.I. is not fun, B-spec as a whole… no fun. Checking the UCD to try and catch the fleeting rare cars day after day, ….nnnno fun. Going to arcade mode in a supercar and ending up racing against 15 Citroen Gt’s? Attempting a weather-soaked race just to watch the A.I. pit after the first lap because none of them got the memo on tires? Blasting through the pack only to chase the rabbit all by yourself for the remaining laps?
We need a comprehensive Event Creator.
Because… gran turismo. : /
Thank you for actually saying what no one does. It’s truly not that we are spoiled and whining, I believe we were let down and everyone made so many excuses because they simply wanted to play. Charging the amount of money they do for like 6 cars is so not cool, these should be patches updating large amounts of cars at a time to premium. Forza continually updates their content and is actually a prime example of what GT should be doing. I don’t care that Forza has 200 people on staff and Polyphony has 60 or whatever, thats not a valid excuse, hire more people you are a premier game developer act like it. Theres so many little faults with the game that everyone seems to just over look because they say either it would have taken longer to come out, or that we shouldn’t whine. We should whine, it makes better games that are of the proper caliber to be called Gran Turismo games. Now don’t get me wrong, I love this game and have put a large amount of hours into it, but to say that it was a polished game when it was released would be laughable. Developers think that they can just put games out and when things go wrong patch it, how about making a game that works and doesn’t have a tremendous amount of faults to begin with in the first place. Whenever I play this game around my friends the one thing that they always say is, well its pretty lame if your car doesn’t get damaged, and you know what it is. That’s completely inexcusable to release a car simulated where every race I can cheat by slamming my car into the cars ahead of me at the first turn, I don’t care that Kazunori whats the cars to always look pretty, create a damn damage model, the PS3 can handle it. I really wanted this game to be that great, I looked at this forum every day for months on end. Gathering ever bit of information, sighing every time it was delayed, and the fact that its community instead of declaring these problems and demanding them be changed, chastises those who declare the faults for whining and complaining.
…is improper and doesn’t benefit the game.
^ This and researchALLwars’s comment. I love this game so much, I really do. But sooner or later, I’ll begin to lose faith in it.
A simple Event Creator wouldn’t hurt at all. I’m pretty sure EVERYONE will want one, even me. :\ And also, give more life to the Course Maker, I want to create my VERY OWN tracks in GT5, not generate it. I’ll repeat it again. I want to create my VERY OWN tracks in GT5, not generate it. Please and thank you.
@Craftyman:
“Whenever I play this game around my friends the one thing that they always say is, well its pretty lame if your car doesn’t get damaged” – Story of my life. I don’t think the PS3 could handle a much higher damage model in GT5, (as in the likes of Burnout Paradise and Grid) but I think it could handle a bit more; only 4 or 5 of the cars in the can ACTUALLY lose parts. I wouldn’t mind if PD upgraded around 5 cars at a time to that level of damage in a free update, that would compensate for high DLC prices. I do like to race seriously, but I also like to screw around; that’s what video games are for. I’m not saying I want the game crash-focused and arcady, I still want the simulator physics we get now, just with better damage for when those accidents do happen, on purpose or not.
“Developers think that they can just put games out and when things go wrong patch it, how about making a game that works and doesn’t have a tremendous amount of faults to begin with in the first place.” – many of these faults unintentionally go overlooked while in development, and that’s why they’re more common now; partly because standards have gone down with this new ability to patch games over the internet. I think part of the reason GT5 was released with so many faults was because PD announced it too early; the first trailer was released at E3 2009, but without a release date. If they had waited a year with this trailer, maybe Sony and the fans would have been less impatient with them, and forced the release on a later date… I don’t really know. Either way, it comes down to Kaz’s and PD’s fault.
GT6 will most likely be able to beat all of the expectations for GT5 (1000+ cars, no standards, all tracks with weather and time change, a high-end damage model, HD replays upload-able to YouTube, an actual course CREATOR, not just a GENERATOR, maybe a livery editor, fully-fledged rally, NASCAR, super GT, karting etc.) and with higher resolution; they’ve already got everything they need, they just need to increase polygon count, add, fix and update some more features, and work on some physics (like damage and more pitch and roll when driving). I hope PD can or will go on supporting this game without hampering the development of GT6, and that they can hire more employees to make the development go by faster and more smoothly. Nearly all of my friends say “GT5 sucks”, and the hardest thing about that is that I don’t really know HOW to defend it… especially because they’ve all just moved on to shooters and could care less about cars and racing and won’t understand (or care) about much of what I tell them about the driving and racing physics…
Is the maintenance over yet? It disappeared from gt5 news.
