Need for Speed Underground Prima Guide Learn all the ins and outs of urban racing both online and off with the help of the Need for Speed Underground Strategy Guide, courtesy of Prima Games. What's the best route? What are the hidden cars and how do you get them? All this and more will be revealed to you in this 95-page guide to help you score the big points and win mad respect on the street. Need For Speed Underground Guide NEED FOR SPEED UNDERGROUND TIPS & GENERAL STRATEGIES: When you get new cars don't buy them right away. Be sure to check the cars stats before buying it. The Miata is a a great car to start with. -- Submitted by Deeman777 Jut a tip for new drifters. When you drift, if you start to slide and can`t gain back control, try tapping the analog stick in the other direction. This will help you regain control of your car. -- Submitted by Jordan Did you know that you can finish the game with mixed difficulties? For example: First race - medium, next one hard, etc. -- Submitted by UGBal While earnin' your rep in underground mode take out some time to drift in quick race to unlock Samantha's, Junkman's, Melissa's, and Eddie's cars. Plus, you can unlock more vinyls from your drift points and use them in underground mode. --Submitted by Stilez Great drag racing tip. If you have nitrous, wait until you are in 2nd gear then use it to get to the rpm you need to shift for each gear until you run out. Most cars will overheat if you use it only for top end acceleration. -- Submitted by Caleb A good tip for the XBOX version of Need For Speed underground is, when you start out, buy a Neon. Keep that car until you can exchange it for a Lancer ES. Hold onto that car until the Hyundai is available, then race with that until you get a Subaru Impreza. Then race with that until you get a Nissan Spectra before changing to the '92 Nissan 240SX. So in other words, use the new cars always when they come up. -- Submitted by Marko After you put a vinyls on a car and it puts you back to where you can pick a level (where you can stack up to 4) on the car hit square and you can change the color. -- Submitted by Ray In tournaments, you don't have to win all races in first place to win the whole tournament. Total of your points is what decides whether you're going to win the tournament or not. -- Submitted by UGBal The Mitsubishi Eclipse is good for all around racing, especially in drift because you have the most control over it even at extreme angles. Most people automatically dislike it just because it goes a little sideways from a takeoff, but it's best for all around. -- Submitted by Morfyos The Acura RSX is probably the best car next to the Nissan Skyline. Do not change it until u get the Nissan Skyline. The RSX is the fastest car and has the best start, though it´s not the best handling car it still handles pretty well. -- Submitted by Schiffo The Best car for drag racing online is the RX-7. I've raced the number 4 ranked in Drag and he got a 19.5 i was close until i blew my engine. The best technique to use in drag is to tap the Nitrous Oxide quickly as soon as u hit 2nd gear, if you practice you can hit perfect shifts while tapping, you have to watch your timing though because you will overheat in an RX-7. -- Submitted by SSPJIMMYB To get 60,000 points for one drift in drift mode for track 1. Go into drift mode and select the very first track, select 10 laps, it doesn't matter what difficulty the drift is on. Select the Mazda Miata. Now in order for this to work great, you might need to get all level 3 mods. When you start out make a complete lap, then on the second lap, right before turn 1 get your car lose by turning the Miata to the left, you need to completely get the car sideways. Once you have the car side ways just glide along in the bonus area to get some high points, but don't lose the drift, just keep swaying your car back and forth to get 60,000+ points. At the end you should have around 315,000 style points. -- Submitted by Chiecken-Wuss Initially the 206 seems best for drift challenges. Its small size and predictable handling make it easy to control. Use this until the Skyline becomes available, which is better due to being 4WD . Although also 4WD, the Impreza and Lancer are not worth bothering with, they are too big in size and clumsy to drive round the tight drift tracks. -- Submitted by Crawshy Always save your NOS for the end or a race. That way if ever your second and your stuck to a car well put on your nos and win 1st place! -- Submitted by Diciocco When your racing, get behind a racer and your style points will go up. This only works for Drag, Sprint, and Circuit. Have fun getting style points. -- Submitted by Isaac Havin' trouble 'round those 90 degrees (or more) angles, try lettin' go of the throttle just before you get to the turn and tappin' the E- Brake as you go 'round the turn. This should save you time, speed, and possibly the race. Good Luck! -- Submitted by A-Bomb If you find yourself stuck and can't beat the AI in certain races or events, try degrading your car parts. For example: Install