A significant vehicle in the history of Gran Turismo is the star of this week’s new Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial, and it’s one that neatly ties together the only “Spec III” entries in the series.
You’ll be racing the Citroen GT by Citroen Road Car in the event, a global online hot-lap competition that offers credit rewards depending on how far you are away from the world record at the close of play. The vehicle is a production-intent variant of a concept car created specifically for Gran Turismo in collaboration with the car manufacturer itself.
In case that sounds familiar, you might recognize this as the concept behind the Vision Gran Turismo program, but the Citroen is not a VGT. The first VGT cars landed in Gran Turismo 6 in 2013 — beginning with the Mercedes — while the Citroen made its debut five years earlier, in GT5: Prologue.
While not the first concept car created by an external designer for Gran Turismo, the Citroen was the first real collaborative effort and lit the spark for the later project. Sadly, the car never made it to production despite a planned, limited run — although over $1m for a new Citroen was always a big ask — but the brand did make a functional prototype powered by a V8 rather than the then-futuristic hydrogen fuel cell.
It’s an interesting choice with the Spec III update for Gran Turismo 7 just around the corner and this time trial likely running through the update itself. There’s only been one previous “Spec III” version of a GT title, in the shape of GT5: Prologue, and the boxed version of that featured the GT by Citroen as the cover car.
You’ll need to put some stickier, Sports Medium tires onto the car for the event, which will have you racing around Autodrome Lago Maggiore’s East course. That’s essentially the full course less the bowl hairpin and final sector, not to be confused with the East Short course.
Currently the record for doing so it starting to creep from the mid-1:24s to the low-1:24s, at a 1:24.391. Road car events can hinge on a magic bullet, so we’re not sure that this is going to stand through to the finish but equally we don’t think breaking into the 1:23s is likely either. We’d estimate something in the 1:24.1 area, setting gold at 1:26.6 — but aim to get below 1:26.5 for a little safety.
The rather unusual event that started last week still has seven days to run, giving you the opportunity to get quite a few laps in. About 30,000 of them, by our calculation.
This bizarre combo sees you pushing a 707hp Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat around the tiny half-mile oval at Northern Isle Speedway on Comfort Medium tires, with a target time for gold standing just over 19 seconds. Chances are you’ll get one clean lap in every ten, and usually blow two at once from clipping the outside wall just before the finish line.
Nonetheless, the world record is now 18.603s, so that 5xx will look very tempting. Given that the targets shift depending on the global top time, that current 19.161s goal might not stand, but you shouldn’t need less than 19.150s. It’s like being a Licence Test, just with more competition and bigger rewards.
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 December 4 — though with the impending Spec III update we’re not wholly sure whether this will be the case, and there’s a special event on its way too…
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge November 27 – Autodrome Lago Maggiore
- Track: Autodrome Lago Maggiore East
- Car: Citroen GT by Citroen – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (L)
- Tires: Sports Medium
- Settings: Fixed
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge November 20 – Northern Isle Speedway
- Track: Northern Isle Speedway
- Car: Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat ’15 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (H)
- Tires: Comfort Medium
- Settings: Fixed
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