A question about tyres. How do they compare to their real life counterparts?

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skydragon49

skydragon49

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blacksky37
Guys, how would you compare the tyres in game with the real life ones? I mean, if there's a way to make such comparison.

Comforts would be an average daily driver tyre? Sports are track day oriented rubber?

I ask this because I run most of my test drives with sport mediums, but sometimes I feel like it's just an overkill for some cars. Maybe comfort softs should be better for them (I guess).

It's kind of trick to find what tyres I should use on my cars and have an equalized (ish) grip performance overall. Not much grip to a point where it boosts the performance too much and also not a big lack of grip in a way that makes the car harder than it should be to drive.
 
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As far as I know, it's something like this;
Comfort hard - cheapo road tyres
Comfort medium - quality road tyres
Comfort soft - something along the lines of a Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, arguably one of the best summer tyres you can get.
Sports tyres are like track day tyres with not much tread. Think Toyo R888R and Michelin Cup 2 R.

In general, comfort soft is equivalent to what you'd find on most average-to-sporty cars, with some really hardcore track-biased cars like the AMG GT Black Series being offered with more grippy track day tyres which are terrible in the rain.

GT7 isn't the most accurate with the way the tyre differences work, but that's a very rough guide.
 
lbpomg95
As far as I know, it's something like this;
Comfort hard - cheapo road tyres
Comfort medium - quality road tyres
Comfort soft - something along the lines of a Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, arguably one of the best summer tyres you can get.
Sports tyres are like track day tyres with not much tread. Think Toyo R888R and Michelin Cup 2 R.

In general, comfort soft is equivalent to what you'd find on most average-to-sporty cars, with some really hardcore track-biased cars like the AMG GT Black Series being offered with more grippy track day tyres which are terrible in the rain.

GT7 isn't the most accurate with the way the tyre differences work, but that's a very rough guide.
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Thank you sir for your reply.

I'll start to use comfort softs more often, I guess it is a better match for my old cars.

I drove (in game ofc) an Integra Type R '95 with comfort tyres recently and it felt nicer than expected. Hence my curiosity about comfort tyres.
 
skydragon49
Thank you sir for your reply.

I'll start to use comfort softs more often, I guess it is a better match for my old cars.

I drove (in game ofc) an Integra Type R '95 with comfort tyres recently and it felt nicer than expected. Hence my curiosity about comfort tyres.
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With older stuff it depends on the era but you can usually go worse on the tyres if you want to emulate what they had at the time, for example the XJ220 on CS instead of SH. Same goes for old race cars, running stuff like the 917K on CS or SH makes it behave a lot more like cars did back then.
 
Basically, tires in GT7 (same as in GT6 and earlier games) work as grip multiplier. When comes to lateral grip, for a old muscle car like '68 charger even comfort hard achieve far better lateral G than stock ones (0,78G in GT7 vs about 0.68-0.70G based on old magazine tests. In 1985 Popular Mechanics magazine did a test with 60's muscle cars and then-new ones (Trans Am/Monte Carlo SS etc.), but fitted old muscle cars with then-new Goodyear Radials - '70 Hemi Charger did 0.73/0.74G lateral grip. So for this car even Comfort Hard with 0.78G are equivalent of some kind of modern High Performance Tires. On the other hand, to match real-life grip and lap times in a car like AMG GT Black You have to fit Sports Soft. What I'm trying to say - Michelin Cup 2R can be closest to Racing Hard for one car (992 GT3 RS), and Sports Medium for the Other (C8 ZR1), or SH for another (Carrera GT - recently did 7.12 on Nordschleife on Cup 2 NO's, in GT7 you can match that on CS easily). When it comes to longitudinal grip it's more of a problem - and GT series have this problem basically since GT3 - oftem when You find tires that are closest in lateral G to IRL tests, they have much worse acceleration times/braking distances than IRL. Another problem is, that in many cases it's not possible to recreate RL Grip in GT7, because cars are in-between. Cars like '06 Ford GT, Carrera GT, Aston DB11 and recently added Vantage - list goes on - have not enough grip on CM and way too much on CS tires. Almost all of '90s japanese sports cars are too slow on CH and too fast on CM (300ZX, Supra RZ, 3000GT, R32/R33/R34 Skylines) or too slow on CM and too fast on CS (NSX-R '92 and '02, RX-7 Spirit R). Problem is, that differences in lateral G between CH/CM and CM/CS is about 0.09G-0.10G - which is a LOT. For instance first Gen GT86/BRZ did about 0.89-0.92G on Michelin Primacy HP (Economy, slightly modified Prius tires) and about 0.92-0.95G (as far as I remember) on Bridgestone Potenza's (Ultra-High Performance tires at that time). Try to recreate this in GT7 :).
 
