Look, I’ll say this calmly because I think the point has been lost in the noise.
A properly balanced BoP would mean a 1:43.500 in the M6 and a 1:43.500 in the Porsche represent the same level of driving. Right now they don’t, and if we’re being honest everyone knows they don’t. But the leaderboard presents them as equivalent. That’s the problem. Not the cars, not the drivers, the system.
The current BoP feeds egos it shouldn’t. Drivers see their name high on a list and internalise it as proof of their ability without ever questioning how much of that position belongs to them and how much belongs to the car they selected. The system tells them they’re fast so they believe they’re fast, and when someone challenges that belief with data they react defensively because their self image is built on a number the system inflated. I’m not immune to ego either but at least in the Porsche I know my position is a floor not a ceiling. If BoP were fixed tomorrow and every car was genuinely competitive, I’d go up not down.
That’s not true for everyone and I think on some level people feel that even if they won’t say it.
A fair BoP would actually make the game better for everyone including the meta users. Right now they don’t know if they’re genuinely fast or just well equipped. A balanced system would give them honest feedback for the first time and honest feedback even when it’s humbling is what actually makes drivers improve. The current system robs them of that by telling them they’re something they might not be.
I know what’s coming next. Someone will say balance is impossible because every car has different characteristics, different gearing, different handling and certain tracks will always favour certain layouts.
I agree. Nobody is asking for every car to lap within 0.000s of each other at every track. That would be homologation not balance of performance.
But here’s the thing.
Real world GT3 racing under SRO BoP regulations keeps the entire field within a 0.3 to 0.5 second window at any given circuit. The Porsche is still rear engined, the Viper still has massive torque, the BMW still has a long wheelbase. The characteristics are all different but the power, weight and restrictor adjustments bring the lap time outcomes close enough that driver skill is the primary differentiator not car selection.
GT7’s BoP window at some tracks is 1.5 to 2.0 seconds between the fastest and slowest car. The current acceleration spread alone tells the story. The Viper runs 11.06 seconds to 400 metres. The Porsche 992 runs 12.50. The 991 runs 12.62. Both Porsches are dead last out of 52 cars. That’s not different characteristics creating slight advantages at certain tracks. That’s a 1.5 second structural gap that makes entire cars competitively irrelevant regardless of driver skill. No amount of technique overcomes that deficit on a track with a long straight.
Real world GT3 manages a 0.3 to 0.5 second spread across the entire field. GT7 is running three to five times wider than the real series it’s supposedly modelling. That’s not physics making balance impossible. That’s the balancing not being done properly.
And if someone wants to argue that GT7 isn’t a real simulator and doesn’t need to match real world BoP then fine. But you can’t have it both ways.
GT7 markets itself as The Real Driving Simulator. It uses real GT3 cars with real liveries under official FIA licensing. It runs a World Series with real prizes and real qualification pathways. You cannot claim to simulate real racing and then apply BoP that is three to five times less balanced than the actual real world equivalent. Either you’re a simulator and the balance should reflect the standard the real world figured out decades ago, or you’re an arcade game and the World Series is a joke. PD can’t have both.
All I want is to know where I truly stand. I want every driver on that leaderboard to know where they truly stand. Right now the system doesn’t allow that and until it does every time set in a meta car comes with an asterisk whether people want to acknowledge it or not.
