Golden Lap – Basic Guide (Traits, Cars and Races)

In Golden Lap you will Step into the polished shoes of a racing team manager in the heart-stirring Golden Era of motorsport where every decision can lead to glory or gravel.

Guide to Basics

Introduction

Before you jump into the game it would be wise to give this guide a read to better understand the various mechanics and elements that you will encounter during your time in Golden Lap, or if you would rather play as soon as possible, keep it at arms length in case you encounter something that requires explanation.

Game Modes

The game offers two ways to play:

• Career – Step into the shoes of a Team Manager and his newfound team with the goal of leading it amongst the best of the best. Compete in multiple races, upgrade or build new cars, watch as your team members improve, succeed or fail. All depends on your decisions throughout the championship.
• Quick Race –  Compete in a single race with a limited starting budget and see what results you can achieve!

Choosing a Team

Whether you’re playing Career or Quick Race, the first thing you’ll be prompted to do is to choose your team. 

Different teams start with different budgets, they function as the game’s “difficulty” setting. You will find yourself having an easier time if you begin with the more famous teams rather than the opposite.

Building your Team

After choosing your team you will find yourself in the Preseason screen; here you will be able to choose your Drivers, Engineers and Crew Chiefs, as well as your Car Design.

Let’s go over these to see how to make smart decisions when building your team:

• Drivers – You can select two drivers from a list; their statistics consist of Speed (influences total speed) and Focus (influences the chances of a good lap and decreases the chances of a crash)
• Engineers – You can select a single Lead Engineer from a list; they affect car part improvements and performance of parts built. Their statistics consist of Expertise (primarily affects performance of parts built) and Precision (primarily affects reliability of parts built)
• Crew Chiefs – You can select a single Crew Chief from a list; they affect pit stop times and resource consumption. Their statistics consist of Skill (mainly affect pit time) and Focus (mainly affects pit success rate)

Traits

All crew members, from both your team and others, can receive Traits throughout their career; they can either have a duration or be permanent.

They can have a positive or negative effect based on the Trait. All team members start with at least one trait.

Cars Parts and Design

Your car consists of three distinct parts, here’s what they are and what they do:

• Engine: Affects car acceleration.
• Handling: Affects car braking and cornering speed.
• Chassis: Affects total speed.

Each car part has a set reliability, throughout the race it will gradually decrease; when it reaches a low enough number it can result in the part breaking and possibly causing a crash. To replenish a car part’s reliability you must repair it during a Pit or upgrade it in the garage between races. Garage upgrades also improve max reliability and part performance, but cost money.

When building a car you can choose from different base designs; they are as follows:

• Conservative: A more consistent and economic choice, they have lower stats and their range is narrow.
• Experimental: A more costly and risky choice, their stats vary heavily based on the team’s Engineer.
• Balanced: A middle ground between the previous two.

Qualifying and Races

Events are divided into Qualifying and Races:

• Qualifying – A smaller-scale event that will determine the order cars will be lined up in at the start of the Race.
• Race – Your standard motor sports race, the higher your standing, the more points you get!

Race Mechanics

Standings – A leaderboard consisting of the drivers currently racing in order of their position on the track. Aim for the top!

Driver Panel (Bottom Left) – Displays your driver’s current status, including predictions on tire wear and remaining fuel. Also allows you to change your driver’s Driving Strategy and Engine Mode.

Time Controls (Bottom Right) – Allows you to pause the race or change the simulation speed.

Driving Strategy/Engine Mode – Your driver’s strategy affects your speed, but also changes your tire wear, likewise, your engine mode affects your acceleration but also changes your fuel consumption. Keep an eye on that fuel meter, as refueling is not an option!

Pitting and Tuning

Throughout the race, you may tell your drivers to pit using the “Pit” button on their respective Driver Panel, doing so will cause the driver to enter the pit lane as soon as they can. Once there, the “Pit” button will turn into the “Tune” button; from there you can choose to change your Tire Type, repair your car parts or (only if you’re in a qualifying) tune your car parts.

Tuning

Tuning your car parts allows you to swiftly adjust them before a race to gain extra performance out of them. When first opening the tuning panel you are presented with your Tuning Budget, which can be spent to increase the tuning meter of one of your car parts, the amount is selected at random between two ranges of numbers. 

Once your Tuning Budget runs out you must finish another Qualifier Lap before it is replenished.

Reaching a specific range within the tuning meter will give you a Golden Tune that further increases the part’s performance; but be careful, surpassing this threshold will Overtune the part, deducting a significant amount of points from the tuning meter.

Tire Types

When pitting you can select from a set of tire types to replace your current ones. Here’s a list of them:

• Soft – Soft tires give the most speed and agility at the cost of their durability. Expect to replace them often.
• Medium – Medium tires offer a balance between speed and durability.
• Hard – Hard tires sacrifice speed for unmatched durability.
• Intermediate – Intermediate tires offer a small amount of extra wet resistance, high durability and medium speed. Useful for semi-wet tracks.
• Wet – Wet tires have the lowest speed of all the tire types but offer the most wet resistance available. A must-have for extremely damp tracks to avoid crashes.