Speedrunning Guide: Cars

I am writing this based mostly on my own research. This section of the guide discusses how to choose a car, their upgrades, and their settings. Finally, it discusses driving physics. For more detailed information and an upgrade calculator, view my forum post or the Speedrunning Spreadsheet in Resources.

# Car Stats, Upgrades, and Settings
It is impossible to see vehicle stats and how well they will upgrade without purchasing it; but, once purchased, the stats can be viewed in the upgrade screen or garage by pressing a trigger. The only really important stats are power, weight, and gearing. (Gearing can be viewed in the vehicle Settings screen.) Power obviously makes the car faster; gearing can limit a car's top speed. Weight has several effects: Lighter cars accelerate faster (and I believe they also brake and turn a little harder), lighter cars are more responsive, heavier cars are more stable, and heavier cars have an easier time pushing rivals (into the walls and such).

(Remember that when you sell a car, any money put into upgrades is lost! Be careful to not spend more than necessary upgrading a car you plan to sell later.)
## Primary Upgrades
Engine: Engine upgrades are easily the most important. Each stage increases horsepower by about 20% of the base horsepower, depending on the car. So stage 5 roughly doubles horsepower.
Suspension: Suspension Stage 3 unlocks all the suspension settings, which can be helpful for unstable cars. Stage 4 appears to do nothing but decrease the weight by 2 kg, which is not even worth the menuing.
Drive Train: I have not investigated how much benefit Stage 1 gives. Stage 2 and 3 are needed if your car is geared too low. Stage 4 appears to do nothing but decrease the weight by 2 kg, which is not worth the menuing.
Chasis: Each chasis stage decreases weight by 25 kg (except for the P930, for which each stage reduces weight by 50, 25, 25, and 75 kg respectively).

## Secondary Upgrades
Muffler: A muffler increases power by about 10 HP. For any given car, all mufflers have the same power bonus, but the more expensive ones also decrease weight by 1 or 2 kg, depending on price. I never buy the lighter mufflers because of cost and menuing time.
Each wheel and aero upgrade also decreases weight slightly, usually by 1 to 3 kg each, but the menuing is slow, so it is probably not worth doing.

## Car Settings
Steering Speed and Brake Response can be adjusted without purchasing upgrades, and I always do so. I will make the other settings only if I buy the necessary upgrades, which I often do not. I recommend the following settings:
* Steering Speed: Max. The car will both turn faster and be easier to control.
* Brake Response: Max.
* Brake Balance: I use full front, but this is mostly preference.
* Clearence: Minimum.
* Shocks and Damping: Max.
* Transmission Ratio and Final Gear: For a late game car, your displayed max speed should ideally be between 220 and 240 mph.

# Car Selection
There are 35 playable cars in the game, of which 33 are playable. (The AE86TD requires a cheat code and the Japanese version of the game, and the NA2D (Banshee's car) is not playable.) Only a few cars are useful during the run, and I discuss all of them here.

## Your First Car
Seven affordable cars are available from the start. The two best of which are the S13 and the EK9. The S14 has performance almost identical to the S13, but costs 5,000 CP more. The RPS13 is both more expensive and heavier than the S13, while being otherwise identical. Similarly, the DC2 is almost identical to the EK9, but costs 5,000 CP more. The AE86L and AE86T are functionally identical to each other; both of which are uselessly slow without a drive train stage 3 upgrade to raise the gearing, and that added cost makes these cars useless in a run.
The S13 and EK9 are so close in performance that choosing one is mostly a matter of preference. The S13 is more powerful, has higher gears, and overall slightly faster. The EK9 is lighter, easier to control, and has cheaper upgrades. The lower gearing of the EK9 will become problematic if you upgrade the engine past stage 2 or 3, so I do not recommend the EK9 if you plan to fully upgrade the car.
Whichever of these two cars you choose, you should also immediately buy a Stage 1 Engine upgrade and the cheapest Muffler, which you can do with your starting cash.

## Your Second Car
Once you have enough money, you can buy a faster car. After buying one, remember to sell your old car for cash! Also note that whenever there are two versions of the same car and one was unlocked from a Deva or Devil, then the Deva/Devil version will upgrade better (usually about 50 HP extra).

