Assuming you find yourself in a position with both a Porsche Invite and the 2.3 million Credits on hand to make the purchase, should you really buy a Carrera GT? After all, the real car has been involved in some high profile incidents, with a reputation for being a deadly drive that may well even overshadow that of the once–notorious 911. In GT7 v1.52, it's one hell of a tricky customer to handle, just as its real world reputation would suggest. The most immediate thing one has to watch out for is power oversteer, as the car lets go VERY quickly at its limit—almost instantaneously——after a very progressive buildup to said limit. That is to say, this is a car that will earn the trust of its driver, solely to stab them in the back with it with nearly zero warning. Even under braking, the driver will very much have to be on their toes, as the ABS intervenes so minimally under braking that it feels almost placebo, even on the strongest setting of Default. Stomping on the brakes fully sends the tyres into a screeching hysteria, robbing the car almost entirely of its ability to turn. Having the steering wheel even minutely off–centre extends braking distances to disastrous levels, and hitting a puddle with the brake pedal depressed is just an instant death sentence without trial. It's a car that very much has to be driven, feared, and respected as though it doesn't have ABS, and like any high–powered car without aids, the Carrera GT rightly demands of its driver to be very present and in the moment to feel every nuance of the drive, perhaps at a level that simply isn't possible to translate across the digital divide. But yet at the same time, it also fiendishly feeds a quick forming addiction when the driver exhibits bravery that should really only be possible in a video game. I can just about keep the CGT roughly pointed in the direction I want to go; I haven't spun it in the 12 or so races we ran during the week, but I can only keep it straight by under–driving the car. I know gunning for a hundredth of a second out of a corner could cost me 10 seconds if I spin it, and I don't like my odds with the CGT. In other words, driving the CGT feels like a gamble, and those who have an understanding—and dare I say, "trusting"—relationship with the car seem to have better odds with it.
That said, as one of the very last analogue supercars, the CGT may well and truly be the ultimate drivers' car. I would wax poetry and claim that the CGT's looks have aged like fine wine, but that would be implying that its looks have aged at all. I genuinely love the way it somehow blends self–assuredness in its design, while having the supercar requisite "HEY LOOK AT ME!" effect in a parking lot. It's just one of those cars that get prettier and prettier the more I look at it. And of course, it has a screamer of a Naturally Aspirated 5.7L V10 that revs to 8,600rpm, and it might just be in the conversation for the top 10 engine noises in the game, racecars included. Its suspension is so rock–solid that it genuinely feels like putting grooved road tyres onto some sort of a Le Mans racecar. That obviously isn't a good idea, but it feels to me like Porsche engineers have just made the bare minimum of begrudging sacrifices to overlap the two very different worlds, and the shared area in the Venn Diagram has been tailor–made to just perfectly fit one Carrera GT with absurdly little tolerance. It has near racecar levels of immediacy and response, so much so that sometimes I catch myself subconsciously falling into racecar instincts to drive it, like trying to carry more speed into a corner for more downforce and grip, completely forgetting that I'm on Sports tyres that can't handle those loads. It's THAT close to a racecar feel, and I genuinely think it could pull off wearing racing slicks with no mods whatsoever.
The invitation system in GT7 is indisputably idiotic, but if there's ever a car that justifies itself for being locked behind an Invite, the Carrera GT is it. A casual player will have no use nor want for it, and given how disastrous it can be to drive, I think the chance to even encounter it should be gate kept. A dedicated player will have to endure a long, consistent grind to perhaps one day find themselves face–to–face with it, hopefully polishing their skills along the way. The Carrera GT feels like a secret, post–game final boss that's absurdly tough to handle, requiring of its challenger every nuance and skill of the long and arduous journey there to meet it, well above the skill ceiling of what can be reasonably expected of your average Joe. But therein also lies its appeal: a car with its reputation and handling characteristics inherently challenges the most dedicated and perfectionistic of players to own it and OWN it, and if they do succeed, they'll be rewarded with a stupefyingly quick car with styling that looks frozen in time, and can belt out an opera like no other. The secret final boss is its own reward, and the only reward higher than that has to be found outside the confines of code and common sense; perhaps maybe an animalistic bragging right of being able to say, "I made the deadly Carrera GT yield to and serve me. (Therefore, I am more fearsome than the Carrera GT.)"
SPOILER
I have an FD3S painted in Fayence Yellow, and it took until this week for me to realise it's a colour that originally came with the Carrera GT. I guess that ought to jack up the value of my FD...?
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