GT Academy - Silverstone Final

  • Thread starter Grandi
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Grandi

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Hey there,

A thread for memos of personal experiences from a fantastic week in England (don't want to give too much away just yet... :) )


- was 8th on the leaderboard in the beginning of day 3 but was "eliminated" in the end of day 3

- karting endurance race was tough: Oldbeanee (Mark) and I had a brake failure around 2 hours into the race; lost loads of time

- Chris from Sweden said it best after Day 3's physical tests: "My body is *****d". No wonder after he raced (and won!) a go-kart event 3,5h by himself on day 2. respect...

- as Timo said earlier, used vehicles were 350Z, Caterham 7, R35 GT-R and Silverstone's own Formula Car

- instructors and advisors were motivating, extremely professional and truly helpful

- lots of press present on days 3 & 4, which was surprisingly comfortable

- Driving on days 4 & 5 was better for me than on the earlier days, and I managed a competitive pace, especially on the Formula and the GT-R

- Rain on day 5


Congratulations to winners Lucas and Lars! Other information will probably unfold as time flies by... :)

-Karri
 
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I hope you snapped lots of photo's for us all to see and envy your week Karri ;) it's unlucky you never win in the end but big Congrats for making it to Silverstone and good to see you enjoyed yourself also :cheers:
The rain here is just par for the norm also :D

Congrats to Lucas and Lars for the wins 👍
 
Congrats on your once in a life time experience!

Silly question, was any of the participants tall or "large", I am a little over 6'5" and 230lbs, my first thought when this compitition began (besides when is coming to NA)was they would prob pick a car (formula) or kart that I would not fit in. Just wondering if that was an issue for any one?
 
Congrats on your once in a life time experience!

Silly question, was any of the participants tall or "large", I am a little over 6'5" and 230lbs, my first thought when this compitition began (besides when is coming to NA)was they would prob pick a car (formula) or kart that I would not fit in. Just wondering if that was an issue for any one?

The size of competitors varied, the tallest people probably being Joachim from Norway, Ralph from Holland and myself (all over 190cm). All of the forementioned cars were big enough at least for me to fit in (though I heard Joachim had to drive the Z while his helmet was hitting the roof), so karting was probably the only event that size and weight had actual effect on. To my surprise, the Formula Car also had an adjustable seat (though not much lateral room).

One important thing I didn't mention that I gained a lot of new friends on the way :cheers: the spirit of the week was very competitive but also friendly and fair. I think I've never concentrated as hard or worked as decisively on anything in my life. That's why I'm not sorry about not making it to the final 2. The tough but extremely rewarding week really taught me a lot of things.

- Karri
 
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One important thing I didn't mention that I gained a lot of new friends on the way :cheers: the spirit of the week was very competitive but also friendly and fair. I think I've never concentrated as hard or worked as decisively on anything in my life. That's why I'm not sorry about not making it to the final 2. The tough but extremely rewarding week really taught me a lot of things.
- Karri

Youre right the spirit of the week was realy friendly and fair, if you had a problem with a car the others helped you to get better. 👍
Also the last evening was very funny :cheers::sly:
 
Europe has a big event to keep them occupied while the rest of the world waste our life span for the update. You're lucky
 
Congrats to all who participated, it sounds like the event of a lifetime.

Were all the participants racing novices or were there experienced racers in the group?


Europe has a big event to keep them occupied while the rest of the world waste our life span for the update. You're lucky

Lucky, no. A proven, die-hard market for GT games, yes. Go whine in another thread.
 
Congrats to all who participated, it sounds like the event of a lifetime.

Were all the participants racing novices or were there experienced racers in the group?




Lucky, no. A proven, die-hard market for GT games, yes. Go whine in another thread.

That was a compliment not a whine
 
Some countries in Europe has a big event to keep them occupied while the rest of the world waste our life span for the update. You're lucky

Fixed it.
Some countries (like mine) were left out. Sucks big time.


Looks like the guys that made it to Silverstone had quite a few days of awesomeness, can't wait to see pics, videos, etc., of the event. 👍
 
Fixed it.
Some countries (like mine) were left out. Sucks big time.


Looks like the guys that made it to Silverstone had quite a few days of awesomeness, can't wait to see pics, videos, etc., of the event. 👍

Yeah me too, and sorry to here that your country was left out. You're alright superwally, I know you're tired of hearing people talking about the update too
 
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Grandi, thanks very much for sharing these details! I've just updated the GTPlanet news blog with a link to your thread here, along with the first pictures of the event by danilc1007. If you've got any photos of your own, I would be very happy to post them as well. :) Congratulations on making it that far in the competition. 👍
 
:bowdown:
Again, :cheers: mate, and can't wait to hear the whole story on saturday!!

