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Here he is again, and as you might have already guessed, he’s brought back the one characteristic associated with his tracks that he’s known best for – speeeeeeeeeed!! World renown, you might ask? The undisputed king of high-velocity, maybe? I’m not so sure about the former, but I firmly believe he’s the epitome of the latter, and it’s what makes his tracks so very popular.
I’m just going to jump right in on this one if you all don’t mind. I’ve got a few things to highlight here (as well as several more tracks to check out) so I don’t want to mess around. Besides, I just noticed that Mal is starting to review tracks again, so I want to stay two or three steps ahead of him. : )
At the very beginning of this track everything seems perfectly normal and straightforward. But...by the time you’ve rounded the first turn and gone through checkpoint (cp) 2 to start your somewhat “hasty” descent downhill toward a vicious banked left turn, my guess is you’ll be frantically reaching for your glasses (even if you don’t wear em!) because you’re not real sure what to expect on the other side since your view is blocked by a wall. Well, once you’ve made the turn, you immediately notice the serious shortage of headroom due to the way he extended the bank out, coupled by the road above cutting off a significant amount of the excess overhead. There’s definitely room to make it underneath the wooden platform, but at the rate of speed in which you come around that corner, drift wide right just a little and you can forget about wearing hats for a while. I’m normally not the squeamish type, but when I ran this track last night so I could gather my thoughts to write this review, I went around that corner not expecting to see the road cut-off like that. I felt pretty smug taking the rather sharply banked curve at top speed, like a true pro, but the next thing I knew I was literally ducking in an attempt to keep my head from “supposedly” getting ripped off by the wooden overpass. Hehehe—pretty funny stuff (now it is, anyway) actually. I mean, the idea of ducking like that, you know? I felt kind of foolish, but I’m telling you, the sense of urgency to take some sort of evasive action was very real!
The next “attention getter” comes by way of a banked turn just before cp 4 that’s missing a sizeable portion of the road, resulting in kind of a mini jump from one side to the other. If you’ve ever run “Night Graphics” by Alpine you’ll recognize it immediately. It’s somewhat of a risk because you’re traveling at a fairly high rate of speed when your truck becomes airborne. Often times you sacrifice a little control in these tight, hairpin turns anyway, but in a situation such as the one he’s created, it doesn’t take much to send your truck in directions you had no intentions of it going! Hit it just right though and it’s...it’s...well, it’s Michelob time! If you’re under 18 yrs of age, substitute the word “Kool-Aid” for “Michelob”.
On the whole the track is classic Finne: at least one long straight - often times used to build momentum, several sharply banked hairpin curves with a few dips here and there, downhill roller coaster rides that max out your speedometer, and the unmistakable sensation of raw speed through and through. Décor is typically minimal, and that makes sense given the pace of the tracks he puts out; you don’t have time to look at that stuff anyway! I think the community he’s thrown in by the bridges are a little awkward…seemingly out of place, but that’s just me. I do like the tunnel-like structures he used that have the overhead panels. The acoustical effect you get while cruising through them is pretty realistic in my opinion. Very nice touch!
I think this one track, as well as several of his others, should have a warning on the screenshot that reads “WANTED: thrill seeking, speed mongers only; finesse lovers need not apply”. I know Replica Fan is Finne’s go-to guy for testing tracks, and he touts this one as “numero uno” with respect to all the tracks Finne has made. I don’t know if I can make that claim with all the nice stuff this guy has cranked out, but it sure is a nice one! As for the Copey Rating…I gave “Only For Speeding Lunatics" a well-deserved 9 out of 10. I’m going to have to go with 9.5 here for one primary reason: the two elements of danger he’s thrown in make it that much more of a thriller, and if this one doesn’t make you want to fasten your seatbelts halfway thru the ride, I don’t know what will!
Great job, Finne – great to have you back in action, guy!
[This message has been edited by SLO_COPE (edited 29-04-2002).]
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