The third and final preliminary live events in this year’s Gran Turismo World Series is just around the corner, heading to a third all-new location of the year with Los Angeles on hosting duties.
Of course the USA is — like Germany before it — no stranger to Gran Turismo events but it’s been a while since a live event occurred in the nation. So long in fact, it’s never happened in Gran Turismo 7’s lifetime, with the previous being 2019’s World Tour New York in GT Sport.
Los Angeles though is used to landmark Gran Turismo moments. The city saw the birth of the first mobile-platform version when Gran Turismo launched on the PSP in 2009 — and the birth of the first true GT meme in Translator-san — and of course GT6’s first playable demo arrived at E3 in LA in 2013.
2025 will be no different as LA hosts another first in the shape of the Gran Turismo Fan Fest. This “inaugural” event — implying there’ll be more in the future — takes place on the same day alongside the usual action, and comprises a veritable celebration of the automobile.
Along with visitor attractions like expert panels, food trucks, a kids zone, and a performance from Lil Yachty (traditionally more of a Nintendo man), there’ll be a car show on-site which will feature the return of the GT Awards. There’s a few cars from SEMA during the last week that we wouldn’t mind making the trek down I-15 to be in with a chance of featuring in a future GT game.
If that wasn’t quite enough, attendees will have the chance to try out December’s Spec III update ahead of schedule at rigs around the venue at the Orpheum Theatre. That’s worth the price of admission alone, on which you can get a 30% discount with an exclusive GTPlanet code. Tickets are still on sale too, but only the $20 standard orchestra seating option remains.
There’s also the matter of the actual racing to take care of too, as the dozen Nations Cup drivers resume their season-long battle, along with an identical number of qualified Manufacturers bringing some fresh faces.
Jose Serrano is the man to catch in the Nations Cup, winning two races from two and in rather different circumstances. A last-lap defence from countryman Pol Urra was required in London, while a strategy mix-up let the second Spaniard down in Berlin to give Serrano a decent gap at the flag. Even at this early stage, the means Serrano has opened up a three-point gap to become the early favorite.
Subaru has also managed the double in the opening two rounds, as Takuma Miyazono — the most successful driver in GT World Series history — snatched the win on the last lap in London, followed by Kylian Drumont’s cool effort in Berlin as he led from the front. However the gap isn’t quite so big, as Team BMW came in right behind them in both rounds.
The Americas representatives will swap into the cars in the Manufacturers Cup, with the sole exception of Mercedes-AMG after Brazil’s Lucas Bonelli subbed in for Noah Lanuza of France in Berlin; Lanuza returns the favor in LA.
Along with Lanuza there’s plenty of first-timers and a few familiar faces, and some pulling double-duty. There’s even two world champions here too: two-time winner for Subaru, Daniel Solis, and defending Lexus champ Harald Walsen.
For those not able to attend, there’s still plenty to enjoy from home with two bonus events within Gran Turismo 7 and two event tie-in campaigns — with some unusual rewards this time round. You can access both through special tiles in the game’s World Map, and regular players will be pretty familiar with them by now.
If you fancy exercising your fortune-telling powers, there’s the “Predict the Winner” campaign which offers up to 2,000,000cr for your in-game wallet. Head into the relevant section, make your guesses for who’ll win the two events (Serrano and Subaru seem like a good idea right now), and for each one you get right you’ll land a million GT-bucks.
You can be a bit more tactical about this than blind picking now. Selections are open right up until the start of the final race in each event, so you can watch all of the qualifying first to get an idea of whose day it is, and isn’t, before you choose.
Tuning into the streams through the game — YouTube and Twitch — will land you some free cars too. Just go to the “Viewers Gift” tile in the game once each stream has started and click on the “Watch Stream (Entry Available)”. This completes your entry, whether you watch or not, and you have until 0900 UTC on November 25 to do it.
The rewards are a pair of zero-mile Japanese classics, with a Mk4 Toyota Supra RZ ’97 and a Mk3 Mazda RX-7 GT-X ’90 awarded for the Manufacturers and Nations streams respectively. These will be delivered after the campaign ends, on November 26.
However you watch or engage, it’s likely to be a pretty exciting event and with plenty of GTPlanet members on the ground in LA — along with GTPlanet itself — so do drop into our discussion thread and say hello.
The doors at the venue open at 2245 UTC on Saturday November 8 and the first stream starts at midnight — or 1600PT on the Pacific coast.
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