There seem to be periodic questions about whether you can complete the game without buying gold coins (GC), and without using bugs/exploits. The correct answer (I believe) is “No, unless you are good enough to frequently win 100 GC in the weekly Time Trial”. For most us, that translates to: “No, there is no way to reach 100% without paying.” However, I haven’t seen much information about how far people have managed to get without paying, so I thought I’d start a thread where people could record their progress. Here’s where I am at the moment (late May 2014):

GC on hand: 1098

Driver Level: 142

Events completed: 1635/1856 (88%)

Cars: 81 of 88

Some more detail, if anyone's interested:

Fully upgraded cars: 13

R$ cars remaining: Murcielago, Enzo. Will be buying these when I have enough R$.

GC only cars remaining: GTO, Zonda R, Agera R, RSR 2014, Veneno. The Agera R is the only car I know I will absolutely be buying. I may skip all the rest and spend the GC on upgrades. But if one goes on sale...

Series (not going to list all of the 100% ones)

Permanently Incomplete Series (Completion bonus << GC required to reach PR level)

• AWD Attack (76% — don’t see the value spending GC to upgrade single-use Hyundai) 
• Euro Supercar Duel (92% — unappealing cars useless for farming)
• Grand Tourer Supremacy (80% — see above)
• Vanguard Challenge (76% —would need 70GC to upgrade Zonda, not a great farming car.)
• Legend Continues (75% — insane amount of GC to reach PR)
• Lexus LFA Showcase (86% — see above)
• Battle Italia (92% — over 300 GC to reach PR; no way that’s happening)

Active Series

• V10 Grand Open (85% — would take 36GC to upgrade LMS Ultra, completion bonus is 22GC; will probably do this)
• GT1 Grand Tour (75% — 36 GC to upgrade Murcielago, 26 Gold completion bonus; will probably do this too)
• East/West Throwdown (97% — spent 30GC to reach PR requirement, still not good enough!)
• 12+ Cylinder Slam (86% — should reach 100% here; accumulating R$ to pay for Veyron upgrades)
• High Rev Rush (27% — will get to 75% completion without GC upgrades, but too expensive after that)
• Speed Demons (31% — should get to 75%, but am not buying 2014 RSR so that’s the maximum)
• Spirit of Ferrari (17% — haven’t decided on GTO; may not buy since it has no farming value)
• Vertex (71% — need to start upgrading the P1 since fully R$ upgraded 2013 RSR can’t win drag races)

Locked Series

• Enzo Ferrari
• Zenith Series

FYI, despite the many series that will likely remain permanently incomplete, I will end up being able to compete in over 97% of the events, which is not bad for free.

I’ll update this as things change, but go ahead and add me on Game Centre (pelanglo) if you want to follow along that way.