Gran Turismo 7 Custom Race thread

[jesse100190]

had a 16 lap race at a tricky streets of willow springs had to lower the hp of the truck to not go so fast at corners or you can fly off easily.

 

[05XR8]

Had some fun testing out a 86 GRMN spec series. Test track was Road Atlanta and the racing was good. This one was a 30 minute race with 1x fuel and 3x tire. AI started going in with around 5 laps left. No idea why because I had enough tires and they went for tires. Then the rubber-banding happened. I was up by 23 seconds and it was only 1.xx gap at the finish. lol
View attachment 1528316
Then I tested a 30-minute Fit RS series at Tsukuba. Kinda boring as it was like a parade. AI wasn't even challenging the other AI. I'll try another track next time.
View attachment 1528317

I had that happen with an Abarth 500 grid. No action whatsoever.

 

[ArronWestley]

From experience, the rubberbanding is on by default and the boost setting only changes how strong it is. The difficulty setting also changes its strength, with Professional being very strong (they're on your tail no matter what once you take the lead).

I would love a revamped form of Custom Race, because, while it currently lets you go crazy with number of laps and time, I think it was only really intended for use with shorter races. IMO what it needs:

- Cars from the garage keeping their equipped compounds instead of defaulting to their stock/Racing Hard compounds

- Save grids/settings by track (it already does this but you can load one track's settings into another, which means you have 50 settings for all tracks rather than 50 per track)

- Custom car folders in the garage (GT7 already supports this with the "Favorites" but we can't create our own)

- Better balancing of payouts (if you love Trial Mountain or Deep Forest you won't earn many credits)

Basically, what PD needs to do is just give us the tools they use to create events. They can completely remove rubberbanding, tweak each AI individually, fit AI cars with different tire compounds. I'd like to be able to do the same.

 

[05XR8]

If anyone are looking for inspiration in regards to solo or league/lobby racing.

 

[MisterWaffles]

If anyone are looking for inspiration in regards to solo or league/lobby racing.

Honestly it's really nice to see an electric racing series for tin-tops somewhere in the world, even if it's just for short sprints using road cars. Despite the lack of noise I found that little sprint on Tsukuba pretty fun to watch, and felt like a Best Motoring segment of the current high performance EVs.

Something I've really been wanting since PD added the Model 3 and Xiaomi SU7 was the ability to use EVs in custom races in a full grid, but of course we're still restricted on that front. Even better, it would be nice if PD would be able to take all of the current performance EV road cars and do little race tunes for them to be competitive against each other. Like an "Electric GT" series if anyone remembers that old one the FIA tried to start up with modified Tesla P100Ds a bunch of years ago.

I've even made little mockup race photos speculating on what that might look like in GT7 if it was possible lol.

Honestly I love the idea of an Electric GT series so much I kind of did the Thanos (Fine I'll make it myself) meme and spent time getting all the available mods that would potentially fit the category on Assetto Corsa and tweaking them so they're balanced for racing against each other. Honestly despite the soundscape being an electric screwdriver symphony and the lack of gear shifts, it's one of the most engaging things I've driven in a sim racing game recently lol. I'm not joking, I really love these cars.

They may be super heavy, but the incredibly fast acceleration and all-wheel drive makes every move you make a commitment.

I honestly really hope for the day we can do this in Gran Turismo properly, whether it be once the tuning options for EVs open up, or PD takes it upon themselves to create some racing models or tuned models based on the game's electric cars. Whether we like it or not (and I know most people still don't like it), EVs are a part of modern car culture, and I think it's about time in Gran Turismo that we're allowed to move them out of this weird "exhibition" sideshow-style type of content they're still restricted to and actually go racing properly with them.

 

[05XR8]

964T so stable in RSR trim. Had to do a widebody to get the BBS.

If anyone are interested, this is the site I use to build some of my grids.

ADAC GT Cup Zolder 1993 - Photo Gallery - Racing Sports Cars

Photo Gallery from race ADAC GT Cup Zolder 1993 on Racing Sports Cars website

www.racingsportscars.com

 

[Bojador]

Anything new for us with the new update?

 

[Theufcveteran]

Anything new for us with the new update?

No change unfortunately to regular AI throttle, and the tyre compound glitch remains also.