Level 1 Brakes and remove Turbos. -- Submitted by UGBal If you want to score more drift point make sure you change your car setting to stock parts except for suspensions,tire and disc brake with this u can score more drift points. I tried it and I can score up to 30,000 drift points and it is true, depending on your skill. -- Submitted by Ainol A good idea for drifting is to use the handbrake/emergency brake to get really good drift points and stay in 2nd and third gears. Also get more style points by doing a drift race again and again. -- Submitted by Tom When you start the game pick the Civic SI and hold onto it until you can get the Nissan Skyline GTR. Spend a lot of time on Drift Track 3 at 10 laps to make plenty of styling points. -- Submitted by Sergio As already said the RX-7 is currently the Best Car available for Drag Racing. You have to select the following Uniques to get the best performance for Drag: Transmission, ECU, NOS. If you have got any kind of analog gamepads or joysticks use them, cause you can hold the arrow on the perfect place to start perfect. Between changing Gears you have to inject NOS in short kicks to get a nice drag time. And coffer some NOS for the final spurt! Now you're able to drive times under 19. seconds. Mine best without Lag 18:80. Try Out! Have Fun! -- Submitted by raiSa The Miata is the best car to start with. It doesn't really matter which cars you get through the game with. At the end of the game you should either have the RX-7 or the Skyline. If you want to circuit race online get the Skyline because it handles well and is extremely fast. If you want to drag race get the RX-7 because it is a tad bit faster. -- Submitted by Nathan Stick with The 240 SX until you cant get the Skyline. The 240 SX has great gear ratios for sprint knock out circuit and drift. Drag can be a minor problem because 4th gear is fairly long (until you get a 6 speed gearbox). Try it... if you could only see the faces of the people online you leave behind with this car. (Known to take down Skylines and S2000s with my 240SX right Ivan ;) -- Submitted by Mirage In the beginning where you get to choose your first car, select the Neon. Then right away, go to "customize car" and trade in your car for the Civic. You will get some extra cash so you can make your car look nice. -- Submitted by TRiaD The Nissan Skyline is no doubt the best car. The Eclipse is good, but when you need the acceleration and speed to win, Skyline does the job with style. The handling is amazing, but always use your brakes for turning. Hand brakes usually slow you down a lot. Catch the right line and use you brakes, and you will clear every turn with perfection. Combine the use of handbrakes with brakes on tight turns. Also, don't use nitro in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears. Usually the car speeds up fast during the 1st 3 gears, and it takes more time to get to a higher speed when you are on 4th, 5th and 6th. So to get to the top speed of the car, use nitro in the 5th or 6th gear. You will easily make 200mph+. -- Submitted by Saumya If you want to earn some easy style points you should do some single drift races with as much laps as possible (I prefer using the MX5 Miata because of it's great handling). Also, it's most efficient and fun to play the game using manual transmission since it's easier to gear down once or twice on sharp turns than to brake because in this way the car keeps it's speed and you won't lose control. -- Submitted by Strider When you unlock the Honda S2000 get it no matter what. By that time you will have the first lvl 3's and all rest lvl 2's so the top speed is almost full like 1 or 2 CM off of the end. -- Submitted by PenguinsRockOutLoud If you want to get more style points play the drift quick race using any car until you unlock the Vortex car. Then use the Vortex car to gain more style points because the car reputation is 5x. This way you will unlock more things and score more style points. -- Submitted by Ainol When attempting drift challenges at the higher levels it's worth reducing the performance of the car you're using, i.e. if you have a stage 3 turbo swap it for a stage 2 when in drift mode. This seems to help handling and means you can be more progressive when sliding. As there seems to be no time limit or time penalty, you don't really need a fast car just one that handles well. -- Submitted by Crawshy This is a tip for when the game is nearing an end, like 70-111 in the races. When they get really hard and even on easy its hard to beat it. What i've found out is if you downgrade your car engine wise, but leave the extreme performance tires suspension and weight reduction as well as the nos, then you can cut the corners better than the computer and have an advantage. The computer downgrades with you, so it's not an exact match part for part. So most of the time it will go back to stock or close to stock performance, then you have the advantage. Note, it doesn't always work, but it does work most of the time. -- Submitted by Jebidiah Always enable rear view mirror when