[Aston.Martin]

Indian arm of Nissan GT academy launched.

Nissan India has launched the Indian arm of its Nissan GT academy. It aims to create a race driver from an ordinary person without the enormous cost of the regular route to becoming a race driver. The contest is open to anyone over the age of 18, one can enter the contest and well as choose the finalists.

The Nissan PlayStation GT Academy is in its sixth year and has been hugely popular and successful in Europe, Russia, the USA, the Middle East and South Africa. The Japanese automaker sees huge potential for racing in India and has thus launched the academy here.

The GT Academy’s Indian qualifying rounds will begin with ‘Live Events’ in five select Indian cities and at a later stage will also include an online qualifying round that will be hosted on the PlayStation Network (PSN) via the Gran Turismo 6 game.

In total 14 contestants will be selected to attend a camp in Delhi which will be headed by Karun Chandok. After passing all the requirments of the Indian leg, six persons will be chosen to go participate in the international camp at Silverstone where they will get to drive a race-prepped 370Zs as well the mighty GT-R sports car.

Commenting on the launch of the academy, Matthew De La Haye, Nissan’s Vice President Communications, Africa, Middle East, India and Europe said, “We’re delighted to launch GT Academy in India; bringing the programme here reinforces our commitment to growing the Nissan brand and developing relationships with both existing and potential customers. GT Academy really proves that Nissan stands for innovation and excitement for everyone.” Nissan will host the inaugural round of the competition on February 6 at the Delhi Auto Expo in greater Noida.

Source: http://autoexpo.carwale.com/2014/122...0Sedan4Feb2014

[hothatchaway]

Originally Posted by Aston.Martin

Indian arm of Nissan GT academy launched.
Attachment 1201957
Nissan India has launched the Indian arm of its Nissan GT academy. It aims to create a race driver from an ordinary person without the enormous cost of the regular route to becoming a race driver. The contest is open to anyone over the age of 18, one can enter the contest and well as choose the finalists.

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Any further details available on venue, dates etc?

[reddream]

Wow !!! I am thrilled. Going to give it a shot. Any idea on which car and track they are going to use.

[Aston.Martin]

Originally Posted by hothatchaway

Any further details available on venue, dates etc?

Schedule:

February 7-11, 2014 – Nissan Display Area, Hall 12, India Expo Mart, Greater Noida
February 20-23, 2014 – Ambience Mall, Gurgaon, NCR
March 20-23, 2014 – R-City Mall, Ghatkopar, Mumbai
April 17-20, 2014 – Inorbit Mall, Hyderabad
May 15-18, 2014 – Mantri Mall, Bengalore
June 5-8, 2014 – Express Avenue Mall, Royapettah, Chennnai

In India the qualifying for the GT Academy will be done in two ways – through ‘Live Events’ in high foot-fall shopping malls in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai as well as an online qualification round wherein participants who have access to the recently launched Gran Tourismo 6 game and a PlayStation can compete from home. While Nissan has already announced the schedule of the ‘Live Events’ they are yet to declare the official date of commencement of the online qualification.

Out of the five cities, 14 contestants who clock the fastest lap times will be eligible to enter the National Finals who will then be put through a intensive two-day mental and physical training examination programme which will filter out six contestants who will be eligible for the International Race Camp in United Kingdom. The six finalists from India along with 18 from other nations will again go through an exhaustive training session and driving skill tests onboard the Nissan Nismo-tuned 370Z and the GT-Rs. One winner will be declared at the Race Camp who will then compete in an international ‘graduation race’.

Source: http://www.zigwheels.com/news-featur...n-india/17807/

[Kaumad]

Source - http://overdrive.in/news/nissan-gt-a...udes-in-india/


Earlier this year at the Auto Expo, Nissan surprised us by announcing the arrival of the Gran Turismo Academy to India. For those the uninitiated, the GT Academy is an interesting platform which allows motorsport fans to prove their driving skills on a Sony Playstation. Through the popular Gran Turismo racing simulator, gamers with the fastest lap times stand a chance to make a shift from the virtual world to the real world of motor racing.

