The latest Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial is now available, and while it’s set to occupy players across the festive period you won’t exactly be driving Santa’s sleigh.
Over the next two weeks you’ll be racing in an unusual fictional car based on the Adrian Newey-designed Red Bull X vehicles. While originally created — as the X1, before a name change to X2010 — to be a Formula One car without rules and the fastest way around any given circuit, the car spawned some variants.
This one, the X2014 Junior, is the slowest and least powerful of them, but still packs a punch. It’s extremely lightweight, coming in at 550kg, and features similar airflow and downforce characteristics to the standard car.
That all allows the 246hp, two-liter four-pot engine to do quite a bit even if it’s not quite the free-spinning V6 of the original — and it makes it a good deal less frantic to drive.
You’ll be trying to set the best time you can at the full Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya GP course in the Junior, and the current world record for that is a 1:44.243. We’re going to expect 1:43s before too long, so watch the gold threshold drop from the current 1:47.370 to something more like a high 1:46 over the next two weeks.
With two events running at the same time in a staggered fashion, the time trial for the Renault Megane which began last week is still in play too — and times have fallen pretty much to where we were expecting.
The record there is currently a 1:24.163, so a 1:23 is looking like a more remote possibility right now. It also sets the gold boundary at 1:26.687 for now, but we’d still say to aim for a 1:26.3 if you want to be a bit more certain.
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 December 26.
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge December 19 – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
- Track: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya GP
- Car: Red Bull X2014 Junior – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Racing Hard
- Settings: Fixed
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge December 12 – Goodwood
- Track: Goodwood Motor Circuit
- Car: Renault Sport Megane RS Trophy ’11 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Sports Hard
- Settings: Fixed
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