New Year’s Holiday Challenge GT5 Seasonal Event Now Live

The latest Gran Turismo 5 Seasonal Events are a special bunch, featuring Expert-level challenges with high rewards.

Clearing all events with the highest results will award a special prize on top of the prizes associated with the highest results in the individual events. The challenges are as follows:

New Year’s Holiday Challenge

  • 600PP GT500: Suzuka Circuit / 10 Laps
    Period of Availability: 2012/12/20 03:00 – 2013/01/10 03:00
    1st: Cr.750,000  2nd: Cr.375,000  3rd: Cr.262,500
  • 600PP Tuned Cars: Nürburgring Nordschleife / 3 Laps
    Period of Availability: 2012/12/20 03:00 – 2013/01/10 03:00
    1st: Cr.880,000  2nd: Cr.440,000  3rd: Cr.308,000
  • 700PP Racing Cars: Spa Francorchamps / 10 Laps
    Period of Availability: 2012/12/20 03:00 – 2013/01/10 03:00
    1st: Cr.1,000,000  2nd: Cr.500,000  3rd: Cr.350,000/li>
  • Corvette C7 Test Prototype: Nürburgring Nordschleife Time Trial
    Period of Availability: 2012/12/20 03:00 – 2013/01/10 03:00
    Gold: Cr.550,000  Silver: Cr.300,000  Bronze: Cr.150,000

The game’s Online Car Dealership has also been updated with new inventory, with all cars being sold at half-price. As always, stop by our GT5 Seasonal Events forum for more analysis and discussion!

GT5 Photomode image by max351.

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Comments (110)

  1. soapy2011

    Sorry guys, just mixed up on my last post. I mean I won the Spa with Audi R8 and Nurburgring with GTR Black Edition.

  2. soapy2011

    Suzuka is bitch to race, after many tries finally managed to win this with HSV. But like what I said this race is a BITCH! Just can’t believe that Nissmo Z can run away like this! Spa and Nurburgring are pretty good races! Lots of fun! I won the Spa with GTR Black edition and Nurburgring with Audi R8 race car, both with intermediate tires, pretty easy. Haven’t done the TT yet. But I know it is going to be a bitch again!

    1. Aaron2x

      Yeah it took me three tries. The key is to start out with racing soft tires and then pit when the wetness of the road gets up to about 20%. When you pit switch to intermediate (like I did) or rain tires. I won the race by almost a minute!

  3. UKCoachCalipari

    Kinda ridiculous “Special Prize” . . . and I already have every care in the OCD garge 3, sometimes 4 times over, yet I bought every one of them again, I guess 0milers are somewhat satifiying to have, so now I have 3-5 of all the Pescarols, all the mirror iterations plus extras to race with.

    Seasonals are funbut not themed , and not especially challenging save the TT, not sure why SRF is locked on, almost seems like they forgot to remove the selection at the last moment, my hopeful guess is they reactivate the choice after the seasonal expires.

    PD needs to take a page outa the Old School EA TWoods book. EA used to come up with really cool Tiger Woods events that were triggered by the PS2, XBOX, and PC system clocks. Example, Oct 31, EA would create a nightime enviroment of a fantasy course, tricks out out with glowing pumpkins, scarecrows, wandering Jasons, mike Myers Zombies and pycho patients in medical gowns, glowing eyes in the bush, etc, then added a John Carpenter/Trent Reznorish style soundtrack and howling wolves, screams, and other disturbing sound effects. Now that is a seasonal!

    1. Aaron2x

      It kinda sucks that they limit the amount of time you have to do the Holiday Challenge. Those were probably the best seasonal events yet.

  4. Driving me mad

    On the seasonal events I’ve done the 1st 3 races without a hitch but I’m going mad on the TT as can only get silver, does anyone know what the 2 cars you get if you get gold? 1 is a lvl 23 car and the other is a Gift car ticket 1000? Any ideas

  5. TheEzekiel

    I improved (2 sec) my lap time on nurb but because of my PS3 “could not connect to ranking system” my record is just gone :-) thank you PD you are just masters !!!

  6. jd42

    Spa and Nurburg were the best events once you figure out which car and tire combo to use. Suzuka : HSV with base settings Nurburg : gtr academy edition with base settings, Spa : jud with base settings. Completed all on intermediates. As for the TT, can’t manage better than bronze. Gonna keep at the latter two so I can rebuild my $ after buying a few mulit million dollar cars.

  7. Boosted_01_R

    Best seasonal to date…….. need more weather changing events, and high PP events…. nice to see they fixed the rain issues where Soft had more grip than inters and wets…. Spa was the best seasonal to date :D :D :D

  8. Mr Nerv

    Oh dear, the glitchy AI still remains! I’ve just raced Suzuka, and I was 1st by the 3rd/4th corner of…LAP 2!

    Similar kind of thing to the Spa Seasonal where my Level 0 Bob won the race. And yes, in both cases – I’M NOT KIDDING.

  9. Musolini187

    just bought all the cars i was missing, only 1 more to go and ill have all the elite/rare expensive cars of gt5.