Sounds like a lot of fun and it definitely was! But getting to the top of the lap times isn’t cakewalk. Over 5,000 contestants took up the challenge in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai out of which 28 participants made it to the final round in Jaipur.

In the first round, the participants set their time trials on the Silverstone International Circuit and the final lap times were in the range of 1m3sec to 1min4sec. The top 18 participants were selected after the round, on the basis of their lap times. Further six participants were eliminated from these 18 after the Monaco street circuit. The fastest lap time recorded was 1m36sec, while the highest was 2 seconds higher at 1m38sec.

The qualifying 12 participants were then taken to the next level where the real tests started. A driving test on a polo ground in Jaipur saw the contestants competing on a short autocross circuit in a Nissan Micra Active. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that all the gamers turned out to be pretty comfortable behind the wheel on a real car too.

Since physical fitness is of such great importance in motorsport,the tasks above were followed by a fitness challenge too. This test turned out to be quite the revelation for contestants as different body types worked out for different challenges like push-ups, endurance runs and high jumps.
The contestants even got a taste of the limelight with mock questions from the press, to help judge their ability to handle media.

A combination of all the skills were judged to pick out the final six participants who will now head to Silverstone. The Nissan GT Academy will train them for the real world of endurance racing. But the challenges don’t end here. The contestants will face finalists from countries like Mexico, Thailand and Australia and the winners will then continue with their motorsport education in Dubai.

The following six finalists get to fuel their motorsport ambitions, courtesy the Nissan GT Academy: -
Abhinav Bhatt
Abhinaya Bikani
Prakash Nair
Akshay Gupta
Glen Ivan
Carl Patel

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

This is a really good platform for people to come out and atleast dream of a racing career. I was part of the Top 14 time setters in the offline competition till the bangalore round took place.


Anyways best of luck to the Finalists. I hope one of them makes it to the top.

CHEERS
Rachit

[psycho_dtg]

Hey guys!

I'm one of the finalists from India for the GT Academy! My name is Glen! it's been an amazing experience and Nissan did not spare any expense on us! I'm really excited about Silverstone, never did I ever dream that I would ever have such an opportunity! For someone who has only driven an SX4! this is going to be a big jump!

If you have any questions or queries, let me know! prepare for next year because it's only going to get better and better!

Cheers!
Glen

[Kaumad]

Congratulations Glen!! All the very best for your Silverstone sojourn!
Where are you in the picture I have posted above?

Maybe you should start a thread describing your GT Academy experience, from the start. You can keep updating as you go through the Silverstone experience.

[JoseVijay]

Originally Posted by psycho_dtg

Hey guys!

I'm one of the finalists from India for the GT Academy! My name is Glen! it's been an amazing experience and Nissan did not spare any expense on us! I'm really excited about Silverstone, never did I ever dream that I would ever have such an opportunity! For someone who has only driven an SX4! this is going to be a big jump!

If you have any questions or queries, let me know! prepare for next year because it's only going to get better and better!

Cheers!
Glen

Originally Posted by Kaumad

Congratulations Glen!! All the very best for your Silverstone sojourn!
Where are you in the picture I have posted above?

Maybe you should start a thread describing your GT Academy experience, from the start. You can keep updating as you go through the Silverstone experience.

Congrats Glen. As Kaumad said I request you to start a new thread to share your experience of life time.

[psycho_dtg]

Hey Guys,
I'm the third from the right! YES, I wanted to share my story so far, will start on a post tomorrow! thank you for the wishes, will keep you posted!

[psycho_dtg]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

Congrats Glen. As Kaumad said I request you to start a new thread to share your experience of life time.

I will! I've been asked to keep a little hush-hush by the PR agency for now! it's a little overwhelming with the interview requests etc, so I've been asked to hold off any information at the moment till everything is properly set!