:@ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never mind GT Academy WE WANT ARE DLC AND WE WANT IT NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OR WE GO BUY FORZA !!!!!!!!!!!!!! SORT IT PD OR ELSE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes me too if no dlc, I will also buy forza….I tired waiting too long, almost three month to reach 18th April and we don’t hear any news
Want some cheese with that whine?
‘Our’ not are. Go and buy forza, if your not looking forwards to academy then you must be a racing soft 900 BHP lover!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well I think I know what that means, we are about to get another GTR….. I’m gonn’a cry, the one thing I don’t want. I know PD has a deal with Nissan, but GIVE US A DIFFERENT NISSAN, like an lmp2 car.
That is exactly what I was thinking. While GT-R’s are nice vehicles, Nissan has such a large amount of other interesting cars that could be implemented too.
Maaaaaybeeee, a 370Z in celebration of the new Dutch team.
For a second I though we were getting a new GTR as DLC… and to this point I was actually excited.
Doing great things PD, its stuff like this that makes me happy you guys teamed up with Nissan, not the other stuff *cough*….ehemm!!
zzz. another GT Academy ><
PD, Y U NO GIVE US MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS?!?!
agreed. GT academy is cool and all but not nearly as exciting for most people as DLC. they really need to get on that.
Sure, if they stuck to that “every 2 months” plan, we should be only expecting one this month, but lets not forget the second DLC was only 4 cars. Don’t see what’s taking so long for this one. Hope it’s worth the wait.
@TomBrady:
This will be about my 10th time saying this, but the DLC is actually still on schedule; the most recent DLC (January was one month EARLY (previous DLC being December). If it had followed the “2 month schedule”, then it would’ve been in February. Then DLC 4 would’ve been in April. So if this DLC is 1 month late, it equalizes the schedule.
Lets do some math:
October – December DLC = 2 months
December – January DLC = 1 month
If DLC is released this month:
January – April DLC = 3 months
Now let’s average: 2+1+3 = 6.
6/3 = 2.
Therefore, it’s averaged two months between DLC’s. In fact, if the DLC comes out before the 18th, it will still be slightly early! I’m expecting DLC; for some reason, many people aren’t, despite the fact we’ve had an announcement about the March update’s postponement, and that everyone’s getting maintenance, even Asia, who already has the Photo Stream update. I think PD’s being a little more quiet this time because, if you don’t remember, the last DLC’s contents had been leaked… We could get answers in a few hours; sometimes DLC or Update content is announced directly after maintenance, but it could be up to a week from now until we hear anything out of PD regarding the DLC or Update… We’ve just got to be patient, and pray that we don’t get another bland B-Spec seasonal…
Quakebass, did you even read TomBrady’s post correctly?
He said: “Sure, if they stuck to that “every 2 months” plan, we should be only expecting one this month” therefor he knows about the whole Early January DLC Fiasco.
Mister dog had enough also “prepares hayfork and torch, and google maps the PD office”!!
One of my favorite pictures. Thanks for placing it! :)
I agree those are beautiful tones in the reflections!
Hey Kaz,
There is a little continent, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, it’s called Australia, and we would love for this series to come down under.
We’re not all crazy V8 drivers :)
But those are some good v8s do
did you hear, did you hear the thunder?
There’s nothing crazy about V8 supercar drivers. If anything you’d have to be crazy to not want to drive them.
V8 supercars are among the top of my DLC wish list with veyron ss, lotus 49, 70’s and 80’s F1, caterham r500, radical SR4, ariel atoms, and koenigsegg. oh and premium toyota GT one race and road cars
Aww, I want that GTA car so bad. :( Go go GT Academy though. :)
You can win that car bye getting all golds in licences
All golds? @_@ But thank you for letting me know. :) Must get that car and color it white. :D
great pic!
Cool stuff
Sorry that this is SO offtopic, but anyone else can’t enter te forums?
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Well that’s good news, shame I’ll only be 16 then..
Here’s to the 2014 GT Academy ;)
When’s the US one?
that’s what I want to know. I got screwed out of the last one because of school work
Patience my friends. :)
I always hated that they did US GT academy so quickly after release. I bet it was a sales tactic but for me it sucked. I really wasn’t interested in it. At that point I had much more interest advancing in the career and just playing it. If they did it again I’d put at least 4 times as much time into it