Several cars are potentially useful:
* R32: The R32 has high horsepower, is easy to control, and is geared high enough to never require drive train upgrades. Some other cars on this list can also make a good second car, but they are difficult to justify. Stock: 276 HP/1500 kg, Upgraded: 529 HP/1410 kg.
* R33: By a small margin, the most powerful car in the game that does not require an unlock. The meaningful differences compared to the R32 are the slightly increased power, slightly increased weight, and slightly increased price. Stock: 276 HP/1540 kg, Upgraded: 538 HP/1450 kg.
* FD: Very high power/weight ratio. Its weakness is the low stock gearing, which will require Drive Train Stage 3 to fix. The very low weight makes the FD pretty squirly, so do not use if you are not confident with car control. Stock: 276 HP/1280 kg, Upgraded: 506 HP/1190 kg.
* FDD: (unlocked after Midnight Cinderella) Second highest power/weight ratio in the game (after the S30). In all other ways, it is the same as the FD. This car might be worth taking if you manage to unlock it before purchasing your second car. Stock: 276 HP/1280 kg, Upgraded: 555 HP/1190 kg.
* GC8: This car has very limited usefulness. It has the highest power/weight ratio of any car available from the start, but its gearing is horrible. With Drive Train Stage 3, you can mostly fix the problem, but it will still struggle to top 175 mph. Stock: 276 HP/1240 kg, Upgraded: 506 HP/1150 kg.

## Your Third Car
Any of the cars above (except maybe the GC8) are fast enough to beat the game with varying amounts of required skill, but upgrading to one of the following cars will make it easier to beat the final devils and Iceman:
* R34D: (unlocked after Red Devil) Second most powerful upgraded car in the game (after the S30). It is also geared high enough to not require Drive Train upgrades. For Beat All Racers runs, you should generally try to get this car as soon as possible. 230,000 CP, plus the sale of your second car, will give you enough money to fully upgrade the Engine and Chasis, and get Suspension Stage 3 and Drive Train Stage 1. Stock: 276 HP/1560 kg, Upgraded: 646 HP/1470 kg.
* P930: (unlocked after ZERO) Very high power/weight ratio and easier to control than the FDD. At moderate speeds it accelerates faster than any other car (except the S30). However, because it is unlocked so late in the run, this car is only useful if you're struggling to beat Iceman or ???, but I still do not recommend purchasing it. Do not purchase unless you have at least 410,000 CP. Stock: 354 HP/1470 kg, Upgraded: 599 HP/1305 kg.

## Useless Cars
Although none of these cars are useful in a run, you may want to know about them nevertheless.
The most powerful car in the game is the S30 (???'s car), which can be unlocked by beating all 100 racers in Quick Race mode. When fully upgraded it has 724 HP and weighs only 946 kg. It cannot be used in a run because you cannot start a run with any cars previously unlocked. Although the car is cheap, it is extremely slow when stock (second only to the AE86s), has very expensive upgrades, and only becomes easy to control after upgrading the suspension. It is also the only car in the game for which the gearing is raised with each engine upgrade, which is very necessary given its low initial gearing.
The NA2 upgrades to a max 492 HP and has 6 gears, but the car is both very expensive to purchase and does not outperform other options.
The JZA80 and JZA80D upgrade to 515 and 554 HP, respectively, which is almost identical to the FD and FDD. They also have 6 gears. Unfortunately, they weigh 240 kg more than the FD/FDD, which makes them more stable, but slower.
The S15 and AP1 are disappointingly slow when upgraded, despite requiring an unlock to purchase. 

# Driving Physics
FACT: The physics in this game are...unique. (But I love them anyway.) I have a few recommendations for improving your driving.
1) Avoid rear-ending traffic at almost all costs. Braking down to a very low speed is better than hitting them.
2) Bouncing off walls is clearly necessary, but for moderate turns it can often be faster to brake a little if it means can can avoid hitting.
3) Bouncing off walls is risky, especially near other cars or when defending the lead.
4) Against difficult opponents, slowing and hugging the inside of the turn might be better than bouncing off the outside, especially near traffic. It can mess with the AI path-finding in weird ways.
5) Using the brakes is the fastest way to rotate your car. Use them when entering or transitioning between turns, or to evade traffic. You should usually not let off the gas when you do this because...
6) The throttle-brake interaction in this game is not at all realistic. Braking reduces your speed and encourages your car to rotate. Throttle applies a force to push the car in the direction it is POINTED (this effect is even more pronounced with 4WD cars). The crazy thing is that you can get both benefits simultaneously. In other words, if you gas and brake together while turning, the car will both slow down/rotate more AND be pushed in the direction the vehicle is pointed. Therefore, the car is most agile when both gas and brake are used.

Speedrunning Guide: Rivals

I am writing this based mostly on my own research. This section of the guide discusses the rival system.