 

[Chris30]

I'll join in on the custom race fun when I can, I'm getting bored with the computer. I regret I put myself in a situation where I was forced to sell both my ps4 and ps5. I'm sad about it too. But my mom needed food to eat plus help with medicine expenses so I had to make those sacrifices in November 2024 and February 2025.

 

[2cam16]

It's sad how Sophy got pushed to the side for now. Left us hanging.

 

[ArronWestley]

It's sad how Sophy got pushed to the side for now. Left us hanging.

Sophy didn't get pushed to the side, it was updated to 3.0 and sold within the Power Pack. We in Custom Race are dealing with a legacy version now.

I wonder if Kaz himself realizes the potential of Custom Race. The regular AI is not everyone's cup of tea, but I've been having a lot of fun building custom grids for use with regular AI (as Sophy 2.1 isn't compatible with some of the cars I use). It's still a "catch the wabbit" affair, but it's a lot more fun to climb the grid in my Custom Races than it is in most of the World Circuits events.

As a matter of fact, many recent World Circuits events are poorly balanced, particularly the Sunday Cups, in which the recommended PP is 380 but I have to use stronger cars to win more comfortably. I admit I'm not the best driver but WTC 800 at Yas Marina is tough to win with certain Gr.3 cars (Lexus RC-F comes to mind), especially if Hashima in the 296 GT3 starts 1st.

I'm glad the new Power Pack update means we now have 50+ events to play with, but they still don't cover everything there is to be covered. And the tire glitch makes it impractical to use road tires in Custom Race.

 

[Monkey Man]

My theory as to why the regular, incremental addition of Sophy tracks in the updates has dried up:

PD is looking after those who paid good money for the Power Pack.

Imagine the flood of complaints that'd ensue if PD added Sophy (regardless of 2.0 / 3.0 iteration) to the tracks featured in the Power Pack, meaning that every man and his dog could drive the same tracks against Sophy only a few months after peeps jumped onboard the DLC, plunking down their hard-earned for the privilege.

If I'm correct in thinking this, it stands to reason that the trickle of new Sophy tracks in the regular updates will resume once PD's estimated, "reasonable" grace period is over.

I wonder if Kaz himself realizes the potential of Custom Race.

I've been hoping all along that PD's seeing the relevant stats of the player base thanks to the always-online nature of the app Arron.

If this is the case, and I think it's reasonable to assume so, it must surely be aware of how much time is spent by peeps like us, of whom I'm hoping there's a huge number, creating and enjoying custom races.

For me and my driving buddy the feature is the most-needed one added to any GT game, ever. When he drops in once a week for our drive, we get the housekeeping out of the way (buying the new cars, completing new events and whatnot) with only one thing in-mind: getting to race Sophy in custom races.

I can't easily express how much this one feature has meant to both him and me. Best thing since sliced bread? Absolutely!

 

[Bojador]

My theory as to why the regular, incremental addition of Sophy tracks in the updates has dried up:

PD is looking after those who paid good money for the Power Pack.

Imagine the flood of complaints that'd ensue if PD added Sophy (regardless of 2.0 / 3.0 iteration) to the tracks featured in the Power Pack, meaning that every man and his dog could drive the same tracks against Sophy only a few months after peeps jumped onboard the DLC, plunking down their hard-earned for the privilege.

If I'm correct in thinking this, it stands to reason that the trickle of new Sophy tracks in the regular updates will resume once PD's estimated, "reasonable" grace period is over.


I've been hoping all along that PD's seeing the relevant stats of the player base thanks to the always-online nature of the app Arron.

If this is the case, and I think it's reasonable to assume so, it must surely be aware of how much time is spent by peeps like us, of whom I'm hoping there's a huge number, creating and enjoying custom races.

For me and my driving buddy the feature is the most-needed one added to any GT game, ever. When he drops in once a week for our drive, we get the housekeeping out of the way (buying the new cars, completing new events and whatnot) with only one thing in-mind: getting to race Sophy in custom races.

I can't easily express how much this one feature has meant to both him and me. Best thing since sliced bread? Absolutely!

And with a few weeks of work it could be so much better.

 

[Gingerale]

Imagine the flood of complaints that'd ensue if PD added Sophy (regardless of 2.0 / 3.0 iteration) to the tracks featured in the Power Pack, meaning that every man and his dog could drive the same tracks against Sophy only a few months after peeps jumped onboard the DLC, plunking down their hard-earned for the privilege.

