A new Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial is available from today, setting players a challenge of lapping one of the greatest cars to never race — and one of GT’s “three legendary cars”.
Jaguar’s XJ13 was created with the intent of recapturing the 24 Hours of Le Mans title that the marque had won five times already, including three in a row with the D-Type from 1955-57. It wasn’t an entirely official endeavour, but the project included some pretty heady names from the company.
With its mid-mounted V12, the XJ13 was aimed at beating Ferrari at its own game, but sadly there was another brand doing something very similar with more resources, and more focused spite. By the time the XJ13 first rolled a wheel, Ford had already tested the monster, seven-liter GT40 MkII and the Jaguar was pretty much obsolete.
It never raced, but it did suffer a further ignominy. While shooting promotional footage for the upcoming E-Type, the XJ13 crashed at high speed and was all but destroyed. The car was rebuilt, but by a third party and not exactly to its original form — something even Jaguar, which still owns the one and only car, acknowledges.
You’ll get a chance to race the XJ13 over the next two weeks in this time trial at the Interlagos circuit, and on Racing Hard tires that should provide plenty of grip. Although you can race your own example, it’s a pretty expensive vehicle when it appears in the Legends Cars dealer, so you may prefer to borrow one (for free) instead.
Currently the world record for the event sits at a mid-1:32, with the gold target correspondingly at a low-1:35. Interlagos is a complicated track and the Jaguar a bit of a challenge to hustle, so we’re not expecting the top times to break into the 1:31s, and any 1:34 ought to be comfortably gold.
You still have another week to set a time in the X-Bow time trial at Road Atlanta too. The world record here sits right on our predicted high-1:23 marker, with 1:26.305 the target for gold. We’re not sure that there’s an awful lot left to gain, so a 1:26.2 ought to be enough to see you collect 2m credits next week, but aiming a couple of tenths better wouldn’t do any harm.
In order to access the Online Time Trials, you’ll need to unlock Sport Mode, by completing Menu Book 9 (“Championship: Tokyo Highway Parade”) in the GT Cafe single player hub. As it’s just you against the clock and not a direct, head-to-head multiplayer event, PlayStation Plus is not required.
You’ll usually need to be within 3% of the fastest time globally once the event finishes in order to secure “gold” status and a 2m credit bonus prize. There’s smaller prizes of one million for being within 5%, and 250,000cr for bronze at 10% off.
The events update every Thursday, with each individual challenge remaining available for two weeks and the oldest of the two events being replaced each week. You can look forward to the next new Time Trial arriving at 0700 UTC on Thursday April 25.
Lap Time Challenge April 18 – Interlagos
- Track: Autodromo de Interlagos
- Car: Jaguar XJ13 ’66 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Racing Hard
- Settings: Fixed
Lap Time Challenge April 11 – Road Atlanta
- Track: Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
- Car: KTM X-Bow R ’12 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Sports Soft
- Settings: Fixed
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