Gran Turismo 2

Contents

• Quirks and Features
• The Cars
  • Car List
  • Starter Cars
  • Rare Used Cars
• The Events
  • Track List
  • License
  • Go Race
    • Gran Turismo League
    • Special Events
    • Dirt Events
    • Endurance
  • One-Make Races
• Gameplay
  • Getting Started
  • Quick Restart
  • Progressive Racing
  • Recommended Cars
  • Upgrading
  • Basic Tuning
  • Money Makers
• Arcade Mode
  • Arcade Mode Tracks
  • Arcade Mode Cars
• Miscellaneous Notes

1. Starting out in Gran Turismo Mode, you're initially given Cr.10,000. Although there are several cars to choose from for under that price, I'd recommend choosing one from the Starter Cars list. All of those cars can be found in East City > manufacturer > Used, and any of them will do. However, if you want to try a few different cars before settling on one, the steps below will allow you to do so. Note that you'll need to do this before buying your first car (i.e., while there's still Cr.10,000 in the kitty).
   1. Exit back to the Startup menu and choose "Save Game".
   2. Choose "Start Game" to return to Gran Turismo Mode.
   3. Buy a car and try it out.
   4. To try a different car: exit back to the Startup menu and choose "Load Game".
   5. Repeat Steps 2-4 until you find a car that suits you.
   In the early stages of gameplay, you can also Save the game before buying any upgrades or other cars that you're not sure about; that way, if it turns out to be a bad investment, you can just reload the game to undo the purchase.
2. At the top left of most screens, there are 4 buttons; from left to right, these are: (1) GT Mode main screen, (2) Home, (3) Go Race, and (4) Game Status. Go to Go Race > Special Event > Line Up 2 > Lightweight 'K' Cup and do the Rome Short (S7.1) race to earn your first credits. A win here will earn you Cr.5,000 plus a prize car worth Cr.2,000. Since this is probably the easiest race that doesn't require a license, you can use it as your current 'money maker' whenever you need more credits to buy upgrades and/or other cars. Do this race a few more times now to get the hang of it. If you bought a car that has less than 145hp, you can upgrade it with a Computer and/or Racing Muffler for an easier go of it, but be careful not to exceed the 147hp that's allowed for this race.
3. There are 5 other races that you're currently eligible for, and you can use those to learn a few more of the tracks. During the Replay, you can press the game controller's [Circle] button to get the cockpit view, and then press [Up]/[Down] to select an AI driver. Take the time to study the racing lines and don't worry too much about winning; the main goal here is to learn the tracks.
4. Now that you're familiar with a few of the tracks, it's time to get your B and A licenses. If you have any trouble passing any of the license tests, you can watch the Demonstration to see how the AI driver does it. Press the [Circle] button for the cockpit view. If the HUD doesn't show the brake/accelerator bars, press the [X] button to toggle the onscreen info. Once you've acquired your B and A licenses, you're eligible for a few more races. Since most of the prize cars that can be won at this stage won't be any better than your starter car, your main goal (again) should be to learn the tracks and don't worry too much about winning.
5. Now that you know a few more tracks, it's time to get your IC license. Remember that you can watch the Demo if you have any trouble passing a test. Once you've acquired your IC license, it's finally time to take racing a little more seriously. The focus will now shift from learning the tracks to winning races. As mentioned earlier, there aren't many good prize cars that can be won with only a B and A license. The few early prize cars that are, in my opinion, worth winning are the Sileighty (S4.1), MX-5 A Spec (S11.1), and Impreza Wagon STi Ver. V (S13.1). However, instead of upgrading your starter car to win one of those, I'd recommend using it to earn enough credits to buy and upgrade a second car. Two cars that I'd recommend are the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V GSR '98 or Subaru Impreza Type R STi Ver.V '98, either of which can be bought used. Any similar Evo or Impreza should do similarly well; but, if you can find a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V RS '98, I'd recommend buying that instead of the GSR. The goal now is to upgrade your second car to a maximum of 394hp and then tune it to make it competitive