I don't think there will be complaints at all. The power pack is way more than just sophy 3.0 races.

 

[suomi1]

My theory is more that PD wants to keep some kind of power on how you play their game. If they flesh out the Custom Race mode from all its annoyances and bugs, we won't need PD anymore. Some won't either need to buy any Power Pack nor GT8 at launch.

 

[Monkey Man]

I don't think there will be complaints at all. The power pack is way more than just sophy 3.0 races.

Of course it is, but Sophy on a plethora of awesome tracks that it's not available for in the main game is the star attraction for many I'm sure.

 

[Voodoovaj]

An update on my app. I can't play GT in anyway without it. The post race updates are too juicy. I HOPE someone at PD implements something like this before a decade from now.

While the game delivers single races with no narrative or career to speak of, I'm getting this (I just finished a 1994 F1 race)

Andrea Moretti — Personal AssistantRound 2 — Interlagos
Senna's people are very quiet

The room changed when you crossed the line. I watched the Williams garage from across the pit lane — Senna was already walking, still in his suit, before the champagne came out. Someone told me he didn't debrief. Just left. His engineer spent twenty minutes staring at telemetry nobody was asking him about. Berger's people are celebrating like they won. Second place feels like a relief to them. There's a story there — Ferrari's margin to third is starting to feel thin, and everyone in red knows it. One more thing: I saw money change hands in the paddock this morning, before the race. Not a bet — proper envelope work. Two figures I didn't recognize, near the Lotus hospitality, then one of them headed toward the garage. Probably nothing. Probably.


Autosport Round 2 — Interlagos
Marini Delivers Impossible Result at Interlagos

A.J. Marini drove like a man possessed on Sunday, charging from sixth on the grid to win in the overcast São Paulo heat — a performance that has left the paddock scrambling to explain how a driver transferred from Pagani's LMGT backwater three months ago is now leading the championship. Berger claimed the podium for Ferrari, but the real story is the gap closing behind him. Schumacher's third place keeps Benetton's constructor lead at a comfortable margin, yet Senna managed only ninth — a result Williams will be forced to explain. The Williams driver was visibly frustrated crossing the line, his composure visibly fractured. Tyrrell continues its remarkable climb, with Katayama and Blundell finishing sixth and seventh respectively. The team that was supposed to be mid-field fodder is consistently executing in the points. Someone at Tyrrell has understood this year's machinery in a way their rivals have not yet grasped. Marini's rise from the grid position deficit speaks to racecraft most drivers in this paddock learned over years. He found it in two rounds.

I want to stress that this is the same game that we are all playing. I added dynamic context. I should also note the psychological effect that occurs. When I read through the AI commentary, the scenarios are in my head, and when I see events naturally occur on track, I can't help to make the connection, even when I know what's happening.

I've been focused on making the AI calls WAY more efficient. The initial pass was really wasteful. I've reduced it by 80%

 

[Voodoovaj]

Is it just me, or is Sophy missing rain races?

I thought Sophy could run Tokyo in the rain, or am I thinking of Reggie.

 

[Theufcveteran]

Is it just me, or is Sophy missing rain races?

I thought Sophy could run Tokyo in the rain, or am I thinking of Reggie.

Only in the Power Pack can Sophy run in the rain. 2.1 is dry weather only.

 

[05XR8]

Modern Super Touring minus rear wings and rear spoilers.

 

[MisterWaffles]

I wonder if Kaz himself realizes the potential of Custom Race.

There's already an entire community-made career mode for GT7 and that's just using the game's version of custom races without any of the improvements people want for GT8's iteration.

Literally all I do in GT these days is make money so I can build more cars and put together more races in custom race lol.

Also the Power Pack opening up recently to garage cars has been fun, because now we can take our custom race builds into the events that inspired them and see how they stack up to PD's versions of the tunes.

 

[Passinho]

There's already an entire community-made career mode for GT7 and that's just using the game's version of custom races without any of the improvements people want for GT8's iteration.

Literally all I do in GT these days is make money so I can build more cars and put together more races in custom race lol.

Also the Power Pack opening up recently to garage cars has been fun, because now we can take our custom race builds into the events that inspired them and see how they stack up to PD's versions of the tunes.

