F-Zero Central Staff Ghost - Drift Highway Course Guide

Drift Highway
Photon Cannon-G4 uses the Optical Wing body. It has decent grip though it will drift if you stick turn too quickly in boosting speeds. And it has a pretty good MTS as well, which could definitely be abused more than what I shown in this run.

Quick Star-G4 has the WR in this course. If you’re able to handle it or want to learn how to MTS with it definitely do give it a try. Fat Shark is an alternative if you don’t want to MTS too much but still want to set a good time. I would say that unless you know how to MTS chain and TS chain, Fat Shark is preferable over Gallant Star. And there’s always Black Bull but knowing how to MTS and MTS chain well is required for it to be faster than the other machines (except Quick Star)

Lap 1
I only did a single MTS on the hair pin turn (third turn), but you can do a MTS on every turn aside from the first turn and the tricky S turn/chicane. For turn 2, with Photon Cannon or Fat Shark, you want to hit the boost plate, preferably with a quick turn and then do a MTS. With Quick, you can start a MTS immediately before hitting the boost plate.

Not much to say about doing the MTS entering the second tunnel right after the mini drop. Exit the MTS without crashing and in a way that puts you in a good position for the tricky chicane. You can also MTS the last turn, but you’ll need fairly precise positioning when exiting the MTS to hit the first boost plate.

Hit all 3 boost plates. Try to hit the edge of as many of them as you can. Dive down and MT right before you begin to level the machine.


Laps 2 and 3
If you’re using Fat Shark, Quick Star or Black Bull, doing a MTS on the first turn is likely faster. For the machine I’m using, I’m not so sure. Don’t use a boost before this turn 1 MTS.

There are basically two ways you can approach boost laps in this track. One is to build up and keep your speed up by not MTSing most of the turns. This method is more suitable for Fat Shark, but it works just as well for the other machines, besides Fat Shark.

The second approach is to MTS most or every turn. Make sure to boost after every MTS.

Once I enter the second tunnel I didn’t boost until I reach the refiller, but you certainly can boost before the chicane provided you can avoid crashing during the tricky left right turn. Or you can boost right after you make it through those two quick turns.

Now for the refiller, if you were using Fat Shark or another machine where you don’t MTS much with, you are likely low in energy, flashing red by now or very close to it. While you can try to either hit the first and last boost plates or speed through the refiller, I would advise against that since you wouldn’t recover as much energy as you can. You will run out of boost before you reach the second tunnel on lap 3 if you don’t utilize MT or MTSing to conserve some of your energy. Running out of energy at that point will cost you a lot of time.

One quick thing to note, at the jump at the very end of the lap, you definitely want to dive down right away. You also want to be careful and not hit the rod on the left side, especially if you took the refiller on the left side.

If you do decide to not recover as much energy than you could have, you can save a boost by MTing the landing of the jump instead of boosting, and then doing a MTS on turn 1. Then afterwards you can boost again and perhaps delay use of another boost by MTSing either or both of the next two turns

If you do decide to recover most or all of your energy, then you can use your boost much more aggressively. If you can, definitely MTS at least the first turn. After that, if you’re using Fat Shark or a machine that doesn’t have a good MTS, just boost the rest of the way. With the machine I’m using (or a similar machine), it’s a close call whether it’s better MTS or not on any of the remaining turns. I’m sure hitting the first boost plate, and then shortly after that doing a mini MTS would save some time.

If you’re using Quick Star, then you do want to MTS every turn since its MTS is incredibly fast.

To finish the run, try to hit at least the first and last boost plates and pick up some energy to end the run with a boost into a MTS/MTRS. I tried to do that but it didn’t really work out for me that time.

That tricky quick left right turn might be tough to avoid crashing at first, but once you get the timing down for that, it’s a fairly simple, but narrow’ish course. Avoid the walls and boost well and you’ll get sub 1 minute on this course.