GT Academy 2012 German TV Broadcast Dates Announced

Just like GT Academy USA, GT Academy Germany‘s winner’s identity is being kept under wraps for the climax of a TV show – and hot on the heels of last week’s announcement by Spike TV of the US version’s show, GT Academy have announced the schedule for the German show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzmteV8TbJ8

German viewers can catch the first episode on RTL at 14.25 CEST this Saturday (22nd September). The show will follow the 12 finalists as they’re evaluated by F1 star Nick Heidfeld, Queen of the Nürburgring Sabine Schmitz, touring car driver Peter Terting and rapper and BioConcept racer Smudo to select the eventual winner.

The final episode will be broadcast on Saturday November 3rd and announce the winner just before the Korean Grand Prix qualifying.

The unnamed winner has already begun their driving training program, alongside the unnamed US winner (racing under a pseudonym), Belgium’s Wolfgang Riep and Russia’s Mark Shulzhitskiy. Entered in a club level endurance race at Brands Hatch, all four drivers set class-leading laptimes in their Nissan 370Zs but suffered technical issues that saw them finish 12th and 16th from the 29 car field.

The signatures received at this race enable them to qualify for higher level licences – and higher level competition – ahead of the Dubai 24hr in January.

See more articles on .

Comments (23)

  1. Flaco13

    They should’ve given it to another TV Station, RTL is the worse plattform I can think of to reach the right people. And 5 minutes per episode? That’s a joke. Then why BEFORE formula 1 qualifiing? After or in between it would’ve made much more sense.

    1. KiroKai

      I agree! Having it on TV is cool but on RTL just doesn’t fit. And I guess most people who watch F1 aren’t interested in such a short, crappy show, so they threat it rather like the commercials in between, go out for a smoke, toilet, whatever.

      It’s a disappointment for the fans (in my opinion) and an annoyance for most else people.

  2. KiroKai

    So… 5 minutes… they called it ‘first episode’ and it had a length of 5 minutes… I expected more.

    If anybody wonders, after a short introduction of the judging panel and the participants they did a first hot lap around Silverstone in the 370z where they scored times between 1.32 and 1.36 to get a first impression of the drivers’ skills. Afterwards they got devided into 4 teams and did a timed extreme fitness ‘show-jumping course’ (that sounds weird but it’s the only term the dictonary knows to translate – well it was a fitness program). The team with the slowest time was out, the best team immediataly was save to be in the next round. The other two teams had to wait for the judge’s decision but they both got to move on to the next round as well.
    That’s it.

    1. KiroKai

      Oh, forgot to mention this; they barely mentioned Gran Turismo 5 at all. So I doubt there will be anything leaked – on accident or not – about the game if they are going to continue like that. But we’ll see.

      In the end they announced we will see more racing and a paint ball challenge in the future episodes.

  3. Buzz17091991

    I watch this 10 minutes ago.
    In the end of GT Academy I was on 1204 th Position.
    Nice to see how the 12 guys fight.

    1. KiroKai

      HEAVIER?!
      I would understand if it was less powerful since the R35’s engine is pretty strong but even heavier than the already-way-too-fat GT-R?

  4. KiroKai

    I’ve been watching RTL shows yesterday evening, and although there were some show announcements in the commercials in between I haven’t heard about that show at all. Thanks for announcing it here, Famine.

    Maybe this show will get me interested in the GT Academy after all? I haven’t cared about it much so far. At least it’s something about Gran Turismo, and it’s on TV! *dopey*

  5. Alex p.

    Yes, ze German me is interested. Planned watching it anyway, maybe we will hear anything new from Kaz/Gt related on accident? Would be cool.

    1. another_jakhole

      Would be great for FM. haha That’s not even meant to be rude. They have soccer/football, so this would be perfect.

      Some GT Academy finalists have said that some of the challenges were really fun and “unique” that can be a part of the License Tests. The future GT’s COULD include these and this paintball thing.

    1. cabeleira

      Since German is the most spoken language in Europe and RTL is free to watch thorughout the whole continent, I’m pretty sure there are motorsport fans in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, parts of Italy, Netherlands, Denmark and Poland that are interested in this show.

    2. grazbro

      Exactly. I wonder how many of them made it to the final 12 using a controller on a driving sim? That’s why these things have no credibility.

Comments on this post are now closed.

About the Author