enough to win the Red Rock Valley race in the Grand Touring Car (S15) event. If you have a good knowledge of the track and some basic tuning, you can start with a few non-power upgrades (I'd recommend a Gearbox Fully Customized Service, SuperSoft Racing Slick Tires, and Weight Reduction) and then, once you've won a Daishin Silvia, you can sell it and buy the other upgrades. Once your second car is sufficiently upgraded and you feel comfortable enough to easily win this race, you can use it as your new 'money maker' to make further gameplay much easier. At some point, you can keep one Daishin Silvia; it's currently only useful for 4 races, but it'll become more useful later.
6. Now that you have the means to earn a fair amount of credits in a fairly short time, you can more easily afford to buy enough upgrades and cars to go back and win some of the earlier races that your starter car wasn't competitive enough for. If you haven't already completed the Nationals, I'd recommend doing so now; there are no prize cars awarded and they don't pay much, but you'll need to complete them to get to the good stuff. The quickest way to do those is to use the same car (the ZZ III and ZZ-S worked best for me) so you won't have to keep switching. If you equip, but don't fit/install, all of the upgrades beforehand, you can also save yourself some trips to the Tune Shop. With a well-tuned ZZ III or ZZ-S, you can do the ~197-246hp races first, and then fit the maximum power upgrades for the rest. However, if you're in no hurry to get to the next step, you could use two or more cars for an easier go of it.
7. When you start running out of events that you're currently eligible for, it's time to get your IB license. Again, remember to watch the Demo if you have any trouble passing a test. Once you've acquired your IB license, you're eligible for a whole new set of races/events, some of which will award other race cars. For starters, you can use your second car (Evo or Impreza) to win a Skyline Silhouette (S14.5), and you can use your Daishin Silvia to win a Castrol Mugen NSX (S15.2). The Daishin Silvia isn't really competitive enough for the GT 300 Championship (S21), but it is capable of winning all of the other ~591hp-class races, including the Other Regionals where you can win 6 more race cars. One other race car worth having is the Denso Supra GT (E5) which can be won using any starter car, second car, or other car upgraded to a maximum of 295hp. The race will take about an hour but should be fairly easy to win. There is also a Viper GTS-R to be won in E4, but you may want to save that one for later since the prize is random and you may get a Lancia Stratos instead.
8. Now that you have some nice race cars, it's time to get your IA license so you can put them to some good use. Once you've acquired your IA license, you're eligible for a whole new set of races/events, including the S19.3 'money maker' that will allow you to earn lots of credits much quicker than any other 'money maker'. And, once you've won it enough times, you can buy a Suzuki Escudo to win it even quicker. The Escudo can also come in handy for other unlimited-class races/events, including Dirt Events.
9. If you're going for 100% game completion, you'll need to complete all of the One-Make Races. This can take a considerable amount of time and credits. One possible strategy is to use the S19.3 'money maker' to earn enough credits to fully upgrade each car that you use. Another strategy is to spend as few credits as possible to make a car just barely competitive enough to win; in which case, a good knowledge of the tracks and some basic tuning will be useful. On the other hand, if game completion isn't important, you could just do the one-makes that you already have a car for, and skip the rest.
10. If you're going for 100% game completion, you'll also need to get your S License. Although it's not required for any normal event, it does unlock the Event Synthesizer page which includes 4 new events. As the name suggests, the events are all randomly-generated. The onscreen text says "Automatically creates events to suit the performance of your car" but, in actuality, it appears to only apply to road cars; if you enter a race car, you'll still get road cars as competition. Keep in mind that there is no trophy shown when an event has been won, so your best bet is to do them systematically; since the races are only 2 laps each, it should be fairly easy to do them all (a total of 8 races) in one go.