drag racing it will help you a lot trying to block opponents who’ll try to overtake you. -- Submitted by Poochie The Lancer is most definitely the best car to use for drag racing. I used it while beating the game on my fourth time and I selected the following unique upgrades: Engine/Exhaust, ECU, and Nos. I heard that the transmission is a better choice than the Engine/Exhaust, but it doesn't matter, since my acceleration and top speed are COMPLETELY maxed out. To get it, you must install those upgrades (or Transmission) or it will not be the best, the Skyline or RX-7 will. Otherwise, the Eclipse is by far the best all-rounder. -- Submitted by Steel The best way to earn 300,000+ drift points is using the Honda S2000. but it has to have all the performance mods installed. pick drift track 6 and set it for 10laps. my longest drift is for 21seconds and over 40,000drift points. when you are done with the laps, you have unlocked almost everything.-- Submitted by Saumya85 When taking a sharp turns, don't slow down. Instead of that try to use your hand brake and a little bit of brake. So that your car could drift; when this happens you get some drift point as well as you don't slow down. When you do that the tires only slide and speed most of the time remains the same. The best car for this tip is Mitsubishi Eclipse.-- Submitted by Irfan The 206 is a great car once you have installed all level 3 upgrades. This car is extremely good for circuit and drift races. The 206 is the fastest off the line provided that you have all 3 unique ( a.k.a TJs) upgrades installed. I always take off first while Skylines and RX7's smell my exhaust. However, once the 206 reaches 5th gear its top end acceleration drops and when RX7's pass you, you will be forced to use nitro (if you have any left :p). A good way to keep up in top speed is to avoid crashes and always take shortcuts if you can (not all shortcuts are short). Ultimately the key to winning races with the 206 is to start off first, use about 1/4 nitro after 4th gear, and leave the rest whenever some beefed up hood passes you. One more thing, the Peugeot 206 is not fit for drag races, it has a low top speed and struggles to keep up. You can win drags but you have to be one sick racer. In drags the only way to win using the 206 is to make perfect shifts in all gears, block racers that attempt to pass you, and most importantly use the nitro as soon as you go halfway past the 4th gear. Never use nitro in 6th gear because otherwise you'll blow your engine, the 206 gets to its low top-speed quickly. --Submitted by Spindasher Easier drifting: Install all upgrades to Pro Performance (Level 2), but don't install a turbo. Then, install the drivetrain/gears last and put that on Extreme Performance (Level 3). Turn off stability control. You might find that it's easier to drift because in real life, all you need is a limited-slip differential for drifting, and a rear-wheel drive car. Don't install a turbo because it takes a little time for it to kick in, and you might mess up your drift if you get a small acceleration boost. The cars that work best for me for drifting are the S2000 and the Eclipse. -- Submitted by Maverick2K4 If you race online, always use a RX-7. It is way better then the Skyline. Use it in all game mode except drift (unless you put all the unique upgrade who give you more handling). The RX-7 is way better then the skylines, whatever people say about the Skylines, don't trust them because the Skyline is very slow if you compare it to RX-7. I usually get a 5-15 sec in front of them. The Miata is also a very good car, and is also better then the Skyline. I was using it before, and I the only car able to beat me was... the RX-7. Don't ever use the skyline, you will lose a lot more with it. --Submitted by LegendRacerR A good idea for drag racing is to use the S2000 by Honda. Start at full rev and your car launches itself in front of the other cars. Tap 1st and 2nd gear and hit NOS afterwards. A good idea is to remember what your RPM is when you have to change gears. Don't try to hit gears when you see the green light. It is almost impossible especially with the faster cars. -- Submitted By Tpena4Bg To start off with you should get the Civic. That is a good starting car. When you get enough money you should use different cars for different events. For instance, for Drift use the Miata, as it is a very good drifter. For everything else use the car you feel is the best for you. Personally, I like the RSX better than the others. You hear a lot about the Skyline, but it is a big car and the tail end gets away very easily. Overall the best car I feel is the RSX. One last thing, Chrome rims is definitely the route to go.