Race Driver GRID
(Grid1)

Contents

• Quirks and Features
• The Cars
  • Car List
  • Cars By Class
• The Events
  • Track List
  • Driver Offers
  • Race Events
  • Le Mans 24-Hour
  • Head 2 Heads
• Gameplay
  • Getting Started
  • Example Walkthrough
  • Simulation-Only Walkthrough
  • Gameflow Example
  • Dealing With Ravenwest
  • Sponsors
  • Race Day
• Miscellaneous Notes

1. On first-time startup, you're first asked to enter your First Name, Last Name, and Country. You'll then be asked to choose an Audio Name; this is the name you'd like the AI characters to call you.
2. You're then presented with the Main Menu which includes the items below. Grid World is basically the Career mode, while Race Day is basically like the Arcade mode found in other racing games.

   Grid World

   Race Day

   Multiplayer

   Options

   Extras

   When starting a new gamesave, it's usually a good idea to set your preferences before doing anything else. You can do so now by choosing the "Options" item. Here's an example of what I'd normally change:

   My Profile > Edit Profile	AutoSave: Off *
   Driving Options > Controls	Preset 2: checked (set)
   Driving Options > Force Feedback	Force Strength: 10%, Force Weight: 10%, Effects Strength: 10%
   Screen Setup	Speed Unit: Km/H
   Sound Setup	Music Volume: 0%

   Note that, if you turn off AutoSave, you'll need to remember to manually save the game whenever you want to save the current gamestate (e.g., before buying a car that you're not sure about, or before quitting the game to shut down the PS3).
3. Choosing Grid World for the first time takes you straight into a 1-lap introductory race on the San Francisco GP course using a Ravenwest Dodge Viper SRT-10. You can change the camera view by pressing the [Triangle] button. As the guy on the com will tell you, it's not important how you finish the race, as long as you finish. After each race, the program automatically starts a Replay, which you can exit by pressing the [START] button.
4. For finishing the introductory race, you're given 3 Tier1 licenses (one for each of the 3 regions: USA, Europe, and Japan), as shown on the "Race Licence" screen. The screen also shows that there are 2 more licenses in each region: a Tier2 license is obtained when you've earned 80,000 RP (Reputation Points) in a region, while a Tier3 license requires 250,000 RP.
5. Exiting the "Race Licence" screen brings you to your Garage where your business manager will tell you that you'll need to earn some money to restore a car and start your own team. The exact amount will be in 1 of 3 currencies, depending on your Country setting:

   • Pounds : 40,000 (x1.0)

   • Euros : 60,000 (x1.5)

   • Dollars : 80,000 (x2.0)

6. You're then presented with the "Driver Offers" screen which gives you a choice of 3 teams to drive for. Pressing [X] on a Driver Offer gives you more information and you can press the [Left]/[Right] buttons to toggle between Event or Car info. Before each race, you'll be presented with a Race Options screen. If you're not a longtime fan of other titles from Codemasters, I'd recommend setting the Difficulty to "Basic" while you get used to the cars and tracks. You'll earn slightly less RP, but it won't affect the amount of prize money awarded and, if you need to, you'll be able to choose "Restart Race" from the Pause Menu. Note that, at this stage, selecting Grid World from the Main Menu will take you to the "Driver Offers" screen since the normal Grid World menu won't yet be available.
7. Once you've done enough Driver Offers to earn the required amount of money, you'll be given the opportunity to set up your own team. After entering your team's name, you're presented with the Team Branding options which allow you to select a Pattern, Colours, and Car Number. Having your own team means you now have access to the normal Grid World menu which includes Race Events, as well as Driver Offers. Here's a summary of the main differences between the two:

   Driver Offers	Race Events
   • Single races using cars owned by other teams.   • Doesn't pay much in the way of RP.   • Awards an Appearance Fee just for finishing the event.   • Ideal for trying out some cars that you don't yet own.	• Championships using your own team's cars.   • Pays a relatively high amount of RP.   • Money can be earned by satisfying sponsor objectives.   • A teammate can also help bring in some money.

   Other things worth mentioning at this stage:
   • Before doing anything in Race Events, I'd recommend unlocking some free cars to get a bit of a headstart.
   • Whenever you acquire new sponsors, be sure to put your best sponsor in the "Major" slot (i.e., the first/leftmost slot).
   • In Grid World, a Season consists of 5 events. For the Season finale, you'll get an invite for the Le Mans 24-Hour. Since the race has the potential to be a relatively high-paying event, it's probably a good idea to learn it fairly early on, and you can do so in Race Day using either a Panoz or Porsche.
   • At some point, you may get a message saying something like "I think you won those races too easily. Up your difficulty level and up your reputation". However, unless you're utterly bored with winning, I'd recommend ignoring the message and keeping your current settings.

