Nissan GT Academy

  • Jann Mardenborough drives a Nissan GT-R around a racetrack with a video game control

    The latest installment in the iconic "Gran Turismo" video game series, "Gran Turismo Sport," goes on sale next week, but Nissan threw a celebration of its own ahead of the launch. The video game itself may have coined the "Real Driving Simulator" tagline years ago, but Nissan took it to a new level with a GT-R you can operate with a video game controller. That's right. Just like a video game, you can operate the special GT-R, dubbed the GT-R /C, entirely with buttons and joysticks on the Playstation Dualshock controller. But Nissan didn't hand the robotic GT-R /C off to just anyone. None...

  • Nissan GT Academy
    Nissan Playstation GT Academy Ramping Up For 5th U.S. Season: Video

    With gamers turned racers taking podiums and points in series around the world at this point, it’s no wonder the Nissan GT Academy is coming back for a fifth season. The timing of the announcement is certainly liable to get ganja-loving gamers winking and nodding at each other, but for those...

  • Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 race car crashes during VLN event at the Nürburgring
    Spectator Dies When Nissan GT Academy Driver’s GT-R Gets Airborne

    WARNING: Viewer discretion advised as video depicts a fatal accident. A horror crash at the opening round of the VLN race series held at the Nürburgring left one spectator dead and several others injured. The crash, which took place yesterday, involved the number 23 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3...

  • Jann Mardenborough
    Gamers Turned Racers To Pilot Nissan GT-R LM NISMO LMP1 At Le Mans

    If you had said only a few years ago that a video game fanatic would one day be racing in top level motorsport, based purely on their skill in popular racing sims like Gran Turismo, it’s safe to say that virtually everyone you came across would have doubted your claims. Today, however, we...

  • Nissan Le Mans program
    Nissan LMP1 Team To Be Based In U.S., Test American Drivers

    Next year, Nissan will enter the World Endurance Championship and compete alongside the likes of Audi, Porsche and Toyota with a new LMP1 hybrid race car. That means we’ll see Nissan return to top level racing at the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, and it also means the Japanese automaker will be...

  • 2014 Nissan ZEOD RC Le Mans prototype makes track debut at Fuji Speedway
    Four Gamers-Turned-Racers To Compete In 2014 24 Hours Of Le Mans

    In 2011 Nissan showed the world that it is possible to take a gamer, put him through a driver development program, unleash him at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and see him stand on the podium after the grueling racing. The story of Lucas Ordonez, original Nissan GT Academy winner, and his journey from...

  • 2014 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 race car

    Despite the fact that the Nürburgring is completely different from almost any real world roads out there, car manufacturers continue to use the track as a testing bed for their cars. One of the most prominent is Nissan, whose 2015 GT-R NISMO equipped with an available N-Attack package managed to set a blistering time of just 7:08.679 for a Nürburgring lap, making it slower than only much more powerful ‘hypercars’ like the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder. Now, the racing version of the car, the GT-R NISMO GT3, is about to embark on an assault on the Green Hell, by...

  • Nissan Altima Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge racer
    Nissan GT Academy U.S. Winners Team Up For Continental Tires SportsCar Challenge

    Two former U.S. Nissan GT Academy winners will race the remainder of the 2014 season together.

  • Original GT Academy winner Lucas Ordonez
    First GT Academy Winner To Drive For Nissan In Super GT & Le Mans, Another Being Prepped For F1

    The original winner of Nissan’s GT Academy, Lucas Ordonez, has certainly come a long way since his student days of 2008. After winning the first-ever round of GT Academy that year, Ordonez was propelled into the world of GT4 racing where he competed in a Nissan 350Z and then the 370Z. In 2010...

  • Nissan GT Academy Season 3
    Nissan GT Academy Trailer: The Racing Heads To India

    A new season of Nissan's PlayStation gamer-to-racer TV series, GT Academy, is coming. According to the new trailer for the upcoming season, the competition will head to India for the first time. Having made versions of the GT Academy competition to find future racers in the UK, U.S., and Russia...

  • Nissan GT Academy Season Three winner Nick McMillen
    U.S. Nissan GT Academy Season Three Winner Announced: Video

    Nissan GT Academy named the winner of its third season.

  • Nissan GT Academy Season 3
    Nissan GT Academy Returns For Third U.S. Season

    Are you an avid gamer who wishes you could turn your fantasy into reality? Then you probably already know about the Nissan GT Academy. Why aren’t you signed up and competing for season four? That’s right, season three (in the U.S.; the global competition is entering its fifth season) is...

