I recently started watching older movies, returning to the ’60s and even the ’50s. I didn’t enjoy Bullitt as I had hoped, but I had a blast watching Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai.”
Thankfully, each new week brings another Gran Turismo 7 Time Trial. That also means another one ends, as only two are active at any given time. Driving a Honda Civic EG6 at Tsukuba, I knew there was a good chance I’d set a decent time. I have been driving FWD cars for 80% of the time since I got my driver’s license 17 years ago.
And I have been practicing at Tsukuba like a madman in recent years: it’s my favorite Time Attack circuit! I wrote about the endeavor some time ago, and my fastest lap was 1:12.775. I was the 3,690th fastest driver in the Time Trial when I stopped playing. When the event ended two days ago, I was in P 27,133 overall. But my fast lap was still good enough for a Gold Record Reward: the first one since I started this series of challenges.
Testing New Cars
Photo: autoevolution
With a cool two million extra credits in my virtual bank account, I set out to buy three new cars. As always, stopping by Legend Cars was my first choice. I would have loved to add the Mercedes-Benz CLK-LM ’98 to my collection, but I can’t afford the 8.5-million credit price tag now. So I moved on to the Used Cars lot but found nothing interesting. So I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a while now: go to Brand Central! In just a few days, I will test the 2024 Mazda MX-5.
I’ll spend three days driving it across the country, racking up almost 600 miles (965 km) according to my itinerary. So I thought it would be great to buy an MX-5 in Gran Turismo 7 and enjoy it for a few laps before the real thing. Weighing less than 1,63 lbs (800 kg) and just under 200 hp on tap, the Mazda Roadster Touring Car immediately got my attention. I paid 90,000 credits for it, which sounded like a bargain to me.
Using my controller, I headed straight for Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, aiming to get some practice before the main event. I lapped the non-chicane layout at 2:12.850. I know it was a feeble attempt, but I was on my controller and hadn’t driven on this track for some time now. I’m still pretty accustomed to it since I spent dozens of hours racing on it in MotoGP: Ultimate Racing Technology 3 almost 20 years ago.
Photo: autoevolution
This budget race car can sometimes be too tail-happy and is certainly a snug fit inside. In VR, you can almost feel the sun’s heat, and the driving experience is worth every credit! On my first try with the Logitech G29, I stopped the clock at 2:06.098 and felt pretty confident about the outcome of the Time Trial. I have recently been considering a replacement for my daily driver, Skoda. I would love to afford to switch to a modern Honda Civic Type R, as I miss having VTEC in my life.
As a result, I bought the 2020 Civic Type R Limited Edition (FK8) for even fewer credits (55,000) and was happy to see that Sunlight Yellow was the only available color. On the controller, I was one second faster in this than in the Mazda. It’s certainly easier to go all out in it, as it’s a FWD vehicle with modern tech. With the VR2 headset, I admired the factory sports seats and how comfortable everything looked inside. I would go on a cross-continent road trip in it.
Still, pushing it around the corners, I felt it almost sluggish and heavy compared to the Mazda. Using the steering wheel, it wasn’t that much quicker around the track. But the tables could easily turn if you’d pitch these two against each other at Tsukuba. The last car on my list was the Nissan Silvia spec-R Aero (S15) Touring Car. It costs 350,000 credits, but it’s brilliant around the track.
What terrified me about it was that I didn’t think the designated vehicle for the Time Trial could be any faster than it. It’s extremely stable under any condition, and it reminded me of Keiichi Tsuchiya‘s advice to build a balanced car. After two laps, I was at 1:51.934 without reaching 90% of its maximum potential. And if you know me and my love for drifting, you might understand why I picked green for this car: it reminds me of Yasuyuki Kazama’s D1GP-winning machine from 2005!
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya Time Trial
Photo: autoevolution
I haven’t had time to check back in with the one at Le Mans, but I would love to improve my results there. I’m in a pretty sad place at the moment, as the global standings show that there are at least 100,000 drivers faster than me. I can’t live with the thought that less than 15,000 people are slower than me in such a Time Trial.
But I guess it’s all a direct result of my minimal experience with Circuit de la Sarthe. I sincerely hoped I’d have a better time on the Spanish GP track. I don’t remember driving the Mercedes-AMG GT R ’17, but I was certain it would be a formidable machine. It has more power than the Touring-spec S15 but is also around 1,400 lbs heavier. While I enjoyed flooring it down the main straight, I quickly discovered braking from 270 kph isn’t all fun and games due to the extra weight.
Less than three hours into the challenge, 5,000 people had signed up for it, and the record stood at 1:49.945. In my first session, I did two laps on the controller. At 1:58.335, I was hoping for at least a Bronze Record Reward. But it was still at least six seconds short of the Gold medal. Once using my steering wheel, I instantly got down to 1:56.768. Let me tell you something: plenty of sideways action driving this car! Even in third or fourth gear, you must be gentle with your throttle inputs while cornering.
Photo: autoevolution
You can feel the extra weight, but it’s very fun to drive, and there is so much torque (516.1 lb-ft/ 699.7 Nm) to be more precise)! Every corner is tricky, but I struggled the most with turns 3, 4, and 12. Avoiding drifting is almost impossible, but allowing the car to slide too much will just slow you down. In my second session, I ran for eight laps and set a new fast lap of 1:55.923. The problem is that my best sectors are all set on different laps.
Going in for five more laps, I started feeling fatigued. I wasn’t driving the car anymore, just fighting to keep it steady. So I paused the action for an hour to read two more chapters of Shogun and then got back into it with a clear mind. That worked for me most of the time, and on the following attempt, I improved by almost 0.6 seconds. With a 1:55.394 lap, I was the 6,595th fastest driver in the Time Trial, but I knew that wouldn’t last.
Three hours later, I was down in P 11,332. Fast forward another 15 hours, I was in P 20,872. Well, at least I was faster than half of the drivers in the field. But I couldn’t walk away from Barcelona without trying again. After watching several tutorials, I still couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong. I went at it again with no luck. And when I published this story, I was already down to P 34,438 out of almost 74,000 drivers. I hope the following video tutorial will help some of you score the Gold Record Reward. I will still need 20-30 more laps to get there if I can find the time for another serious attempt.
