This game has 2 different styles of racing in the form of its cars. Drift and Grip.

There are 4 different makes of cars to choose from. Assoluto and Lizard are Drift. Terrazi and Age Solo are Grip.

For starters to drift, you either turn into a corner, let off the accelerator and brake, and your car will go into the slide and will make the tire screeching noise and go back to putting on the accelerator. Or, go into a corner, let off the accelerator and turn until the drift is started and put back the accelerator and turn the opposite direction. The car will almost slide in a straight line, then shoot the direction you are intending on going. The best way to setup a drift is to start it early, like a second earlier than the corner. This will make the car straight-line drift then shoot out of the corner. It sounds tough and looks awkward, but it works.

There are multiple stages of drifting, when you are in one. They all depend on how long you hold the direction of turning. 1st is right when your tires start screeching lightly, turn the opposite direction and you'll go back straight. 2nd is a bit after the first and you get a sharper exit and a longer proper slide. 3rd is a longer more rounder drift used to hairpins or tighter corners that are more than 90 degrees. Your car will most likely, in the drift, round the corner as well. It's tougher to exit the drift in this stage, so it's only recommended for corners like the final 2 in Phantomile that are very wide and long, as well as Heaven & Hell and Wonderhill's first right hairpin and uphill right after the mini tunnel, Brightest Nite's first left hairpin after the first jump and subsequent right hairpin into the tunnel.

Now that I got that out of the way, I'll explain the differences between the two styles.

Drift cars are looser when they are not drifting, so around small or short corners that don't need drifting, they will lose speed, but not much, though it's more than grip cars. Grip cars maintain traction and stick to the road, around these kinds of corners they don't lose speed. For example, in the first tunnel section of Helter Skelter a Solvalou/Assoluto setup goes around the corner at 108-109mph, while Solvalou/Terrazi will do 110-111mph.

Drift cars have a much more animated drift than Grip. Grip cars have a smaller "drift" that lets them taker corners tighter, but slower. With the more animated drift, it may seem like you are going faster, because the speedometer says so, but you're not. The way drifts are in this game, you are sideways more and shoot out, but the corner is taken much more wide. You win more races going forward, than sideways. I'm not saying stay away from drifting, but that's just the way it is.

Drift cars tend to have better acceleration. Grip cars have a tough time recovering from bonks and losses in speed, with the slower acceleration. And drift cars have better top speeds, most of the time.

Here are the Top Speeds in km/h of the cars for comparison.

Assoluto (Drift) D.R.T. M.M.M. P.R.C. R.T.S.
Heat 1 Promessa 166 162 171 180 Heat 2 Fatalita 203 194 203 212 Heat 3 Infinito 248 221 232 242 Heat 4 Squalo 340 312 321 331

Lizard (Drift) D.R.T. M.M.M. P.R.C. R.T.S. Heat 1 Bonfire 164 162 169 178 Heat 2 Officer 200 184 200 203 Heat 3 Ignition 246 219 230 239 Heat 4 Reckless 335 308 319 328

Terrazi (Grip) D.R.T. M.M.M. P.R.C. R.T.S. Heat 1 Ambitious 166 159 171 180 Heat 2 Wildboar 203 191 200 212 Heat 3 Starlight 246 221 232 239 Heat 4 Destroyer 337 310 319 331

Age Solo (Grip) D.R.T. M.M.M. P.R.C. R.T.S. Heat 1 Prophete 164 159 169 164 Heat 2 Megere 200 189 198 200 Heat 3 Licorne 244 219 230 244 Heat 4 Supernova 335 310 321 328

Try different setups to see what is fastest. Though generally you should stray from using Team Mappy and Age Solo, because they are very slow.

If anyone has seen my latest run, you are probably wondering how I got the extreme start to every race. I did a little research and some on some cheat sites that if you step through the gear in manual transmission before you start a race and end with 4th gear when it hits go, you go very fast. It's not easy to do and I've only done it consistently with the RTS/Terrazi setup. The way it works is when you get a perfect start to a race, holding the accelerator a bit after the announcer says "2" for Heat 1 cars and right before the announcer says "1" for Heat 2 and above, you get a short burst of, what I'll call, nitro. It's not for long, mostly enough to get you to around 90% of your top speed, normally. Easy way to look at it, is, you get the normal perfect start, but starting in 4th gear. You can't start in 5th or 6th. That's when you start in 1st gear. When you start in 4th, you get that burst and your car starts in that gear. Normally when you start in any gear that's not 1st, it takes a long time to get revved up. The burst acts as that rev. It extends your power for that time and you get to the max speed for that gear almost instantly. For Heat 1 cars, that's max speed right out of the gate. Other heats, it's max speed for that gear.

To do this, hold the accelerator until the race starts, because you always need to be revving to get it. I'm going to describe how to with each Heat, because they are different, aside from 3/4.

Heat 1: These cars top out at close to 7000rpm. You need to rev to almost there. You can kinda hear your car top out with its high pitch. When you get to there, shift up [R2]. You'll be in the 5500 range now. Rev to the 6300ish point, or right before the announcer says "1" and shift up [R2]. So, you're in 3rd just as the "1" goes down. A little before "GO" shift into 4th, and hopefully, you're off. It's hard to describe, because it's also hard to get consistent at. The best part about this start, other than max speed in 2 seconds, is the 6th place car doesn't get it's super boost until after you pass it, so you can throw yourself in front of it and it'll get it's boost behind you and push you, making you go faster than the game normally allows you to go.

Heat 2: These top out at around 8000rpm, near the redline. (Never figured out why the tacometer doesn't change for different class cars) Start the same as normal, rev to about 7800rpm or the redline, shift. Rev and shift before the "1". And shift before the "GO".

Heat 3/4: 3 tops out at 9000rpm, so the same formula, just get to the points. 8800, right before "1" and right before "GO". 4 tops out at 10000rpm, but do the same as Heat 3, and it'll work.

The reason I say shift before "GO" is that if you shift earlier, your revs will drop to the point that you won't get the perfect start and stall out.

This technique saves quite a bit of time, and generally makes the game easier, because you get to different points in the race ahead of your opponents, so most of the time they aren't in the way. You might encounter more issues with the opposing cars, but this is definitely the fastest way to start.