# Rivals
There are 133 rivals in the game (not counting the Devas and Devils), divided into 20 teams.

Below is the list of teams with how many rivals are in the team (including the leader), and typical winnings from one of the team members, excluding the leader (leaders usually give between 50% and 150% more than what is shown):
[Team: # of Rivals, Typical Winnings]
Rolling Guy: 4, 700 CP
Curving Edge: 5, 700 CP
SS Limited: 6, 1000 CP
Elegant Wild: 6, 1200 CP
Max Racing: 8, 1700 CP
Diamond Image: 6, 1800 CP
Fine Drive: 8, 2100 CP
Twister: 6, 2500 CP
R-Gangs: 7, 4700 CP
Tokio Jungle: 7, 3400 CP
Top Level: 6, 3500 CP
Free Way: 9, 5500 CP
Another Star: 5, 5500 CP
Speed Box: 6, 6500 CP
TR Racing: 6, 6500 CP
Cupid Arrows: 6, 9000 CP
Wind Stars: 9, 9000 CP
RR: 8, 13000 CP
Rings: 6, 16000 CP
Speed Master: 9, 19000 CP
(Notice the high value of R-Gangs and Cupid Arrows compared to their difficulty. I have even sometimes beaten RR rivals with the starting car.)

Below is the list of Devas and Devils with how many team leaders are required to beat before they will challenge you, and typical winnings:
[Rival: Leaders Needed, Typical Winnings]
Grim Reaper: 2, 16000 CP
Midnight Cinderella: 4, 16000 CP
Nocturnal Wolf: 6, 21000 CP
Banshee: 8, 26000 CP
Red Devil: 11, 26000 CP
Exhaust Eve: 14, 52000 CP
ZERO: 17, 52000 CP
???: 20, 52000 CP

# Challenging Rivals
It is important to waste as little time as possible not racing rivals. Minimizing this time is never straightforward, but you should keep a few things in mind:
* If you are inbetween two new racers it is almost always faster to wait for the one behind you.

Not much is known about what determines which 6 racers will spawn on track each night, but I am led to believe the following:
* The performance of your car does NOT appear to affect which rivals spawn. (I did a bunch of testing and statistics and got only a 2% correlation and p<0.89, which is statistically a null result.)
* Sometimes one or more mid- or late-game rivals will spawn very early on, which, if they can be beaten, can provide a large cash influx early on.
* In my own experience, I have never gotten White Witch (Speed Master) to spawn on the B track, but I think she is the only one. It is possible there is a rival who never spawns on the A track, but I play B track too often to know. Aside from this, I do not think choice of track affects spawning.
* It is possible that beating some members of a team might make it more likely for more members of that team to spawn, but I suspect this is a statistical illusion.

# Receiving Challenges
The team leader will challenge you after beating all rivals in their team. The next Deva or Devil will challenge you after beating a certain number of team leaders.
If you quit to Main Menu before a race is over, it will NOT count as a loss! This can be exploited in two ways:
First, since you earn 20% less for beating any rival after the first attempt, you can quit when you're about to lose and try again later without losing any potential winnings.
Second, and more importantly, you can control when the team leader or deva/devil challenges you, which can be helpful in certain situations. After beating any rival, you will be challenged by the following (in descending order of priority):
1. If you just beat the last member of a team, you will be challenged by that team leader.
2. A deva/devil if one is ready to challenge. (This cannot happen more than once in a night, and previously losing to said deva/devil can delay this a little or cause the deva/devil to spawn as a normal rival on track.)
3. A leader of a team for which you have already beaten all the rivals. (This cannot happen more than once in a night, and previously losing to said team leader can delay this a little or cause the team leader to spawn as a normal rival on track.)
If you are in the first half of a race with a team leader and drive by a normal rival whom you also need to race, it is often faster to retire from the race, race the normal rival, and then let the team leader challenge you at a later, more convenient time. You will lose a little money doing this, but time is much more important than money.

Speedrunning Guide: Run Categories and Routing

I am writing this based mostly on my own research. This section of the guide discusses strategies for running each of the separate categories.

