Gran Turismo 7’s 1.71 update lands on PS5 today PlayStation Blog, free for existing owners from August 20 at 3:00pm JST PlayStation Blog. The headline number is four new cars, but the quiet win may be a Whistler photo set and three fresh circuits to memorize.
Polyphony has framed 1.71 as a field guide rather than a spec dump, and the structure shows it: each car arrives with a category and a personality, not just a horsepower figure to chase.
The drop also continues Polyphony’s habit of pairing a free update with a reason to revisit circuits you already thought you knew.
The Chaser is the street icon you’ll make your own
The ’97 Toyota Chaser Tourer V is the car most likely to disappear from the used lot first, and Polyphony Digital placed it in the Street Icon category for a reason. Its stance and silhouette carry instant attitude. Its roots in tuner culture and drifting give it a credibility that no spec sheet can manufacture.
You buy it from the Used Cars dealer, which is where Gran Turismo 7 hides its most characterful metal. The PlayStation Blog field guide noted that “this is the kind of car that quickly becomes a favorite because it reflects how players choose to drive, customize, and express themselves.” Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi described the series as a celebration of car culture that happens to be a video game, and the Chaser is the purest version of that idea in this drop.
Start in GT Auto. Add a livery, head to the Tuning Shop, and the Chaser becomes a canvas rather than a fixed object. Capture a replay or a Scapes photo once it feels like yours, then take it to Tokyo Expressway for a clean first lap.
The Mark II Tourer V rewards patience
Where the Chaser shouts, the ’97 Toyota Mark II Tourer V whispers. It shares a platform with its louder sibling but reads as a sleeper — understated at a glance, rewarding only once you spend real time behind the wheel. That restraint is the point.
Drivers who enjoy finding a car’s character through feel rather than appearance will treat the Mark II as the better long-term project. Take it to an urban circuit to build a sense of its balance, then compare it against road cars from the same era. Tune the setup and the quiet confidence starts to make sense. It is the kind of car that rewards a second session more than a first impression.
Not every car in an update needs to be a headline act. The Mark II’s value is precisely that it refuses to be one.
Caterham Seven Superlight R500 strips driving to its core
The ’08 Caterham Seven Superlight R500 is the purist’s pick, filed under Pure Driver for good reason. Lightweight and immediate, it removes everything between you and the road. There is less here about raw power and more about precision: every corner and every braking point lands in your hands.
Brand Central is where you will find it, and the lack of assists is the point rather than an oversight. Run a time trial on a technical track like Deep Forest Raceway and the Caterham becomes a lap-timer’s instrument. The Caterham will not win a straight-line contest against modern hypercars, but it makes every single lap feel earned. The satisfaction comes from consistency, and the leaderboard tends to follow. Purists will appreciate that the car rewards smooth inputs over brute corrections, which makes it a useful teacher even for drivers who never intend to chase a leaderboard.
Hyundai IONIQ 6 N points at where GT is headed
The ’25 Hyundai IONIQ 6 N is the update’s clearest signal of direction. Filed under Next Gen Performance, it brings modern electric punch to a series built on combustion heritage. Some longtime players will bristle at an EV in their garage, but others will welcome a car that feels current.
That tension is the point. Gran Turismo has always treated the present as worth simulating, not just the past it helped preserve. Brand Central lists it alongside the rest of the modern performance roster, and on a fast circuit like the High-Speed Ring the IONIQ 6 N is the easiest car here to place. A custom race against other modern performance cars shows where the metadata is going. Electric power delivery also changes how you manage a corner exit, and the IONIQ 6 N is the friendliest place in this update to feel that difference.
Three new circuits and a Whistler photo set
Beyond the cars, 1.71 adds three new World Circuits for leaderboard chasers to learn and a Whistler featured Curation inside Scapes. Photo mode has been a quiet strength of Gran Turismo 7, and the Whistler backdrop gives shutterbugs a fresh location without leaving the menu.
Scapes continues to be the unexpected hook for players who never intended to care about photography. The circuits matter more for time-attack players, who now have new ghost races to study and new braking zones to memorize. Learn the racing line in a forgiving car before bringing the Caterham, and the week’s leaderboard will look less intimidating than it first appears.
The live calendar now turns to Singapore
The live Gran Turismo World Series event was a blast in Tokyo this past weekend PlayStation Blog, and the championship now moves toward Southeast Asia. Round 3 of the 2026 series rolls into Singapore on October 3 Gran Turismo World Series, its first visit to the region, with the season closing at the World Finals in Tokyo in December.
Tickets for the Singapore round are already on sale, and the card mixes a regional exhibition race with the Manufacturers Cup and Nations Cup sessions. PlayStation’s August 17 State of Play Phantom Blade Zero State of Play also turned the spotlight on Phantom Blade Zero, a dark wuxia action game set to release on October 29 Phantom Blade Zero State of Play.
For the broader PlayStation release calendar, see our breakdown of the August 17 State of Play showcase PlayStation confirms August 17 State of Play show.
What the update costs, and where to start
The 1.71 update is free for anyone who owns Gran Turismo 7, though an internet connection is required to download it and in-game credits — earned through play or bought — are still needed to purchase the four cars. None of the four is locked behind a paywall outside the game’s own economy, so the only real cost is the time you spend learning them.
New players do not need to commit to the full game yet: My First GT remains a free download on the PlayStation Store that hands over a drivable slice of the experience. Players already in the ecosystem can also lean on the PlayStation Plus catalog PlayStation Plus Games for June 2026, which keeps a rotating set of full titles available to subscribers each month. Treat the Chaser as your first garage purchase, then let the Mark II teach you patience. The four cars span enough driving styles that most players will find at least one immediate favorite, which is the point of a field guide built around personality rather than raw stats.
The update is a small one by Polyphony’s standards, yet it threads the present and the past onto the same track. By the time the World Finals light up Tokyo in December, the cars added in this 1.71 drop will already feel like permanent residents of your garage.