1. Go through all the preliminary stuff as described in Getting Started. For the steps below, remember to update your sponsor lineup whenever you get new ones, and remember that you'll get an invite for the Le Mans 24-Hour after every 4 events, regardless of the final results.
2. With all 3 Tier1 event groups unlocked in Race Events, you have 18 events to choose from, 9 of which you already have cars for (assuming you've unlocked all of the bonus cars). Do any 4 of those and then do the Le Mans 24-Hour Season finale (choose "Team Entry" if you want to use the Aston Martin, or choose "Driver Offers" to use a Panoz or Porsche). With the first Season done, the goal is to reach 80,000 RP in your favorite region to unlock its Tier2 events, and you can do any combination of Tier1 events to achieve that goal.

   BMW 320si	B2. BMW Challenge -- Nurburgring
   Chevrolet Lacetti (56,000)	A4. Quickshift DC Challenge -- Washington  B6. Goodridge Trophy -- Istanbul
   Dodge Viper SRT-10	A3. Cobra Pro Tuned Tour -- Long Beach, San Francisco, Washington, Detroit  A5. Dodge Motor City Cup -- Detroit  C5. Viper Vs Skyline Challenge -- Mount Haruna
   Ford Mustang Boss 302	A1. Lucas Oil Bay Bridge Trophy -- San Francisco  B1. Bilstein Festival Milano -- Milan
   JRC FJ1000 (25,000)	B3. BMC Formula 1000 -- Donington, Nurburgring, Jarama
   Jupiter Eagleray Mk5 (14,000)	A2. Michigan Demolition Derby -- Detroit
   Nissan Skyline GT-R Z-Tune (82,000)	B4. Dunlop Spa Challenge -- Spa  C1. Champion Touge Shield -- Mount Haruna  C4. Jun Street Series -- Yokohama  C5. Viper Vs Skyline Challenge -- Mount Haruna  C6. Nissan Cup -- Okutama
   Toyota Corolla GT-S AE86	C2. AVO TurboWorld Drift GP -- Okutama  C3. HKS Freestyle Drift -- Yokohama
   TVR Tuscan Challenge (40,000)	A6. Direzza Club Trophy -- San Francisco  B5. Firestone TVR Showdown -- Donington

   Aston Martin | Panoz | Porsche

   LM. Le Mans 24-Hour -- Le Mans

3. Unlocking the Tier2 events of any region moves you to a new 2-car Garage and allows you to hire a teammate. If you want to hire a different teammate either now or later, you can do so via Grid World > My Team > Team Mate. The new goal is to reach 250,000 RP in your favorite region to unlock its Tier3 events. To achieve that goal, you can do any combination of the Tier2 events below, or any combination of the Tier1 events from the previous step. Note that the F4 Midnight Touge is held in public traffic and you'll need to keep in mind that they drive on the left in Japan.

   Aston Martin DBR9	E3. Aston Vs Corvette Challenge -- Donington, Nurburgring, Istanbul, Milan
   Chevrolet Lacetti	E4. Euro Touring Car Series -- Nurburgring, Jarama, Istanbul, Spa
   Dallara Formula 3 (350,000)	D2. Simpson F3 Shield -- Long Beach  E2. Mintex European F3 -- Istanbul, Donington, Spa, Jarama, Nurburgring
   Dodge Viper SRT-10	D5. eBay Motors Muscle Cup -- San Francisco, Washington, Long Beach
   Honda NSX-R (110,000)	F3. Toda Racing Challenge -- Okutama
   Nissan Skyline GT-R Z-Tune	F2. Falken Super Street -- Shibuya  F4. NOS Midnight Touge -- Mount Haruna
   Pagani Zonda R	D4. US Supercar Challenge -- San Francisco, Long Beach, Detroit, Washington  E6. Omex Supercar Series -- Istanbul, Nurburgring, Donington, Milan
   Saleen S7R (950,000)	D1. Ferodo S7 Speed Series -- Long Beach, Detroit, Washington  D6. Goodyear Continental GT -- Washington, Detroit, San Francisco  E5. Le Mans Series GT1 -- Istanbul, Spa, Donington, Jarama
   Spyker C8 Spyder (280,000)	E1. Le Mans Series GT2 -- Spa, Istanbul, Nurburgring, Jarama, Donington  F5. Valvoline Trophy -- Okutama, Shibuya
   Toyota Corolla GT-S AE86	D3. Ecko Unltd US Drift Battle -- Long Beach, Washington  F1. Downhill Drift Festival -- Mount Haruna  F6. Remus Drift Battle -- Yokohama, Okutama

   Aston Martin | Saleen | Spyker

   LM. Le Mans 24-Hour -- Le Mans

4. The goal now is to unlock the Tier4 events by reaching 1,000,000 Glabal RP. To achieve that goal, you can do any combination of the Tier3 events below and/or any combination of events from previous steps.

