Dirt Rally

There are three ways you can do this, and they are as follows: Rally, Hillclimb, or Rallycross under 'Championships.' No matter which you choose you'll have to do four championships to even unlock the Masters division (as long as you finish in the top 3 for each season of Open, Clubman, Professional, and Elite). Each division gets increasingly hard and adds more events.

Don't even think about going for Rally Masters. Not only is it a time-consuming grind to even get to Masters, you'll be breaking controllers even attempting to do so. Let's avoid that.

Instead, I had a much easier time going for Hillclimb Masters. You'll only be racing one track throughout the journey (Pikes Peak with different surfaces) and you'll get to know the course very well on the way through each division. Grab yourself a hillclimb car (I used the Peugeot 405). On the way to reaching Masters you'll surely attain all the upgrades (having the appropriate Engineer perks helps too).

The Open division only has three stages. The Masters division only has six (though they are each the full course and all variations of Pikes Peak). You should know the track well by then. If you don't, keep practicing. Also, you can skip your second run if you feel your first run was quick enough (by starting the second run and then pausing and hitting 'Abandon Run') to make the grind a little quicker.

Car setup advice: I stiffened the rear suspension a few clicks and softened the front suspension a few clicks to make the car more oversteery, as well as max out 6th gear for a little higher top speed. You may not need to do any of that. Even at Masters level I was still winning stages by 5-10 seconds or more on good runs.

Rallycross is also an option (and it takes way less time than Rally). Stick with a single class (whichever you find most comfortable to drive) and earn all the upgrades for your car. If you are unable to beat the opponents in Hillclimb at the higher difficulty levels, this is a good alternative.

I'd like to give one more vote for Rallycross, which I found extremely easy. It's by no means circuit track racing. Of course, route is closed and you have to complete certain amount of laps (4 in qualifying, 6 in semi and final) but you should not drive the track as, for example, in Forza. You should gently slide through corner and hit its apex but don't follow perfect racing line. It's not about late breaking and maintaining grip through corner.

What should you do in order to succeed in Rallycross? First of all, you need decent car. From all those possibilities I found Supercars the easiest class. There I picked Peugeot 208 WRX, which is maybe not the fastest car available (Polo and Fiesta look decent) but is very easy to control. Of course, you want to upgrade it but it's not that important in early difficulties. In fact, I upgraded it after I finished Professional level and had absolutely no problems with winning each race.

Second part, the setup. Credits go to guys from Pretend Race Cars. Unfortunately, their images weren't good quality so I had to improvise a bit.


Third part, times. How fast should you be to win each event? Masters contains five events:
- Lydden Hill Clubman (~30:25s per lap, aim at 3:09 in final)
- Höljes Clubman (~35:50s per lap, aim at 3:40 in final)
- Lydden Hill Full (~39s per lap, aim at 4:05 in final)
- Höljes Full (~39s per lap, aim at 3:58-3:59 in final)
- Hell Full (~36:50s per lap, aim at 3:47 in final)

Those are of course not the best times but the ones which should give you victory. Remember, you don't have to win every single race. Your opponents may crash with each other (Hell's joker entrance) or even not qualify to final which should make your job easier. If you are able to get consistently into second place, you should be able to win it without any problems.

Fourth part, tracks. I will focus only on those at Masters. Junior events are really easy. You can make horrible mistake and AI will be so slow that you will be able to get your win. Same with rain tracks which slow down AI drastically. Rain is your main ally, don't be afraid, be careful.

Lydden Hill:
You will face same track with different shortcuts. The longer the track, the less significant the joker. Lydden has the worst joker, it's tricky, narrow and AI likes to push you into wall. Don't ignore it, reduce to 3rd gear while entering it and close to chicane reduce it into 2nd gear. After it, full throtle. In Clubman you will face tight hairpin, don't be afraid to use your handbrake. Slide into dirt path and keep to your right so you won't shoot up because of little kerb at the end of track (in chicane). You can go a bit offroad (with your left part at kerb), it doesn't really matter. In full version, hairpin at the end of straight will be a lot easier to handle, this is by the way great place for overtaking. Reduce to 2nd gear and deal with it as in regular circuit racing. Break late, hit the apex and go out of it in straight line. Reduce to 5th gear near dirt path. The rest is the same. Your most important part to practice would be probably entering dirt path at the end of the lap.

Höljes:
Junior is completely different than the rest of those tracks. Joker is fast, you can even jump start to gain advantage. Watch out for second turn (near joker), it's deadly. If you hit kerb with your left side, you will lose grip and hit wall (or even go with two wheels while your other two are in the air). In Clubman, you can go wide after parked cars and treat those two turns as a long hairpin. Don't go too wide though, or stuarts might investigate you for cutting corners (sic!). After it, two tight corners make perfect opportunity for overtake. Don't cut the second one, or you will be penalized. The most important part to practice it jump at the end of the lap. You have to jump and not lose grip after landing or you will have serious problems with getting through chicane. Turn a bit right before jumping and your weight should make you jump left, ending with almost straight line jump. Don't turn left or you will jump into grass.

Hell:
Clubman and Full are almost the same. The real difference is grip at added part in Full, you have to take it slower than in Clubman. Joker is really easy but a bit lengthier than in Höljes. Hit apex and you will have perfect line to turn in hairpin (use handbrake). If done correctly, you should be almost at third guy's back. Watch out, they have strange movements at the end of asphalt straight, before left 5. Brake a bit and overtake them. If you are going side to side, they will let you pass here. Make sweet slide at last corner and climb up. The most important part is first turn. AI is extremely dangerous in this one. They don't enter joker from left side, they go closely to apex in right turn. This means that, with unlucky coincidence, you will be turning and the will go right into your right side, almost ending your run (or at least, heavily damaging your car). This means that you should be super wary of your surroundings. If you see that guy in front of you hasn't jokered yet, don't even think about overtaking him or he will punish you badly for it. Let him go to his joker. If you know that AI, which hasn't jokered yet is behind you (by ~1s), stick to your left and let him pass. You should hear if his engine works loudly, if so, he will be jokering. This is the only problem in this track. If you are lucky, two of your main opponents will crash to each other at joker entry.