-- Submitted by BlinginBalla2316 No matter what people say about Skyline being a bad car to use, always, always use it. This car will give you an all around performance. In Circuit, Sprint, and Drag it goes up to at least the 3rd gear faster than any other car, so that will give you a head start. After that you will be whupping everybody out there. In Drift Mode, it is also the best with its AWD. But sometimes you might get bored of it and want another car, then choose the RX7 or the Supra or the 350Z these 4 high level cars would get you to the top online or offline. But remember if you are racing a tough person to beat, then choose the Skyline and leave him in the dust. --Submited by Skypro2003 When you are starting a new game think of what kind of car you want. Do you want to specialize in Handling? Top Speed? Or Acceleration? As you play through the game you will come across 3 chances to set your car apart from the rest of the group (a.k.a. TJ's unique upgrades). And since you've chosen which aspect of your car that you want to be better, you should choose a part that increases that aspect accordingly. I have played through the game about 8 times (all on Hard skill level) and after much experimentation, I have found that if Handling is what you love, start with the Mazda Miata. This will be the car you use for the whole game. First upgrade which occurs after the first tournament, get the Transmission Upgrade (this doesn't sound like it would improve Handling but it truly does!). Next, once you've been ranked 10 across the board you get another chance at upgrading. Choose the tires upgrade for the second one. Then after a long wait, when you've been ranked 3 across the board you have your final chance at upgrading to which you should pick the suspension. I did this and my Miata had 2 red bars off the scale for the performance bar (and no other car came close! Not even the Skyline!) I haven't played enough to know which specific parts to have for Top Speed and Acceleration, but this should do for now. And one other thing, when choosing your upgrades, choose logically! Because let's say that you want High Acceleration, the Nitrous Upgrade highly increases Acceleration, but if you think, the Nitrous will only help you when you use it. So if you want a better jump off the line don't get the NOS because you will have to use NOS to get the added Acceleration and you don't want to constantly waste your NOS, get the Turbo Upgrade instead. Only get the upgrades that will increase the aspects of your car that you want maximized. And with that I will leave you with these (what I think) very helpful tips on improving your car and being different from the pack. -- Submitted by AC When you start out, get the Miata. Then unlock the Focus then use that until you get the Tiburon. When you get nitrous and you only get one shot of it, instead of just holding the button down every time you use it just tap the nitrous button twice. You will not get as much power as holding it but you will get half the speed and power about 5 or 6 times -- Submitted by racing rocker In drift mode, I prefer the Subaru Impreza because it slides a lot, while not going completely out of control. In Circuit Mode or Sprint, I use the Peugeot 206 because it has the best handling. The downside is its low high-speed. And last, in Drag mode, use the Honda S2000. It's by far the fastest car in the game. --Submitted by Chelu. My advice would be to try out some of the different cars before you pick yours for the Underground mode. I have had success with both the Honda Civic and Peugeot 206. In drift I have had great success with the Subaru Impreza. The bottom line is it really depends on your driving style and how you like to corner, etc. Mess around with the stock cars in Single Race mode and see what you like and what feels good, because once things get harder the more relaxed you are as you're racing the less you'll break stuff when the AI throws you a curve out of nowhere. Once you've beaten the game, another fun thing is all level 3 mods are open. So go back to the main menu and select Customize Ride and you can customize every single car to level 3 mods. It's kind of fun with Quick Race after that because you can race any of the cars and it will help preview before you start your next profile. Also the packages really do have different reactions with different cars so after you add a mod, do a free run and see if that brand name will react well with your particular car and set-up. -- Submitted by The Unknown Player Ok. This may go against all your beliefs, but the best car in the game is the RX-7. If I were to rank the top 3 I would choose: 2. Mazda Miata 3. Honda S2000 The Miata comes in second because it has amazing acceleration, decent top speed, and great handling. The S2000 comes in third because it has great acceleration, a fast top speed, and mediocre handling. By the way, the RX-7 reacts a lot quicker than the Skyline. (I have been able to get an offline 19.05 with the RX-7 by using NOS immediately at the start)-- Submitted by Kramer Some people in the strategy section have found out which cars are the best. The best cars all have one thing in common...they are the rear wheel drive cars! In real life it is extremely hard to drift with a front wheel drive car. Front wheel drive, for reasons unknown to me, have better handling in real life and in the game. My thinking is that if two wheels steer, and the other two wheels drive, you are getting more production from your car. Off the top of my head, the rear wheel drive cars are the Mazda Miata, Mazda RX7, and the Honda S2000. The game doesn't tell you, to my knowledge, which cars are rear wheel, but simple logic will help you. Since the emergency brakes are usually on the rear wheels of your car (in real life), then if you were to try a donut with the emergency brake on, your car would barely make one circle or two. However, if your car will do repeated donuts with the emergency brake on, your car is front wheel drive.