There’s a bumper crop of Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial events right now, with the latest new event in the regular cycle making its debut alongside two special events — making for 8m credits available over the next couple of weeks.
The new event is an open selection challenge, requiring you to use any car from the Gr.3 class for a hot lap around Suzuka Circuit, on Racing Soft tires.
While you do have free choice from the 50 (yes, 50) cars in the class and it’s generally a well-balanced category, there are some cars that tend to do better than others here. A glance at the early leaderboard shows plenty of BMW M6s, unsurprisingly, but there’s alternatives too.
The global record time is just nudging under 1:58 now, with a 1:57.851 as the overall leader at time of writing. That sets the gold target at 2:01.386 and although it’s likely to fall a little over the next two weeks, it’s a familiar combo and the top players should be at pace already. A 2:01.1 will probably be enough to secure it — but as always, aim for less; we’d say that getting into the 2:00s should be your goal.
We still have a week remaining on the Clio time trial too, and it’s one of the easier ones in recent memory. The current record-holder is so close to a flat 2:04 that we reckon there’ll be a 2:03.9 by close of play, but virtually any 2:07.6 should still be enough for gold — and it’s not a challenging target.
Two more special events, featuring slightly increased payouts, are also available. The first of those is the qualifier for the Honda Racing eMS series, which runs until September 28 and will determine the 29 players (10 in each region, with the defending champion taking the 30th slot) who’ll race in the online finals.
You’ll be lapping the 2016 Honda NSX Concept-GT race car, on Racing Medium tires, at the full Autodrome Lago Maggiore Circuit and — as we expected — times haven’t dropped all that far since last week. Currently the record is a 1:38.903, and the top six are all in the 1:38.9s, so it’s pretty tight and improvements are likely to be in the order of hundredths. We’d say any 1:41.7 would be enough for gold.
The final event is a tie-in for the Gran Turismo World Series Round 2 event in Berlin later this month. It comprises a hot lap of the “No Chicane” version of Monza — which eliminates the first chicane only — in the Porsche 962C as will be used in the Nations Cup qualifying race.
You’ll need Racing Soft tires for the 962C (or borrow one, as the correct tires come pre-fitted on rental cars), and the record here sits at a 1:24.5. Gold is thus a 1:27.035, but we’re going to say you should aim to crack into the 1:26s and preferably a 1:26.8 or better over the next two weeks if you want a bit of safety.
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 — though the two special events right now offer 500,000cr for bronze, and the Berlin event has a more generous 20% limit.
The events update every Thursday, with each individual challenge usually 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 September 18.
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge September 11 – Suzuka Circuit
- Track: Suzuka Circuit
- Car: Gr.3 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Racing Soft
- Settings: Fixed
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge September 4 – Sardegna Road
- Track: Sardegna Road Track A
- Car: Renault Clio RS220 Trophy ’16 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (H)
- Tires: Sports Hard
- Settings: Fixed
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Special Event – Monza
- Track: Autodromo Nazionale Monza No Chicane
- Car: Porsche 962C ’88 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (H)
- Tires: Racing Soft
- Settings: Fixed
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Special Event – Autodrome Lago Maggiore
- Track: Autodrome Lago Maggiore Full Course
- Car: Honda NSX Concept-GT ’16 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Racing Medium
- Settings: Partially Allowed – Brake Balance
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