After months of near-silence, Polyphony Digital showed off a fair amount of new Gran Turismo Sport content this past weekend at PlayStation Experience 2016. The event in Anaheim played host to a new, 4K-enabled trailer, and a massive collection of screenshots.
While track reveals were thin on the ground — with only Willow Spring’s Horse Thief Mile being what you’d consider “new” — a surprising amount of new cars (or at least, new versions of previously-known models) were shown at the event. Whether they were spotted in the short or long versions of the trailer, or the latest batch of screenshots, we’ve narrowed down the list to the top five biggest impacts on the car list (in no particular order):
Honourable Mention: Gr. 4 Cars, Gr. 4 Cars Everywhere!
Strictly speaking, all but one of the cars in the image above are new additions to the game (we’ve seen the SLS before). Of them, only the Volkswagen Scirocco is a new model in GT Sport, with the others being grassroots-level modifications of cars already seen in the game. Even then, the Scirocco is largely similar to the GT24 model found in GT6, though sporting a far less-aggressive chin spoiler than that car.
So why the mention? Because these cars — alongside Gr. 4 versions of the Renault Megane and Chevrolet C7 ‘Vette — represent an expansion of a class that we haven’t seen (or heard) much about. While questions remain, such as how exactly cars like the Megane and SLS have been balanced to run in the same class, it’s good to see a focus on the lower, more road-biased ranks. Speaking of road cars…
2017 Honda NSX
Despite being brand new, to many GT fans, the reborn NSX feels decidedly familiar. The concept version of the car was shown in Gran Turismo 5 almost five years ago, after all. But this production model is a much different beast.
Boasting a twin-turbo V6 engine and three electric motors totalling over double the original NSX’s 270 bhp (573 to be exact), the NSX puts power to the ground through Honda’s SH-AWD system and a nine-speed dual-clutch transmission. Compared to the other road cars revealed (Aston Martin V8 Vantage S, 2016 Camaro SS), the NSX should be much quicker.
So what’s got us excited about the car’s inclusion in GT Sport? The complexity of that drivetrain. We’re very curious to see not only how it compares to other road cars in the game, but how Polyphony goes about replicating the entire system.
Ford Focus Gr.B Rally Car
The original Group B of the 80’s is the stuff of motorsport legend. As dangerous as they were fast, these purpose-built monsters were some of the fastest four-wheeled creations in the world in their day. Polyphony’s choice to to use the name in GT Sport was originally met with skepticism by some, but the Focus confirms the spirit is there.
Boasting wild flares and an outrageous rear wing, the Focus Gr. B looks positively mean. It also happens to look quite a lot similar to a certain Gymkhana-running Ford, which is set to show up in another franchise next week. It just pips the other Gr. B reveal from Hyundai, based on the Genesis Coupe (which already has a GT3-spec version).
Rally cars can make surprisingly adept circuit racers too, though the Focus will have to be quite fast indeed to take on the 2016 Nürburgring 24H winner…
Mercedes-AMG GT3
We admit it; the SLS AMG GT3 seemed like an odd choice during the Copper Box release last spring. It’s just so … old, at least in modern GT3-class terms. Compounding the issue was the replacement GT3 showing up in seemingly every other title: Assetto Corsa, Project CARS, even Driveclub! GT Sport makes up for the lost time though, by including the car that won the Green Hell endurance this year.
Packing the same 6.2L V8 as its predecessor (not the road-going GT’s 4.0L turbo engine), the #29 car was the star of the first batch of direct-capture footage released at the event.
Mercedes-Benz A 45 AMG
The German hyper-hatch is on this list for one main reason: it was teased literally years ago for inclusion in Gran Turismo, long before GT Sport was even a known quantity. Wait, what?
Back in early 2013, Mercedes put out a press release announcing three new models were coming to Gran Turismo 6. While the SLS GT3 did indeed arrive in the game that autumn, the A45 certainly didn’t. It was considered a strange slip-up back then, but it looks like the error has been rectified. We wonder if that means an E63 is far behind…
Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R
This one’s a sneaky bugger. The full-length trailer found on the official website didn’t include it, and neither did any of the many screenshots. No, the Viper shows up for only a split second, in the shorter video shown on stage Saturday. You can see it for yourself here (skip to the 42-second mark).
Mysteriously, Polyphony replaced the car with the familiar BMW Z4 GT3 in the longer video, as discovered by community member Dr-GoFast. That alone earns it a place on our list!
According to the sleuths in our GT Sport Master Car & Track List forum thread, we’re up to 92 of the 140 cars earmarked for the game’s 2017 release. Which were your favourite reveals from this weekend, and what are you hoping to see next?
See more articles on GT Sport Car List and PlayStation Experience 2016.