Point five, preparations. Turn off all assists (the will slow you down) and if you are really uncomfortable with driving on your own, turn off TCS (locking your wheels after start which will negate your starting bonus), automatic launch control (you want to start not at GO, but slightly before it), turn your clutch override on (helps with regaining speed after tight turns or hairpins, you have to press your clutch button and it will work like a charm) and switch transmission into manual sequential (so you can start on higher gear). If you want to map your buttons so you will have easy access, make them Forza style. Handbrake LB, Gear up B, Gear down X, Clutch A. Practice a bit to get comfortable with your new settings. Your thumb should be at A+X and if you switch gears, press both of them at the same time (I don't think it matters that much with clutch but you will have good habit for other racing games). If you have to shift up, your thumb should be between A and B. If you have to use handbrake, your both index fingers should be at bumpers and your middle fingers at triggers. If you don't have to use it, feel free to put your index fingers at triggers. Left thumb should control left stick. It seems a bit useless to explain, but you can never be too informed.

Point six, your most important turn. Obviously it's the first one. Remember the times when AI jetted at start. Now, you are this AI. Hold your handbrake and slightly before GO, release it. You'll have to practice a bit but after it, you will be extremely fast at start. At the same time hold right trigger and gear up. With P208 you can start from second gear or third gear. Don't start from 1st, it's pointless. Second gear has higher acceleration but you will quicker hit high engine revs. Third gear accelerate slightly slower but you won't lose time at gear shifting. They are very similar in time and in fact AI start is more important than choosing your starting gear. The choice is yours, I personally started from 2nd gear. In Lydden you will encounter a bit of rumble in first corner, as everyone wants to slide through it. In Holjes you will go through first corner at high speed and have nice advantage at the very beginning. If done correctly and AI sleep a bit at start, you may even joker and not lose any place at all. I haven't tested Hell, as I have always jokered at the first lap but I assume it is between Lydden (everyone in the same place) and Höljes (you have a bit of advantage).

Point seven, strategy. In other words, when to joker?

This question requires your track orientation. You have to feel if you have advantage in first corner, how many cars are jokerring, how fast did you enter first corner. AI tends to slow down if they are not leading the race. If they are, the may be extremely quick and you will have problems with catching them. Of course, an leading AI will joker on the last lap. You may joker on the first and then try to catch up with him, joker on the second lap when everyone else will probably joker too (because they are not leading) or leave it to your last lap which is definitely the safest option. If you somehow lost your sprint to first corner, joker on the first lap or try to overtake and joker on the second. You have to have a bit of advantage, in Lydden it may take even 6s, in Höljes no more than 1s, in Hell 1:50s.

Point eight, rumble. AI ignores you at track. This is especially visible at Lydden, beginning and end. They will crash into you, ram you, push you off the track, spin you out. How to avoid it? Be faster. If you can build nice advantage, you will be safe from their reckless driving.

In conclusion, this achievement is definitely obtainable in this mode but requires a bit of practice. However, it requires less turn memory than Hillclimb (not to mention ridiculous grip at tarmac) and less time and skill than rally. Good luck!

There are 3 ways to complete this Achievement:

> Win a Rally Championship at Masters Difficulty
> Win a Rallycross Championship at Masters Difficulty
> Win a Hillclimb Championship at Masters Difficulty

You get promoted to Masters Difficulty by finishing a Championship in the Top 3. There are 5 Divisions in total with Masters being the final one.


When it comes to this Achievement, I would advise against attempting to complete it in the Rally category for the following reasons:

> The Masters Championship (Rally) consists of 6 events with 12 stages each.
> To beat the faster AI opponents you will need to set stage times that put you in or near the Top 50 on global leaderboards.


HomelyBumRocket's solution is pretty good if you choose to complete this by entering the Hillclimb category.


I chose to go with the Rallycross category for the following reasons:

> The AI drivers aren't as quick as they can be in Rally or Hillclimb events.
> As you can see your opponents on the track with you, you don't have to rely on stage times in order to beat them. Instead, you overtake them on-track.

I used the following setup for all events, it will work on any of the cars in the Supercar category.


The event format for Rallycross is the same regardless of difficulty or event location:

> There are 4 Heats, with 4 laps each. You gain points depending on where you finish.
> Once the 4 Heats are completed, the 12 drivers with the highest point totals qualify for the Semi-Finals.
> The Semi-Finals are 6 lap races with 6 cars. Finish in the Top 3 to qualify for the Final.
> The final is a 6 lap race, win it to win the event.

There are 5 events in the Masters Championship, if you win 4 you're guaranteed to win the Championship.

My first ever attempt at an achievement guide but here we go.

Personally I find rallycross (even though I haven't won the achievement yet the easiest to go for this achievement) as I've pretty much won the elite championship with a clean sweep (won every event) and i'm guessing the Masters level would be similar with my method.

I find the Ford Fiesta rallycross car to also be the quickest in the rallycross supercars section and I find the AI are also pretty quick in this car as well (note mine isn't even fully upgraded yet)

Another thing to note (like HomelyBumRocket said) attempting to win the Masters on the rally discipline is pretty much impossible as I have got to the Masters before and and just found it pretty much impossible and I would like to think of myself as a good driver.

Again this is my first ever achievement guide so any feedback would be appreciated and and any improvements I could make to this guide.