If a Gran Turismo 7 preset feels too easy but the next one up keeps putting you in the gravel, the fix is to remove assists one at a time instead of in a batch. You change one thing, so you can tell what that change did. One caution before you start: the official details below come from a 2023 notice and the menu steps from 2022 guides. Polyphony Digital can retune assists in any update, so trust your own screen where it differs.
Dexerto's settings guide says Assist settings appear in the menus before you start an activity, and that you change Assist Preset Selection to Custom to reach the individual options. You can go back to a preset whenever you like. There's no credit penalty to worry about either: TechRadar noted in 2022 that GT7 doesn't reduce the credits you earn when you use assists.
What each assist actually does
Some assists drive or guide you, and others correct you. Dexerto describes Auto-Drive as the game stepping in when you're approaching a corner too quickly or veering off course. Driving Line Assistance is the trail on the track that shows a good path through it.
The corrective systems are covered in Polyphony Digital's Update 1.31 notice, which tuned all of them:
- Countersteering Assistance intervenes while the car is oversteering. The notice lists Strong, Weak and Off settings, and says its intervention was made milder.
- Active Stability Management also steps in when you oversteer. The notice says that intervention was increased to improve stability.
- Traction Control is the numbered one. Traction control in general is designed to prevent wheelspin at the driven wheels. The notice reduced its intervention at 1 and increased it at 5.
- ABS generally stops wheels locking under braking so you can keep steering. The notice says GT7's adjustment improved stability under full braking.
The same notice shows how the presets mix these. It set Intermediate to Weak countersteering and Traction Control 3, and Expert to countersteering off.
A sensible order for turning them down
This order is my recommendation, not an official one. The logic is to give up the assists that drive for you first, and the ones that catch your mistakes last.
- Turn off Auto-Drive. Dexerto suggests doing this as early as possible. Expect to brake and steer for yourself, which also shows you where you're arriving too fast.
- Keep Driving Line Assistance until you know the track. Dexerto's advice is to leave it on until you know every turn, so treat this one track by track.
- Step Countersteering Assistance down. Go from Strong to Weak, then Off. Expect slides to need more correction from you.
- Turn off Active Stability Management once you can catch those slides. It's the other system that steps in during oversteer, so this is where you lose that safety net.
- Lower Traction Control one step at a time. Expect more wheelspin. Digital Trends' tips guide advises gently pressing the throttle as you come out of a turn, not flooring it.
- Leave ABS until last. Dexerto's recommended setup keeps it on Default even with Auto-Drive off, and that's a reasonable place to stay for as long as you like.
To see whether a change helped, borrow a trick Digital Trends suggests for car tuning. Set a time in Time Trial, then come back after the change: the game's ghost car takes your best lap and races you. If the ghost beats you, put the last setting back and try again later. No single change here guarantees a faster lap, and some drivers will prefer to keep an assist or two. TechRadar also recommends the license tests for learning the fundamentals, which is useful practice between steps.
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