This weekend saw the FIA GT debut of the GT Academy RJN Nissan GT-R GT3s at Nogaro – and it was quite the eventful start!
FIA GT3 has a peculiar set-up whereby all 24 cars take part in two qualifying sessions on the Saturday, followed by a superpole for the top ten times. The field then takes part in a Qualifying Race on Sunday, for which the top six finishers get points in the old F1 style (9-6-4-3-2-1) followed by a Championship Race on Monday with current F1 style points scored.
After the first two qualifying sessions, the #32 car driven by Shulzhitskiy and Reip was 16th overall in a time of 1’20.050 – just over 2s off the leaders – while the #35 car of Buncombe and Ordoñez was 5th overall as the track dried for the second session. With the chance to run in the superpole event, the team managed the 7th fastest time overall and started the qualifying race from 6th following a demotion for the Novadriver car.
The qualifying race largely saw the Nissans hold station as Shulzhitskiy and Reip netted 14th overall in the qualifying race, but the Youtube-liveried #35 was taken out three laps from the end – the BMW Z4 of BMW Sport Trophy Team India scything across the front of Ordoñez and forcing a retirement.
Following a lengthy rebuild which forced them to miss the warm-up, Lucas and Alex started the feature race from 19th and quickly set about the field in changeable conditions to place 7th overall – 0.6s from 6th place following the 30s post-race penalty for the Audi of Rast and Mayr-Melnhof – gaining them a podium finish of 3rd in the Pro-Am class. Reip and Shulzhitskiy were marginally less successful but still placed 5th in class in their first international GT3 race, after dicing with former F1 stars Ricardo Zonta and Karun Chandhok throughout the race.
FIA GT3 moves on to Zolder in three weeks’ time – and we hope to see what they can do from the sharp end of the grid!
See more articles on Alex Buncombe, Lucas Ordonez, Mark Shulzhitskiy, Nismo Athletes, and Wolfgang Reip.
for those who wants to watch it..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzK5ojvdu8Y
Not only does PD need to bring a livery editor. They also need to enable modification of body parts I.E fender flairs hood bumps air intakes and tire sizes. If we could create cars that look like FIA GT’s all would be well.
PD really needs to take a good look at GT1 and GT2 to see if they can recapture what made those installments so good and apply it to GT6 along with the increased technology.
And yes, GT2 had separate disks for simulation and arcade. So too should GT6, 7, 8………..
I reckon GT4 was the greatest and need the exciting and fun feel of it. Livery editor is perfect but if only there was a touchscreen so you can draw it (Wii U would be perfect for livery maker).
+1
Not sure if the first picture is from GT5 or real life.
Its Real life, GT5 doesnt have those Livery colors for 1, and the YouTube sponsored car is brand New.
FIA GT3 and GT1 in GT6 would be outstanding!
I run a similar class based on GT3 as “HPS[R] 627hp 1450kg.”
Must friend up (InfamousPhil79) for schedules and prize cars and suits.
Tuned street cars w/wings and race tires mandatory. 5-10 minute races. Normal tire wear. No boost. ABS is only assist allowed.
Three races per track. Must use a different chassis layout at each track… RWD (SRT, C6, 599, etc), MR (458, MP4-C, etc) or AWD (R35, R8, LP-460, etc).
’06 or newer cars only. Track votes. No penalties (flagrant cheats will be kicked). Weak damage. 5 minute qualifying.
Lots of fun. Very competitive
Yes, lets hope Kaz has better luck getting a deal that will bring this series to GT6 then he did getting it into GT5.
Doubt it Pit Crew… Between Nascar and Super GT, the funding just ain’t gonna happen. Now if PD decides to go livery paint shop, we’ll have a way to style it up a little.
But let’s be real about this. PD’s idea of what GT is is not a “what can I create with Sony’s hardware” game. It’s more of the “what can PD do with Sony’s console” game.
Sorry to disappoint, but that’s my experience with them.
OMT… Congratulations to team Nismo/GT Academy. Keep up the good fight.
I like others will hold out hope till Kaz says otherwise …
I hear you Pit Crew and will purchase all future “FULL” GT releases. But will leave hope for a more (while choking) FM style PD releases to you and everyone else.
^ Slim you got issues ^ and no you didnt relate to a thing I said, but must expect me to relate to you. Your not a Polyphony Digital insider so get over yourself.
I am hoping for the Sebastian Loeb McLaren, hoping that the Playstation logos on it are a good omen :)
yeah, that McLaren looks awesome with the Red Bull livery :)
The big wings don’t really surprise me because I’ve been watching the GT racing for a while so I didn’t even notice it as different. The best explanation I can think of for the wings are like the old school NASCARs, like the Plymouth Superbird. Those big stock cars took alot more downforce because of the cars big, box like shape. The GT-R compared to those smaller, sleeker, more aero dynamic then the bigger, boxier GT-R so the GT-R in turn requires the bigger wing to make up for it.
All I can say about those wings is…Got Downforce?
Bring the FIA cars to Gran TUrismo!!
+1,000
Kaz we wouldn’t mind getting 100 of thees gtr’s!
lol, I wouldn’t mind the youtube livery :)
That’s it, I’m wallpapering this.
Great job to them too!
Congratulations to them!
And my god, look at those wings!
Wow they got freakin pikes peak wings
That spoiler looks so ridiculously funny because of how large it is!
Congrats to those racers though! Making GT fans even more proud of this game’s impact on the real world!
This is what happen when you have almost no race conversion kits in the racing game you play regoularly.
Every race conversion looks weird and huge on your eyes because you are used to the little tuning GT5 has to offer.
Furthermore, FIA decide the BOP (Balance Of Performance) for all the cars racing in FIA GT1.
Do you remember Maserati MC12? It has a considerably smaller wing compared to the Nissan GT-R, bacuse MC12 was naturally faster, so FIA try to balance perfomances between cars even using different size wings.
That wing is huge though for FIA GT3.
it’s not huge, it’s positioned slightly higher than normal because Nissan GT-R is naturally less competitive than the other cars like Ferrari Audi and McLaren. If you place the same wing the other cars are using there’s no way Nissan can be remotely competitive. It’s called BOP, Balance of Performance. The aero penetration coefficent is worse than other race cars it also weight more. so FIA try ti give them slightly more downforce in the rear end.
The opposite applied for Maserati which raced all the FIA GT1 championships with a small wing because it was too fast for their opponents, and yet managed to win almost every year with Vitaphone Racing.
Hope they have more success like this :)
Congrats to them!
I know someone named Mac-F. Interesting
Good luck team Nismo & the Academy guy’s. Would be great to get this series & cars in GT6.
My god..them wings!