High-speed action is the order of the day in the latest Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial, with a tuner special linked to the series for more than 20 years starring in the new event beginning this morning.
Power House Amuse — or just Amuse, if you prefer — has been part of the Gran Turismo series since GT4. Originally a pretty small concern selling aftermarket wheels, Amuse became a top name in vehicle tuning thanks to some wild builds and successes in high-profile time attack events.
For Gran Turismo 4, Amuse actually collaborated with Polyphony Digital to create a vehicle. PD was essentially behind the GT1 body kit for the S2000, with Amuse going on to build a show car for the 2005 Tokyo Auto Salon.
Shortly thereafter, Amuse went a little wild and built a turbocharged version of the car. Nicknamed the S2300-GT1, the car now featured a bored-out, 2.3-liter version of the original F20C straight four and, with an HKS turbo strapped onto that, it put out over 600hp to the rear wheels. This is the car that now appears in GT7 as the S2000 GT1 Turbo, which you’ll be driving this week.
The challenge involves a lap of the Tokyo Expressway East Counterclockwise course. That’s effectively the “reverse” version of the more familiar one, although it uses the opposite carriageway of the highway and some different on- and off-ramps so it’s not really the same asphalt in the other direction like a regular reverse track.
As usual you can use your own car or borrow one, but you’ll need to make sure your garage car isn’t engine-swapped and has the requisite Racing Hard tires upgrade. Even with this slick rubber strapped on, this is a bit of a squirrely beast and you’re going to find as much understeer as oversteer.
Currently the record for this challenge is in the low-1:54s, but there’s quite the gap across even the top-ten times. That suggests there’s not a huge amount of time left and other drivers are looking to catch up rather than beat it, so it’s likely that the current mid-1:57 gold target won’t shift much. We’d still say to get down as low in the 1:57s as you can though if you want the 2m credit reward in two weeks’ time.
The event that began last week, featuring the E92 model M3 at the full Autopolis circuit has a week left too, and times haven’t fallen quite as far as we’d expected just yet.
At present the top time is a 2:01.645, setting the gold target at 2:05.294. There’s still potential for more to come, so we’re going to stick with our advice from last week to aim for the very bottom of the 2:05s.
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 March 5.
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge February 26 – Tokyo Expressway
- Track: Tokyo Expressway East Counterclockwise
- Car: Amuse S2000 GT1 Turbo – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (H)
- Tires: Racing Hard
- Settings: Fixed
Gran Turismo 7 Lap Time Challenge February 19 – Autopolis
- Track: Autopolis International Racing Course
- Car: BMW M3 ’07 – Garage/Rental Car
- Power/Weight/PP Limit: BOP (M)
- Tires: Sports Hard
- Settings: Fixed
See more articles on Gran Turismo 7 Time Trial.
