0 0The Fanatec Gran Turismo Eifel Cup 2026 is a free GT7 online time trial in the Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) '22 at the Nürburgring GP, running from 2 to 16 November 2026, and the fastest driver in each region wins a Fanatec GT DD Pro (8Nm) or a set of Podium Pedals Sport.
Polyphony Digital announced the event on 26 October. It's a global competition hosted by Fanatec and run through the normal Online Time Trials menu in the Sport pavilion, so there's nothing to sign up for. You drive, you set a time, and the leaderboard does the rest. The full rules are on gran-turismo.com.
The car, the track and the rules
It's a one-make event, so there's no car choice to agonise over. Everyone drives the Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) '22 on Racing Hard tyres, with BoP on, tuning prohibited and the car settings fixed. Everyone starts from exactly the same car, and the only variable is the driver.
The track is the 5,148 metre Nürburgring GP circuit, the modern Grand Prix layout rather than the Nordschleife. Wall contact and shortcuts both invalidate the lap, and track limits are set to normal. Brushing the barrier on an otherwise perfect lap will cost you the whole lap.
The leaderboard opens on Monday 2 November at 04:00 PST, which is 13:00 in Central Europe, and closes on Monday 16 November at 03:59 PST, 12:59 in Central Europe. That's two full weeks, and it's also enough time to properly learn a combination rather than just survive it.
The prizes, and who can win them
The leaderboard is global, but the prizes are split by region: Europe, Middle East and Africa, the Americas, and Asia-Oceania. The top-ranked driver in each region picks either a Fanatec Gran Turismo DD Pro (8Nm) wheel or a set of Fanatec Podium Pedals Sport. The Podium Pedals Sport only appeared at SimRacing Expo a couple of weeks ago, and we covered them alongside Fanatec's Project Obsidian wheel. If you want to know what the Podium range feels like under your foot, our Podium Pedals hands-on overview covers the Formula version.
There are conditions. To win a prize you need to be at least 18 when the event starts and live in one of the listed countries. Most of Europe is in, Croatia included, along with the UK, the US, Canada, most of Latin America, Australia, China, Korea and a handful of others. Players under 18 can still race but can't win. Players from Japan can't win either, so if a Japanese driver tops Asia-Oceania, the prize goes to the next eligible driver in that region.
With three winners from a global field, this is not a prize you win by being quite good. It's for the very top of each region. But a free entry, a fixed car and two weeks is still one of the best ways to find out how far off the pace you actually are.
What the World Series told us about this car here
This isn't the first time this car and track have met in a big online event. When the World Series 2026 Online Qualifiers Round 3 ran Gr.3 at the Nürburgring GP in February, nearly 28,000 drivers took part, and the 911 GT3 R (992) took the fastest lap.
Given a free choice of every Gr.3 car in the game, two thirds of that field picked the 992. This time Fanatec has simply made the choice for everyone.
Don't use February's times as a target, though. That event ran on Racing Mediums and before the physics changes of update 1.71, and the Eifel Cup runs on hard tyres with its own BoP, so the numbers won't line up. What carries over is the car. A field this size in the same Porsche means the gaps at the top will be tiny, and consistency will count as much as one heroic lap.
If you raced our last online time trial, the Xiaomi Vision Gran Turismo at Sportsland SUGO, this one is a very different challenge: a car the community already knows inside out, on a track nearly everyone has driven.
Final Thoughts
The Eifel Cup is a simple idea done well. One car, one track, hard tyres, fixed settings and two weeks to find the time. Even if winning a DD Pro or a set of Podium Pedals Sport is out of reach, it's a free, level way to see exactly where you stand against the rest of the world in a GT3 car that rewards precise braking and a clean exit.
Let us know what you think about this combination. It looks like it could be a very interesting one.
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