Are Mario Kart 8 Cars Faster? Yes, With the Right Build
As an avid Mario Kart 8 player and fan of the series for over 10 years, I can definitively say that yes – you can make your kart blisteringly fast in MK8 if you optimize your build properly. Let‘s dive deep into the many intricacies of speed in MK8 to see how it‘s possible to dominate the track with sheer velocity.
Coin Collection Provides a Speed Boost
Collecting coins during a race boosts your top speed cap, maxing out at 10 coins collected. Here‘s the speed gain from coins:
| Coins | Speed Boost |
| 0 coins | No boost |
| 1 coin | 0.294% boost |
| 2 coins | 0.764% boost |
| 10 coins | 3.647% boost |
As you can see, a full 10 coins gives nearly a 4% total speed boost – very significant in competitive play.
Character Weight Dramatically Impacts Speed
Heavier character classes have higher possible speed, but lower acceleration and handling. Here‘s a comparison:
| Light Class | Medium Class | Heavy Class | |
| Speed | 3.25 | 3.5 | 4.75 |
| Acceleration | 4 | 3.5 | 3 |
| Handling | 4.25 | 4 | 3.25 |
Heavyweights like Wario and Bowser can reach much higher speed caps, at the cost of sluggish acceleration.
Kart/Tire/Glider Combinations For Max Speed
Here are some builds I‘ve had success with in Time Trials to push speed limits:
Wario/Circuit Special/Slick/Cloud Glider
- Top Speed: 4.875
- Acceleration: 2.5
Bowser/Biddybuggy/Roller/Wario Wing
- Top Speed: 4.75
- Acceleration: 3
These maximize speed, while retaining just enough acceleration to still be competitive.
Maintaining Speed with Advanced Techniques
Top players use techniques like fire hopping and demon sliding to maintain high speed throughtechnical portions of tracks.
Fire hopping involves hopping between left and right drifts to build mini-turbos off-road without losing velocity. Demon slides allow racers to release mini-turbos beyond the normal limit to prolong speed boosts.
These physics exploits take hundreds of hours of practice to perfect!
The Complex Meta of Competitive Time Trials
In the competitive MK8 time trial scene, the top runners don‘t just use straight speed builds. Instead, they analyze each track to determine the optimal stats and strats.
Some tracks have routes faster with lower speed but higher mini-turbo efficiency. Other tracks have major off-road sections where heavier builds lose too much speed. So customization for each track is key.
Balancing Speed vs Other Stats
While speed focused builds dominate Time Trials, more balanced kart configurations perform better in offline and online play.
Higher acceleration, handling, and traction make it easier to recover from mistakes. And lighter characters lose less speed off-road – critical in chaotic races.
From my experience, I believe a middle ground build optimized for your playstyle is ideal for consistent winning.
The Need For Speed!
As a lover of high velocity racing games like F-Zero, I‘m drawn to cranking up speed stats in Mario Kart. And MK8 provides so many options for doing so!
Hopefully this detailed guide has provided some insight into maximizing your kart‘s speed capabilities. Just don‘t sacrifice too much or you‘ll be left in the dust accelerating from standstill each race!
