Tires

Tires (American English: tires; British English: tyres) have been a major feature in every main Gran Turismo game. All vehicles in the games feature a default tire when acquired, and they can be exchanged for new compounds that provide more grip, better durability, or even dirt or snow tires for certain vehicles. New tire compounds can be found in the manufacturer's tuning parts area for older games, or in the universal Tuning Shop in later ones.

Some events require a certain tire type, or restrict the compound that can be used. Tires can be replaced once worn if the player enters the pit lane, which is available on most tracks. Careful tire management becomes a major factor in longer races, particularly Endurance events, where a strategy regarding frequency of pit-stops made can contribute to either success or failure.

Tire wear is represented by a small diagram usually placed on the bottom-right side of the in-game screen, or HUD. In Gran Turismo 1 to Gran Turismo 4, tire condition is shown as different colors: blue coloring represents new, cold tires that have yet to be warmed up. Green coloring represents warm tires, the ideal temperature range producing the best grip. Colors ranging from yellow, through orange to a deep red represent lightly worn to worn out tires, which will begin to deteriorate rapidly and result in less and less grip until they are replaced. In Gran Turismo 5 onwards, tire condition is represented as a bar, or meter, inside each individual tire indicator. Tire condition in these later games generally start to perform poorer and poorer as the bar drops below 50%, or halfway.

In Gran Turismo Sport and Gran Turismo 7, some Sport Mode events (mostly those using Racing tires) from September 2019 onwards require the player to use one or more specific compounds at one point of the race; failure to do so nets the player a post-race penalty. This feature originated in GT6's Open Lobby settings. The player can only use the same compounds on front and rear during pit entry starting from GT Sport, and it was later mandated that players must start with same compounds on front and rear to prevent players from circumventing the requirement.

Road Tires

In Gran Turismo 1

There are two types of tires in the original Gran Turismo, referred to as Semi-Racing and Racing Slick (both divided into Hard and Soft compounds), with the original tires on all vehicles simply called Normal. In this game, compounds cannot be switched around once purchased; if one desires a certain tire combination, they must purchase them in that format. Tire wear in this game is limited to endurance races. The Semi-Racing tires are equivalent to Sports tires in later games, except only one compound is available for them until Gran Turismo 4.

Semi-Racing Hard/Hard

• These are semi-racing tires. They come as a 4-tire set, with both front and rear tires being made of a hard compound. Hard compound tires don't have as good a grip as soft tires, but they don't wear out as quickly and are suitable for long-distance races.

Semi-Racing Hard/Soft

• This set has hard front tires and soft rear tires. Because the rear has better grip than the front, the car's steering properties are moved towards understeer, because the front tends to slip and the rear tends to grip. This set is a useful combination to improve the balance of vehicles such as high-powered rear wheel drive cars with strong oversteer.

Semi-Racing Soft/Hard

• In this set the front tires are soft and the rear tires hard. Because the front has better grip than the rear, the car's steering properties are moved towards oversteer, as the front tends to grip and the rear tends to slip. This is a useful combination for cars with strong understeer, such as FF cars.

Semi-Racing Soft/Soft

• These are a set of 4 semi-racing tires. Both front and rear tires are high-grip soft compound tires. Soft compound tires give good grip but they wear out quickly. As a result they are suitable for sprint races.

Racing Slick Hard/Hard

• These are specialist racing tires with no tread at all. This set consists of 4 tires, and the front and rear tires are made of a hard compound. Hard compound tires don't have as good a grip as soft tires, but they don't wear out as quickly, and are therefore suitable for long distance races.

Racing Slick Hard/Soft

• In this set the front tires are hard and the rear tires soft. Because the rear has better grip than the front, the car's steering properties are moved towards understeer, as the front tends to slip and the rear tends to grip. This set is a useful combination to improve the balance of vehicles such as high-powered rear wheel drive cars with strong oversteer.

Racing Slick Soft/Hard

• This set has soft front tires and hard rear tires. Because the front has better grip than the rearm the car's steering properties are moved towards oversteer, as the front tends to grip and the rear tends to slip. This is a useful combination for vehicles such as FF cars with strong understeer.

Racing Slick Soft/Soft

• These are a set of 4 racing slick tires without tread. Both front and rear tires are high-grip soft compound tires. Soft compound tires give good grip, but they wear out quickly. As a result they are suitable for sprint races.

In Gran Turismo 2

There are seven types of road tire compounds in this game. Simulation (called Control in the PAL version), Sports, Racing Slick, and Dirt. Tire wear generally only becomes a factor in endurance races; however, in practice, all tires have the same wear level. By default, the stock tires installed on road cars provide grip between Simulation/Control and Sports tires, while all race cars in GT2's stock tires are equivalent to Racing Slick Medium compound.

