Test Drive 6/Walkthrough

Cars
Cars in Test Drive 6 are modeled after their real life counterparts (more or less). Each has distinctive attributes for acceleration, speed, handling, and so on. Some of these attributes have been given a numerical rating (most of the time--but not always--the game's ratings for each car will be very close to the real life specs), but some can only be compared by taking the cars out for a spin. For example, the Caterham 7 and the old Boss 428 have similar enough stats in acceleration and top speed, but what the stat screens don't tell you (even though anyone with a decent knowledge of cars would know this already) is that the Mustang is hundreds (thousands?) of pounds heavier than the Caterham and can really be hard to handle for inexperienced drivers. Meanwhile, the little 7 can zip through corners more easily thanks to its smaller, lighter frame. It's just something to think about--use common sense when picking your vehicle.

Below is a breakdown of all the cars in Test Drive 6. One thing to make note of: the 0 to 60 times are taken from the real life cars' times and are very accurate in that respect. However, with TD6's wacked-out physics, none of the times come close. In the game, a stock '90 Mustang (according to its stats, its 6.1-second 0-60 is tied for the worst) hits 60 mph in 4.1 or 4.2 actual seconds. The Audi TT, also with a reported time of 6.1 but with supposedly more lateral acceleration (0.91G versus 0.85G), takes about a tenth of a second *longer* to get to 60. Go figure. On the other end of the spectrum, the Speed 12 is supposed to take 2.8 seconds to get to 60, but a stock Speed 12 gets there in about 1.2. And, just because you're curious, I should mention that a maxed out Speed 12 tuned for acceleration will get from 0 to 60 in an outright ludicrous 0.7 seconds. The main thing to remember is that although the 0-60 times don't match up with their actual performance, all the stats are still relative from one car to the next. Therefore, the times shown in the game are still quite useful in comparing cars.

Tournaments
Well, besides the expected differences of more cash and more races as you go up the tournament scale, there are also certain cars and tracks that won't be accessible in Practice or Single Race mode until you "unlock" them by winning specific tournaments. In order for you to easily choose which tournament you need to compete in, I have compiled all of the relevant information for each tourney. First, the races that make up the tournament are listed in the order in which they are raced, then the minimum and maximum wager amounts for each race in the tournament are shown. "Max Tournament Winnings" is how much you'd make if you entered the tourney, bet the maximum amount each race, and finished first in each race. The figure is simply: (tournament pot) + (winnings from all individual races) - (cumulative amount that was wagered on all races). So, for example, if you had $10,000 going into the Class 1 Tournament 1, and if you won every race after having wagered the maximum amount, you'd finish up with $32,500. The final three categories show you what cars and/or tracks you will unlock by winning the specific tournament. It's pretty self-explanatory... "Practice Car Unlocks" lists the cars you'll be able to race with in Practice mode after beating the tournament. "Practice Track Unlocks" shows the new tracks you'll be able to race on in Practice mode. And finally, "Single Race Track Unlocks" tells you which new tracks you can use in Single Race mode. NOTE: To see a table of all the unlocks listed by cars/tracks, consult section 3.

Class 1 Tournament 1
Race Lineup (3 total):
 * 1) Pelton Raceway
 * 2) Cape Hatteras
 * 3) London


 * Min Bet: $600
 * Max Bet: $2,000
 * Max Tournament Winnings: $22,500
 * Practice Car Unlocks:
 * Caterham 7
 * 99 Marcos Mantaray
 * 82 Lotus Esprit Turbo
 * 90 Mustang LX 5.0
 * 99 Ford F150 Lightning
 * 99 Plymouth Prowler


 * Practice Track Unlocks: none
 * Single Race Track Unlocks: none

Class 1 Tournament 2
Race Lineup (4 total):
 * 1) England
 * 2) Ireland
 * 3) Egypt Backwards
 * 4) Rome


 * Min Bet: $1,000
 * Max Bet: $4,000
 * Max Tournament Winnings: $60,000
 * Practice Car Unlocks: none
 * Practice Track Unlocks: none
 * Single Race Track Unlocks: none

Class 2 Tournament 1
Race Lineup (6 total):
 * 1) Lake Tahoe
 * 2) England Backwards
 * 3) Maui
 * 4) Pelton Raceway
 * 5) Jordan
 * 6) London Backwards


