Hints & Tips

Use the handbrake

Good use of the handbrake is really essential to winning races in Hot Chix 'n Gear Stix! The handbrake, while slowing your car down, allows you to power slide into corners, helping you to take the fastest line through them.

Although your car will power slide automatically if you steer into a bend for too long, using the handbrake has the advantage that it will get you into a power slide almost as soon as you activate it. This affords you greater control of your vehicle.

How to control a power slide

When power sliding, Hot Chix simulates what happens when a real car starts to go out of control. As the back end of your car swings out, you can control the slide by steering left and right. In general steering into the skid will stop the car sliding, while steering away will make the car slide even more dramatically.

Therefore the typical course of action in a power slide might be:

• Start turning into a corner
• Tap the handbrake to start power sliding
• When the car is facing the right direction, pull out of the slide by steering into the slide

Why not practice power sliding in the time trial mode?

Short cuts

There are a variety of alternative routes you can take around the tracks. Use these to your advantage. Sometimes the short cuts are more difficult to negotiate than the normal route, but even in these cases they can prove to be quicker, since the other Chix are less likely to take the detour, and you'll have a clearer stretch of road ahead of you.

Getting bumpers locked

If you ram a car from behind, your bumpers may get locked. If this occurs, you may find that the car you're stuck to controls your direction! To get out of this sticky situation, tap the handbrake, but make sure you're ready for the power slide this will cause.

Use the other cars to negotiate corners

If you're feeling sneaky, you can use other cars to help you take a more aggressive racing line round a corner. To do this, you need to power slide into the side of a car level with you while steering round a corner. You should try to be slightly in front of the other car when you collide, and if successful, you'll not only take the corner more tightly, but you may even force the other car off the road!

Keeping up speed

You need to maintain speed at all times. The Chix's muscle cars are heavy beasts, and take time to reach their top speeds, so try and stick to the fastest route round the circuits, and use the handbrake to power slide round corners, rather than using the brakes.

Ramming and blocking

The other Chix in the game can get pretty aggressive - but after all, they're trying to win too! Be careful when colliding with other cars - if they're ahead of you, you'll get penalised and lose some speed.

A good strategy is to block other cars trying to overtake you. Even if they do collide with your bumper, it'll only make you go faster!

Good positioning and the racing line

The racing line is usually gained by apexing the inner part of a corner. To do this in practice, you should approach the corner on the opposite side of the track - ie if it's a left turn, approach on the right. Right at the start of the bend, start turning into the corner, applying the handbrake so you start to slide.
Try to keep facing the track as you slide, and accelerate out of the corner.

Good luck!