A new Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial is now available, bringing some very high-speed action into the mix for the global hot-lap competition.
After a few “short course” tracks in a row, we’re heading out to one of the longer courses in the game in the shape of the fictional Circuit de Sainte-Croix. This track, which itself has three layouts (and reverse variants of each), is rarely seen in any Sport Mode events and is designed to resemble a classic French street circuit in the south of the country.
The “A” track hosts the action, and in case you get your Sainte-Croix layouts mixed up this is the middle-length one (at 5.89 miles) — and the only one where you turn left onto the landmark suspension bridge and right off it.
It’s a pretty long lap, so fortunately we have a very quick car to drive. That’s the Gr.1 racing version of the Genesis Vision Gran Turismo car, the “X Gran Racer”. With extra racing adornments like a sharkfin, giant rear wing, and wheel arch cutouts, this version of the Genesis might serve as inspiration for a real-world attempt at the top class of endurance racing — with an LMDh car in the works.
While the X Gran Racer is a pretty alarming vehicle to drive in its native form, it’s subject to the Gr.1 category Balance of Performance (BOP) settings for the event. That brings its power down to more sensible levels, in the region of 600hp, and it’s on sticky Racing Soft tires too.
The long lap means a whole lot can go wrong, and there’s time to be made pretty much everywhere so we’re expecting lap times to tumble before too long. We’re already seeing the top ten players beating 2:40 and the very best are now in the 2:38s, setting gold at 2:43.3.
There’s not much chance that’s going to stick, but it’s hard to estimate how far it might fall by the time the event ends in two weeks. We could see 2:37 laps, so really you’ll need to aim for something in the 2:41s for gold.
A week remains on the time trial posted last week, using the new Nissan GT-R T-Spec at the Nurburgring GP course. Times are currently moving into the bottom end of our estimates, with the record at 1:31.895 — which sets gold at 1:34.651. A 1:34.5 should therefore still be enough but you might want a little bit of a margin on that for safety.
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 usually 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 October 17.
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge October 10 – Circuit de Sainte-Croix
- Track: Circuit de Sainte-Croix A
- Car: Genesis X Gran Racer Vision GT – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Racing Soft
- Settings: Fixed
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge October 3 – Nurburgring Sprint
- Track: Nurburgring Sprint
- Car: Nissan GT-R (R35) Premium T-Spec ’24 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Sports Medium
- Settings: Fixed
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