Simulation/Control

• Tires which are as close as possible to in characteristics to real tires. Although it is extremely difficult to drive using the game controller, you can experience a simulation of real driving which does not feel like a game. These tires require quicker braking, careful steering, and delicate work with the accelerator. These tires are specific to surfaced roads.

Sports

• Special sports driving tires which will allow a higher level of grip on surfaced roads than normal tires. One set for front and rear wheels. Fitting high performance tires is said to be one of the more effective ways of improving the driving performance of the car. Once you buy the tires, you will receive tire service continually from then onwards.

Racing Slick Hard

• Although the absolute level of grip is lower, they use a durable compound. They can deliver good, stable grip characteristics over long periods. As the temperature of the tires is slow to increase, they take some warming up, and sufficient care must be taken while driving the first two laps. These are tires specific to surfaced roads.

Racing Slick Medium

• These tires use a compound which achieves a good balance between grip and durability. The tires will reach the correct temperature after 1 lap, and can deliver good grip. They don't have the durability of the hard compound tires, but they do not wear out as fast as the soft tires. These are tires specific to surfaced roads.

Racing Slick Soft

• Even though these tires are durable to a degree, the compound used has been chosen to deliver the best possible absolute grip. These are the optimum tires for races such as time trials. The tires will be warmed up enough to deliver good grip after only half a lap. Because the durability is low, very careful tire replacement is necessary. These are tires specific to surfaced roads.

Racing Slick Super Soft

• These are tires that sacrifice durability for the sake of maximum possible grip. These maximum grip characteristics will only be displayed after having gone through several corners. Because the grip will suddenly deteriorate due to wear, care must be taken in handling the tires. These are tires specific to surfaced roads.

In Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec

There are 11 types of tire compounds in this game. Further expanded from the PlayStation-era games in the series, there are subsequently many different strategies and car/tire combinations that can be ideal for every track. They are Normal, Simulation, Sport, Dirt, and Racing. In this game, tire wear becomes a factor in some Amateur League events, all Professional League events, and Endurance League events.

Normal

• The default tire for most cars in their factory form. These tires generally do not provide much grip or durability, and are only suitable for slower, unmodified vehicles. It is widely recommended to upgrade to Sport tires as soon as it becomes viable.

Simulation

• Like previous games, Simulation tires provide a limited sense of a realistic driving experience. Earlier braking, careful steering, and gentle throttle control is necessary when using these tires. They do not provide any advantages over the standard Normal tires.

Sport

• Sport tires provide better performance than Normal tires, and are regarded as one of the first modifications that should be purchased for a car. They display better grip through corners, allow slightly better acceleration off the line, and are slightly more durable than Normal tires.

Racing

• There are 7 types of Racing tires in Gran Turismo 3. Ranging from the ultra-durable, low-grip Super Slicks, to the extremely grippy but very poor durability Super Softs, there is a tire available for every application. It must be noted, however, that the F1 cars introduced in GT3 are limited to Racing Mediums only; no other compounds can be purchased to replace these. For hard compound tires, the term "slick" is used instead of "hard" as used in other games in the series. A quick-reference list of the available compounds is shown below:

Tire Type	Code	Notes
Racing Super Slick	T2	Extremely durable tires, but only provide a limited level of grip.
Racing Slick	T3	Slightly less durable than Super Slicks, provides only slightly better grip
Racing Medium-Slick	T4	Durability closer to that of Mediums, though still below-average grip rating
Racing Medium	T5	Provides equal durability and grip, the default (and only) tire equipped on F1 cars
Racing Medium-Soft	T6	Slightly better grip than Mediums, though durability starts to drop
Racing Soft	T7	Superb grip, low durability. Care must be taken not to over-drive these
Racing Super Soft	T8	Provides unparalleled grip, durability however is very poor

In Gran Turismo 4

Tires in Gran Turismo 4 are divided into five categories, with 13 different types in total. They are Standard (also called Normal), Sport, Racing, Dirt and a new type, Snow. Tire mechanics have been greatly improved over its predecessors, meaning that greater care and thought should be put into which tires will perform best on the current vehicle and situation. Tires also are a large contributing factor to the amount of A-Spec Points that are awarded at the end of each race. The lower the grade of tire, the higher the amount of points garnered if the race is won.

Standard (Normal)

• Acting as the replacement to the previously featured "Simulation" tires, they do not come equipped on any car by default, however they are free to purchase. The three grades are Economy, Comfort, and Road. They provide a realistic feel to the car driven in terms of capability and response, but offer no advantages over the Sport grade tires. However, they are a great tool to learn the mechanics of simulation driving, and provide the most A-Spec Points of all tires if a race is won with them equipped.

