'Gran Turismo 7' Spec IV Update Brings Back Autumn Ring Track, Adds Iconic Race Cars Like The Citroën 2CV And Honda Stepwgn

PlayStation held another one of its State of Play streams this morning, showing off trailers for a bunch of new games and updates to the existing ones. Most exciting to us here at Jalopnik is the announcement of the Spec IV update for "Gran Turismo 7" that will come out later this year. (Actually, that's a lie because I was most excited about the new "Resident Evil" movie clip, but I digress.)

Game studio Polyphony Digital has been good about giving "Gran Turismo 7" lots of regular updates since its release in 2022, and while most of those are relegated to a few new cars and maybe a new track, the game has rolled out a couple major "Spec" updates that bring a lot more content to the game. This new Spec IV update, which will release in two parts in October and December, is adding two new tracks, a dozen new cars, a kid-friendly Family Mode, and all sorts of other content. 

Die-hard "Gran Turismo" fans will surely be stoked to hear that the made-up Autumn Ring track is back, and better than ever. The fall-themed circuit has been featured in almost every game since the original, but it was nowhere to be found in "Gran Turismo Sport" and "Gran Turismo 7." Creator of the series Kazunori Yamauchi says "you can race Autumn Ring with its original layout and scenery faithfully recreated, but game designers have also "expanded the track into a larger-scale racing circuit." It looks absolutely stunning.

Gran Turismo

The other track being added in Spec IV is a real-life circuit: Sportsland SUGO located in Murata, Japan. It's described by Yamauchi as "a dynamic track with plenty of elevation changes," and it does seem like a fun one. In real life SUGO is one of the biggest motorsports facilities in Japan, hosting Super Formula, Super Taikyu and Super GT races, and it also features a motocross course and a go-kart track, but I doubt either of those will be featured in the game. This marks the first time the track has been featured in a "Gran Turismo" game.

There will be twelve new cars added to the game with the update, though not all of them are shown off in the trailer. We can see the V10-powered E60 M5, a Motul-liveried third-generation Honda Civic race car, an evolved version of the Mazda RX-Vision GT3 race car, and a Vision Gran Turismo concept from Chinese automaker Xiaomi, which was revealed back in February. By far the most exciting new cars will be the Honda Stepwgn van and the classic Citroën 2CV Charleston, both of which are world-renowned for their racing prowess. I kid, I kid, but seriously I do love driving cars like these in racing games, especially after tuning them all the way up.

Gran Turismo

The game will finally be increasing the car collector level cap again, and there are a few other new features related to your in-game garages. There's a Car Viewer for better admiring your cars; a Car Concierge for ordering cars from the Used and Legends dealerships, which rotate their stock every few weeks so sometimes it may take months for something you're chasing to appear again; and a Vintage section that shows off all the various cars that are only available through that Legends dealer.

Returning from "Gran Turismo 5" are online Shuffle Races, which randomly select cars from a group of sixteen for you and your fellow racers to use. There will also be new online drift trials, a new difficulty level for the Power Pack races, and the track experience missions will now have brand-specific challenges. The actually extremely challenging Sophy AI is getting its next evolution, too. Then there's the kid-friendly Family Mode, which we don't have many details on yet.

Polyphony says the October update will add Sportsland SUGO, six of the new cars, a new opening cinematic, the increased Collector Level cap, and the Vintage, Car Concierge, Experience and Car Viewer features. Then the December update adds Autumn Ring, the other six cars, Family Mode, Shuffle Races, online drift trials, and the Sophy and Power Pack updates. More information about the Spec IV update will be released in Singaport at Round 3 of the Gran Turismo World Series on October 3. Until then, you can check out more screenshots on the Gran Turismo blog post.