Newb Question

Racing is frustration...I'm not expecting to make money, so not a thing. I'd just like to PLACE in the top 3, so I can earn upgrade points. I cannot seem to do better than 4th place with a stock car, so cannot get upgrade points.





Am I missing something, or is it just a roll of the dice if I place against other stock cars?

It's a massive grind, keep on trying and racing. Your driver skill keeps on rising and that might just be your ticket for 3rd place.
PM me if you still need some questions answered about racing. :)

Thanks, Mikk. Much appreciated!

You ideally do not want to be buying upgrades until Class A due to the fact that when you hit Class A, you hit almost the entire racing community with skills ranging from 4.83 to over 20, almost all with fully upgraded cars.



It takes a while but you can easily get to Class A without spending a point, it just takes time. Of note, given how most tracks are, I have the most luck focusing on cars with the best handling in Class while rising through the classes. I am now at Driver skill 10.2 with over 400 spare racing points.

That's pretty good advice.

Trying to reach A class while spending no points is going to be very, very frustrating. It's also completely un-necessary.

You do need to save points so that when you reach A class, you have enough points available to fully upgrade your first A class car. (Not counting safety upgrades, which aren't useful.) 269 points will do that.

To reach A class, you will need to have earned 475 points. So that's 206 points you can use on lower class cars and still have the 269 you need for your first A class car.

You can easily get through E class spending no points, and I think at most, you should spend 1 point, on the stripout. Even that one isn't necessary.

Each time you move up a level, you can spend the points you earned in the previous class. So when you move to D, you can spend the points you earned in E. (25 points.) You might save a point or two, which will help later. Then when you move to C class, you spend the points you earned in D, again, possibly saving a few points for later.

When you move from C to B, you gain an additional 150 points, and you should save about 50 of those. That gives you 100 points for your B class car, with 50 points left over. Going from B class to A class will earn you another 225 points. That 225 plus the 50 you saved when you hit B gives you 275 points - enough to do the full upgrades on your A class car with a few points left over. It's nice to have a few extras when you make a plan, because if you wreck along the way, or early after reaching A class, you may need them.

If you try to spend no points upgrading cars until A, then you're going to go through E class with no problem, D class will be slow, and around C you're going to hit a wall, hard. You might eventually do it, but it'll take a very long time. And the B class would be worse yet.

You do need to plan ahead, so you'll have points for your next level and so you'll have 269 points when you reach A class. But refusing to upgrade cars until A class doesn't make much sense.

I've been testing the no upgrade but the strip out prior to your post, and my results are hit or miss. I could get 1st one race, last the next. I'm assuming that's more due to driver skill. So, I see a possible balance....continue to lose races, don't move up in points or class, but my driver rating goes up. Eventually spent points, hit class A with a high skill level and eventual points too.



Am I incorrect?

In E class, you can do no upgrades, or you can spend 1 point on the strip out. Either way will get you through E class. Spending that one point may speed it up slightly.

There is a lot of randomness in any given race. I've beat people who had double my driver skill, and lost to people with far, far lower driver skill. Skill helps, but there is always a large random factor.

In E class, everyone has low driver skill and few have many upgrades to their cars. People who have upgraded their cars will quickly move to D class.

So if you don't upgrade at all, you'll still gain points. (If you couldn't gain points without upgrades, you would never earn that first point to even have the option of doing the stripout upgrade.)

As you move up to higher levels, the randomness will continue. Luck is always a factor. But the people with upgrades on their cars are going to have the odds weighted in their favor. I suspect you could get through D with only the stripout, but I think if you tried it in C class, you would get stuck. I could be wrong. Maybe with enough time, enough races, then your driver skill would grow enough to help, and the luck factor would give you some 1st-3rd finishes and you would eventually make it to B, but I suspect it would take so long that most people would give up and make a new plan.

Trying to reach A class without spending any points is essentially saying "I want to do it the hard way". There isn't any reason for it.

Seems someone did the math.

+1 for added detail. Useless to me now, but great for newcomers.

Guess I just had extra difficulty for slightly inaccurate advice given to me.

The problem is, if you reach class A quickly with only enough points to upgrade one car, you probably get there with low DS.

Hence you will need a lot of luck to place and gain additional points before you crash. And if you crash and can't replace the missing parts, you'll be in trouble.

So spend SOME pts in lower classes (definitely in class B, not sure about class C) but only what's needed to get in the first 3 places on some races.


PS: and in class B use the Sierra Cosworth: you'll need it for Mudpit also in class A, so those points are not "wasted".

Just to expand on Baldr's excellent information above, and share a data point from my experience.



Class E - I bought the Renault Clio and used 1 point to upgrade. It took me 31 races to move up to D.

Class D - I bought the Toyota MR2 and used 8 points to upgrade. It took me 152 races to move up to C.

Class C - I bought the Corvette and used 60 points to upgrade. It took me 72 races to move up to B.

Class B - I bought the Mustang and used 134 points to upgrade. It took me 134 races to move up to A.

Class A - I bought the Honda NSX and fully upgraded with 169 points. I'm currently slogging my way through to the 250 win merit (while fully upgrading several other cars along the way for use on the various dirt tracks).



None of the above is meant as a recommendation - just data points so people can see what they might be in for. I'm sure many have done this faster and more efficiently than I.

Good stuff. I'm currently in class C with a slightly modified BMW doing pretty well. If those numbers hold true, I'll a good way to class B.

So, just a little over 5 weeks ago, I made the initial post. I'm about halfway through class B, based on accrued points. Here's how I've been doing it, and it seems to have worked out well:

Class E - Honda Civic, spent 8 pts. entered 29 races, won 5

Class D - Toyota MR2, spent 28 pts. entered 74 races, won 12

Class C - BMW Z8, spent 65 pts. entered 76 races, won 24

Class B - Sierra Cosworth, spent 144 pts. enetered 54, won 22 (so far)



Class B is where I spent all I earned from the previous class into the new vehicle. I noticed an immediate result. As you can see from my wins compared to races entered. Of the 32 where I haven't won, I've placed all but 5 times.