 

[Passinho]

Same here dude, the entire rest of game is just for making credits for my grids too.👍🏻👍🏻

 

[Bojador]

DTM started this week and it was again a sad reminder of what this game could be if we had custom lobbies settings for custom races.

Mandatory pitstops, mandatory tyres, no rubberbanding...

 

[Voodoovaj]

I wonder if Kaz himself realizes the potential of Custom Race.

I've mentioned this many times, but it is worthwhile mentioning it again. Kaz is an art director, not a game designer. He lets the physics programmers do their thing. The franchise has a general mandate to keep the game playable with a controller.

The game design ends there.

There's no career, because they have no one to make a career. There is very little outside of a single race, because they lack the expertise required.

Only in the Power Pack can Sophy run in the rain. 2.1 is dry weather only.

You know, aside from the occasional stupid decision, I am finding Reggie to be improved to the point that I prefer it over Sophy.

1 - Rain
2 - The boost isn't as severe
3 - Reggie doesn't dive bomb you
4 - ALL the cars work (I can't tell you how often I run into this problem)
5 - All the tracks work.

I'm not seeing the benefits anymore.

 

[Voodoovaj]

My last three races from the 1994 season.

Let me set this up.

I am locked in a tight battle with Senna for the championship. I went into this race 3 points up on him. He needed to win, and coincidentally, he drove a hard race.



On the heels of that, we go to the next round. It's a must win for Senna. I made an early mistake, and Brundle out braked himself into the grass.



So, now, the final race. Again a MUST win for Senna. Straight up, winner takes all. 3 points separate us and it's a 5 point difference between 1st and 2nd.

Full disclosure - I restarted this round. Senna spun me and caused a massive pile up on the first lap. Half the field was damaged, including him. He did to me pretty much what he did to Prost in 1990. I wanted a cleaner race.



I wish I better understood why the F3500's produce such great Reggie races. And they actually race each other from time to time. Sophy doesn't really fight for positions they way Reggie does (NOW).

 

[pritchyTim]

My last three races from the 1994 season.

Let me set this up.

I am locked in a tight battle with Senna for the championship. I went into this race 3 points up on him. He needed to win, and coincidentally, he drove a hard race.



On the heels of that, we go to the next round. It's a must win for Senna. I made an early mistake, and Brundle out braked himself into the grass.



So, now, the final race. Again a MUST win for Senna. Straight up, winner takes all. 3 points separate us and it's a 5 point difference between 1st and 2nd.

Full disclosure - I restarted this round. Senna spun me and caused a massive pile up on the first lap. Half the field was damaged, including him. He did to me pretty much what he did to Prost in 1990. I wanted a cleaner race.



I wish I better understood why the F3500's produce such great Reggie races. And they actually race each other from time to time. Sophy doesn't really fight for positions they way Reggie does (NOW).

To address your final remark, perhaps Reggy gets a layer of ‘entropy’ logic, giving little +/- 3% adjustments to capabilities across the grid. I’m sure we have all experienced the case where a few AI cars perform above or below expectations with consistency, only to revert back to ‘typical/balanced’ capability when you merely change its starting grid slot.

Same thing illustrated by suomi’s visualization here - Sophy keeps the AI pack together moreso than Reggy, which seems to artificially decide “these are the 3 fastest and 3 slowest cars”, often but not always lining up with cars that start in front or behind.

At first, I thought what I now identify as "GT Cafe script" was like the mood jauge in GT5's B-spec (When b-spec drivers are fighting, they become angry and drive faster, it goes the other way when they find themselves alone). But I eventually realized that in GT7, their pace was not linked to their proximity to another AI, but to their position in the ranking.

PD's AI can be fast and steady (cf. pepper races and Human Comedy missions), Sophy is faster and steady too. But it's as if they've scripted their AI to fit the structure of the career mode, which is GT Cafe (At least for Menu Books that were present at the game's launch).
Your goal is to enter the top 3, as so, AI tends to create a cluster of 3 cars ahead of the field, it goes back to 2 if you complete the top 3. Cars behind loose pace in a decreasing way the more you look down into the rankings. The last car is crawling, so the player won't finish last and be humiliated. Of course, races in career mode are short and you might not spot this behavior, yet it is what happens. But on a longer custom race, even more if you create a monotype race, it becomes pretty obvious. I ended setting my BoPs car by car, because cars that start behind would always crawling and distort my tests.

