Following the debut of the Skoda brand in Gran Turismo 7 today, its first ever car in the game series is now available in a dedicated Online Time Trial.
Aside from an appearance of its old “winged arrow” logo (as it was known officially) in Gran Turismo 6’s Goodwood Festival of Speed location, Skoda has never been in GT before. That makes its debut a big deal, and the way it’s making its bow also proves the value of the Vision Gran Turismo project.
Skoda’s first car is indeed a Vision GT machine, and it’s interesting that we actually saw an earlier version of this car close to 18 months ago — with the Vision GT name but not directly part of Gran Turismo at the time.
There’s been a few subtle changes to the car since it appeared in 2022, perhaps the most obvious being the change to inboard dampers on the pushrod suspension (which isn’t even that obvious), but the overall vehicle remains broadly the same.
Featuring a forged carbon chassis with integrated, 87kWh battery pack, the Skoda Vision GT sports a quartet of electric motors good for 200kW (286hp) apiece. That makes for a combined 1,072hp in a car weighing 1.3 tonnes. Thankfully it comes with Racing Medium tires as standard, and some neat adaptive aerodynamics.
You’ll be racing the Skoda VGT at Watkins Glen for the next two weeks in the global time trial challenge, with the aim naturally being to go as fast as you possibly can. Currently the record for that is nudging the bottom of the 1:34s, and we don’t imagine that’ll hold for all that long.
That means that if you want to join the ranks of the gold players (and its associated 2m credit reward), you already need to hit a 1:36.9 and it’s likely that’s going to fall to a mid-1:36 at least. Fortunately you don’t need to make any gear changes in the Skoda, so it’s all about the lines.
Last week’s XJ13 time trial at Interlagos remains in place for another week too, with the current record now in the low 1:32s. The gold target therefore sits at close to 1:35 dead, and it’s pretty likely that if you already have a 1:34 you’re safe.
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 May 2.
Lap Time Challenge April 25 – Watkins Glen
- Track: Watkins Glen – Long Course
- Car: Skoda Vision Gran Turismo – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Racing Medium
- Settings: Fixed
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
See more articles on Gran Turismo 7 Time Trial.
