The weekly cycle of Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial challenges continues, with a new event becoming available today.
After a selection of road car events in recent weeks, there’s a little change which sees a somewhat unusual race car taking center stage for the new time trial: the Bugatti Veyron Gr.4.
It’s one of the oddest cars in the already pretty varied class. The standard, road-going Veyron is ludicrously overpowered by comparison to the other vehicles on which these GT4-like cars are based, and as such the big W16 engine is turned down to produce barely 40% of its standard output.
Not only that, it’s the only Gr.4 car in the game that doesn’t have a Gr.3 sibling — meaning that Bugatti isn’t eligible for the flagship GT World Series esports events. As a result, the car is rarely seen outside of Gr.4 Daily Races at Monza and, it seems, the occasional time trial.
The track you’ll be tackling is pretty well-suited to the car’s strengths, with the 24 Heures du Mans course — the Circuit de la Sarthe in previous GT games — hosting. It’s packed with high-speed straights, for which the still high-power Bugatti is the ideal Gr.4 car. However the required Racing Hard tires (fitted automatically if you rent the car) enhances its tendency to plow on in tighter corners.
At such a long circuit, the gap in terms of raw time from the world’s best down to the gold marker is larger than normal. Currently the world record times are in the low 4:15 area, requiring a high 4:22 for gold. We don’t expect that to last for long; if the best time when the event closes is a flat 4:14 we wouldn’t be surprised, so aim for a mid-4:21 for safety.
There’s a week remaining on the Red Bull Ring Time Trial which started on February 29 too. We’ve not seen times falling quite as far as we expected yet, but there’s still time for the world record to fall from its current 1:44.8. Right now you need a 1:47.9 for gold, but we’d still say a 1:47.6 to be more sure of it.
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 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 March 14.
Lap Time Challenge March 7 – 24 Heures du Mans
- Track: 24 Heures du Mans
- Car: Bugatti Veyron Gr.4 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (H)
- Tires: Racing Hard
- Settings: Fixed
Lap Time Challenge February 29 – Red Bull Ring
- Track: Red Bull Ring
- Car: Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR GSR ’06 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Sports Hard
- Settings: Fixed
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