&n bsp; Try it for yourself, then I'll bet you the cars that don't do donuts are great in drift, and the cars that can do donuts aren't so great. enjoy :) -- Submitted by mj_bkwrds Just a tip for the people who want to get far in underground. first buy the neon, its the quickest. Keep the neon for a while and keep upgrading it, it goes fast,and gets you very far.I've had it and I have unlocked over 9 cars in 2 days! So keep the neon and upgrade it every time you get an upgrade. -- Submitted by Lamborgini111390 The Eclipse GSX is a 4-WD car, which is the one on underground. I personally think this is the best car for drifts if you pick the 2nd drift track. I have gotten over 315,000 points just from this. Make sure you have all the mods for the Eclipse. Have fun! -- Submitted by Diane When you take "drift" you take the 4th map, there you take "hard" and "10" laps. If you take the angles on the outside and brake in the inside of the angle you can earn a lot of points faster and easier. In "drags" in that orange-brown street you better go on the right lane on the street, because at the end you need to jump over a railway.-- Submitted by LunaticDog The best car in the game is the car that best suits your driving style. Example, the best car for my driving skill in the early stages of the game was the 206, and then later on it was the Impreza, and further on still it was the Acura. And when I tried the Miata,guess what...I was rotten. Try all the cars, find one that suits you and use it, best advice you’ll ever take. -- Submitted by Xeno-Hive I started off with the Peugeot 206. I clearly think that the Eclipse is the best car for Drift racing because of it's acceleration. I earned over 450,000 point in a Drift Race. I think The Acura RSX is the best car for Drag racing. All you have to do is hit those Perfect Shifting Marks and than use Nitros Oxide when you shift to the 4th gear. Thats when all the other cars use their NOS. RSX is also good for other types of races if you can control the car properly. I finished the game with these cars. -- Submitted by Complex Viper If you want to do a very big drift, you should choose the Subaru Impreza. It`s the best car to do drifts, and you should push performance to the maximum. I did 415,000 with this car on the second drift track. Choose 10 laps and try to do the best drift. -- Submitted by Masek If you want to get some extra style points, at the beginning of a race when the girl is waving her hands, if you have NOS then tap the NOS button to get an extra 150 style points. On the style points bar when you finish a race it will come up as NOS purge -- Submitted by civicnation44 When you first start the game, choose the Neon for top speed. You'll have some coin left over, so tune it up as much as possible. After all you want it to look good in the magazine. Do the drag against "Klutch", and win a Lancer. Keep it till you got the Focus. Tune that up and trade in for a Sentra. The sequence then goes like: 240SX, RSX, Skyline. Skyline is truly the ultimate car. It might have crappy handling, but if you're skilled that's great in drift. Drag is my favorite part of the game. I once Dragged with a Skyline (with all level 3 mods) against an RX-7, a Supra, and the 3rd best car in the game, 350Z. The RX-7 and the Supra ate my dust, but Z came in second, 0.87 seconds behind. -- Submitted by Cooldudeshorty Try to do a bit of drafting by going behind another car while racing. This will make your car go faster because there is no air. You also get style points for it. If you want some quick points use a bit of Nitrous at the start before she says go. You get 100 style points for just using a tiny little bit because thats all you need. -- Submitted by Chuba_00 When you want to get a lot of vinyls just go in quick race with the eclipse with all level 3 mods. Take the 6th drift race put it to 10 laps and make the bigger drifts you can. You can have easily 110000 style points. Also try to have a car of 5 star reputation. That will make your style points go to 550000. -- Submitted by APU Here's a tip for the XBOX version of Need for Speed UNDERGROUND. When you pick a vinyl for your car it take you back to the screen where you can pick up to four vinyls. Select the vinyl you chose for your car and press X to change the color of your vinyl. -- Submitted by frost225 This strategy is for circuit and drag - when you drag race, do the nitrous purge at the beginning to 150 points. Then when you get the green rod to get a perfect shift tap the nitrous at the same time and then when you get to fifth gear. Depending whether you have direct port or not start tapping the nitrous because it gives you a better boost that just holding it, but watch how you use it on the cars because some of the engines can't take that much power.