# General Strategy
There are three ways to lose significant amounts of time in the run: Losing races, racing the wrong rivals, and spending time between races. Almost everything I will write is to minimize these time losses. First, some general principles that apply in every category:
* Speed, and therefore power, are very precious. Because you are chasing moving targets around the road, going 10% faster can often result in reaching the next rival 20% sooner.
* While in a race, if victory is fairly certain, then your primary objective is to reach the next rival on the highway as quickly as possible.
* Except in special circumstances, do not drive around large portions of the track to get to another rival. Quitting and going to the next night are often faster.
* Stopping and waiting for the rival behind you is faster than racing towards the one ahead.
* Your car should always be fast enough to win races easily.
* Racing previously beaten rivals only makes sense if the rival is worth a lot of money or you are in serious need of cash. In all other cases, it is faster to quit and reload.
* If it is obvious that you will lose a race, immediately retire and challenge him again.
Now on to some specific categories.

# BEAT 1 DEVA
Easily the most RNG-heavy category. The goal is to race all rivals from any two teams, and then race and beat Grim Reaper. In a perfect run, that means beating Rolling Guy and Curving Edge, which are both the smallest and easiest teams. However, because there is so much RNG, I have sometimes completed SS Limited and even gotten very close to finishing Elegant Wild. If you encounter any racer on track who does not belong to one of these four teams, or to R-Gangs or Cupid Arrows (they are worth a ton of money), then you should probably quit and reload, which will be faster than continuing on to the next rival. Of course, if you get good RNG then beating Grim Reaper will also be a significant challenge because you will not have faced enough racers to get good upgrades.
To give an idea of how brutal this run can be, I have attempted 120 runs, and only thrice did I find all the regular rivals I needed before 25 minutes were up. With perfect RNG and clean races, getting a run under 15 minutes is theoretically possible.
For your car, get the S13 or EK9 and immediately buy Engine Stage 1 and a Muffler. The S13 is slightly faster, but the EK9 has cheaper upgrades, which can make a big difference. I think the optimal choice of car actually depends on the RNG you get on track. In any case, aggressively keep your engine as upgraded as possible, which will reduce the time between races and dramatically improve your odds against Grim Reaper.

# BEAT ALL DEVAS
The goal is to race all rivals from any 8 teams and then beat Banshee. The 8th team is Twister, but it is a good idea to race R-Gangs and Tokio Jungle as they appear, since it is unlikely to get all eight of the first teams. Towards the end of the run, I never race anyone from a team beyond Tokio Jungle.
Start with the S13 or EK9 with Engine 1 and muffler. After this, there are two possible routes:
* Midgame car route: Buy at most an Engine Stage 2 for your first car. Then, as soon as possible, buy an R32, R33, FD, FDD (requires beating Midnight Cinderella), or possibly even the GC8. Whichever car you pick, you should be able to get it basically fully upgrade before you reach Banshee.
* S13/EK9 route: Upgrade your car as much as you can and try to beat everyone with it. I have two problems with this strategy: 1) Stage 4 and 5 engine upgrades together cost as much as a new car, which will be faster anyway as soon as you get it, and 2) the slower car can make it far more difficult to beat Nocturnal Wolf and Banshee on your first try, which wastes time.

# BEAT ALL RACERS
The goal is to beat all 141 rivals as quickly as possible. Because the order in which they appear matters little, this category has by far the least RNG.
Start with an S13 or EK9 with Engine Stage 1 and Muffler. It is important to get a faster car as early as possible (remember to sell your old car), but you have two options:
* Complete the run with three cars: Buy an R32, R33, FD, FDD, or GC8 as early as possible and buy all useful upgrades. (Red Devil and ZERO are very fast opponents.) Later on, replace it with the R34D (after beating Red Devil) or the P930 (after beating ZERO). For the R34D, you will need about 230,000 CP, plus selling your old car, to purchase and fully upgrade it. For the P930, you will need about 410,000 CP. Either way, you will probably have enough money to do it as soon as you unlock the car. Then complete the run with that car. (Personally, I prefer getting the R32 and then R34D.)
* Complete the run with two cars: Buy an R32, R33, or FDD as early as possible and buy all useful upgrades. All three of these cars should be fast enough to complete the run without too much difficulty. I do not prefer this strategy because the time needed to replace and upgrade a new car is about the same as the time lost by losing and restarting a single race.
Finally, I mentioned it in the Rivals guide, but it is worth repeating here for those who prefer to race on one track over the other. White Witch (Speed Master) appears to never spawn on the B track. It is possible that one or more rivals never spawn on the A track. So as you are nearing the end of the run, you may need to switch tracks for a little bit.

Naam	Auteur
Speedrunning Guide: Cars	kingbeandip 2 years ago
Speedrunning Guide: Rivals	kingbeandip 2 years ago
Speedrunning Guide: Run Categories and Routing	kingbeandip 2 years ago