 * Min Bet: $2,000
 * Max Bet: $4,000
 * Max Tournament Winnings: $90,000
 * Practice Car Unlocks:
 * 97 Ford Mustang Super Stallion
 * 99 Shelby Series 1
 * 99 TVR Griffith
 * 00 Panoz Esperante
 * Dodge Concept Car


 * Practice Track Unlocks:
 * Jordan
 * Maui
 * Lake Tahoe


 * Single Race Track Unlocks: none

Class 2 Tournament 2
Race Lineup (7 total):
 * 1) Rome Backwards
 * 2) Caribbean
 * 3) Switzerland
 * 4) Ireland
 * 5) Italy Backwards
 * 6) Newcastle Backwards
 * 7) Paris


 * Min Bet: $2,500
 * Max Bet: $4,500
 * Max Tournament Winnings: $118,125
 * Practice Car Unlocks: none
 * Practice Track Unlocks:
 * Paris
 * Switzerland
 * Caribbean
 * Newcastle Backwards
 * Italy Backwards


 * Single Race Track Unlocks:
 * Paris

Class 3 Tournament 1
Race Lineup (10 total):
 * 1) Rome
 * 2) Cape Hatteras Backwards
 * 3) New York
 * 4) Italy
 * 5) Maui
 * 6) Jordan
 * 7) London
 * 8) Caribbean
 * 9) England
 * 10) Paris Backwards


 * Min Bet: $6,000
 * Max Bet: $9,500
 * Max Tournament Winnings: $356,250
 * Practice Car Unlocks:
 * 99 Venturi 400GT
 * 99 TVR Cerbera
 * 00 Jaguar XK-180
 * 99 Saleen Mustang S351


 * Practice Track Unlocks:
 * Newcastle
 * Italy
 * Paris Backwards
 * Maui Backwards


 * Single Race Track Unlocks:
 * Paris Backwards

Class 3 Tournament 2
Race Lineup (12 total):
 * 1) London Backwards
 * 2) Caribbean Backwards
 * 3) Egypt
 * 4) Maui
 * 5) Newcastle
 * 6) Pelton Raceway
 * 7) London
 * 8) Cape Hatteras
 * 9) Paris
 * 10) Pelton Raceway Backwards
 * 11) New York
 * 12) Rome Backwards


 * Min Bet: $8,000
 * Max Bet: $11,500
 * Max Tournament Winnings: $517,500
 * Practice Car Unlocks: none
 * Practice Track Unlocks:
 * New York
 * Caribbean Backwards


 * Single Race Track Unlocks:
 * New York

Class 4 Tournament 1
Race Lineup (14 total):
 * 1) New York
 * 2) England Backwards
 * 3) Lake Tahoe Backwards
 * 4) Cape Hatteras Backwards
 * 5) London
 * 6) Paris Backwards
 * 7) Pelton Raceway
 * 8) Jordan Backwards
 * 9) Ireland
 * 10) Caribbean
 * 11) Rome
 * 12) Maui
 * 13) Hong Kong
 * 14) New York Backwards


 * Min Bet: $12,000
 * Max Bet: $20,000
 * Max Tournament Winnings: $1,050,000
 * Practice Car Unlocks:
 * 99 Nissan R390 GT-1
 * 99 Lotus GT1
 * 94 Jaguar XJ-220
 * 99 Dodge Viper GTS-R
 * 99 TVR Speed 12


 * Practice Track Unlocks:
 * Hong Kong
 * New York Backwards
 * Jordan Backwards
 * Lake Tahoe Backwards


 * Single Race Track Unlocks:
 * Hong Kong
 * New York Backwards

Class 4 Tournament 2
Race Lineup (16 total):
 * 1) Paris
 * 2) Rome
 * 3) Hong Kong
 * 4) Pelton Raceway
 * 5) London Backwards
 * 6) Hong Kong Backwards
 * 7) Pelton Raceway Backwards
 * 8) Cape Hatteras
 * 9) Rome Backwards
 * 10) Ireland
 * 11) New York Backwards
 * 12) London
 * 13) Cape Hatteras Backwards
 * 14) New York
 * 15) England
 * 16) Paris Backwards


 * Min Bet: $15,000
 * Max Bet: $25,000
 * Max Tournament Winnings: $1,500,000
 * Practice Car Unlocks:
 * 99 Toyota GT-One


 * Practice Track Unlocks:
 * Hong Kong Backwards
 * Switzerland Backwards


 * Single Race Track Unlocks:
 * Hong Kong Backwards

Hidden cars and tracks
You unlock hidden cars and tracks by winning various tournaments.

