Vehicle races

The vehicle race is a second game mode inside the same /race command. Each arena hands out one vehicle: the motocross bike, the go-kart, the F1 car or the ATV. They all share the controls and the core physics. The go-kart, the F1 and the ATV form the kart family: the Mario Kart layer runs on top, and each of the three has its own tuning.

/race create <name> car     # motocross bike
/race create <name> kart    # go-kart
/race create <name> f1      # F1 car
/race create <name> atv     # ATV (quad bike)

The motocross bike

A 41-part display model with a steering fork that turns and leans into the corner and both wheels rolling with your speed. The engine sound revs with speed, tyres screech and smoke on hard cornering, and boosts light up flames.

The go-kart

• A 38-part kart in the racer’s grid colour: sidepods with racing stripes, nose with a number plate, hood, rear wing, twin exhausts.
• Real steering: the front wheels turn on their own kingpins and the butterfly steering wheel turns in the driver’s hands.
• All four wheels roll with your speed, the smaller front pair a little faster.
• The driver sits low in the seat, legs under the hood. The kart’s carrier is scaled down so the driver sits at kart height, and the third-person camera keeps its normal distance.
• Boost flames come out of the exhausts and the brake light glows on the rear bumper.
• Kart arenas are two blocks wider than bike arenas (car.track-width + 2, or 9 against 7 on a TEKNIK circuit), so three karts fit side by side on the grid.

The F1 car

New in 1.5.0.

• A 41-part open-wheel single seater in the racer’s grid colour: a front wing with endplates, a long nose with a number plate, sidepods with air inlets, the airbox and engine cover, a rear wing with endplates and its DRS flap, a diffuser, and the halo around the cockpit.
• Real steering: the front wheels turn on their own kingpins. All four wheels roll with your speed, the bigger rear pair on its axle.
• The driver sits deep in the tub, chest and helmet out under the halo. The carrier is scaled to 0.15 for that.
• 3.57 blocks long and 1.66 wide. F1 arenas get the kart width rules. On a TEKNIK circuit the grid rows are 4.2 blocks apart, so the long cars never overlap.

The ATV

New in 1.5.0.

• A 41-part quad bike in the racer’s grid colour: front and rear fenders with flares, a hood with headlights, front and rear racks, a straddle seat, footrests, a bumper and an exhaust.
• Real steering: the handlebar turns on its raked steering column and the front wheels on their own kingpins. All four knobbly tyres roll with your speed.
• The fenders and racks sit above the spinning tyres, so the tread never shows through the bodywork.
• 2.26 blocks long and 1.58 wide, a kart’s footprint on the grid.

Controls

Fully manual, no auto-drive:

Key	Action
W	Gas / accelerate
S	Brake / reverse
A / D	Steer left / right
SHIFT	Bike and F1: handbrake. Kart and ATV: Mario Kart drift (hold while steering)
SPACE	Kart and ATV: use the held item (S + SPACE throws a green shell backwards). F1: open the DRS

Kart arenas: Mario Kart driving

Everything in this section applies to kart, ATV and F1 arenas, each with its own values; bikes keep the classic handling. The kart’s values are in the kart: section of config.yml, and the F1 and ATV can override any of them (f1: and atv:).

• Drift and mini-turbo (kart and ATV). Hold SHIFT and steer at speed: the vehicle locks into a drift toward that side, its nose pointing into the corner. Steering into the drift tightens it and charges it fastest, steering away widens it, and you keep nearly all your speed. The sparks turn blue, then orange; let go of SHIFT for a mini-turbo, longer and stronger after orange, and you shoot off where the nose points. Hitting a wall, spinning out or slowing down too much ends the drift with no boost. With the drift on, SHIFT is only the drift button: brake with S.
• Slipstream. Tuck in close behind another vehicle going the same way to charge a draft (shown next to the speedometer). Charged, you run a higher top speed; pull out to the side for a short slingshot.
• Surfaces. Grass run-off and gravel traps slow you down, so running wide costs time. On TEKNIK circuits, boost pads, oil and mud are on the road too (see Hazards).
• Steering at speed. At full speed a kart turns on a radius of about 12.7 blocks, a bike on 9.7, so a hairpin wants a lift or a drift.
• A cap on stacked boosts. Turbo, star, mini-turbo and slipstream stack up to 1.55 times the normal top speed (kart.max-boost-multiplier), so the vehicle stays drivable.

F1 arenas: DRS and F1 handling

The F1 runs on the kart physics with its own tuning (the f1: section):

• Faster: 1.15 times the top speed and 1.12 times the acceleration of car.*.
• No items and no Mario Kart drift. SHIFT is the bike’s handbrake, SPACE is the DRS button. With powerups.enabled, F1 arenas get the classic power-ups.
• DRS on the main straight. Entering the straight through the finish line is the detection point: if another car is at most 24 blocks ahead along the track, DRS arms (from lap 2) and the speedometer shows it. Press SPACE to open the flap for 1.10 times the top speed until you brake, stop, hit a wall or reach the end of the zone. One opening per pass. The zone runs from just after the last corner to 10 blocks before the first braking point.
• A stronger tow: the slipstream gives 1.15 times the top speed and works from up to 18 blocks back.
• Track limits that cost time: grass slows an F1 to 0.55 of its top speed and gravel to 0.35.
• Braking points: flat out, an F1 turns on a radius of about 17 blocks, wider than the tightest corners of a circuit (13.9), so you brake into them. That is where the overtakes happen.
• The speedometer reads like an F1: its scale (f1.hud-kmh-multiplier, 4.5) puts the top speed near 320 km/h. Cosmetic only.

ATV arenas: off-road tuning

The ATV keeps the whole Mario Kart package of the kart (items, drift and mini-turbo, slipstream) with its own tuning (the atv: section):

• Off-road tyres: grass slows an ATV to 0.92 of its top speed, gravel to 0.80 and mud to 0.88, against 0.65, 0.45 and 0.55 for a kart. Cutting across the run-off costs far less.
• Torque over top speed: 0.95 times the top speed, 1.08 times the acceleration.
• A little sharper: flat out it turns on a radius of about 11.5 blocks.
• Made for TEKNIK circuits with hazards: /race create <name> atv teknik engel.

Built to scale

Handling

The core vehicle physics are tunable in the car: section of config.yml and apply to every vehicle; karts add the kart: section above, and the F1 and the ATV their own f1: and atv: sections:

• Grip vs drift: the travel direction chases the nose at car.grip-degrees; on a bike or an F1, holding SHIFT drops it to car.drift-grip-degrees, and the big gap is what makes long drifts.
• Ice is faster: the ICE theme uses car.ice-max-speed and is slippery.
• Power-ups act on vehicle physics: SPEED/DASH boost the vehicle, and a SLOW trap slows the target’s vehicle. Kart and ATV arenas use items instead.
• Optional speed upgrade: car.speed-upgrade multiplies top speed and acceleration for every vehicle (off by default).
• Vehicle circuits are always flat, with run-off on both sides. See The circuits.

See the full list in the config.yml reference.

Next: Kart items.