Nissan

Nissan will begin the search for an American star to join its new LM P1 Le Mans 24 Hour and FIA World Endurance Championship team, giving a former gamer the opportunity to graduate to the highest levels of the sport.

2012 GT Academy U.S. champion Steven Doherty scored a first-in-class victory in the final race of the Pirelli World Challenge while behind the wheel of his #94 Skullcandy Team Nissan TC Altima.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY4YXl_YZd8&feature=youtu.be

Jann Mardenborough had another successful weekend in the GP3 Series, taking a podium finish at the Hungarian round of the championship.  The young Brit had to work hard in Saturday’s race – he qualified in 13th place after a red flag stopped his fastest run – but he got stuck in and took a very creditable seventh.  This put him on the front row of the grid for race two on Sunday.“I didn’t get as good a start as yesterday and Patrick (Niederhauser) got the jump on me,” explained Jann. “I settled in to third place and managed to hold onto it for the full race, despite the pace not being as good as yesterday.“It’s great to get a podium, and of course last week’s win, which takes me into the summer break with lots of new points.  This also builds my confidence for the next round at Spa so I can’t wait for that to come around now.”

A new update for Gran Turismo 6 has gone live, and brings with it two highly anticipated Vision GT project cars from Aston Martin and Nissan. Here’s a closer look at what’s new in 1.10, now available worldwide as a free 2.1GB download:

Schulze Motorsport has published a video which documents the team’s dramatic experience at this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours.

Nissan has shuffled its driver line-ups ahead of this month’s Spa 24 Hours. In the No.35 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 squad – already strengthened by the addition of two-time Super GT GT500 Champion, Masataka Yanagida –  Mark Shulzhitskiy replaces his Russian counterpart Stanislav Aksenov and joins Katsumasa Chiyo and Miguel Faisca.

New screenshots and a development video have been released for Nissan’s Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo car, after its formal unveiling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed earlier today. The car is coming to GT6 in a free update next month.

Nissan’s “CONCEPT 2020” Vision Gran Turismo project car – so radical in its design that it’s become a controversial point of debate in our community – will see its real-world debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed later this week (it’s coming to the game in July).

The “NISSAN CONCEPT 2020 Vision Gran Turismo” has been officially unveiled, and will be coming to Gran Turismo 6 next month, according to the latest announcement from Polyphony Digital.

Last week, the official Gran Turismo Facebook page first hinted that the “next chapter” for Nissan was in the works, and provided a rough outline of a new sports car under cover.

A new Nissan is coming to Gran Turismo, according to the latest post shared on the series’ official Facebook page:

The final online qualification round of GT Academy 2014 kicks off today, as the time trial which will be used to determine who moves on to regional finals around the world.

Nissan GT Academy U.S. champions Bryan Heitkotter and Steve Doherty will team up behind the wheel of a Nissan Altima for the remainder of the 2014 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge (CTSCC) racing season in the No. 34 Street Touring (ST) class CA Sport/Skullcandy machine. This weekend, the duo will take on an always crowded field at the Monterey Grand Prix at historic Laguna Seca Raceway in California.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSVnsx_df8g

2011 US GT Academy winner Heitkotter is making his Daytona Speedway racing debut in support of the 2014 United SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona competing in the Continental Sports Car Challenge “Daytona Rising 200.” He will be piloting the Skullcandy Nissan Altima Coupe along with Vesko Kozarov in the Street Tuner (ST) category. Bryan’s last professional race was back in September when he ran a Nissan GT-R in the Pirelli World Challenge GT Class. He has achieved much success running in CTSCC previously with the Doran Racing 370Z, this will be the first race for him in the front-wheel drive Altima racecar.

Amazon.com and GT Academy have teamed up to giveaway a 2014 Nissan 370Z NISMO Coupe, with an approximate retail value of more than $43,000.

Uh oh! A bit of drama may be in the works regarding the Nissan DeltaWing in Gran Turismo 6.

Reuters recently published an interesting article which offers an interesting look at the fascinating but rarely-discussed business of racing games, which are becoming increasingly important as auto makers look to reach out to consumers.

With the start of GT Academy 2013 right around the corner with the upcoming GT6 demo, Nissan’s marketing executives have shared some of the massive numbers which explain the success – and their continued support of – the annual competition.