-- Submitted by The Love One When you are stuck in a race for long, experiment using other cars. I was stuck with the second lap knockout race with my trusty Miata for like a day or so. I was doing all kinds of mistakes like hitting traffic and spinning from walls. I tried using the Lancer which downgraded my car. I had a much smoother ride and made only a few errors. I also had more confidence in myself. I won by like +1:50:03 or something. The accel and top speeds are bad but the AIs adjust so its all good. I stuck with it for the drift and the drag, which I won with ease. I had like a 50,000 in the Drift track 2. which I wasn't able to do before. I had to change it to the Miata again during the Sprint though cause I made mistakes and the Golf GTI kept running past me. -- Submitted by The Cool Azian We've finished underground mode and and we're now doing ten lap drifts in quick race mode! The best car for drifting is the Subaru but it is best if you down grade the turbo package to street performance that way you get grip but you can also get some insane sliding points! Let the style points keep coming!! -- Submitted by Mark and bEn the game KINGS You can Unlock Melissa's car earlier than normal by beating Kurt with the Mazda RX-7 with all stock performance in the race titled: Kurts Killer Ride I also heard a rumor that u can get his car if u beat him in Hard with the Stock Mazda RX-7. -- Submitted by Vexedconker13 In drag if you start last try to draft cars then hit them in the traffic. -- Submitted by Matija Here's some tips for drag racers: First of all RX-7 is the best car for drag and Skyline comes second. This is how I do my drags . I start off by pressing NOS when the girls waving her arms so you can get 150 more style points. After we start DON'T USE (NOS)for 1st gear it will slow u down, and then start a bit of tapping on the NOS for 2nd gear. Then tap quickly for the 3rd , 4th , 5th , 6th gear. Move your car left and right to give more speed. -- Submitted by Pl@+!uM2 In Drift, try to regulate your throttle use, it is not always best to just jam on the throttle throughout the drift as you do not have as much control as when you regulate the throttle. In rear-wheel drive cars, try letting go of the throttle and steer in the direction you want to go while in a drift, the tires will grip and your car will turn towards that direction, then do it again in the opposite direction and you can get very large drift scores, like 500,000+ which I've done using this technique, by just continuing this technique throughout the track. -- Submitted by DesiThug187 When you are in drag mode if you don't know when the traffic is comming just draft another car until your close to the finish line (works best with NOS!) -- Submitted by KJBF69 If you want some extra style points during a normal race, at the end of the race you can drift (if you are close to the finish line)to the finish line and it will give you extra style points. -- Submitted by Damon_1992 If your a fan of Drift racing, here is a good strategy to winning the hard difficulty mode. Set the performance of your car to the highest level you have reached while maintaining a stock or the lowest setting on those that contribute to handling. For example, set the engine, turbo, drivetrain, ecu and etc. to Level 3 while setting the tires, suspension, weight reduction to stock. This will make your car slide more while maintaining acceleration during turns. It's going to be a bit tricky, but delivers the points you need to win! -- submitted by DAGGER! I play NFSU in the PC, and I have a good tip that my brother used. He's one of those boys who just accelerate, crashing in every turn. I told him to stop accelerating (releasing the car) before easy turns and use the brake (NOT THE HANDBRAKE!) during 90º turns and similar. My brother started doing that and won easily many lap knockouts, sprints and circuits. I NEVER used the handbrake. While drifting, I just used the normal brake to hold in second and third gears. This way, I easily reached the end of the game in normal (to drifts :p) and hard difficulty. -- Submitted by Pedromosm Start with either the Mazda Miata or the Honda civic and complete the first 20 or so races on hard difficulty so you have the cash for later. The 240SX is the better for drift, Skyline or RX-7 for drags and use the RSX for everything else. Why? The RSX has decent acceleration, descent speed but its turning speed and reaction would leave everything else in the dust (especially on tight tracks). Try it. -- Submitted by Adrian Trick out magazine covers! This tip is to get the magazine covers like DUB and the two issues of HOT4's that you need all Unique and Level 3 visual upgrades installed to get. Truth is, you can still get your car to appear the way you want it on these