Well, to tell you the truth, there are no "hidden" cars or tracks in Test Drive 6. I mean, not in the sense of you being suddenly challenged by a McLaren F1 to a race at the Autobahn. All the cars and courses you "unlock" are available in Tournament mode. I would imagine that the reasoning goes like this: The game developers have a certain amount of cars and a certain amount of tracks. In order to increase the longevity of the title, they decide not to make all tracks immediately able to be raced on. So they come up with the idea of many tracks not coming up until later stages of long tournaments. Of course, if the only way to race on, say, Hong Kong was to build up to a class 4 car and wade through 12 races in tournament 4-1, nobody would be doing it. So, in order to keep some of the tracks a "surprise" for later in the game, but still able to be played at will once they've been found, the developers used the trendy "unlocking" system. It also solves the problem of motivation for a player to play through and win all of the tournaments to unlock everything, since there's no real ending to speak of. Grumble grumble.....

Here's a list of the cars and tracks available before you win any tournaments.

Now, here's a table that will tell you which tournament you'll have to win in order to get a specific car/track unlocked.

Cop Chase/Challenge mode
Cop Chase doesn't unlock anything, unless you count being able to play Stop the Bomber after completing all 5 tracks in Stop the Racers. Not even completing all 5 tracks in Stop the Bomber has any effect. You don't get to play on any new tracks, nor do you get to use any new cop cars.

Challenge mode doesn't have any purpose other than to net you easy money. Completing all the challenges, even doing so repeatedly and with phenomenal times, doesn't open up any new challenges.

The purpose of both of these modes is to let you get ahold of some money if you're low. You have to spend money (on upgrades as well as in the form of wagering) in order to make money in this game, and if you are stuck at around zero cash, you can't even enter a race to make some dough. Cop Chase and the Challenges provide the only ways to make money without risking anything. This is their only purpose... well, ok, another purpose is to add a twist to the game and give it more playability, but to answer the initial question: no, these two play modes don't accomplish anything besides helping you get by financially.

Do the tracks exist in real life?
No. The programmers did, however, take actual famous sites and include them in their appropriate locations. But these are just pieces of scenery and have been transplanted for the sake of giving each track a bit of a regional identity. I mean, think about it... if you weren't questioning the existence of a road that links Big Ben to New Scotland Yard a mile or two away, then surely you had to notice something was wrong when you were driving under the Eiffel tower at 200 miler per hour...

Cheats
They all have to do with what name you enter when you go into the race menu. Enter the following names for the effect listed:


 * AKJGQ: Gives you $6,000,000.
 * RFGTR: You can go right to Stop the Bomber in Cop Chase mode without having beaten the five Stop the Racers stages.
 * ERERTH: Unlocks all the tracks in both Practice and Single Race modes. Note this doesn't unlock all the tracks in Single Race mode, only the ones that can normally be unlocked.
 * DFGY: Unlocks all the cars for use in Practice Mode.

Miscellaneous Info
Here are a few facts about Test Drive 6 that probably won't be frequently asked questions, but nevertheless may prove useful to some players.
 * In Tournaments, you start out in last place for the first race. For every other race, your starting position is the position in which you finished the previous race.
 * During the stats screen when your selected car is spinning around, hold the L and R triggers in to stop the car from rotating. Then use left and right on the directional pad to rotate the car manually.
 * Cars will always sell for exactly half the amount you have put into them, even if you spent money on multiple upgrades for the same part. For instance, if you bought a $10,000 engine upgrade and then later bought a $30,000 engine upgrade for the same car, you'll still get back half the car's initial price plus $20,000 (half of the combined upgrade cost).

Prize Money
For single races, the prize money is as follows: So your earnings per win (1st place finish) will be: (bet) x 2.5
 * 1st Place: (bet) x 3.5
 * 2nd Place: (bet) x 2
 * 3rd Place: (bet) x 0.5

For tournament races, the prize money is as follows: So your earnings per win will be: If you win the tournament and win all the races, your earnings jump to: This makes your earnings per win average out to:
 * 1st Place: (bet) x 1.75
 * 2nd Place: (bet) x 1
 * 3rd Place: (bet) x 0.25
 * Pot Money: (bet) x 3
 * (bet) x 0.75
 * (bet) x (number of races) x 3.75
 * (bet) x (3.75)

to compare the two earning rates, divide one by the other: Winning tournament races is exactly 50% more lucrative than winning single races.
 * 3.75(bet) / 2.5(bet) = 1.5