   Aston Martin DBR9	I2. Volk GT Series -- Shibuya, Okutama
   Audi R10 TDI (10,000,000)	H3. Le Mans Series LMP1 -- Donington, Nurburgring, Spa, Jarama, Istanbul
   Ford Doran JE4 (2,750,000)	G3. Tag Prototype Series -- Long Beach, Detroit, Washington
   Koenigsegg CCGT (1,500,000)	G1. Motul CCGT Series -- Long Beach, San Francisco, Detroit, Washington
   Lola B05/40 (3,750,000)	H2. Le Mans Series LMP2 -- Donington, Nurburgring, Spa, Jarama, Istanbul
   Mazda 787B (5,200,000)	H1. Virgin Mobile Endurance Classic  I3. Vertex Prototype Championship -- Okutama
   Toyota Corolla GT-S AE86	G2. Rotora Capitol Drift -- Washington  I1. Driftbox Championship -- Yokohama

   Audi R10 | Lola B05/40 | Aston Martin

   LM. Le Mans 24-Hour -- Le Mans

5. Having Tier4 unlocked means that sponsors and the LM24H are now less useful since you no longer need the money nor the RP. The goal in this final step is to win all of the Tier4 events and then win the Tier4 Head2Head. Note that the Head2Head's Race Options will have the Difficulty set to Extreme and you'll need to remember to reset it afterwards (assumimg you want to finish off ay undone events).

   Chevrolet Lacetti	J2. Bridgestone Challenge -- Detroit, Washington, Nurburgring, Istanbul, Milan, Okutama
   Dallara Formula 3	J1. Philips World Championship -- Detroit, Okutama, Milan, Washington, Istanbul
   Mazda 787B	J5. Castrol Prototype Series -- Long Beach, Washington, Nurburgring, Milan, Spa
   Nissan Skyline GT-R Z-Tune	J6. Kenwood Global Series -- San Francisco, Washington, Jarama, Shibuya, Okutama
   Saleen S7R	J4. Brembo World GT -- Washington, Shibuya, Istanbul, Jarama, Long Beach, Nurburgring
   Toyota Corolla GT-S AE86	J3. Advan Drift International -- Shibuya

1. Go through all of the preliminary stuff, keeping in mind that, for the Driver Offers, it's probably best to just do the second/middle ones (i.e., the ones that correspond to the Europe region).
2. With Race Events now available, there will be 2 events in the Europe region that you already have cars for (as shown in the table below). Do any combination of 4 events, keeping in mind that B1 might be a bit annoying since it's held on the kinds of tracks that this walkthrough wants to avoid. Since this walkthrough isn't about game completion, you could skip B1 and just do any combination of B2 and Driver Offers. Alternatively, if you sold some of the bonus cars, you could also do one or more of the events from Step 3 below. The goal is basically to just do enough events to get your first invite for the Le Mans 24-Hour. When you get the invite, choose "Team Entry" to use the Aston Martin, or choose "Driver Offers" to use a Panoz or Porsche.

   B1. Bilstein Festival Milano -- Milan	Ford Mustang Boss 302
   B2. BMW Challenge -- Nurburgring	BMW 320si
   DO. Driver Offers -- [various]	[various]

   LM. Le Mans 24-Hour -- Le Mans

   Aston Martin | Panoz | Porsche

3. The goal now is to reach 80,000 RP in the Europe region to unlock its Tier2 events. To achieve that goal, you can do any combination of the Tier1 events below and/or redo any events from the previous step. Whenever you get new sponsors, remember to set the lineup so that your best sponsor is in the first slot. Also, remember that you'll get an LM24H invite after every 4 events, regardless of the final results. When choosing a car for the next LM24H, keep in mind that the DBR9 bonus car won't earn you any sponsor money while the C5R will.

