Gran Turismo 7’s ‘Spec IV’ Update Part 1 Unveiled in Singapore – New Track, Six Cars, Features Revealed

Singapore, October 3 – A tantalizing glimpse into the future of racing gaming was unveiled at the ‘Gran Turismo World Series’ 2026 Round 3, held in the Lion City. The first part of the ‘Spec IV’ update for the critically acclaimed ‘Gran Turismo 7’, set to release on October 15, was showcased, promising an array of new features and vehicles. The major free update, due in two parts this October and December, will introduce the new ‘Sportsland SUGO’ track, six new cars, and a plethora of new features. Among these are Car Concierge, Vintage Section, Experience Mode, Car Viewer, Cap Adjustments, and a new opening cinematic sequence for the game. The final six-car selection for Part 1 includes the Ferrari F355 Berlinetta (1994), Xiaomi Vision Gran Turismo, Honda Civic Si Group A Version (1987), Citroën 2CV 6 Charleston (1986), Honda Step WGN Spada Premium Line (2023), and Mazda RX-VISION GT3 EVO (2026). The rest of the Spec IV package—including the Autumn Ring circuit, Online Drift Trials, Shuffle Racing, and a new ‘Family Mode’—is scheduled to arrive in the Part 2 update in December. First released in 2022, ‘Gran Turismo 7’ is a sim racing video game developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is the eighth main installment and the thirteenth overall in the Gran Turismo series, following ‘Gran Turismo Sport’ (2017). The game was released for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and features virtual reality (VR) support with PlayStation VR2 through a free in-game update. ‘Gran Turismo 7’ received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its graphics and gameplay. However, player reception was more negative, with criticism of its use of microtransactions and focus on grinding. The game was subject to intense review bombing on Metacritic, receiving the lowest Metascore for a Sony-published title. In gameplay terms, ‘Gran Turismo 7’ features the return of the single player campaign, GT Simulation Mode. Other returning features are the return of traditional racing tracks and vehicles, Special Events, Championships, Driving School, Tuning Parts Shop, Used Cars dealership, and GT Auto while still retaining the new GT Sport Mode, Brand Central, and Discover (now labelled Showcase) that were introduced in ‘Gran Turismo Sport’. The player needs to progress through tasks (“Menu Books”) from the GT Café to unlock features like multiplayer, and all tracks and cars. The game features the return of dynamic time and weather effects, which previously appeared in ‘Gran Turismo 5’ and ‘Gran Turismo 6’. Despite the game including a single player campaign, like with ‘Gran Turismo Sport’, the game requires a constant internet connection and a PlayStation Network account in order for players to be able to save their progress. The series creator Kazunori Yamauchi explains that this decision was made to prevent cheating. Arcade mode is fully playable offline. For the PlayStation 5 version, the game takes advantage of the console’s increased processing power, dedicated ray-tracing hardware, custom solid-state drive storage, Tempest Engine, and DualSense controller to support features such as advanced haptic technology feedback, adaptive triggers, real-time ray tracing effects, 3D spatial audio, and reduced loading times. The PlayStation 5 version of ‘Gran Turismo 7’ also runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second with support for high dynamic range, a significant improvement to performance on original PlayStation 4 consoles which run in 1080p. In its current version (1.71), ‘Gran Turismo 7’ features 574 cars and 41 track environments with 121 layouts. The game’s development was confirmed to be in active progress by series creator Kazunori Yamauchi in a July 2019 interview with GTPlanet, a fan website dedicated to the Gran Turismo series. Yamauchi stated that the next Gran Turismo title would be a combination of the past, present, and future, promising a complete form of Gran Turismo. ‘Gran Turismo 7’ was revealed at Sony’s PlayStation 5 (PS5) reveal stream on June 11, 2020. Like the previous installments, the game was developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and PlayStation 5 (PS5). Tri-Crescendo contributed to development by assisting Polyphony Digital.

Sources

• Gran Turismo 7 — Wikipedia