Overview
When I first started playing this game I had some trouble figuring out how to get started. Here are a few tips that should get you on your way:
Gameplay basics
Making money:
The fastest way to make money is buy buying old cars, fixing their engines, and selling the engines and the car separately. For example:
Magura with high mileage:
Purchase price: ~8000-10000
Cost of fixing engine: ~3000-4000
Engine selling price: ~20000
Car selling price: ~3000
Profit: ~10000
In general I’d recommend buying cars with descriptions like “old”, “heavily used”, or “high mileage”. Avoid buying wrecked cars.
The reason is that you’ll make most of your money by selling refurbished engines. Wrecked cars will often have no engines or engines that are completely broken, which could often result in you making a loss on the car. Old cars will have engines that are used but can still be fixed, and most of the profit comes from fixing and selling these engines.
Note that while you can fix all the parts on the engine, this is generally not necessary. The fastest way to make money is to just fix the engine itself and sell it, then sell the car and move on.
Upgrading cars:
If you’re used to playing arcade mainstream racing games like need for speed, note that Revhead does not work in the same way when it comes to upgrades. The realism in this regard is the best part of this game, but it means that you can’t simply bolt on more expensive parts and expect the car to go faster.
For example, you can’t just fit massive twin turbos on an engine that isn’t powerful enough to spool up the turbos. Likewise, if you buy a big engine but it’s not getting sufficient airflow the power output could be significantly reduced.
This game is all about experimentation. If you’re trying to build a car for a particular type of race, try out some new parts and test them. See how the car performs and work out what could improve performance.
Be creative in how you upgrade cars. In the beginning you won’t have enough money to buy from the performance parts shop, so see what you can find on old cars you buy (especially engines) and what new and second hand parts you can find in the newspaper. It’s okay to mix and match parts between brands if you don’t have enough money to buy brand new parts from the stores.
A few things to watch out for when building your car:
– Make sure your engine always has oil in it and a radiator that it is topped up with water. You can completely ruin an engine by going out driving without water or oil.
– When swapping in a different engine, ensure it has new oil and start it up to tune the ignition timing.
– Exhaust systems seem to be linked to brands, so you can’t fit any midpipe on any car.
– Certain parts only work on certain types of engines, be sure to check the requirements.
– Each engine has an ideal flow rate, ensure that it can get sufficient air to achieve optimal power output.
– Power is important in some races, but it’s not everything. Tyres, gearboxes, and differentials can make a huge difference.
Winning offroad races:
Your first races will mostly be offroad races. Here are a few tips on winning:
– Power is less important in offroad races compared to other race types. Once you have a reasonably powerful engine, the biggest difference comes from having big chunky offroad tyres.
– A 4×4 differential can further improve your grip and power delivery, allowing you to use your engine power instead of just spinning it away.
Winning road races:
Your first road races will be on a high speed oval, which means that power will be more important. A few tips:
– Invest in a powerful engine, without sufficient power no amount of tweaking will allow you to win races here.
– Ensure that your differential and gearbox ratios allow you to reach high speeds on the straights. If you are reaching your maximum speed in the middle of the straight, it will limit your laptimes.
– Grip is still important, because the more speed you can carry through the long banked corners the faster your lap times will be. Fit wide slick tyres and a wing for downforce.
– You can generally go into the corners fast and scrub off speed in the corner. Avoid braking heavily or completely lifting off the throttle because this could cause you to lose control and crash.
– Be careful coming out of the corners, because you can hit the wall coming on to the straight. The biggest mistake I used to make is to lift off the throttle completely which will cause you to slide straight into the wall. Stay on the throttle but reduce input by about 50%.
– Work your way up to higher corner entry and exit speeds. Losing control on the high speed oval could result in big crashes which could easily see you losing the race and your bet, in addition to doing heavy damage to the car.
Winning drag races:
Winning 1/4 mile drag races on the road requires less power than winning on the high speed oval. I remember losing drag races even with a very powerful race car because I didn’t have the drag racing tyres fitted. It’s all about acceleration and getting the power down. Here’s what you need to know:
– Power is important, but not as important as grip. If you’re using a rear drive setup, put the drag racing tyres on your rear wheels and put the narrowest slick tyres you can find on your front wheels.
– Ideally you should be using a higher ratio differential with a quick shift gearbox. I used the 3 gear Euroa gearbox that has the fastest shift time. You don’t need a lot of gears because it’s only a 1/4 mile race.
Racing on the longer salt flat drag races requires a completely different setup. The longer the distance, the less important acceleration becomes and the more important power and top speed becomes:
– You’ll need a powerful engine coupled with a lower ratio differential and preferably a 6 speed gearbox. The lower the differential ratio the higher your top speed will be, assuming you have a powerful enough engine.
– You may also want to consider running a 4×4 differential setup here. There is less grip on the salt flats and a 4×4 setup will help you to get the power down if you have a powerful engine.
Other tips:
– Once you have enough money, it’s generally a good idea to build different cars for different kinds of races.
– While I generally find buying old cars to fix and sell their engines as the fastest way to make money, you can also win money relatively quickly on the salt flats. These races are short and allow relatively big bets relative to race distance. Of course, you need to make sure you have a car that will consistently win otherwise you could lose the money just as quickly.
– Finally, have fun and try different things. If your only goal is to build the fastest most powerful car the game will get old quickly. Try building different types of cars and setting your own goals beyond the game’s progression system. This game is most fun when you treat it as a sandbox. For example, building a drift car, building a pickup to use for buying parts, building a fast car using only what you can find in the newspaper, etc.
If you have any other tips, please feel free to comment and I’ll add it to the guide.