   B3. BMC Formula 1000 -- Donington, Nurburgring, Jarama	JRC FJ1000 (25,000)
   B4. Dunlop Spa Challenge -- Spa-Francorchamps	Nissan Skyline GT-R Z-Tune (82,000)
   B5. Firestone TVR Showdown -- Donington	TVR Tuscan Challenge (40,000)
   B6. Goodridge Trophy -- Istanbul	Chevrolet Lacetti (56,000)

   LM. Le Mans 24-Hour -- Le Mans

   Corvette C5-R | Aston Martin DBR9

4. Besides unlocking a new event group, a Tier2 license also moves you to a new 2-car garage and allows you to hire a teammate. Since all 3 of the initial choices are equally bad, just choose the default (Seth Brown). Then, from the Grid World menu, choose My Team > Team Mate and then press [Square]. For the Signing On Fee, press [Right] once, then set % Of Winnings to 21-30%. Press [X] to Search and then hire Malcolm Coleman.
5. The goal now is to unlock the EU Tier3 events by reaching 250,000 RP. To achieve that goal, you can do any combination of the Tier2 events below, or you can redo some of the Tier1 events from previous steps.

   E1. Le Mans Series GT2 -- Spa, Istanbul, Nurburgring, Jarama, Donington	Spyker C8 Spyder (280,000)
   E2. Mintex European F3 -- Istanbul, Donington, Spa, Jarama, Nurburgring, Milan	Dallara Formula 3 (350,000)
   E3. Aston Vs Corvette Challenge -- Donington, Nurburgring, Istanbul, Milan  E5. Le Mans Series GT1 -- Istanbul, Spa, Donington, Jarama	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R
   E4. Euro Touring Car Series -- Nurburgring, Jarama, Istanbul, Spa, Milan	Chevrolet Lacetti
   E6. Omex Supercar Series -- Istanbul, Nurburgring, Donington, Milan	Pagani Zonda R

   LM. Le Mans 24-Hour -- Le Mans

   Chevrolet Corvette C5-R

6. With EU Tier3 unlocked, the goal now is to earn enough to buy an eligible car. If you won all of the Tier2 events, you can start by winning the Head2Head for that Tier. You can also redo one or more of the events from previous steps until you can afford a Courage C65. The car can then be used to earn enough for an Audi R10 or Mazda 787B which, in turn, can be used to earn enough for the other car. Note that, although the Mazda is more easily affordable, the Audi might be a better choice since H1 is more reminiscent of NASCAR racing than Endurance. Also note that if you can't yet afford the Audi by the time the next LM24H comes around, you can use the Courage C65 instead, but keep in mind that an LMP2 class win might not be as easy as other class wins. Also, once you've won the LMP1 class of the LM24H, remember to set your sponsors and put Bang & Olufsen in the Major slot.

   H1. Virgin Mobile Endurance Classic -- Le Mans 1968	Mazda 787B (5,200,000)
   H2. Le Mans Series LMP2 -- Donington, Nurburgring, Spa, Jarama, Istanbul	Courage C65 (3,500,000)
   H3. Le Mans Series LMP1 -- Donington, Nurburgring, Spa, Jarama, Istanbul	Audi R10 TDI (10,000,000)

   LM. Le Mans 24-Hour -- Le Mans

   Audi R10 TDI | Courage C65

7. Since this walkthrough isn't about game completion, this step is entirely optional and, if you want to, you can skip to the next step. The goal in this step is to reach 1,000,000 Global RP to unlock the Tier4 events, and you can redo as many of the previous events as you need to, to achieve that goal. If you want to redo the LM24H (for 100,000 RP per LMP1 win), you can speed up the invites by starting and retiring from events in Driver Offers. Note that, once you've unlocked Tier4, you'll no longer need to put much importance on sponsors and LM24H events since you probably won't need more money or RP. As the table below shows, the Tier4 events can include races held on tracks from all 3 regions. Keep in mind that, even at the Basic difficulty level, these events might not be as easy as they should/could be and, if you're not a fan of illegal street racing games, some of the races will be extremely annoying. However, probably the best reason for doing the Tier4 events is to unlock the bonus material awarded for winning the Tier4 Head2Head.

