A new Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial is now available, but you’ll be forgiven for thinking — in the words of Old Man Tannen — that there’s something very familiar about it.
This week’s event is of the kind we do occasionally see in GT7, with the combination riffing off a real-life race event taking place at about the same time. For this Time Trial that’s the upcoming finale of the 2025 Super Formula championship, at Suzuka on November 22/23.
That means you’ll be lapping Suzuka as fast as you can in one of the two 2023 season Super Formula SF23 cars in the game — both the Honda- and Toyota-engined cars are eligible — on Racing Soft tires.
If you’re thinking that we’ve had an event like this before, you’d not be entirely accurate. We have, in fact, had the exact same event back in March to mark the opening round of the season. At least you’ll know what to expect then…
At present the global world record is a 1:34.471, and quite handily ahead of the second-placed (and fourth-, fifth-, seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-placed…) driver by three tenths. However it would only have been good enough to just scrape into the top ten eight months back, even if the top time was only a tenth and a bit quicker.
The gold bracket on the March running of the event began at 1:37.132, so that’s going to be your target this time round too — although we reckon someone might get into the 1:34.2s, so aim to get into the 1:37.0s for a little more security.
Last week’s NSX event at Interlagos still has a week left to run, and while there’s been some movement at the top it hasn’t quite fallen as far as we’d been expecting. That means that if you’ve already set a time based on our recommendations, you’re in a pretty good place!
Currently the world record is a 1:46.578 from GT World Series regular Adam Tapai, and the gaps across the top ten suggest it’s going to be tough to beat. In all likelihood the current gold target, at 1:49.775, will remain the goal, so the 1:49.5 we suggested last week is probably already safe.
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 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 November 20.
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge November 13 – Suzuka
- Track: Suzuka Circuit
- Car: Super Formula SF23 Honda/Toyota ’23 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Racing Soft
- Settings: Fixed
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge November 6 – Interlagos
- Track: Autodromo de Interlago
- Car: Honda NSX Type R ’92 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Sports Hard
- Settings: Fixed
See more articles on Gran Turismo 7 Time Trial.