covers, like with Level 2 parts, etc. All you do is install all Level 3 upgrades and all the uniques from Samantha (hood, spoiler, rims, vinyl) on your car, then let the auto-save save your game with the car like this. Then, go back into customize ride and change it back to the way you actually want it to look on the covers. Auto save again, and complete the tournament (Eddie's Posse PT.2) to get you the magazine covers. This is how I got my car on these covers even though I had basic white Level 1 paint. Basically, as long as the game saves at least once with all the requirements on your car, you can change the car back to a lower level look and finish the event to get the magazine covers with a car with all Level 1 parts if you wanted. -- Submitted by Cloud Ever wish you could put 20's on your Mazda Miata? Now you can! When the Nissan 350Z (or the Nissan Skyline) becomes available, trade your Miata for the 350Z and put some 20 inch rims of your choice on the Z. Save it, then trade your car back to the Miata, and you will now have 20's. Make sure the suspension is on level three if you want it to look really sweet. -- Submitted by MoMontesfan88r> If you tap the nitrous button on neutral or before the the race starts, smoke will come out of the sides of the car and you get 150 style points. -- Submitted by Oscar When going into corners its a good idea to stick to the outside and starting to turn to the inside a little earlier which gives you good cornering on high speeds. -- Submitted by Jokeajoke If you want to get really good drift points, go to options before you drift. Set the car's stability control to off and use the handbrake. When you have two turns at a time (especially tight turns in drift, it got me 20,000 or more drift points!), but you can still use the handbrake even if it is only one turn. And if you see the wall coming right at you, turn to the opposite and use the handbrake, for it will get you extra points! -- Submitted by--???? For drifters - Use 17" rim (Level 1) to make easy cars take sharp corners. Because the bigger the rim, the bigger the tire grip on the road. Also, make your car hard to tackle sharp corners at high speeds. With this, I can clear sharp corners using brakes, then shift down to 3rd gear or 4th gear and the car will drift to clear the corner. The car I use is Nissan Sentra & Toyota Celica. Good luck! -- Submitted by Housing2 If you really want to drift, take the Subaru Impreza. It has enough speed for getting over the 200.000+ points in one drift. For the harder tracks downgrade to level two. -- Submitted by bsmail If you pause for a few sec while drifting you will get 999 style points. -- Submitted by Jeudys For drift mode, never use the handbrake because you will lose control of your car. If you want to improve your drift skill, train at Track 2 and don't listen to anyone that said upgrade your car to Level 2 only. Upgrade it to Level 3 and for easier handling, use Mazda Miata. If you stick to my strategy, you will easily get insane drift for 50,000 or drift king for 100,000 points. My best single drift, not total drift, is 249,000 and the time is 1 minute 10 seconds. -- Submitted by wildsevgen I've passed underground mode now on hard difficulty twice, and I will give my opinions on the best cars for each mode. For normal races like Circuit and Sprint, it would be the Skyline. For Drift, I feel it is either the 240SX or the RX-7, but all the front wheel cars in the game (Supra, S2000, 350Z)are great drift cars, once you get used to the touchy front wheel drifting. The Eclipse comes in right behind my top 2 for Drift, as well as the 2 other 4wd cars, the Skyline and Impreza. Drag, no contest-S2000. Don't ask me why,it OWNS the drag track. Other cars that do well in Drag are RSX, Integra, RX-7 and Skyline, but they all bow to the S2000 in this mode. I don't play online, so I don't really know about the rumor the RX-7 is best for online drags, but against the CPU on hard, the S2000 beats all the other cars if driven right. Overall,I feel Skyline is the best car since it is #1 for Circuit and Sprint, plus in the top 3-4 for Drag and Sprint. -- Submitted by CloudFF7Cld Want to be the best all around, eh? Then try this: start a new Underground, using the VW Golf GTI. Beat the game on whatever level YOU can handle and never change cars. Then, once you beat it, start over with the next car in line. Once again, never change cars. Continue this until to you have beaten it 5 times; VW Golf GTI, Mazda Miata MX-5, Peugeot 206, Honda Civic, and the Dodge Neon. After that, start again with the car of your choice, and when you unlock the first car (Mitsubishi Lance ES) trade in for it. Beat the game and never change your car. Continue doing this until you beat the game with virtually every car. If you can do this, you can beat anyone, with any car, any track, anytime. It's not always about the fastest car, or the best handling, it's about you and your ability to adapt and overcome. It's all skill. Ten laps to get 300,000+ points on drift? Come on, what's the longest drift track; I think Track 6? Anyway, select the longest one, put it on four laps, hard or whatever, try to get 100,000+ points per lap. Then your getting somewhere. Hey, this is my strategy, try it for yourself. -- Submitted by Uppity Cracker Wanna do better in drift? Well, here is how you do it. First, get the Suburu Impreza. Then put all of the performance upgrades to level three. Next go to Drift Track 6. When you get to a turn, hold the direction the turn is (DUH!) as you are barely at the front of the turn, tap or press R1 E-Brake.Just follow the turn through and you should score BIG! points.