Gran Turismo 7 Looks Set to Add the GOAT, Ayrton Senna's McLaren MP4/4

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Photo: Oli Tennent (Getty Images)

Gran Turismo 7 adds a trio of new cars for free around the end of every month, and August won’t be any different. In the days leading up to each update, series producer Kazunori Yamauchi teases the upcoming additions on Twitter with shadowy silhouettes. Sometimes these silhouettes can be difficult to identify, but that’s not a problem for this week’s new cars — one of which is likely to be the most dominant Formula 1 machine of all time.

The consensus is pretty solid on these, for reasons I’ll explain. Up top, we have the Pontiac GTO “Judge,” then below that is a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 — a road-going version of the Clubsport race car already in the game. The final shadowed figure has been pegged as the 1988 McLaren MP4/4 in which Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost won 15 out of 16 races, and Senna his first drivers’ title. That’s quite the get.

Now, the MP4/4 has turned up in other video games before, but never Gran Turismo. On an official basis, anyway. As longtime fans will note, the MP4/4 appeared in unlicensed guise in Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec as the F688/S. Devoid of McLaren colors or Marlboro sponsorship, “F688/S” was code for the car’s number of cylinders, year of competition and the driver’s last name.

Gran Turismo has shown Senna love in other ways, too — most notably with the Ayrton Senna Tribute content that was added to Gran Turismo 6 in May of 2014, on the 20-year anniversary of Senna’s death. GT6 included the Brazilian champ’s Team DAP kart and West Surrey Racing Formula 3 chassis that he steered to the 1983 British F3 title. It also included his 1985 Lotus 97T, which lives on in Gran Turismo Sport and GT7 as the unlicensed F1500T-A. That means the MP4/4 should have some semi-period appropriate competition upon its arrival.

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All three of August’s additions correspond to a leaked list of names of inaccessible cars present in GT7’s game code that emerged earlier this year. It’s important to stipulate that not all of the cars present on that list are bona fide DLC inclusions; their existence merely suggests that they were in development at one time or another. It’s also possible that cars not present in the game data eventually make it into GT7 as well.

Here’s another one of Senna in the MP4/4, just because Getty Images has a bunch.

Here’s another one of Senna in the MP4/4, just because Getty Images has a bunch.Photo: Oli Tennent (Getty Images)

That said, we’ve already received five of the named cars as DLC since GT7 released in March. The three new ones scheduled to arrive in a few days are on that list as well — so things are looking good for the GOAT, the MP4/4. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get a new track, too.

If I have one fear, it’s that Senna’s McLaren will go for 20 million credits in the Hagerty-branded legendary car dealership. In other words, it’s probably best that you start grinding now. You don’t have long — GT7 updates typically arrive on Thursdays at 2 a.m. Eastern.