Platform: NTSC PS2 is fastest, then you have Emulator NTSC and PAL PS2 which are quite close to each other. It's unclear how fast NTSC PS1 and PAL PS1 are, but they are probably quite slower than PAL PS2. High 54s are possible on emulator(and possibly on PAL PS2 too), so it should prevent you from running this game). Enable fast disc speed before launching the game if you're on PS2. After launching the game, start and quit a championship before starting a run. It will save around 2 seconds on the first loading screen for some reason.
Car: Fastest one is the Golf. You can still probably be somewhat competitive with the other ones though. Renault is unavailable on NTSC unfortunately.
Service:
NZ 3: Wet Grooves Greece 1: Good Acceleration Monte Carlo 1: Good Acceleration Sweden 2: Good Acceleration Corsica 1: Good Acceleration(you may prefer to skip that one, it's up to you)
Don't repair unless you got significant damage(ie: you crashed somewhere). Sometimes your car may make a strange whizzing noise at random moments, but we believe it's just a minor sound glitch, don't worry about it.
Menuing: You have to manually select "no" every time the game asks you if you want to save(which is at the end of every stage on novice). Failing to do so will cost you around 7-8 seconds. It's a very common mistake, don't worry if you don't get right the first run.
Major shortcuts: NZ 1(sector 7), NZ 3(sector 7), Australia 2(sector 3; 6 and 8 ), Australia 3(sector 7) These are very optional, unless you are going for a 54 or a low 55, don't worry with anything other than NZ 1 and Australia(sector 3 and 6 only).
General driving tips: This game allows for a huge slip angle without scrubbing speed. Which means that big slides are usually faster than a more conventional wheels in line driving style. This, however, requires early and confident corner entries, which in turns means you need to have a good track knowledge to go fast. Grip varies greatly depending on track surface. Sometimes track surface may change many times in a single stage(ie, Monte Carlo 1). Once again, track knowledge is key.
