Nero Angelo's Guide to Maintaining Speed

Okay, I dont have the same lap times as Vapor, but I think Im qualified enough to talk or write come info about this. Seeing how Psychedlic asked this question a couple of days ago, I will try to help and put what I know for you all to see. If your not convinced however, that Im qualified to write this, here are a few of my times:

1. Eastern Bay Long Reverse: 1.43.01

2. White Mmountain Forward: 1.41.68

3. Motor City Long Reverse: 1.07.81

4. Eternal City Long Reverse: 1.19.66

5. Eastern Bay Upper Link Forward: 1.02.31

I could write more times here but I think that is enough. These are just a few times I have. I have other good ones. Look up Nero Angelo and One Incognito on the Lap Time Leaderboards for Revenge.

First things first, if anyone ever tells you that you cannot gain anymore skill because you have played this game for such a long time, I think that is utter BS. I know players who werent so fast before and now they are setting lap times in the top 50 fastest laptimes in the Burnout leaderboards. The key is to think outside the box. If your not getting top 100 laptimes tell yourself now, EVERYTHING Im doing is a mistake. Step back a bit, and re-ponder your situation. Obviously your doing something wrong. Step back and lets reorganize again ok?

RUN 1:1 RACES, run your best track or what you feel is comfortable. Run it and look carefully at your speedometer. More importantly and for best results, run 1:1 with someone who will let you hang back a bit. No im not talking about 3 miles behind. A good 0.2 miles behind is enough for you to maintain speeds especially in a 1:1 match. Look at your speed carefully, if you see that you are not maintaining speeds at 220 throughout the race, you did something wrong. Find out where you lost that speed at. Maybe there was a bump there that you forgot or didnt see to drift on before. The person in the front should be able to maintain 220 as well. In rooms like that there should be no handicap whatsoever. The key is to spot areas where your having problems at. Also running 1:1 races means that you have little to worry about and more on you focusing on what mistakes your making. If anyone ever tells you that doing 1:1 races because of fast lap or for laptimes is stupid and doesnt help, that is utter garbage. It actually does help. How does it help? You get used to the speed and more importantly you get used to seeing where and what your doing right and wrong. You get used to maintaining higher speed levels. If anyone ever tells you that anyone can get these fast laps and maintaining speed in the back, think again because its a lot harder than people think.

CLEAN DRIFTING. A better explanation of clean drifting is that it is a turn where you maintain your speed constantly or gain speed while drifting. Most people dont really uinderstand what Im talking about because when they look at their speedo they see that they come out at 220mph after the drift. Look again carefully this time. Why? Because most people brake boost rather than clean drift. So what is brake boosting? Brake boost is when you hold your brake at a turn, so that your speeds goes to 180-190mph, and then they boost out at 220mph. Brake boosting is used only in really sharp turns such as the Eternal City Shortcut. Most people dont realize this because they are so used to it. Learn to stop doing that. Learn to just tap your brake so that when your drifting, your just drifting and your speed is maintained throughout the turn. A really good clean drift will not only maintain your speed, it will also gain you 1-5mph on the turn. Wherever you brake boosted before, learn to change that and learn to clean drift there instead. Most of the tracks can be clean drifted as 80-90% of their turns can be clean drifted.

TRAFFIC AND WALLS AND OTHER RACERS: Quite simply, learn not to hit anything. The moment you hit anyone of these your speed will decrease and believe me in lap time leaderboards, even one simple mistake will break your lap time. That could mean all the difference. If your in the back and your not handicapped, just learn to pass other racers rather than taking them down. You gain boost by taking them down, but if your in the back you dont need to gain boost anyways as your bar fills up quicker. If you try to go after them, your going to lose more time going after them rather than passing them. Your going to bring your speed down fast. Never ever traffic check. People say that you gain more speed by traffic checking in certain places, but the reality is no. Dont traffic check even if you think your going to get better speeds because the fact is, your speed decreases to 190 at a traffic check and even if you brake boost after it, you still lose .20 of a second. Clean drift through turns by and do not hit walls. Drift as close to a wall as possible, but never ever touch it.

BOOST JUMPS/DRIFT JUMP: This one is important at higher levels of play. Boost jumping will definitely get you past a person. But you got to know how to boost jump first. I recommend reading Vapors boost jumping guide or looking at Ivor's guide. There are specific ways to boost jump because certain jumps require certain jumps for best results. Like as an Example, MC SF first jump has a boost jump where you slow your car to 209 before th eramp, boost, then drift at the ground to get the best speeds, whereas in CRLF the first jump has a drift jump where your slow your car down to 209, boost and drift before the ramp, so that when you land down you only press left or right on the stick to get better speeds. Learn to use which method is best for a certain ramp. I think that this isa key thing to master and just as important to the first two that I stated. I think the first focus on mastering should be on the drifting and not hitting anything first rather than boost jumping or boost drifting. Boost Jumping and Boost Drifting is important as the higher speeds you get, the easier it will be to maintain your speed.

