User blog:ThUnDeR1337/Asphalt 9: The Nitro Stat

Hi! I've recently noticed some discussion about the Nitro stat in Asphalt 9 and what it does. It seems to be common knowledge that the Nitro stat is nitro efficiency—how long your nitro lasts per bar. But this isn't actually the case.

How does Nitro function differently compared to Asphalt 8?
Most people know this already, but just in case you don't, here you go. Nitro in A8 has multiple stages that get faster and faster, and the Nitro stat adds more speed to your nitro (i.e. the Renault DeZir has a faster nitro than the AC 378 GT, because of a higher Nitro stat). However, in A9, Nitro simply accelerates the car to a set top speed (we'll call this Max Nitro Speed, MNS) at every stage, and the efficiency changes per stage. i.e. shockwave will boost you to MNS faster than perfect nitro, however, it will drain a lot more quickly.

What factors could the Nitro stat be boosting?
The Nitro stat is very interesting—it no longer has the ability to make your top speed faster, it can only boost you to MNS(unlike A8, where perfect/triple nitro was actually faster than single/double nitro). So that is no longer a factor, since nitro always boosts to an exact percentage of your top speed. The other two factors (at least those I thought of) are efficiency and acceleration power, which is how quickly your car accelerates with nitro. (i.e. the Ferrari f12tdf with nitro stat 71 will reach its MNS far faster than the Ford GT's 55.)

Why isn't it Efficiency?
Efficiency seems like a good bet, right? The amount of time your nitro stays in action is upgraded by the nitro stat. Well, not exactly. My main counterexample is the F12tdf and the Lotus Elise Sprint 220.

These 2 cars have high Nitro stats, the Elise being slightly lower at 66 instead of 71. However, when you take the Elise off a jump with yellow/single nitro activated, the nitro bar comes to a dead stop. When you take the F12tdf off the same jump with the same boost activated, it clearly keeps draining. That's proof against efficiency, clear as day.

Conclusion
So unless there is a third factor I haven't encountered (which is extremely possible), I believe this is proof that the Nitro stat boosts acceleration power, so higher acceleration power will result in better acceleration out of turns and better recovery from mistakes. Please do feel free to find/test any other factors I may be missing, or correct any mistakes I may have made. Thanks for reading!