Sport

• These are the default tires equipped on almost every road car in the game. Ranging from Hard to Soft compounds, these are the tires the player will arguably use most throughout GT Mode. They provide decent levels of grip and durability, but are normally not suited for use on race cars.

Racing

• The highest-grade tires available, and these sets come at a steep cost. Available in Super Hard, Hard, Medium, Soft, and Qualifying compounds, these tires are best suited for the most extreme supercars and hardcore race cars. Like in previous games, Super Hard tires provide the highest durability, but lowest grip, and the Qualifying (also known as Super Soft in Arcade Mode) set have extreme levels of grip but very poor durability. Some primarily road-car events do not allow use of racing tires, while the Formula Gran Turismo is locked to Racing Medium tires outside the Arcade Mode.

From Gran Turismo 5 Prologue onwards

From the PS3-era of the series, tire mechanics have again been overhauled, though this time, the tire wear system was redesigned from the ground-up. Tires are still separated into different grades, each with their own advantages and disadvantages, and it is now more important than ever to consider which tire grade is best suited to the car being driven, the track being driven on, the length of time the tire is expected to be driven on, and a newly-introduced factor, weather (on certain tracks). All grades are available in Hard, Medium, and Soft compounds only (with Super Soft returning for Racing tires in GT Sport), with the exception of Dirt and Snow. They appear in Comfort, Sport, and Racing types. This is also the first game to implement restrictions on the type of compound used in some races. These restrictions however, are mostly limited to B-Spec Mode in GT5, but was later expanded to almost every event in GT6 and GT Sport, in both online events and GT League/World Circuits (not in all events in case of the latter). Inversely, in GT7, some higher-level events aimed at race cars are restricted to racing tires.

The changes dates back from Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, where compounds are known by a number designating their softness (Comfort Hard is known as N1 with N standing for Normal, for instance). This designation was also used in GT PSP.

Tire compounds also affects Performance Points in GT5P and GT7, as well in GT5 until it was removed from PP calculation in version 1.06.

Comfort/Normal

• Comfort Soft tires are now the default tire equipped on most lower-tier sports and city cars, although they are available in harder-compound Medium and Hard sets. They provide adequate levels of grip and response, but their limits are easily exceeded and are generally suited to lower-level cars.

Sport

• Sport Hard tires are the default tire equipped on most high-performance cars, though supercars and some tuned cars come with Medium or Soft grades equipped. They offer greater grip and boast higher durability than Comfort tires, and will generally be the grade most used throughout career mode, particularly in GT5's B-Spec races. Many road car events in GT6 limit tires to Sports Soft tires. Karts can only be used with Sports Soft tires.

Racing

• Racing Hard tires come equipped on all race cars, though there are a few exceptions. They provide the highest levels of grip, and even higher durability than Sport compounds, at the cost of a much higher purchase price. These tires are best suited for longer event races and championships, particularly the Endurance races. In GT5, once Racing compound tires are purchased, two wet-weather variants are automatically added to the player's option list for that car: Racing Intermediate and Racing Wet, and they are used for longer Endurance races where wet weather is a factor and normal Racing tires are not well-suited for the situation. Intermediate perform best in a wet or damp track situation, and Wet compounds are primarily suited for heavy rain and extremely slick areas of the track. However, these tires must be purchased separately in GT6 (and GT7). In Gran Turismo Sport, Racing Super Soft tires makes a return, and provides the highest grip at cost of very durability; this compound was removed again in Gran Turismo 7.

Dirt and Snow Tires

With the introduction of dirt tracks in Gran Turismo 2 and snow tracks in Gran Turismo 4, appropriate tires were introduced in respective games to allow cars to handle each respective surface.

Not all cars can be equipped with dirt/snow tires, and acceptance of dirt tires can vary from each game. For example, the Vauxhall/Opel Touring Car and Tickford Falcon XR8 Race Car can be equipped with dirt tires in Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, but not in Gran Turismo 4. Rally cars, including those in the Gr.B class in GT Sport and GT7, are always guaranteed to support dirt and snow tires.

See this category for a full list of cars accepting dirt and snow tires, and Rally Circuits category for tracks that require dirt or snow tires.

Tire Partners

In the first Gran Turismo, Bridgestone was the only tire sponsor to appear in the game, and they received a special thanks credit in the ending credits for this. Starting from later games, other tire companies began to also be licensed as trackside sponsors.

For Gran Turismo 6, Yokohama was the game's designated tire technology partner.