BUMPS AND HARRIERS: One of the biggest things that races overlook is the bump in the road. The fact is there are many bumps in the road that people forget to drift on. Eastern Bay Long Forward is a great example of this. Drift on every bump, even the smallest one because if done correctly, you gain or maintain speed by drifting on bumps. There are several bumps that can be harriered as well. To do a harrier, go to a bump on the road. A good example is White Mountain Reverse after the first turn on the broken bridge to the left, there is a bump there that can be harriered. If you do the harrier properly there you could go all the way down that road at 235mph. There are two ways to do a harrier. First on your way to a bump, hold your boost and brake at the same time while holding left or right on that track. You will the the top half of your car lift and then the other half lift so that when you land you perform a boost boost jump. The second harrier is a quick left/right drift then follow by a quick drift in the opposite direction. Take for example, if I do a quick drift left, I will then follow it up by a quick drift right. This is forcing a harrier through certain bumps on the road. Dont be afraid to try these harriers out on bumps on the track. They will get you the much needed speed. For more info on how to harrier, boost jump, and boost drift look at the xbox forums for information. 

BOOST CONSERVATION VS USAGE: How do racers catch up? How do you maintain your distance in the front? Mainly through conservation and use. If your in the back, utilize that boost. Whenever Im in the back, I always have my boost on as it helps me turn. I only let go of it when I do a boost jump or boost drift. I hold my boost even when Im clean drifting as it makes it so much easier for me. In the front it is different. This is the very first thing that I learned when I played Revenge. The reason why players catch up so quick is because people in the from tend not to conserve their boost. When up front, learn to limit your boosting that way you gain boost. Everyone knows alrwady to go onto incoming yes? We already know that you should jump as much ramps and drift as much as you  can right? What many people however dont know is that after you do a boost jump, boost drift, or harrier up front and your carrying 220mph plus speeds, let go of your boost the moment you land down. You gain boost over time and you gain boost on that jump while your speed is still up there. So up front your traveling at 220mph+ without using your boost. You ONLY use boost when your below 209. When your above 209, dont use boost. Below 209, use boost to maintain speed at 209. See the picture? If your doing this and your up front and even if the last person is three miles behind you, your still traveling at 209. Why? because your partitioning the boost and only reserving it for when it is below 209. If you did everything correctly and went on oncoming, dodged all traffic, took all jumps, drifted all drifts, while partitioning your boost, I guarantee you that by the third lap you will still have 50% to 70% of your boost bar filled even if its just one bar of boost. Learn to partition your boost in the front.

THE DROP DOWN: Many racers also tend to lose a lot of their speed during drop downs because they dont know how to drop down a ramp correctly. The only thing that I could say is that you have to learn what to properly do in a drop down situations. I will give this situation, after youve drift jumped from the CR LF first ramp from the starting point, you will hit speeds of 250-268mph. But because your going on such a fast speed already, it would be much more appropriate for you to just drop down by tapping my brake rather than holding it and drifting on the way down. Just tap the brake and dont hold it. That way you can carry your speed at 247-230mph to the right shortcut. But look at your speed before any drop downs. If you know that there is a drop down that you can get better speeds than what your running at, then I suggest that you should hold your brake to boost jump on the way down. A good example is Sunshine Keys Forward at the very end of the track at the bridge where you could drop down to the right. If your going at 220mph already, you could hold your brake to 209mph and drop down and boost jump on the way down to hit speeds of 240 to the finish line. Also Eternal City Short R on the drop down at the start of the race is another good example. If you hold your brake and boost jump on the way down, you will hit speeds of 240+ to the straightaway. Make sure to bring it down to 209, otherwise you will not maximize your speed. Look at your speedo carefully because how fast your going before the drop down determines what you should do, whether to just tap your brake or to hold it to get the best speeds out of that drop down. On smaller bumps and inclines on the road, not those large drops, just drift down. On Eastern Bay LF or LR, there are tons of bumps and inclines, so when your on top of that bump just drift down and your speed will be maintained. Dont forget that other tracks have small bumps and inclines that you can drift down from.

TRY OUT SOMETHING NEW: More importantly dont be afraid to change your routes, your drift, your boost jumping. Everytume I play the game, I always look for something new that I could do. Better yet, look carefully at what other racers are doing because many times you will see them take a different route or a different jump that you have never seen before. Just a couple of weeks ago while Going in Eastern Bay LF, I was watching Waterball go through a quick left turn in the tunnel just before the shortcut to the right going up hill. I decided to go that way on the next pass. I crashed multiple times, but ultimately I got used to going that way and guess what? it gained me 100ft. Now that you at least have a much clearer idea of how to maintain your speed, try to adjust your game and do something different in your usual route. Change your drift, change your jump, do a drift over a new bump.

Take it one day at a time. You will fail a lot, you will crash a lot, but it should only serve to help you improve and get faster.