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Gran Turismo 7 (GT7) is one of the most highly anticipated racing games in the last five years. It will be the first entry in the Gran Turismo franchise to release on Sony’s new and still very hard-to-find PlayStation 5 console. Players will need to wait until March 4th, 2022, to play it, but a steady drip of new glimpses continues to reveal new cars.

Gran Turismo 7 “Starting Line” featurette reveals more classic race cars

Gran Turismo 7 is still more than half a year away, which is an excruciating wait for hardcore fans. However, developer Polyphony Digital will occasionally drop small bits of new information to let its followers know they haven’t forgotten about them.

In a new trailer called “The Starting Line,” Gran Turismo director Kazunori Yamauchi speaks about his interpretation of automotive culture. “I think the car is…one of the most beautiful industrial products,” said Kazunori-san. “The appreciation for the beauty of their shapes, is car culture.”

“But the car is also made to be driven by a person,” Yamauchi continued. “Controlling these high-performance machines that far exceed human limits is another part of car culture.”

Leave it to someone of Yamauchi-san’s experience and love of cars to so eloquently speak on something often hard to define. That is why it is no surprise that there are some deep-cut classic cars shown in the gameplay footage within this trailer.

Here are just a few cars from the new Gran Turismo 7 trailer spotted by fans and Jalopnik:

  • 1970 Chapparal 2J
  • 1968 Alpine A220
  • 1965 Aston Martin DB5
  • 1997 BMW McLaren F1 GTR Race Car
  • 1989 BMW M3 (E30)
  • 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupe
  • 2014 Volkswagen Polo GTI
  • 2019 Audi R8 LMS Evo
  • Porsche 911 Carrera RS (964)
  • 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera RS (993)
  • 1955 Porsche Spyder Type 550/1500RS
  • Chervolet Corvette (C4) [possibly a 1990 ZR-1]

Kazunori Yamauchi wants GT7 to reflect different parts of car culture

A white Acura NSX as seen in the upcoming racing game Gran Turismo 7
Acura NSX in ‘Gran Turismo 7’ | PlayStation

In the trailer, Yamauchi states that “the breadth of automotive culture is very broad.” That is almost an understatement. The facets of car culture are objectively diverse and varied. Someone could be involved in car culture for years and still discover new subcultures within it.

Kazunori Yamauchi wants Gran Turismo 7 to represent as much of car culture’s diversity as possible. “There are also so many unique cars being made around the world,” said Yamauchi-san. “Appreciating these cars, for example, by collecting them, is another crucial side to car culture.”

That is likely why DLC featuring iconic cars comes with Gran Turismo 7 when it is pre-ordered.

Gran Turismo is so popular that it is an Olympic sport

While players wait for Gran Turismo 7 to release next year, a large community is currently playing Gran Turismo Sport (GT Sport). GT Sport is a bit of a departure from previous games in the Gran Turismo franchise, focusing primarily on online competition.

There is an FIA-sanctioned eSports racing league within Gran Turismo Sport, and it is so robust that the game was actually made into an Olympic sport. Granted, GT Sport was part of the “Virtual Olympic Series,” but still an official part of the Olympics nonetheless.

Winning a gold medal for playing Gran Turismo would be admittedly awesome. Still, we speculate that most players will be happy just knowing about the new cars coming to Gran Turismo 7 when it releases next year.

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