The Secret to Scoring GT7 Gold at Le Mans With the F1 GTR (2024)

I don't get as much racetrack seat time in the real world as I'd like to. As my buddy Mike once noted, "Owning an RX-7 isn't expensive if you don't drive it often." I have a plan that might change that. Thanks to some friends, I have still been lucky to spend time at various circuits. But I have to resort to virtual racing to get my fix.

I have tried several video games over the past few years, but none drew me in as much as Gran Turismo 7 did. Having the PS VR2 kit might be an important part of the whole thing, as it provides an exciting level of immersion I haven't experienced before. Right now, there are two things I love doing in the game: testing cars at Tsukuba and competing in the online Time Trials that come out every week.

A new one starts, and an old one comes to an end. And it was just a few days ago that the Porsche 911 Carrera RS Club Sport even concluded. A Japanese player lapped the Nordschleife in 7:29.047. I needed almost 30 seconds more than that, and when I originally wrote the story, I was the 18,289th fastest overall.

I dropped 20,000 places in less than two weeks and ultimately scored the Bronze Record Reward. I thought I'd check out how I was doing in the Civic Time Trial, and I still have a chance at scoring that Gold Record Reward. It shows that I have been driving at Tsukuba for several years now. I had another pleasant surprise after receiving my 250,000 credits from the Time Trial. The game gifted me a Toyota FT-1 for my birthday, which was yellow (My favorite color).

Testing New Cars

Before taking it to Tsukuba for a few laps, I visited the Used Car Dealer to buy two more vehicles. One was the Renault R5 Turbo '80 (which I paid 147,400 credits for), and the other was the Lamborghini Diablo GT '00 (it set me back 789,300 credits). Using my controller for starters, I thought I'd take all three cars to Circuit de la Sarthe.

I have little knowledge of the layout, as I've driven less than 20 laps. With just under 160 hp on tap, the Renault was the slowest vehicle on the list. And I needed five minutes and 44 seconds to complete the 8.46 mile (13,629 meters) long lap. I was almost one minute faster in the Toyota FT-1 without reaching its full potential.

It never reached 186 mph (300 kph), whereas the Lamborghini could go over 192 mph (310 kph) down the main straight. It wasn't as agile as its Japanese adversary, but with pure grunt, it shaved seven seconds off the FT-1's lap time.

I set up my Logitech G29 steering wheel for Tsukuba, as I was keen to experience these three cars properly. Once inside the Renault, I almost felt at home as it resembled my grandad's Dacia 1300. The blue and red combo had a synth-wave feel, and the turbo noises were great.

It feels slower than the Civic EG6, but the mid-engine RWD setup is exciting, even in stock form. The Toyota was ten seconds faster but tended to go sideways, exiting several corners. With a technical layout like Tsukuba, I wasn't surprised that the Lamborghini felt rather menacing to drive, and it was just 0.7 seconds faster than the FT-1.

Experiencing it with the VR2 is something you need to try out yourself (think gated shifter and an old-school interior with plenty of buttons and a cassette player). After doing a few upgrades, I will revisit these three cars, and I'm genuinely curious to take the Renault out for an off-road drive, too.

Le Mans Time Trial

We are only a few days from the 92nd run of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. So Polyphony Digital's choice for the new Time Trial works perfectly. I felt both excited and concerned when I saw the event going live. I can't afford to pay 20 million credits for the BMW McLaren F1 GTR Race Car '97 over at Legends Cars, and that may be the case for tens of thousands of players. So it's nice to be able to drive it for free.

Interestingly, it was less than half that price in April of 2022. But if you can score gold in the next ten Time Trials, you can add it to your garage. The iconic FINA F1 GTR qualified P4 at the 1997 24H of Le Mans but retired after 236 laps. With a mid-engine setup that provides over 600 hp, this car weighs less than 2,200 lbs (1,000 kg) and is a proper monster machine if I ever saw one!

On my first attempt, I stopped the clock at 4:12.870, but the lap was invalid as I had exceeded track limits. I knew I would have to build my speed up from that point slowly. As you reach just under 186 mph (300 kph), you quickly realize how much stopping power this car has. So you must be patient before stomping on the brakes before the chicanes.

And you have to be equally cool with your throttle inputs to avoid spinning out. Just hours after the start of the Time Trial, I laid down a 4:04 lap, which was good enough for a P 12,442 at the time. Still, I was 21 seconds away from scoring the Gold Record Reward. The sense of speed the BMW McLaren gives you is addictive, and I wish more modern cars would feature that central driving position. I needed three more laps to shave off ten more seconds.

And at this point, it's already becoming more difficult to improve if you're inexperienced. Four laps later, I was down at 3:54.723 (23,433rd overall). As you can imagine, everyone is doing their best to improve their lap times. Some 48 hours after my first attempt, I was down to P 48,363. And earlier today, I had fallen to P 63,608 out of about 71,000 competitors. It's one of my poorest performances so far, showing that I'm still too slow around Circuit de la Sarthe.

The fastest challenger is user K. de Bruin, a man many GT7 players will recognize as one of the fastest around. He is the only player to have dipped below the 3:36 mark so far, with a 3:35.500. His YouTube channel description further sheds some light on him: " I'm a driver for Romain Grosjean E-Sports on Gran Turismo 7". He has 43 Gold Record finishes, but I hope to score my first at Tsukuba.

So, once again, practice makes perfect. As I tried to realize the nature of my mistakes, I turned to other players who had revealed guides on getting those two million credits for the Le Mans Time Trial. Once again, using third gear in apparently slow corners allows you to step on the gas earlier, as it improves traction.

I've embedded the video in this story to help you reach your goals, although it may not be easy to follow all the step-by-step instructions. I will likely go back to the challenge in a few days and put in another 20 to 30 laps to at least secure the Silver Record Reward. And once again, I'm eager to see what the new Time Trial Polyphony Digital has in store for us this Thursday.