Every car was specced exactly the same and each driver was able to use nitro as and when they deemed it vital for the win. The twist was that you only had a certain amount of nitro for each race so the question was “Can I make that jump without nitro?” or “Do I take the nitro burn on the flat to open my lead?” This decision was crucial for not only a nice victory but also your survival on the track. You see Stunt Car Racer had to be played with a specific plan in mind just like Evil Knivel never turned up to do a jump thinking I am just going to hit the ramp as fast as I can. Your jumps and turns have to be planned and although you could have got away with it on the early tracks the later tracks would chew you up and spit you out (step forward the dreaded Stepping Stones). This is what made Stunt Car Racer different from everything else on the market at the time and not just I need to be fast to win. In this game you needed to be clever not to get damaged.

That brings me nicely onto the damage. In the game you can only every see your wheels and the front of the car but every time you fall of the track, oh and you will fall of the track; your damage is indicated by an unnerving crack in your chassis at the top of the screen or even worse a big hole. Once the crack or holes get to the other side of the screen your car is wrecked and the race is automatically over with you being the loser. The definition of suspense is nursing your car round the last lap with every bump cracking your chassis whilst your opponent is closing to gap with every second the goes by.

This game didn’t have the appeal of the quite brilliant Out Run, the multi-player appeal of Nitro or even the prestige of Pole Position but it worked on so many levels. Some days you didn’t even want to race and you just wanted to see how badly you could crash. Stunt Car Racer was a tactical racing simulation that needed a touch of precision and nerves of steel.