0 0The new Gran Turismo 7 Online Time Trial goes live on 12 November 2026 and runs for the usual two weeks, ending on 26 November 2026. This round is a one-make, the Mazda ɛ̃fini RX-7 Type R (FD) '91 on Comfort Soft tyres around Watkins Glen International Long Course.
Watkins Glen in the United States is listed in our database at 5.42 km with 11 corners and 41 m of elevation on the Long Course, with a longest straight of 560 m. The Glen was the Gr.4 venue for Daily Race C just last week, so plenty of you will have fresh laps in your head. Those laps were in a race car on Racing tyres, though. A '90s road car on Comfort Soft is a very different way round the same 5.42 km.
ɛ̃fini RX-7 Type R at Watkins Glen: What to Expect
Gold is set at 2:12.7. Over 5.42 km that works out at an average of about 147 km/h. The event has only just gone live and there's no world-best on the board yet, so check back once the quick drivers have had a few sessions and the gap to gold becomes clearer.
It's a one-make, so there's no car choice to chase. Everyone's in the RX-7, which makes the whole Time Trial about driving rather than meta-hunting. This is the FD3S, the third-generation RX-7, which our database notes debuted in 1991 as the ɛ̃fini RX-7 in Japan, ɛ̃fini being the brand Mazda sold it through there. It runs a 1,308 cc 13B twin-rotor with sequential twin turbos, and our database lists it at just over 250 hp and 1,260 kg, front-engined and rear-wheel drive. Wikipedia describes that turbo setup as the first mass-produced sequential twin-turbo system exported from Japan.
Comfort Soft is the grippiest of the three Comfort compounds, but it's still a road tyre, and a turbocharged rear-driver with that much power will find its limits quickly. We'd expect the lap to be won on corner exits, where patience with the throttle keeps the rear in line and carries speed onto the next straight. Turn 1, known as The 90, and the Esses that follow set up the back straight, so spend your early laps getting a clean, committed run through there before you worry about the rest. The Boot, the four-turn complex that curls through the woods later in the lap, has several exits in quick succession, and we'd expect an early throttle on Comfort tyres to cost you more there than a slightly late one.
It's also worth remembering that update 1.71 brought significant changes to tyre behaviour, steering geometry and throttle response, and it recalculated Performance Points across the whole game. If your last proper road-car run was before that update, give yourself a session to recalibrate before you start chasing tenths in earnest.
Final Thoughts
The RX-7 at Watkins Glen looks like a proper test of throttle control, with a rear-drive turbo on road tyres around a fast, flowing circuit. With everyone in the same car, it comes down to clean exits and a tidy run through the Esses. Gold at 2:12.7 is the time to chase.
Let us know what you think about this combination. It looks like it could be a very interesting one.
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