1. Get your B, A, IC, IB, and IA licenses. If you have an old Gran Turismo 1 gamesave, use the Data Transfer > Convert feature to bypass the B and A license tests.
2. Buy a Starter Car and use it to do the S7.1 'money maker' 4 or 5 times.
3. Sell all of the prize cars and buy a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V RS '98 (Cr.29,385 on Day1-9 or Cr.27,345 on Day10-19).
4. Use the stock Evo V RS to win the Trial Mountain Endurance. If you have some spare credits and you want an easier go of it, you can buy a few non-power kits like a Triple-Plate Clutch (Cr.5000), Racing Flywheel (Cr.1200), and/or Carbon Propeller Shaft (Cr.3500).
5. Use the newly-acquired Denso Supra to do the S19.3 'money maker' 4 times. Be sure to fit SuperSoft tires and tune the gears.
6. Sell the 4 Speed12 prize cars and buy a Suzuki Escudo (Cr.2,000,000).
7. The Denso Supra and Suzuki Escudo can then be used for any events that they're eligible for, and you can use them to earn enough credits to buy any cars and upgrades needed to complete any other events.

• Gearbox Auto Setup. To optimize gear ratios for a particular car/track, you'll need a "Gearbox Fully Customized Service" upgrade. On the Gear page in Settings, you can then change the Auto Setup to give you something that's near-optimal. For a car that takes a long time to upshift and never reaches its top gear on a long straight, moving the slider to the left (Close) will improve acceleration. For a car that upshifts too quickly and tops out too early on a long straight, moving the slider to the right (Wide) will give you a faster topspeed.
• Gearbox Final. In cases where the Auto Setup is already at its minimum (Close), the only other alternative (that I know of) to improve acceleration is by adjusting the Final setting. I usually increase this value by multiples of 100 (e.g., +100, +200).
• Gearbox Fine-Tuning. In some cases, you may want to fine-tune the individual gears. Moving a slider to the left will cause the gear to shift later while moving a slider to the right will cause a gear to shift earlier.
• LSD. For 4WD cars, an LSD Fully Customized Service upgrade will allow you to change the setup so that the car feels more like an FR car. To do this, reduce the Front levels while keeping the Rear levels unchanged. I usually either set the Front levels to about half of their defaults, or I set them to minimum (1) if the car feels too much like a 4WD.
• Power Kits. Although the price of NA Stage 3 or Turbo Stage 4 is much higher than 'lesser' power upgrades, it won't always make a car more competitive. If you have the maximum power kit installed and the car is hard to handle, try fitting a 'lesser' kit.
• Racing Car Modifications. A number in the RmKg column of the Car List means that the car can be race-modified. To be able to buy this upgrade, you'll first need to buy all 3 stages of Weight Reduction. As far as I can tell, the Racing Car Modifications upgrade gives you further weight reduction, an aerodynamics package, and a new color scheme.
• Suspension. To change the suspension setup, you'll need the Suspension Fully Customized Service upgrade found in Suspension > Professional. For cars that are hard to handle, you can increase the Stabilizer levels to reduce oversteer, or decrease the levels to reduce understeer. If your car only oversteers while accelerating out of sharp corners, try increasing the Rear Stabilizer while keeping the Front unchanged.
• Tires. To reduce oversteer, try fitting harder front tires and/or softer rear tires. To reduce understeer, try the opposite (softer front, harder rear).

• Advancing the Day counter. The Used Car Line Up wraps around on Day 600 (i.e., the line-up on Day 600 is the same as on Day 1, the line-up on Day 610 is the same as on Day 10, and so on). The quickest way (that I know of) to advance the Day counter is as follows:
  1. From the main page, select LICENCE,
  2. Press [X] to enter the B license tests,
  3. Press [X] again to select a license test,
  4. Press [Up] 3 times to select the Exit menu item,
  5. Press [X] to exit,
  6. Repeat Steps 3-5 until you reach the Day that you want.
• Game completion percentage. Completing all of the One-Make Races counts for about 41.09% game completion. Completing all 4 Event Synthesizer events (3 single races and 1 championship) counts for about 1.82%.
• Garage list. In the Garage list, you can scroll a page up/down by pressing D-pad [Left]/[Right]. To move a car to the top of the Garage list: highlight the car and then press the [Start] button.