    1. Tvensky

      The best part is that they all are very different, I still dont have time for all of them, since there are so many good cars, and some favorites I drive all the time…. I will try to buy every one of them and try later on :)

      I only wish gt5 would have more tracks and roads/offroads where I could use those cars….

  10. warpkez

    Chase the rabbit, my foot!!! At times I am flat out bronzing most of these events, but if I can get gold with between 30sec and a minute lead, then some people must suck more than me.

    The only one I cannot get done is the TT with the $DEITY awful C7. No idea why this is a requirement to get the car ticket, it should be its own event.

  11. JeremiahTB

    I’ve never seen such mixed reviews over a Seasonal before. Some people hate them so much I’m surprised they still play the game. Others are so geeked that you would think GT6 just came out. Personally, I think they are good, not great, but good.

  12. dylansan

    Just so people don’t waste their money, a reminder: The Nissan R89C and Bentley Speed 8 are available as prizes from some of the seasonal events.

    Also, the Caterham, Skyline, both Lamborghini, Cizeta, Bugatti, Toyota GT-ONE, and both Team Playstation Audi R8s can be won from the Offline Career mode races.

    1. vrossi

      I spent 20 mil on that old Ferrari, & then won it about 30 min later. Now I got 2 & U cant sell it, & you cant give it away. SUX

    2. dylansan

      Correction: The R8 LMS Race Car (Team Playstation) cannot be won, so you should buy it if you don’t already have it. The regular R8 LMS Race Car and Team ORECA R8 Race Car can be won, however.

    3. Mr Nerv

      However, I’ve only opened one green ticket being the Zonda R, and I’m collecting one mint 0/0/0 car and a used car keeping all of the tickets. Means I can get these cars at a reduced rate even though I have both from the UCD.
      I’m sure there are others like me out there, thanks for pointing out those cars for the people who are just playing through!

  13. TeamCZRRacing

    I’m looking at the number of super-rare cars in the OCD. It’s insane! Nissan R89C, Audi R8 Race Car (Team PlayStation), Pescarolo C60 Hybrid – Judd, Sauber Mercedes C9, the list goes on. And, like Terronium said, they’re all at half price! O.O

  14. Mr Nerv

    …And just in case anyone hasn’t spotted, the other seasonals have increased in prize money and I’ll assume exp’ point too…

    So maybe revisiting some of them may help you in other ways, money wise like a nice payout on the Ferrari F1 challenges.

  15. RACECAR

    This looks great. Nice lineup and for once, they have a seasonal featuring the most recent DLC car. Looking to firing up the PS3 and doing these.

  16. Brunskill777

    These are the best seasonals ever I’d say. I’ve not done the TT but the 3 races are BRILLIANT. Suzuka and Nurburgring were great in the wet but with soft slicks. Did Spa 2nd time round on inters winning by a minute and 40 secs as the first time I tried on slicks it just didn’t work. It was still hard driving though. And anyone who’s complaining about compulsory SRF, you don’t really feel it’s effects as it’s wet racing, it didn’t work and stop you skidding, it still felt like driving on ice on slicks so stop complaining.

  17. teth75

    It must be a glitch or something? I wont touch these seasonals unless I can do them with no aids! PD do some silly things sometimes!?

    1. teth75

      Yeah & the first time a ZZII has been available since I been playing 18mths. Or NSX proto for that matter. Trawled the UCD for those last yr…..

    1. HKSBro92

      I heard Santa was gonna bring you a 40 inch plasma TV and a Brazillian hooker but since you’d rather have this he cancelled it and is planning on giving it to someone else…sorry bro.

    2. BaTsBR

      HKSBro, why do you say Brazilian hookers ???
      Do you think our women here are all hookers ????? It’s some kind of “export” product ???
      Think again about your words “bro”.

    3. HKSBro92

      @BaTsBR No genius I said Brazilian because your country has very, very attractive women. Every country has hookers, but if I had to choose a nationality it would be a Brazilian hooker because in my eyes they are extremely attractive…get it? No disrespect

  18. ncrthree

    Man, I was psyched for longer “races” until I saw Forced SRF! Absolutely ridiculous, I won’t even bother now. Good grief, of all the aids to force on.

    1. Both Barrels

      I was pissed about the SRF at first too, having NEVER used it, but it doesn’t kill it for me. It could be worse, I inadvertantly took off with the TCS ON and I thought my gas pedal was broken. Haven’t used that crap since GT3, not even on cars born with TCS.

  19. SimonK

    New and fresh? It’s the same old rubbish of catch the rabbit, they just added weather to some of them and made them longer. They’re still just as easy unless you heavily handicap yourself, I just had a go at the Spa race in a 908 and won by nearly 1 minute 30 seconds. Some people will say you need to handicap yourself to make it a race but it’s still not, it’s just finding a car slow enough that you’ll only pass the leader near the end, it’s never a race or challenge actually passing the braindead AI, nor is it fun.

    Also I know Spa is known for quickly changing weather but I don’t think it can go from bright sunshine to foggy/misty and heavy rain in a few seconds, then back again in a few seconds later in the race.

    Then they go and force you to use SRF whether you like it or not. Clearly PD still haven’t got a clue.