For Gran Turismo Sport (starting in mid-2019) and Gran Turismo 7, Michelin became the series' designated tire technology partner, as well as the sponsor of the Gran Turismo World Series (formerly the FIA-Certified Gran Turismo Championships). This announcement was made at the 2019 Gran Turismo World Tour - New York‏‎; from that point onward, FIAGTC/GTWS races in Sport Mode began to be affixed with Michelin tire stickers (other than several early test seasons in GT7). To solidify further the partnership, GT7's 1.49 update replaced generic tire stickers (which has current installed tire type in place of a brand) with Michelin Pilot Sport-branded ones on most cars:

• Comfort: Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S
• Sports: Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R
• Racing: Michelin Pilot Sport Pro (Pilot Sport GT on Intermediate and Heavy Wet tires)
• Dirt: Michelin Pilot Sport Gravel
• Snow: Michelin Pilot Sport Alpin 5

Terminology Comparison

This table covers only road (and dry, in case of racing) tires.

Type	GT1	GT2	GT3	GT4	GT5P/GTPSP	GT5-Present
Normal	Normal	Simulation/Control	Simulation	Economy (N1/E)	Normal N1	Comfort Hard (CH)
		Normal	Normal	Comfort (N2/COM)	Normal N2	Comfort Medium (CM)
				Road (N3/RD)	Normal N3	Comfort Soft (CS)
Sports	Semi-Racing Hard	Sports	Sports	Sports Hard (S1/SH)	Sports S1	Sports Hard (SH)
				Sports Medium (S2/SM)	Sports S2	Sports Medium (SM)
	Semi-Racing Soft			Sports Soft (S3/SS)	Sports S3	Sports Soft (SS)
Racing	Racing Hard	Racing Hard	Racing Super-Slick (T2)	Racing Super Hard (R1/RSH)	Racing R1	Racing Hard (RH)
			Racing Slick (T3)	Racing Hard (R2/RH)
		Racing Medium	Racing Medium-Slick (T4)	Racing Medium (R3/RM)	Racing R2	Racing Medium (RM)
			Racing Medium (T5)
			Racing Medium-Soft (T6)
	Racing Soft	Racing Soft	Racing Soft (T7)	Racing Soft (R4/RS)	Racing R3	Racing Soft (RS)
		Racing Super-Soft	Racing Super Soft (T8)	Racing Super Soft/Qualifying (R5/RSS)		Racing Super Soft (RSS)

Trivia

• Due to the lowest grip the tire offers, Simulation tires were a popular choice for drifting in every game the tire made appearances. The role has since been switched to Economy/Comfort Hard tires.
• In Gran Turismo 2, there are actually three types of dirt tires coded; one for front engine-front wheel drive and four-wheel drive cars, another for rear-wheel drive cars, and a special set of tires for the Pikes Peak cars. Each regional version of the game also features different dirt physics.
• The cut Montecarlo track in GT2 demos contains advertisement banners for Trampio, Toyo's performance tire brand. It was cut from the final game, presumably as Toyo began phasing out the brand.
• Curiously, there are no tires designated as "T1" in GT3's tire notation.
• In Gran Turismo 5 onwards, there is an unused tire compound called Sports Super Soft, which would have provided the grip that rivaled those of Racing Hard compound; this might be the reason it was removed from the final game. The compound makes another return on early GT Sport builds on show events, but was also removed from the final build.
• All racing tires in Gran Turismo 5 also have unused "Type C" and "Type V" variants, which focus on horizontal and inline grip respectively.
• Snow tires exist in Gran Turismo Sport and even appears in the tire list when changing tires in car settings, but are not used in that game (except for Scapes) due to lack of snow tracks. For this reason, snow tires are hidden from public view (but remain present in the game's code) in GT7 until version 1.40, when the Lake Louise track was added.
• In Gran Turismo 7, Pirelli built-in (Brand Logo folder) logos and tire decals were removed from the Livery Editor for unknown reasons; Pirelli is still credited in the game's licensing credits, and still appears as a trackside sponsor at real-life tracks such as Autódromo de Interlagos (but not on fictional tracks), as well on some cars, both road (such as BAC Mono '16 and Lamborghini Veneno '14) and racing (such as Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 '13 and Subaru WRX Gr.B Rally Car).
  • Pirelli tire decals are still available for liveries imported from GT Sport, as well from variation liveries of Mercedes-AMG GT3 '16, Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R '15, and Renault Sport R.S.01 GT3 '16. However, accessing the Tire Stickers option in Racing Options from those will cause the Pirelli tire decals to be permanently lost, except for cars that have Pirelli tire decals by default.
  • Additionally, Pirelli logos equivalent to that present in GT Sport's Brand Logo section is present in several opponent cars in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters Special Event.