Congratulation to the WINNERS!! 👍 👍
 
Can´t wait to read more of your experiences from the finals man! Congratulations! And best of luck to the winners chasing their dreams!
p.s. Was the GT-R any similar to the one in the game?
👍👍👍
 
Nice:) Can't wait to see pictures...
Haha I'm really jealous:)
Went to a 24h race last weekend here in Belgium and damn I just wished I could drive one of those cars too...
Maybe later!
 
Some Photos:
Karri :sly:


Jonny Herbert


GTR


Silverstone Racing Controll


Silverstone podium


Champions room


Formula car we drove


350Z Final




Still more to come...
 
Johnny Herbert was there? Wow. And do I spy a camera crew? Aw, do we get to see all your ugly mugs on GT TV? :lol:
Looks great, wish I could have done it!
 
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Johnny Herbert looks like a fun guy :D

that's because he actually is :lol:

GordonS
p.s. Was the GT-R any similar to the one in the game?

The GT-R was incrediby much alike with the one simulated in GT5P (more-so when it was in Race-mode). Smoothness was essentially the key in driving it (South circuit @ Silverstone is pretty smooth, anyway, corner-wise). Of course when playing GT you don't have the "arse-feel" to it but otherwise the driving mechanics feel very much alike. Be it heavy braking, constant speed cornering or exiting a tight one, it's essentially all there in GT5P. I think everyone there totally fell in love with the GT-R (and some have even planned marriage with it ;) ). A simply amazing automobile.

-Karri
 
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Johnny Herbert was there? Wow. And do I spy a camera crew? Aw, do we get to see all your ugly mugs on GT TV? :lol:
Looks great, wish I could have done it!

There are indeed camera's from Sony/ GT TV and from the Discovery Channel! They are making a special program about the GT Academy as they follow the winners. > I have had a little chat with them at the Dutch Finals of the GT Academy.

I also posted the Press Release of Sony/Nissan on http://www.granturismo5.nl The introduction is in Dutch but the Press Release is in English and has a full coverage of the final day! Enjoy!
 
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There are indeed camera's from Sony/ GT TV and from the Discovery Channel! They are making a special program about the GT Academy as they follow the winners. > I have had a little chat with them at the Dutch Finals of the GT Academy.

I also posted the Press Release of Sony/Nissan on http://www.granturismo5.nl The introduction is in Dutch but the Press Release is in English and has a full coverage of the final day! Enjoy!

Cheers for that! :cheers:
All really interesting.
 
Thanks for posting - great read. Would have loved to have been there.

Without wishing to undermine Lucas' achievement it would have been good to see two pure 'products' of the game make it through. Having experience racing karts and single seaters must have been a huge advantage. As someone has already said it's accepted that a good driver can apply their skills to GT but I thought the intention of this competition was to see if it worked the other way.

Congratulations to both winners and if you're reading Matt, very well done on your 8th place - you did the UK proud. 👍
 
if you didnt had some real life race experience... there was no chance to survive this competition at silverstone.. for example: There was a guy during the formula car session who couldn't get his car in first gear..
 
Oh yeah. I think it was me xD A very funny situation but I can say in my defense that I didn't understand what the guy was saying me xD

In the fourth time (or fifth) I could go... xD

Well... forgetting it... hi, I'm new in GTPlanet, but I am the one in the photo with Yamauchi in the main page news. Mr López they call me.

Sorry for my english, but all my partners there can say you. My english is horrible. Nice to meet you all and I can see there are here some other finalists like Karri of Steffen :)
 
if you didnt had some real life race experience... there was no chance to survive this competition at silverstone.. for example: There was a guy during the formula car session who couldn't get his car in first gear..

Of the final six at least Lars and Arnaud were purely gamers in terms of racing before this. By the time it got to the weekend I don't think it mattered that much if you had raced earlier or not. (For example: I heard the fastest superpole laptime with the Formula on saturday was recorded by Arnaud Lacombe). And that's what the organisers really wanted: To see a gamer elevate his level of real driving, to implement the theoretics from a simulator into reality.

Btw - say hello to your brother from me. We had some nice driving sessions together on saturday :)

-Karri
 
Oh yeah. I think it was me xD A very funny situation but I can say in my defense that I didn't understand what the guy was saying me xD

In the fourth time (or fifth) I could go... xD

Well... forgetting it... hi, I'm new in GTPlanet, but I am the one in the photo with Yamauchi in the main page news. Mr López they call me.

Sorry for my english, but all my partners there can say you. My english is horrible. Nice to meet you all and I can see there are here some other finalists like Karri of Steffen :)

Nice to meet you xD

I never been this close to a celebrity before... I could get used to 👍

EDIT: Oh, yeah, epic fail XD
 

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