1-vs-1 Races
The most difficult challenge at each track comes in the 1-versus-1 mode, which pits you head-to-head against a single Sophy opponent in the exact same car. Your goal is to win this two-lap race from a side-by-side, standing start.
It can be done, but — believe me — it’s not easy!
The video at the top of this article includes footage of Gran Turismo World Champion Igor Fraga battling wheel-to-wheel with Sophy, and as you can see, it goes toe-to-toe with one of best Gran Turismo players of all-time.
My Impressions
I’m not bad at Gran Turismo, but I’m certainly not Igor Fraga or a GT World Tour driver. I assumed that Sophy would completely embarrass me during my demo. It was a very humbling experience — but I was, eventually, able to defeat it in the 1-vs-1 race at Tsukuba.
I was not able to record the race during my demo, but I can tell you it was one of the most thrilling challenges I’ve had in 25 years of playing Gran Turismo.
Sophy is incredibly quick, so the key to defeating it is to beat it to the first corner and get that position early. It is an aggressive but also very clean driver. In over a half hour of intense gameplay, I don’t recall any incidents or contact that was initiated by Sophy; all of the mistakes were my own.
When I’m under attack from a car behind me, I tend to get nervous and brake earlier than normal — and earlier than my opponent might expect. This leads me to frequently getting punted in braking zones or making my opponent think I’ve brake-checked them, which isn’t really fun for anybody.
Sophy, however, was able to anticipate this, like a highly skilled and experienced driver would. It never made contact with me, and it never panicked or lost control when I went to the brakes too soon.
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