With this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans coming up in a couple of weekends, the Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial for the intervening period will mark the event with a very appropriate challenge.
Across the next two weeks you’ll be set the task of recording the fastest lap you can around the 8.48-mile circuit — comprising a small, permanent stadium section and a long route into the French countryside on repurposed public roads — in a legendary car from a special era.
The vehicle in question never actually won the race, but was built on a car that did. That’s in no small part down to the fact that the original McLaren F1’s victory was largely unexpected — as a road car never really intended to race — and that other manufacturers had begun to make race cars with the barest minimum of lightly sanitized cars for a production run to get around homologation requirements.
To combat these machines, McLaren redesigned the rear end of the F1 GTR to incorporate a much longer section of bodywork for better stability at the higher speeds of the track. That gave rise to the unofficial “Long Tail” name — which the brand has subsequently leaned into with some of its road car output.
Notably the car in Gran Turismo 7 is officially under the BMW brand rather than McLaren. That’s because this example, known as 26R and one of ten made, was supplied new by McLaren to Team BMW Motorsport and remains under BMW’s ownership today.
The recent price rises in the Hagerty Legends Cars dealer have bumped the cost of the car up to the current maximum of 20,000,000cr, so while it’s available right now to buy the fact you can borrow it for the time trial instead (with the mandatory Racing Mediums fitted) is a relief.
Currently the world record for this combination sits at a 3:36.9, which means you’ll need to set a 3:43.4 or better to score the gold. It’s a long lap though, and times could tumble over at least the next week; we’d recommend aiming for a 3:42.5 to have a relatively stress-free run-in.
The Honda Civic time trial at Tsukuba still has a week left to run too, and times remain broadly within the predicted range. It’s awfully tight at the top, with all of the top eight recording a 1:10.9 — which means gold is still at 1:13.063. Any kind of 1:12 is probably enough to be safe, pending a late surge in interest.
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 June 13.
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge June 6 – 24 Heures du Mans
- Track: 24 Heures du Mans Circuit
- Car: BMW McLaren F1 GTR ’97 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (H)
- Tires: Racing Medium
- Settings: Fixed
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge May 30 – Tsukuba
- Track: Tsukuba Circuit
- Car: Honda Civic (EG) SiR-II ’93 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (L)
- Tires: Comfort Medium
- Settings: Fixed
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