Yokohama Drift GP — Fails, Redemption, and the RX-7
Sometimes a video starts with a heroic race.
Sometimes it starts with debugging.
This episode of the Race Driver: GRID playthrough began with a small but annoying problem: the game refused to behave. Every time it tried to write to the save file, it crashed. Not exactly the kind of feature you want from a racing game.
The solution came in the form of a multithread fix mod, which finally stabilized things enough to continue the playthrough. Naturally, the only reasonable way to test whether the fix actually worked was to throw the game into something chaotic.
Like a drift championship.
Enter the Mazda RX-7
For the Yokohama Drift GP, the weapon of choice was the Mazda RX-7.
A legendary drift car in theory…
and a terrifying one in practice.
Anyone who watched earlier episodes probably remembers how badly things went the last time this car appeared during the Shibuya drift events. The RX-7 in GRID has a personality. It snaps into oversteer quickly and demands very precise throttle control.
In other words: perfect material for another round of suffering.
So naturally it was time to try again.
The Fail Montage
The opening runs of the championship did not go particularly well.
There were spins.
There were missed lines.
There were moments where the RX-7 decided it had absolutely no interest in cooperating.
Instead of pretending everything was going according to plan, the episode leans into the chaos. A short montage of failed runs plays out under the cheerful soundtrack of the Happy Tree Friends theme — a musical choice that fits surprisingly well with repeated drifting disasters.
Because sometimes the only reasonable reaction to a string of mistakes…
is to laugh at them.
Switching Gears
Eventually the mood changes.
The soundtrack shifts from cartoon chaos to something darker and more atmospheric — synthwave that fits the moment when things finally start to click.
The RX-7 begins to behave.
Lines get cleaner.
Combos get longer.
Drift scoring in GRID rewards rhythm and commitment, and once the flow is there the points start stacking up quickly. What started as a test run slowly turns into a real championship push.
Suddenly the finals are within reach.
Climbing the Chart
The rest of the event unfolds as a series of increasingly confident runs.
The RX-7 still demands respect — one bad correction can end a combo instantly — but the rhythm holds long enough to climb the standings and reach the final battle.
It’s the kind of moment every drift event builds toward:
one last run, one last score, and just enough pressure to ruin everything.
Or win.
Somehow… Victory
Against expectations, the final run holds together.
The score lands high enough to take the Yokohama Drift GP win.
Not exactly flawless driving — the RX-7 still feels like a car that needs a lot more practice — but good enough to get the job done.
And most importantly: the game no longer crashes.
Which means the GRID playthrough can finally continue without fighting the save system every five minutes.
Full Episode
You can watch the full episode here:
Race Driver GRID (2008) — Part 9 Yokohama Drift GP | Mazda RX-7