1990s V12 F1-style car Comes To Gran Turismo 7

F3500-A GT7 studio shot.jpg
Image: Polyphony Digital
During the broadcast for the Gran Turismo World Finals for the Nations Cup, a new addition to Gran Turismo 7 was revealed - and promptly demonstrated.

The Gran Turismo World Series has just culminated in their annual World Finals taking place onsite in Amsterdam, and champions have been crowned. But perhaps what may be of most interest to the average Gran Turismo 7 player is the revealing of a car being added in a future update.

With three races taking place in the Nations Cup, details for Race 2 were kept under wraps until the reveal of the F3500-A. The car resembles an early 1990s Grand Prix car and is powered by a naturally-aspirated 3.5-litre 784 horsepower V12, and even in the hands of twelve of the top GT7 players around Monza, it proved a handful, as is evident in the video below.


Possible January Release for F3500-A​

Polyphony Digital have already announced a new update for the game, in which the Hyundai IONIQ 5 N will also be getting added. If you briefly tune in to the streams available for each event, you can earn in-game bonuses from now until December 16. For clicking the stream for the Nations Cup, the IONIQ will be gifted for free when it releases in January.

Therefore it is perhaps a safe bet to assume that the F3500-A will get added in January, and as demonstrated in the playback of the event, it has proven tricky. 2021 Nations Cup champion Valerio Gallo had just lost the lead when he got a tank-slapper after the Lesmo corners and it pretty much ended his chances at winning a second Nations Cup title.

Serrano Drumont GTWS Nations Cup finals R2.jpg

The car delivered thrills and spills for those tuning in to the GT World Finals broadcast. Image: Gran Turismo TV

Championship protagonists Jose Serrano and Kylian Drumont provided an incredibly tight battle in the dying laps of the race which saw the former just hold out for the win. Eventual Nations Cup champion Takuma Miyazono provided some insight into the car during the post-event press conference:

"The car was very difficult to drive, the brakes did not work about as much as I was hoping it would, it has a lot of downforce but there are moments when you lose that traction so from beginning to the end, you had to be really careful and I was just glad to keep third place. But it's a fast car, the sound is fantastic so it is very fun to drive, looking forward to seeing it in the public version so I can enjoy the car in a relatively relaxed environment."

History of F1 Cars in Gran Turismo​

If you are an avid Gran Turismo player, you would know that the F3500-A is not the first example of some retro open wheel cars in the series. The F1500-TA - added into GT Sport in update 1.13 and is also in GT7 - was based on a 1980s Formula One car with a 1.5-litre turbocharged 986 horsepower V6 powering it, and there have even been some actual real life cars from that era.

For Gran Turismo 6, Polyphony collaborated with the Instituto Ayrton Senna to release a Senna tribute in May 2014, which along with Senna's own kart from 1980 and the West Surrey Racing Formula 3 car that Senna took to the 1983 British F3 championship, also had Senna's 1985 Lotus 97T in which he won his first Grand Prix. Then in GT7 update 1.20, Senna's first championship winning F1 car - the McLaren MP4/4 - was added to the game.


GT7 has also seen the additions of Grand Prix cars from the 50s and 60s in the form of the Mercedes W 196 R and the Honda RA272. Plus some modern F1 cars have made their way into the games in recent years, like Lewis Hamilton's 2017 championship winning Mercedes W08 in GT Sport, and two Ferrari F1 cars in the form of the 2007 championship winning F2007 and the F10 from 2010 in GT5.

But rewind the clock even more to Gran Turismo 3 and there are a whole range of fictional F1-esque cars: the F090/S (based on the McLaren MP4/5B), the F094/S and F094/H (Williams FW16 and FW16B), the F686/M (Williams FW11), the F687/S (Lotus 99T) and the F688/S (McLaren MP4/4). The F3500-A may be closer to the MP4-5B than any of the others, but surely the more perceptive amongst us will be able to say for a fact what it is predominantly meant to be based on.

Will you be planning to check out the F3500-A when it is added to Gran Turismo 7? Let us know in the comments below or join the discussion in our forum!
About author
RedLMR56
Biggest sim racing esports fan in the world.

Comments

The engine cover seems a bit too different for it to be the 191.

I've just been thinking, the V12 wasn't that favoured in the early 90s. Weren't Ferrari the only one that used it? In which case, the F3500-A is likely to be based on the 641.
In 1991 there were 4 V12s in the field, the ferrari, the lamborghini, the Yamaha and the Porsche.
 
OverTake
Premium
In 1991 there were 4 V12s in the field, the ferrari, the lamborghini, the Yamaha and the Porsche.
Indeed. Between 1990 to 1992, teams that ran a V12 included Ferrari (obv), Minardi, Larrousse, Dallara, Footwork/Arrows, McLaren (Honda) and Lotus - and I might forget someone.

Remember, this was not too long after the first turbo era ended in 1989, so the V10 was only starting to emerge as the best of both worlds between a V8 and a V12, which is why the V12 was slowly phased out. V8s were still popular enough because they were cheap and light, but they obviously fell behind quite quickly, and the last of them was ran in 1997 by Tyrrell - before the rules mandated them from 2006 onwards, that is.

V12s were technically still allowed until 2001 if I remember correctly, and Toyota had initially planned to enter with one until they were outlawed.
 
Last edited:
Premium
The open wheel Formula cars in Gran Turismo 7 are such fantastic tests of skill, especially the future models like the mind warping Tomahawk X. Here's to many more open wheel models joining the roster as well as a return of the kart tracks!
 
Premium
The open wheel Formula cars in Gran Turismo 7 are such fantastic tests of skill, especially the future models like the mind warping Tomahawk X. Here's to many more open wheel models joining the roster as well as a return of the kart tracks!
For a game that has kart racing completely separate from the other race classes settings in the online lobby, you would think they would give a decent plethora of karting tracks. But nope
 
Last edited:
The engine cover seems a bit too different for it to be the 191.

I've just been thinking, the V12 wasn't that favoured in the early 90s. Weren't Ferrari the only one that used it? In which case, the F3500-A is likely to be based on the 641.
Looks closer to the 643, but with enough details changed that it's not a replica of any car.
 
Anyone else find it odd that it uses Michelin rubber instead of Goodyear, Pirelli or even Avon tyres?
 
Anyone else find it odd that it uses Michelin rubber instead of Goodyear, Pirelli or even Avon tyres?
 
Premium
Anyone else find it odd that it uses Michelin rubber instead of Goodyear, Pirelli or even Avon tyres?
Not me. Polyphony have a sponsorship licencing deal with Michelin.

Yeah Michelin did not from what I recall make F1 tyres in the early 90s.
 
OverTake
Premium
Not me. Polyphony have a sponsorship licencing deal with Michelin.

Yeah Michelin did not from what I recall make F1 tyres in the early 90s.
Correct, Michelin came back in 2001 after having left in 1984 inititally. Ah, the tire war years...
 
Premium
If you buy a Formula 1 car nowadays and need a quick tire swap, sometimes you only have Michelin slicks as an option. It's hard to find decades old tires that are still good these days....
 

Article information

Author
Luca Munro
Article read time
4 min read
Views
2,019
Comments
17
Last update

What are you racing on?

  • Racing rig

    Votes: 528 35.2%
  • Motion rig

    Votes: 43 2.9%
  • Pull-out-rig

    Votes: 54 3.6%
  • Wheel stand

    Votes: 191 12.7%
  • My desktop

    Votes: 618 41.2%
  • Something else

    Votes: 66 4.4%
Back
Top