    1. MuoNiuLa

      I understand what you’re saying Simon and I agree that it’s ridiculous to force SRF, but at least they attempted to do something different instead of rehashing existing events.

    2. SimonK

      I stopped playing GT5 regularly a long time ago but I thought i’d put it on again a few days ago to see if there was anything left in it, then today I tried these seasonals. The answer is clearly no.

      As far as I can see all they did is double the length of the races, put the rabbit even further ahead as a result and threw weather in. Nothing revolutionary here.

    3. JeremiahTB

      Oh, that makes your comment more understandable. If I found this game lacking in the fun department, I’d do the same thing; like what happened with CoD when 3arch started doing them everyother game. I’m just glad PD has such a great base game that any small tweak, update, or change brings enjoyment for me. I’m a huge fan of the series. Don’t get me wrong, there is much room for improvement; and they confuse me sometimes when many of these improvements would be so easy to implement, especially if they would just listen to the community. But, like I said, I’m a fan with rose colored glasses at times, so my enjoyment of the game stays strong.

    4. Whodoyouthink

      Certainly there is a HUGE amount of room for improvement, but these changes give us SOMETHING different from the usual. Not vastly different, but hey, they still seem enjoyable. If you approach GT5 with some imagination, then you can get more out of it. Playing it at face value, especially after playing it for quite a while, it gets pretty damn stale.

  20. JeremiahTB

    I just knew that PD could think creatively once in a while for these Seasonals. The A-spec/B-spec rotation from a while back was horrible. They got much better with the ones over the last few months, with creating more difficulty, tire restrictions, and adding the PP difference bonus; but the events themselves seemed a bit like A-spec transfers. But now, these seem almost new and fresh…they must have hired a new idea guy. Keep them coming, new idea guy.

  21. BWX

    Oh.. and I’m glad these are Holiday seasonals, and not Christmas seasonals.. because if they were Christmas seasonals, I would have been offended, and maybe even tried to sue someone.

    1. HarVee

      No, don’t even waste your time. Uninteresting prizes, still chase the rabbit, and for some reason aids are forced on.

  22. Scuderia Paul

    I look forward to catching up on Seasonals after I finish the 24h Nurburgring. Only 4h to go. The events may be simple but I always look forward to our Thursday update. This week seems like a fun selection.

    1. JeremiahTB

      Has anyone noticed any major changes in AI since the game was released? I remember one of the bigger updates saying that it was improved, but if they can’t refrain from creating “rabbit” AI, maybe they can’t find a way to do it correctly. I’m not a game programmer; my skills lean toward the web side of programming, so I’m not sure how difficult it is to redo artificial intelligence in a racing game.

  23. Tallgeese69

    What an awesome seasonal ^_^ the Corvette at Nurb is easy and I used my fully tuned RX-8 on the Tuned car seasonal all while using intermediate tires ^_^

  24. gowron9

    First of all i love GT5, but for some seasonal events PD are determined to cater for professional drivers. Some of the time trials are ridiculously hard for the average gamer ( we are all not Michael Schumacher ). For the most part i have fun when playing one of the greatest racing games ever made, but at the end of the day it is a game. Please PD, don’t make some of the challenges too hard to complete, give everyone a chance and don’t alienate the average gamer.

    1. JeremiahTB

      Personally, I love that they are getting more difficult. The “one try and gold” thing was too easy and caused low re-playability…low, not no. I’m still trying to get 100% gold across the Seasonal board from over the last few months.

  25. theBOGROLL

    FANTASTIC SEASONAL

    Different Prizes, Great tracks, Weather/Time Change, higher Performance Points, and good Tire Choice… What’s not to like? Thanks PD for this refreshing seasonal event!

    p.s. 1,000,000 cr. for winning at Spa generous :)

  26. mokalovesoulmat

    I think SRF is turned on because of the target players. It is holiday. Everyone’s playing. Those who almost never playing GT5 because of their business gets a chance to play. Not all GT5 players using steering wheel. Also not all GT5 players a Pro, too. Feels like arcade…but its okay.

    1. mokalovesoulmat

      “Those who almost never playing GT5 because of their business gets a chance to play.” — and they dont need to learn from the beginning. What players feel : its fun.

  27. HuskyGT

    Been playing Resident Evil 6 nonestop and still have to open and play Dead Space 2. Skyrim will be delivered probably tomorrow so I guess I should fire up GT5 and check these lovely seasonals out before my new games take all my attention from it.

    It’s nice to hear the Christmas music again, and hope that this is not our only gift from Mr. Yamauchi. *caugh* Spec III *caugh*

  28. TokoTurismo

    These seasonal events are really a blast of excitement! :D I really adore the C7 challenge, got a silver and really loved the challenge from it. This is the BEST seasonal by far. :)

    Thank you very much for these events Kazunori and PD, you guys rock! :D

    1. HarVee

      The “Bonus Prize” is just a Lvl23 ticket. *Shrugs* I already have 7 of them that I could just simply dupe over & over.

  29. MuoNiuLa

    Now THESE are the type of seasonal we need on a regular basis. I’m definitely going to take the time to check these out in the later days.

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