Following a teaser earlier this week, the new vehicle contents of Gran Turismo 7's 1.48 update have now been revealed in full — confirming the identities of the machines we'll be driving soon.
As we already knew, it's a larger update than usual with five new cars coming to the game. That will include four that will pluck at the nostalgic heart strings, and the return of an important brand more than a decade on from its previous appearance in the series.
Gran Turismo 7 Update 1.48 New Cars
It's hard to know which is the headlining car in this update, but we'd have to say it's one of the two Volvos — which represent a return to the series for the Swedish brand.
After missing GT Sport entirely, Volvo is back with two cars. You'll recognize one from GT6, but the Volvo 240 wagon is in a slightly different specification from the car in the previous titles. Also it's the first wagon-bodied car in GT7.
Also appearing for Volvo is the only all-new car in the update, with the 2013 V40 T5 R-Design. This sporty model packs a 250hp straight-five engine for a distinctive soundtrack.
Classic Japanese car fans will be beside themselves with the inclusion of the 1987 Nissan Skyline GTS-R and 1993 Honda Civic SiR-II. These two cars are also beloved of Gran Turismo veterans for their appearances in previous titles.
Joining them is a GT500-class race car, again from the pages of GT history. The Honda NSX in Castrol Mugen livery fills a gap in the game's Super GT/JGTC history, and looks like it will slot into the Gr.3 category for future GTWS seasons.
Gran Turismo 7 Update 1.48 New Menu Books and Events
The NSX will also star in a new Extra Menu Book. Book 48 is titled "Collection: Racers of Japanese GTs" and it looks set to require that you own the GT500 models of the NSX, Nissan Skyline R34, and Toyota Supra. The reward for this is not yet clear.
There's set to be four new races available too in World Circuits. Autodrome Lago Maggiore West will host the Japanese FR Challenge 450, with the corresponding FF event added to Autopolis Short. The European Sunday Cup 400 now visits Kyoto's Yamagiwa layout, and there's a curious new WTC800 event at Circuit de Sainte-Croix A.
Rewards and format are not yet known, but WTC800 events can be pretty lucrative, and we wouldn't be surprised to see some of these races pop up in the Weekly Challenges come Friday.
Gran Turismo 7 Update 1.48 Other New Features
There's new set of Scapes that feature vertical camera angle adjustment in the update, following a similar set earlier in the year. It looks like there'll be 19 locations, some of which are derived from existing spots.
As ever, this is just a snapshot of the update, and there's more details that we won't discover until the update goes live. We'd expect that to include five or more new engine swaps in amongst that, but we wouldn't anticipate a new circuit to be included — as the road course drought extends to at least 16 months.
The game's servers will go offline for the update maintenance at 0600 UTC on May 30, whereupon you'll be able to download and apply the update. However you won't be able to play it in full until the servers return at around 0800 UTC.
