A new Gran Turismo 7 game update is coming next week, probably around April 23, bringing three new cars to the game per a social media post from series creator Kazunori Yamauchi.

Yamauchi has taken his usual approach of teasing the upcoming content with an image showing the three cars due to arrive in the update. The trio of cars for the update, which we’re calling 1.69 until further confirmation, are all heavily disguised just to whet players’ appetites.

Until recently these images have played with light and shadow, presenting the cars under cover of darkness. The new approach though, since the last couple of updates, is to show them under literal covers, as we all guess what they might be.

It’s going to be a bit of a challenge this month, with only one of the three cars being one that players have been expecting. That’s the one at the front too, with the obvious front-end of the Yangwang U9 Xtreme.

Part of BYD Auto’s halo Yangwang brand, the U9 is quite the machine — and the Xtreme even more so. Even in its regular form, the U9 packs 1,270hp from four individual in-wheel motors, and an unusual suspension system that can autonomously jump the car off the road surface.

The Xtreme winds that output up by well over double, with its 2,977hp representing the most powerful production road car on the planet by a very, very wide margin. In different wing configurations it holds both an unofficial land speed record, with a one-way pace of 308mph beating a similar run from the Bugatti Chiron 300 by 4mph, and the production EV record at the Nordschleife at 6:59.157.

However it will forever be second to the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, in terms of Chinese cars heading to the Gran Turismo series. It’s worth noting though that the original GT7 reveal teaser for the Yangwang saw the real thing lapping at Shanghai International Circuit, a course that’s long been on PD’s wishlist.

For the other two cars we can only really go on shape alone and can’t really identify them with any greater specificity at this point.

Luckily the middle car has an extremely obvious shape, being a 964-generation Porsche 911. Unfortunately there’s so many variations of this — including one already in the game — that drilling down to its exact identity is tricky.

We can rule out the 1992 Carrera RS, due to its presence in the game already. It could be a Turbo model, either the original 3.3 (or the rare lightweight Leichtbau) or 3.6, but the front-end rules out the slantnose variant.

Alternatively, and bearing in mind the recent collaboration between the brands, it might be something absolutely wild from Ruf. The RCT and second-generation SCR spring to mind, while it could also be the bespoke CTR Anniversary, or the one-of-one RS-based RCT or Yellowbird-tribute Ultimate.

At the back we’ve got an unlikely European motoring icon, which was recently announced to be returning for a fourth, and yet again very different, generation. That’s the original Renault Twingo, which was a surprise hit in Japan back in its day.

Whichever variant it is, the humble Twingo doesn’t pack much power from its range of four-cylinder engines: anything from 58hp to 75hp is possible, making for a minimum ratio of 39 Twingos to one Yangwang. We expect Renaultsport-derived engine swaps to be on the table from the get-go!

As usual, the car “reveal” is only the first stage of an update’s life-cycle, and we’ll hear more about what’s coming over the next almost-week. It’s usually followed by a more overt presentation of the cars and an information dump on PlayStation Blog the day before, with (nearly) full patch notes arriving with the update itself.

We’d not be expecting a new track this time out, even if Shanghai is a tempting assumption, as it would likely have been teased sooner. However there could be a new Circuit Experience again, accompanying new races, engine swaps, and potentially new Bonus or Extra Menu books. There’s been less action on the GT Sophy front recently, with no new tracks supporting this next-generation AI this year.

If everything adheres to its usual schedule, the update will land around 0700 UTC on Thursday April 23, marking the start of a server maintenance period that’ll take the game offline for a couple of hours. Don’t forget to save well in advance!

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