The rear steps out at forty · Rally Mortis diary

The Black Tie weighs about as much as a modest house extension. It was built to glide. Over the last month we have taught it to dance, badly, which is exactly what we wanted.

Construction drawing of a black sedan with notes about where the weight goes — The notebook page that settled it. “Weight goes HERE”, an arrow to the back, and underneath: “rear steps out at 40. that’s the fun bit.”

Attempt one: the realistic car

Our first handling model was honest. Heavy, softly sprung, keen to go straight on. It was a faithful simulation of a 1970s luxury saloon and it was no fun whatsoever. Playtesters described it as “like steering a sofa”, which was accurate and therefore unhelpful.

Attempt two: the toy

So we went the other way: grippy, light, turning on a coin. It was fun for ninety seconds. Then everyone realised the car no longer felt like anything. Hitting a rival was like two shopping trolleys meeting in an aisle. The weight, it turns out, was the point. A collision in this game should feel like a sideboard falling down the stairs.

Attempt three: the number forty

The version we kept is heavy in a straight line and playful in a corner. Below about forty on the dial the Black Tie behaves like a dignified car. Above it, if you lift off and turn in, the weight swings to the back and the rear steps out. You catch it, or you do not.

That one threshold gave us everything. The car feels expensive and slow-witted on the way into a corner, then suddenly alive on the way out, and the hit at the end of a slide has the full weight of the car behind it.

Pre-alpha footage

From above, on the promenade. Note how wide the car swings once the rear goes: palm trees have been moved for this.

The handbrake

The first thing the game teaches you is the handbrake. Vee explains it in her own way:

Hairpin. Like a sentence you regret. Swing it.

The handbrake turn is the most useful tool you have. It lines you up for a hit, gets you round the tight streets of Port Saffron and looks splendid on the way. We tuned it so that a good one is slightly too much, the way a good party is.

Mending the car

Cars break. Hold the repair button and Wade patches things up at the side of the road, which costs money from the estate and saves face. Vee’s view: Hold R. Mend it. Costs money, saves face. It is a small decision you make many times a race: spend now, or drive on with a door that is mostly a suggestion.

Pre-alpha footage

Side on, along the seafront. Rivals trade paint at the speed where the rear wants to come round.

Next: where all this happens. Port Saffron, the seaside town where the race begins, and which we are going to destroy in the most loving way we can.