   J1. Philips World Championship -- Detroit, Okutama, Milan, Washington, Istanbul	Dallara Formula 3
   J2. Bridgestone Challenge -- Detroit, Washington, Nurburgring, Istanbul, Milan, Okutama	Chevrolet Lacetti
   J3. Advan Drift International -- Shibuya	Toyota Corolla GT-S AE86
   J4. Brembo World GT -- Washington, Shibuya, Istanbul, Jarama, Long Beach, Nurburgring	Koenigsegg CCGT (1,500,000)
   J5. Castrol Prototype Series -- Long Beach, Washington, Nurburgring, Milan, Spa	Mazda 787B
   J6. Kenwood Global Series -- San Francisco, Washington, Jarama, Shibuya, Okutama	Nissan Skyline GT-R Z-Tune

8. The purpose of this step is to offer a few suggestions for further gameplay. All of these are, of course, entirely optional since this walkthrough isn't about game completion.
   • Finish off any undone events in the EU region, if there are any that were skipped.
   • Redo your favorite events to earn money for car collecting, if you skipped the previous step.
   • Redo the endurance events (E1, E5, H2, H3, LM24H) using different cars.
   • Earn enough RP to reach the top of the Driver Rankings list.
   Of the above, the endurance events will probably be the most enjoyable since they'll never include Ravenwest cars and they'll never include variations of tracks other than the ones that exist in real life.

• AutoSave. One of the nice things about Race Driver GRID is that it gives you the option of turning off AutoSave. Besides saving some wear 'n' tear on the PS3's harddisk, turning off AutoSave also allows you to revert to the previously-Saved gamestate. For example: If you're not sure whether or not a certain car will be suitable for a certain event, you could Save the game, then buy the car and try it out; if the car turns out to be a bad investment, you can undo the purchase simply by restarting the game without Saving. The trade-off for this ability is that you do need to remember to Save the game manually (MainMenu > Options > My Profile > Save Profile) before you Quit the game (assuming you want to save the current gamestate).
• Bonus Codes. If you want an easier go of starting a new gamesave, you can use the Bonus Codes below to acquire some cars that can be useful for Race Events or sold for some extra starting cash. You could, for example, use the Aston Martin for your first Le Mans 24-Hour. Or, you could start Race Events with about 500,000 Pounds if you sell all of the Muscle and Tuner cars except the Viper, Cuda, and Corolla. Note that the "special livery" cars can't be sold and won't earn you any sponsorship money when used. The entry screen for Bonus Codes can be found at Main Menu > Options > Bonus Codes.

  Code	Car(s) Unlocked
  P47203845	Aston Martin DBR9 (Play.com)
  F93857372	BMW 320si (Buchbinder Emotional Engineering)
  G29782655	BMW 320si (Gamestation)
  M38572343	Pagani Zonda R (Micromania)
  MUS59279	Muscle Cars: Chevrolet Camaro Concept, Dodge Challenger Concept, Dodge Viper SRT-10, Ford Mustang GT-R Concept, Plymouh AAR Cuda
  TUN58396	Tuner Cars: Dodge Charger SRT-8 Drift, Mazda RX-7 FD3S, Nissan Silvia, Pontiac GTO, Subaru Impreza, Toyota Corolla GT-S AE86, Toyota Soarer

  Although the Bonus Codes are mainly useful for starting new gamesaves, they can also be used on gamesaves that already have some cars. In that case, before entering any Bonus Codes, it's probably a good idea to check if you already own any of the cars that the codes will unlock and, if so, sell them beforehand.
• Gameplay Strategies. At various stages, it may be advantageous to put a higher priority on either earning money or earning RP, depending on whether you want to buy a car or level up.
  • Money To Buy Cars:
  • Use the Basic (easiest) difficulty level to get through events with minimal fuss.
  • Strive to acquire the best sponsors fairly early on.
  • Choose the highest-paying events and do them multiple times.
  • Redo events that your teammate specialises in (e.g., Malcolm Coleman in Touring Car events).
  • Avoid buying cars that cost more than they can easily earn back.
  • RP To Level Up:
  • Avoid doing the same event multiple times since the RP reward is halved for each subsequent win.
  • Put a high priority on unlocking the next Tier since higher Tiers award more RP.
  • If you know the tracks well, try a higher difficulty level to earn more RP for the same event.
• Game Versions. As of this writing (2016.08.07), the latest version of Race Driver GRID is v1.03. The most noticeable differences are the startup message that says "Checking for additional content" and the "Additional Content" item in Main Menu > Extras. Under the hood, v1.03 uses about 19 MB of harddisk space for updated program data, while v1.00 doesn't require harddisk space for anything except user data (i.e., gamesaves). As far as I can tell, offline gameplay is exactly the same, whether you're running v1.00 or v1.03. If you have access to the PlayStation Network (PSN), you'll probably need v1.03 if you bought any DLCs. But, if you don't have access to PSN, you're not really missing out on anything.