Gran Turismo 7 Allowed Me To Live My Motorsport Fantasy

This past weekend played host to one of the greatest events in motorsport, the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. For my less motorsport aware readers, this event is an endurance race that lasts a full 24 hours. It’s a test not only of skill, but patience, focus and a lot of luck.

Now admittedly, I primarily tuned in to see Max Verstappen’s first attempt at the full 24 hour race. But also, to satisfy an obsession I’ve had with the circuit ever since I stumbled upon it years ago while playing through Gran Turismo Sport.

The circuit itself is one of the most iconic in all of motorsport. Particularly, the Nordschleife (the circuit’s northern loop), which has taken on a life of its own and is usually referred to as the Green Hell. Yes, the Green Hell. This part of the circuit becomes very tricky to race on as there is very little room for error when you’re traveling at over 150mph, trying to minimize time loss in some really sketchy turns, adapting to sudden elevation changes and avoiding a barrier waiting to greet you should you venture beyond the limits of grip.

I learned all this myself on my first virtual outing at the circuit. I can confirm that the Lexus LFA I took for my lap took a beating. I never attempted it again until last year. This time I was inspired by Verstappen’s outing at the Ring in a Ferrari 296 GT3. The car looked cool and he reportedly set an unofficial lap record. I too wanted to give it a try.

Now I’d never actually be able to do a hot lap in a multimillion dollar GT3 car in real life. And even if I had one, I’m not sure I’d be allowed to…I shouldn’t be allowed to. Luckily for me, I owned a copy of Gran Turismo 7. GT7 is one of those games I purchased at launch and never really stuck with. While my gaming withdrawal was a part of this, the game’s economy at launch left a lot to be desired and its structure of progression was something that didn’t gel with me. Regardless, I decided to give it another go.

The Ferrari 296 GT3 wasn’t actually in the game at that time so I made do with the BMW M6 GT3 Endurance Model. Now armed with my car of choice, I set out for my hot lap. This one went better than the last. I’d picked up a thing or two by watching F1 and other series. The in-game driving school also did a pretty good job of teaching the fundamentals such as cornering and braking points. I was absolutely hooked. There was nothing more satisfying than going again and setting a better lap time without flying off the track. With each lap I kept pushing the limits to see what I could get away with. The track that had frustrated me on my first encounter had become one of my favorites in the game.

Imagine my pleasure when the Ferrari arrived as DLC a few months later. It too became my favorite car to do hot laps with across many circuits. I even felt compelled to try out the game’s online multiplayer and even resubscribed to my years long dormant PS Plus membership.

I looked forward to each weekly race event announcement. I eagerly anticipated each qualifying session. And during every race, I lived for the thrill of setting the fastest lap, of defending to hold my hard earned positions and making moves to take someone else’s. I even thought about strategies in each session (such as making an early pit stop to get fresher tires and undercut the group of cars ahead to get the jump on them while they lost time during their pit stops later on). I felt like a real racing driver.

I do hope that the next entry in the series has more quality of life additions to make it a complete (or as near as can be) feature complete sim experience on console. The data logger addition in the Spec III update late last year was something that also helped me improve my driving by being able to visually see where I was losing time on a lap against a reference.

Looking back, it really is amazing how a game I almost gave up on has not only become my most played game on PS5 in the past year, but also allowed me to live out a fantasy that I would otherwise never been able to.