In a busy day on Gran Turismo 7, a new Online Time Trial is now available featuring some of the new content that update 1.44 has just brought to players.
Appropriately enough, the star of the event is the star of the update itself, with players set the task of hot-lapping Toyota’s outrageously fast but fragile GT-One ’99. Originally created to conquer Le Mans in 1998, the GT-One — also known as the TS020 — took the interpretation of the GT1 category legislation to an extreme level.
While the FIA GT Championship required a minimum number of roadgoing equivalents to homologate a race car, Le Mans itself only needed one road-legal example and that’s all that Toyota built. Toyota even successfully argued that the empty fuel tank on the test chassis met minimum luggage volume requirements.
The 1999 revision to the car brought sweeping aerodynamic changes and more than seven seconds’ gain over a lap. It was over a second quicker in qualifying than the leading prototype and set the fastest race lap, but its vulnerability to severe damage from tire blowouts meant a heart-breaking final hour.
You won’t be heading to the scene of this misfortune, but to the GT-One’s only other race: at Toyota’s home circuit of Fuji — where it also finished second, behind a prototype. The goal is to set the fastest time you can on the standard Racing Medium tires.
Currently the world record for this event stands at a 1:31.141, and with the target times for the gold bracket returning to the standard 3% margin that means you’ll need a 1:33.875 or better. However we don’t expect that time to hold out for the full two weeks; figure on a high-1:30 record, requiring a 1:33.5 to stand a reasonable chance of remaining in the gold region.
The unusual time trial at Daytona which began last week still has another seven days to run, and it’s well worth doing so even if the gold target is set at just 1% for the event. You’ll need to coax the Chaparral 2X Vision GT around the Daytona Tri-Oval in 35.818s — something that more than 91,000 people have managed to date — to score the gold, with the world record standing at 35.464s and unlikely to drop.
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. As it’s just you against the clock and not a direct, head-to-head multiplayer event, PlayStation Plus is not required.
You’ll usually need to be within 3% of the fastest time globally once the event finishes in order to secure “gold” status and a 2m credit bonus prize. There’s smaller prizes of one million for being within 5%, and 250,000cr for bronze at 10% off.
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. You can look forward to the next new Time Trial arriving at 0700 UTC on Thursday April 4.
Lap Time Challenge March 28 – Fuji Speedway
- Track: Fuji International Speedway
- Car: Toyota GT-One (TS020) ’99 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Racing Medium
- Settings: Fixed
Lap Time Challenge March 21 – Daytona
- Track: Daytona Tri-Oval
- Car: Chaparral 2X Vision GT – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (H)
- Tires: Racing Soft
- Settings: Fixed
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