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I had the same question a few weeks ago so had a discussion about it with ChatGPT 4o

For what it's worth, here's part of that conversation:-

In Gran Turismo 7 (GT7), the default tires for each car are chosen based on the car’s category, performance, and intended driving conditions. Polyphony Digital uses real-world logic to assign these default tires, reflecting what the car might come equipped with in real life.

How Default Tires Are Chosen in GT7​

  1. Production Cars (Older & Newer)
    • Most standard road cars (e.g., Honda Civic Type R, Porsche 911, or older classics like a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro) are assigned Comfort tires by default.
    • Newer performance road cars (e.g., modern supercars and sports cars) typically get Sports Hard tires by default, reflecting the grippier but still street-legal high-performance tires they often come with in real life.
    • Classic cars from before the modern radial tire era are usually given Comfort Hard tires, simulating period-correct, lower-grip bias-ply or early radial tires.
  2. Race Cars
    • GT3 and high-performance race cars usually start with Racing Hard tires, meant for endurance racing.
    • Older race cars, such as 1960s Le Mans cars, might be given Racing Medium or even Comfort/Sports tires if the real-world counterpart raced on street-derived tires.
    • Formula cars and extreme racing prototypes typically have Racing Soft by default, reflecting the high-grip, specialized slick tires they use in competition.
  3. Off-Road & Rally Cars
    • Rally cars are equipped with Dirt tires by default when the car is set up for rally racing.
    • Some off-road vehicles (like SUVs) may have Comfort tires, reflecting all-season or off-road radial tires.

How Tire Categories Relate to Real-World Tires​

GT7 simplifies tire selection into three main categories: Comfort, Sports, and Racing, with subcategories for different levels of grip. Below is how they relate to real-world tire types:

1. Comfort Tires (Closest to Regular Road Tires)​

  • Comfort Hard (CH): Equivalent to economy, all-season tires with harder compounds. Found on older cars and economy vehicles.
  • Comfort Medium (CM): Similar to mid-range touring tires.
  • Comfort Soft (CS): Represents high-performance summer tires, similar to Michelin Pilot Sport 4S or Pirelli P Zero (used on some sports cars).

2. Sports Tires (High-Performance Street Tires)​

  • Sports Hard (SH): Similar to Ultra High Performance (UHP) tires like Michelin Pilot Super Sport, used in many sports cars.
  • Sports Medium (SM): Closer to track-day tires, like the Michelin Cup 2, offering better grip but still street-legal.
  • Sports Soft (SS): These simulate semi-slick tires, such as the Pirelli Trofeo R, which are road-legal but optimized for dry performance.

3. Racing Tires (Slicks – Non-Street Legal)​

  • Racing Hard (RH): Endurance racing tires with long life but lower grip.
  • Racing Medium (RM): General-purpose slicks for professional racing.
  • Racing Soft (RS): Softest compound, offering the highest grip but quickest wear, used in sprint races.
  • Racing Intermediates & Wet (IM, WET): These correspond to full-wet and intermediate racing tires, similar to real-world Michelin or Bridgestone racing rain tires.

4. Dirt & Snow Tires​

  • Dirt Tires: Represent off-road rally tires, similar to BFGoodrich or Pirelli rally tires.
  • Snow Tires: Studded winter tires, comparable to those used in ice racing.

Differences Between Older and Newer Cars​

  • Older cars (pre-1980s) generally have Comfort Hard or Medium tires by default, simulating the harder, less grippy bias-ply or early radial tires they originally had.
  • Newer cars (1990s–present) often start on Sports Hard or higher, reflecting modern advancements in tire technology.
  • Race cars from different eras follow similar trends—older race cars used grooved or bias-ply tires, while modern ones default to slicks.

Conclusion​


GT7’s tire selection mirrors real-world tire performance quite well. If you want a realistic experience, upgrading an older car with Sports Hard or Medium can reflect the performance boost of modern tires, while sticking with Comfort Hard on classics keeps the handling period-correct.
 
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