I'm 30 Seconds Away From Being the Fastest in the GT7 World

You don't need your PS5 to discover the latest news in the GT7 world. I knew Polyphony would release a new challenge on Thursday, so I checked the website to see what was coming up. I was quite surprised to see what they had planned. Just a little while ago, I hoped we'd get to race at the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

I didn't dare to think the game developer would go that route and include a Porsche in the challenge, but here we are. Less than an hour and a half after the Time Trial went live; user Rio-1913492 was on top of the leaderboard with a 7:35.061 lap. What struck me was that the second-fastest driver was four seconds behind him! With 1,300 people registered by that point, the least competitive one had stopped the clock at 9:34.480.

It was my impression at that point that a lengthy challenge such as this would deter players from signing up, which meant I'd also have less competition to go up against. And even before giving it a go, I was certain I'd do better than 8:30. Earlier today, I signed in and checked the trial's progress after 72 hours. Two Japanese drivers were in the lead, and both had dipped below the 7:30 mark.

Interestingly, only 23 users were fast enough to complete the 12.94 mile (20,832m) lap in less than seven minutes and 35 seconds. I severely underestimated the interest this challenge would generate in the community: 50,000 people have already tried it. GT7 developers' choice of the last air-cooled Porsche was brilliant, but I knew the 993 would be challenging.

The 3.8-liter flat-six uses an NA setup with 295 bhp and 262 lb-ft (355.2 Nm) of torque. The rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive Porsche weighs 2,723 lbs (1,235 kg). The best part is that it's a track-oriented vehicle, making it easier to drive fast compared to a regular 993. It can also easily sell for more cash than a brand-new GT3 RS, so I'm happy I don't have to endure the financial pressure of potentially crashing one in real life.

I decided to only go for 10 laps before calling it a day. But before doing so, I collected my reward from the Laguna Seca Time Trial. I finished the challenge in the Top 50,000, and it was enough to earn me a Silver Record Reward for one million credits. I headed straight for Legend Cars. After gawking at the McLaren F1, the Ferrari F40, and the F50 for a few moments, I noticed the Jaguar XJ220 '92 and the Mazda RX500 '70. I bought both of these, figuring they would be an exciting warm-up at Tsukuba Circuit.

For benchmark purposes, I also purchased a bone-stock FC RX-7 (I already have a highly-tuned one in my virtual garage). It was the easiest car to drive around the Japanese racetrack out of the three but also the slowest. Using my controller, I stopped the clock at 1:11.404. I was slightly slower in the RX500, as it's trickier to drive. But there's a lot more in it that you can exploit if you learn the jist of it. As for the XJ220, once I connected the steering wheel, I did a fast lap at 1:04.554 on the first go.

I should convert it to a TWR-spec and see if it can go below the one-minute mark! But let's switch to the Porsche and see how fast I was on the Green Hell. I have driven on this track for years and years now, in both Assetto Corsa, Ride 3, and Gran Turismo 7. I know the layout rather well, so I was slightly cocky going into this challenge. With 10 laps ahead, I thought I'd gradually increase the rhythm to 100%. I needed 8:44 to cross the finish line on a prudent lap out using the controller.

Using the VR set grants an experience most people will never have: seeing a 993 Carrera RS Club Sport from the inside (and it looks like it's brand new!). Having a speedometer that goes up to 186 mph (300 kph) is great, but I doubted it would go that fast, given the chance. The Speed Yellow finish is perfect for this car, although some of you would opt for Riviera Blue. On my first lap, I needed 501 seconds to go from start to finish (8:21.777). I was braver the second time around and shaved 12 seconds from my initial record.

You can feel the car moving beneath you and the weight in the back. As you'd expect from a Porsche, the front end starts losing grip at higher speeds, so you need to be cautious with your weight-transferring techniques. Still, I discovered more traction than meets the eye, and the stopping power is phenomenal. Recently, I have become increasingly aware of how important it is to feed your car gentle inputs, especially in hairy situations, and the 993 didn't want to slide out as much as I thought it would.

Once I became more ambitious, I started making mistakes and had to restart the lap at least three times after going off-track. I wouldn't settle for P 31,350th, even though it's good enough for the Bronze Record Reward. I made a small mistake every time I checked to see how far the ghost was. So I stopped doing that, just focusing on what lay ahead. Whenever things were going well, I could feel my heart pounding faster and faster and my body temperature rising.

It took a lot of focus to bring the time down to 8:00.087, and I was pretty upset about that 0.087 part. It was good enough to have me sitting in P 18,289, but I still need to find at least 10 more seconds to get the Silver Reward. Oh well, practice makes perfect, and I guess you could say I'm 30 seconds away from being the fastest driver in the GT7 world regarding this Nurburgring Time Trial.

It's too bad that 30 seconds is almost an eternity in racing terms. But I'm confident I could shrink the difference down to just ten seconds with two or three days of practice. Now, I'm curious to see the next Time Trial. I'd go for something at Mount Panorama or Spa! And I guess a new update is in order, which should add three more cars to the list.