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.

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 this guide at arms length in case you encounter something that requires explanation.

Keep in mind that when first playing the game, you will also see tutorial screens that explain the various mechanics as you encounter them.

The game offers two ways to play:

• Career – Step into the shoes of a Team Manager and their 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!

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.

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)

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.

Hovering your mouse over a trait will reveal more information regarding it's effect.

When choosing your team members, one thing you must keep in mind (much like a real team manager) is your budget, especially if you start with one of the less famous Teams.
While it might be tempting to spend a ton of money to secure the best available Drivers, what good are amazing drivers if their Engineer has no experience? Likewise, what good is a top-of-the-class Engineer if the Drivers don’t have the skills to make good use of their amazing car?

There are two ways to best approach team selection:

• Play For The Long Run — “Rome wasn’t built in a day!” And neither should your amazing team be. A good approach is to start humble, while you may not achieve great results from the beginning, your team will improve over the course of the various seasons, one thing to note is that no matter how much the team members improve they will ALWAYS cost the same if they were on your team during the previous season. This means that sticking to a team and seeing them grow and improve over the years is a viable strategy!
  
  
• Saving Money — Similar to the aforementioned strategy, buying extremely cheap team members to save up money can prove to be a smart strategy over the course of the decade. Keep an eye out for the team members you would like to hire in the future, do your best to achieve good results, pick realistic Sponsor choices, cash out when the time is right, and watch the other teams eat your dust!

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.

Sponsors are a great way to earn extra cash from events, they offer bonus resources if you manage to meet their expectation, but they can be a double edged sword if you over-estimate your team’s capabilities!



When choosing a sponsor, think carefully about your team, it might be tempting to just pick the highest-paying sponsor, but if your team cannot meet their expectation you’ll be losing out on those sweet sweet greens!

Instead (at least for the first seasons) try playing it a little safer. Mid-tier sponsors such as Stoppe can offer you great rewards with minimal risk, but if you’re on a budget or if you’re a new player even safer options such as the low-tier sponsors might be a better choice.

Throughout the season, sponsors might offer you extra challenges in exchange for money, an example would be Vice offering you 100$ if you manage to go an entire race without using the ‘Push’ mode on your engine.

It would be advisable to do your best to accomplish those tasks, albeit without putting your results in jeopardy.

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!

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!




Driver Stress — As you use the ‘Push’ driving strategy, a meter will fill above the driver’s name, that’s their Stress. The more a driver is stressed, the more likely it is that they’re going to crash. Do your best to avoid it reaching the maximum.

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 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.




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.