Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial: French Fancy

Andrew Evans · Nov 30, 2023 · Comments

A new Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial event is now available, as players worldwide compete for the best lap times in a road car challenge at the Watkins Glen Short Course.

Online Time Trials are a time-limited challenge, available in the Sport Mode section of the game although not requiring PlayStation Plus to enter. Each event runs for two weeks and grants credit rewards appropriate to how close you are to the world record time at the end of it.

Get within 10% of the final best time (Bronze) and you’ll earn 250,000cr, rising to 1,000,000cr if you’re within 5% (Silver), and 2,000,000cr if you’re within 3% (Gold). This of course means that the target times are dynamic: each time the global best improves, so the threshold time for each reward moves.

The new challenge, running for the next two weeks until 0659 UTC on Thursday December 14, is a one-make road car event at the Watkins Glen Short Course. This version of the track skips out the “Boot” section, taking a hard right after the chicane to cut through the infield onto turn nine.

You’ll need to either own or borrow an Alpine A110 Premiere Edition ’17 for this event, but it will need to be in standard form if it’s a vehicle from your garage. Neither wide-body nor engine-swapped cars are permitted, and any settings changes will be reverted.

Balance of Performance regulations for this Time Trial are set to “Medium”, and the car will require the standard Sports Hard tires. At this early stage, the top times are hovering around the low 1:20 mark.

Last week’s Willow Springs Lap Time Challenge remains available for another week. This event requires you to set the fastest lap you can in any Gr.3 car on Racing Hard tires. Currently the world record stands at 1:11.157, with Gold therefore needing 1:13.291 or better — but watch out for certain people who set very, very late records…

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. PlayStation Plus is not required, as they are not multiplayer events.

The events update every Thursday, with each individual challenge remaining available for two weeks and the oldest of the two events being replaced each week. That being the case, the next new Time Trial should arrive at 0700 UTC on Thursday December 7.