(As long as you don't hit the wall. -- Submitted by JoAPlm Never hold in your brake while trying to turn (unless drifting or power sliding). For instance, when approaching a sharp corner at full speed, don't hold in your brake to get through the corner, otherwise you will just slam right into it. The best is, to tap the break lightly BEFORE you start to turn and use light taps through out the turn if you still feel you are going too fast. This way, you release your front wheels and can make the turn easier. You will most likely have lost a bit of speed once you are through the corner, so just gear down to pick the revs back up. -- Submitted by Secata The best car I have seen is the Acura Integra Type R. Sure, you might think it's kinda slow, but it has the best start of any Circuit or Sprint race. And it's also more stable than the other cars. Also, if you're in hard mode, and you're going against Kurt (Race 108), use the Integra, and then, as he comes in on the side, smash his car against the wall, so he falls behind. I've done this and I always get ahead of him that way, and win. This works against anybody in a 2-driver race, so do it often! --Submitted by SmasherBro The RX-7 is no doubt the best car when you're talking about top speed. I did make easily 236mph in the "14th and Vine" drag racing. But look, to get it, you shall use NOS only when the car is almost in the 6th gear, and then, when it's on 6th, you shall use all the rest. But don't hold the space bar: press and release, repeatedly. Probably, you will blow your engine, but you will see the amazing speed of this car. -- Submitted by Skater.boy For the three million style points, use the Miata MX-5, then the Acura Integra Type-R when it becomes available. Then the Mystikal car also known as the Toyota Celica. Ten laps on Drift 2 can rack you over 100,000 points easily. 30 tries or under and all visual upgrades will be available when you start in underground. -- Submitted by Brandon In the beginning, get the Dodge Neon. It's the fastest. After some upgrades, you should have more cars. Use the one you need most for a certain race. For example: if you need speed for a drag race, trade your current car for a faster one; if you need handling for a drift track, trade your car for one with the best handling; or if you need acceleration for a race, get a car with good exhilaration. You have to save some money so you can do this though because some cars you have to trade with some money. Also, don't buy everything while you're in Underground Mode because you get it all after you beat the game. Only buy what you need for your car. -- Submitted by FlaminNinja454 In Circuit, Sprint, and Knockout modes speed isn't what matters the most. It's already proven that everyone out there on the track has their foot to the floor and they've all got speed out the @$$ (despite what some people on this strategy board are claiming). What matters even more than speed is driving skills and innovation. When you're in a situation where your opponent is faster than you, the only thing you can do is not to let them take the lines that they want to take. Every time your opponent is about to pass you or when you briefly catch up to them pressure them by either nudging them so that they rub against the walls (guaranteed to slow them down) or if you see a car coming, don't let them get out of their lane on your side. Their only choice will be to slow down or change lanes in the other direction (if there isn't a wall there). The third choice is to crash. Most of the time they'll crash and that leaves you free an! d clear (like Sprint). I beat Eddie driving a Golf GTI. Even with all Level 3 mods installed he was still way faster than me but all I had to do was keep rubbing him against walls and at the end of the race I was at the finish line 8+ seconds faster than him. You don't have to keep changing your car to win. Keep your stylish ride and just use your brain to win the races 'cause in real life there would be no way that you could trade in your Civic for a Skyline right before a big race. -- Submitted by Tatiana If you like to use the Mazda Miata like me, then I have a nice tip for you. When you drag you should know that the engine can blow pretty easily at high speeds and gears. To fly past people, try using your NOS(level 3 for best results) in the beginning of the 3rd gear. You get and early lead and end up in a nice 6th gear lead. Then just fly for the rest of the drag and watch your rpm's. Have a blast :) -- |