Gran Turismo 7 time trial sends the Maserati A6GCS/53 Spyder to Blue Moon Bay

Gran Turismo 7’s latest Online Time Trial went live on October 29, with the Maserati A6GCS/53 Spyder ’54 set for a lap of Blue Moon Bay Speedway’s Infield A layout on Sports Hard tyres, according to GTPlanet. The event uses a fixed setup and puts a 1950s sports racer into one of the more unusual combinations in GT7’s rotation.

The challenge sits in Sport Mode, which GTPlanet says unlocks after players complete Menu Book 9, “Championship: Tokyo Highway Parade,” in the GT Cafe. No PlayStation Plus subscription is needed to enter. As with other GT7 time trials, rewards are paid out when the event closes and are based on how close each lap is to the best time.

The Maserati comes from a long Gran Turismo backstory

The star of this week’s event is not a modern road car or a current touring machine, but a machine that reaches back into the Legend Cars dealership. GTPlanet describes the Maserati A6GCS/53 Spyder ’54 as a car with a story that began with the 1953 World Sportscar Championship, where the A6GCS/53 was built to compete.

This particular chassis ran as a Maserati works entry for Luigi Musso in 1954. GTPlanet says it picked up a class win in the Targa Florio and finished second in the Mille Miglia, giving the car a racing résumé that stretches well beyond a standard collector’s item. It later passed to Nevada collector Dean Meiling before turning up at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 2014.

That Pebble Beach appearance is the link that matters for Gran Turismo fans. Kazunori Yamauchi selected the car as that year’s Gran Turismo Trophy winner, which guaranteed it a place in a future Gran Turismo title. The wait was still a long one: GTPlanet says the car did not arrive in GT7 until Update 1.19 in July 2022, eight years after that selection.

The contrast between the car and the circuit gives this trial its odd shape. A 1950s sports racer feels more at home on a road course in Italy than on the infield of a modern American speedway, but that is the pairing GT7 has this week. The Blue Moon Bay layout asks for a different rhythm from the Maserati’s history, with the challenge now centred on adapting an old endurance-era sports car to a short, technical route.

Medal targets for Blue Moon Bay

GTPlanet has also published benchmark times for anyone aiming at the medal thresholds. The site says anything under 1:23 should be safe for gold once the event closes, 1:24 should cover silver, and anything under 1:28 should be enough for bronze. Those targets give a quick read on how much margin exists between a comfortable lap and one that still needs polishing.

For anyone chasing a medal, the numbers are straightforward:

• Gold: under 1:23
• Silver: under 1:24
• Bronze: under 1:28

The current event also follows last week’s trial, which used the Hyundai Elantra N TC ’24 at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya’s Grand Prix layout without the chicane. That previous challenge used Racing Hard tyres and still has one week left, with GTPlanet saying it closes on Thursday, November 5.

The time trial rotation is already moving on

GTPlanet says Gran Turismo 7 adds a new Online Time Trial every Thursday, with each event running for two weeks before the oldest one drops off as the newest arrives. The next one is due on November 5. That means the Blue Moon Bay challenge will not stay around for long, even if its car is one of the more memorable picks in the current lineup.

The same menu also leads to a hardware-focused contest. GTPlanet notes that the Fanatec Gran Turismo Eifel Cup opens on Monday, November 2, and unlike the usual credit-based rewards, that event offers real hardware prizes.

Drivers who would rather race wheel-to-wheel than chase a ghost can also look beyond the official leaderboard. GTPlanet points to the SNAIL Racing League, which runs casual weekly online races using the active Time Trial’s car and track. The league is open to anyone who wants a race instead of a solo lap on Blue Moon Bay.

For readers keeping track of GT7’s online challenges, this week’s Maserati event follows the Barcelona trial covered in our previous Gran Turismo 7 time trial report, while another hardware-based event is already on the calendar for early November.