  • NISMO Global Driver Exchange

    As if winning a chance to drive real race cars from a video game weren't cool enough, original GT Academy winner and NISMO racer Lucas Ordonez now gets to race in Japan's Super GT series thanks to a new driver exchange program. The new program, formally named the NISMO Global Driver Exchange, will see drivers throughout NISMO's various motorsports programs swap race seats. Ordonez's Super GT ride is the first swap, but some Super GT drivers will also get to race outside Japan to gain experience, including Kazuki Hoshino, who will drive a GT-R GT3 race car at the Nurburgring 1000-km race...

  • Nissan GT Academy
    Gran Turismo 6 Demo Launches July 2, Kicks Off 2013 Nissan GT Academy

    Sony has confirmed that a demo version of its upcoming Gran Turismo 6 racing simulator will be available for download from the PlayStation Store from July 2 onwards. The demo is completely free and will be downloadable up until August 31 for PS3 users. It will include a range of Nissan cars...

  • Nissan GT Academy
    Find Out Who The Fastest Nissan GT Academy Driver Is: Video

    Nissan’s GT Academy is about to enter its sixth year, with 2013’s round of competition to be the biggest yet in the event’s history. But have you ever wondered who is actually the fastest of the current crop of GT Academy winners? Here’s your chance to find out. The top...

  • Nissan GT Academy
    2013 Will Be Biggest Year Yet For Nissan's GT Academy

    Nissan’s popular GT Academy will be back for its fifth year in 2013 and organizers promise to make this round of competition the biggest yet. The GT Academy essentially pits gamers playing Sony’s Gran Turismo in a knockout competition, with the final winner in each of the tournaments...

  • The Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 of Alex Buncombe and Jann Mardenborough
    Nissan GT Academy Drivers Too Fast For British GT Championship

    The job of a racing driver, on any level, is to go faster than his competitors. Doing so generally results in victories, which (in theory) results in sponsors, which are essential to help fund a career in motorsports. There aren’t too many occasions where a driver is denied entry into a...

  • AMG customer teams at the 2013 Dubai 24 Hours endurance race
    Abu Dhabi By Black Falcon Wins Dubai 24 Hours, Nissan GT Academy Drivers Make Strong Debut

    For the second year in a row, a team fielding the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 race car has taken overall victory at the grueling Dubai 24 Hours endurance race. Additionally, the winner this year was also the overall winner at last year’s event. That winner was the team Abu Dhabi by Black...

  • 2013 Nissan GT Academy race at Dubai 24 Hours

    For any of us who have ever nursed the fantasy of being paid to drive race cars--or even just having the cash and skill to pay our own way onto a track against the best in the world--the Nissan GT Academy is a sort of real-world fairy tale. For a handful of this year's winners from around the world, that reality is about to hit in full strength: Their first race, the Dubai 24 Hours, is this weekend. American winner Steve Doherty will be among the racers plying their craft in the Nissan 370Z Nismo GT4 race cars the team is bringing to Dubai. Along with the race debut of Doherty and his Russian...

  • 2012 Nissan GT Academy winners representing Europe, USA, Germany and Russia
    Nissan GT Academy Winners From Around The World Head To 2013 Dubai 24 Hours

    Nissan, together with Sony, held the first GT Academy in 2008, and since then the event has gone on to become a global phenomenon with gamers-turned-drivers from all parts of the globe now competing. Nissan’s GT Academy essentially pits gamers, playing the popular racing simulator Gran...

  • 2012 Nissan GT Academy North America winner Steve Doherty
    2012 Nissan GT Academy North America Winner To Race Dubai 24 Hours In January

    The winner of the 2012 Nissan GT Academy's North American competition was recently revealed through the competition's television series, and now, the formerly unemployed 29-year-old mechanic is looking forward to his first pro race at the Dubai 24 Hour race on January 10. This year's winner, Steve...

  • Nissan GT Academy 2012
    Nissan GT Academy: All Five Episodes So Far

    Nissan's GT Academy is the stuff dreams are made of--literally. Imagine going from a hardcore video gamer to a real-world pro racer in one giant leap. That's the GT Academy. But not all of us have time to keep track of the show, especially since it's on Spike TV--not one of our usual haunts. Now...

  • Nissan GT Academy 2012
    Top 16 Nissan/PlayStation GT Academy Finalists Head To Silverstone

    The final round of the second season of the joint Nissan-PlayStation GT Academy North America is about to get underway, with the top 16 contenders from the thousands of entrants headed to the U.K. Silverstone racing circuit for an intensive week-long race camp and competition series. Spike TV will...

  • 2013 Nissan GT-R (Japanese spec) - Photo copyright Openers.jp
    2013 Nissan GT-R Hot Lap With GT Academy Winner

    Bryan Heitkotter is living every Gran Turismo player's dream: he won GT Academy in 2011 and is now a race car driver for Nissan. He battles it out in a Nissan 370Z endurance race car across the globe. Last week we were fortunate enough to sit shotgun in a 2013 Nissan GT-R Black Edition for a hot...

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