Here is a fictitious graph of the distribution of best laps for a grid of 10 AIs, assuming the human player is far ahead :

View attachment 1463916

AIs we've got in Custom Race mode are "SOPHY + Rubberband" or "PD's + Cafe + Rubberband".
Boost is just another layer of setup for the rubber banding effect.


I took the Red Bull because I was driving into LMP1 class, feel free to choose any car you like as long as it stays in front. I'm planning to make it heavier, because its cornering speed makes it too dangerous. The flags are up to you, but activating them won't break the race like rubberbanding might.

So, maybe Reggy is better for one-makes? I admittedly haven’t tested in a while - if the one car I’m using (across the grid) is available for Sophy, I tend to go with that.

There’s still its lacking aggression in Reggy vs. Sophy, but I have no issue solving in pre-race with a slight nerf (98% throttle issue-matching), and sometimes by using weak (not realistic or off) slipstream to give tailers a little more bite. Rain, all layouts, and all vehicles is a huge boon!

I will say, if indeed there is an entropy logic layer applied to Reggie, it’s REALLY annoying when that ‘classic Le Mans’ (etc.) grid decides X car will be the slow one, given I usually make each grid entry a unique car when setting up.

 

[Voodoovaj]

To address your final remark, perhaps Reggy gets a layer of ‘entropy’ logic, giving little +/- 3% adjustments to capabilities across the grid. I’m sure we have all experienced the case where a few AI cars perform above or below expectations with consistency, only to revert back to ‘typical/balanced’ capability when you merely change its starting grid slot.

I'm finding it differs between set ups. I have found no rule that works consistently. Every race will require a different approach.

For instance, I made a great GR3 set up by having a set down force for all cars (400 front/600 rear), a minimum weight of 2800lbs (1270kg) and a maximum power of 550hp. I added the Pagani Zonda R to the event and it works great. I'm also using Reggie, because Sophy is too restrictive with the cars and tracks (like the Zonda is not allows on the Nurb 24, and the Lambo is not allowed at Spa). I was expecting it to be bad (because of Reggie instead of Sophy) but it was really good.

AIs we've got in Custom Race mode are "SOPHY + Rubberband" or "PD's + Cafe + Rubberband".
Boost is just another layer of setup for the rubber banding effect.

This is what I been saying all along and getting 💩 on for it.

There is the "rubber band", without which the AI would also run away from us, and then there is the crazy boost which we all hate. Separate things.

 

[pritchyTim]

I'm finding it differs between set ups. I have found no rule that works consistently. Every race will require a different approach.

For instance, I made a great GR3 set up by having a set down force for all cars (400 front/600 rear), a minimum weight of 2800lbs (1270kg) and a maximum power of 550hp. I added the Pagani Zonda R to the event and it works great. I'm also using Reggie, because Sophy is too restrictive with the cars and tracks (like the Zonda is not allows on the Nurb 24, and the Lambo is not allowed at Spa). I was expecting it to be bad (because of Reggie instead of Sophy) but it was really good.


This is what I been saying all along and getting 💩 on for it.

There is the "rubber band", without which the AI would also run away from us, and then there is the crazy boost which we all hate. Separate things.

I was mainly referring to the graph, plotting the finishing disparity between the different ‘modes.’ Reggy custom races create artificial winners and losers, whereas Sophy respects the tune sheet - thus the one-make “conga line” if you don’t tune them all differently.

Another layer is it just seems the AI ends up being better or worse, pound for pound, from one car to the next. In my Integrale run, the stock/lightly-modded Jag XJ220 was a beast in early races, but became relatively bad as I added wings and other upgrades. Lamborghini seems to be generally great for AI (probs the 4WD) whereas Toyota Supras all seem to underperform. I’m sure I haven’t nearly explored even all permutations of the few cars mentioned here, so maybe this point is unsubstantiated. Curious what cars always seem to win/lose in your AI grids!

Also, agree Boost and Rubber-band are different things, didn’t realize anyone thought otherwise! I can sort of see a “squares and rectangles” argument, since the catch-up mechanic of Boost functions LIKE a rubberband would, Boost=square/RB=rectangle? Boost is a type of rubberband mechanic? At any rate, these are two layers, as applied to Custom Race.

 

[jesse100190]

ai using road cars take multiple pit stops using 700 pp tire and fuel rate settings even on the 1st lap when some could go a 2nd lap