Elite Cars

Added in the Elite Cars Update for Asphalt 8: Airborne, Elite Cars are new top tier racing machines with improved stats – the product of precise fine tuning and careful maintenance. These cars can be customized in the Elite Mapping menu which allows you to redistribute their stats to create your own custom ride.

When selecting an Elite Car in the garage, the top left corner of the screen gains a blue industrial background and the stats bars are enclosed with black borders.

Elite Mapping
In the Elite Mapping menu, performance stats can be adjusted from a minimum of 0 points to a maximum of +8 points. The rank gained or lost through the Elite Mapping depends on the performance increases gained by maxing out the car, the car's upgrade status, the Upgrade Rank percentages, and the Forced Coefficient.

Normally, only two stats can be tuned to be equal to each other in terms of Elite Mapping adjustments (e.g. top speed and nitro = +8, acceleration and handling = 0); at most, 16 points can be gained. Via illegitimate methods (e.g. hacking), all stats can gain a +8 boost in Elite Mapping. For example, it's possible to give a Devel Sixteen Prototype a total speed of 378.5 mph/609.5 km/h and at the same time acceleration and handling stats of 1.25 sec and 1.197 Gs (respectively), thus giving it a rank of S1844 (excluding Tuning Kit bonus) via hacking.

When applying a new Elite Mapping, a certain amount of credits is spent and the car becomes unusable for however long it is being tuned up. This process, on the other hand, can be skipped by either paying a certain amount of tokens (the price decreases over time) or watching a video ad. Tune-ups last at least 1 hour and at most 2 hours and 30 minutes.

The recommended Elite Mapping is +8 for both top speed and nitro and 0 for acceleration and handling.

Vehicle Condition
The Vehicle Condition gauge acts as the Elite Car's condition gauge and starts at Perfect Condition (100%). For however long it is raced, the Elite Car's condition drops by several bars and eventually drops to Good Condition (33 - 99%) and Tune-Up Recommended (shown by a red gauge at 32%) before finally being worn out (with the lowered stats shown in red; these stats get lowered even further as the gauge drops to 0%). Each bar represents 4% of the gauge.

Elimination races must especially be taken with caution, as retrying an Elimination race to win in first after being eliminated in second or lower can greatly lower the gauge. The same applies for Gate Drift races, which can last up to 3 minutes. Usually, after 3 - 4 races, a full gauge drops to the Tune-Up Recommended stage, depending on the length of the race(s) you finished with your Elite car.

Tuning up a car automatically restores it to Perfect Condition. When being tuned up, you can watch the gauge fill up gradually.

There is a glitch where an Elite Car's condition will mysteriously change even if it's not used. An example of this is a Mazda RX8's condition bar suddenly changing from Good Condition to Perfect Condition or Tune-Up Recommended even if it hasn't seen use. Another glitch involves Knockdown races where even if the player participates in a Knockdown race, the car's condition doesn't change.

Since the Championship Update, should an Elite Car's condition enter the Tune Up Recommended stage after any race, the player will be given a notification telling the player that the car needs to undergo elite tuning.

List of Elite Cars
As of the Rio de Janeiro Update, there is always at least one Enduro Double Down boss car added that is an Elite Car. In EDD events featuring Elite Cars, it is strongly suggested that the Elite Cars be tuned immediately upon reaching the "Tune-Up Recommended" stage. If not doing the Challenges for the Elite Cars featured, they can be tuned up at any time outside of gameplay.

Any non-Elite Car can be turned into an Elite Car via hacking (strongly discouraged) or a glitch (very rare). For example, a McLaren P1™ GTR can become ranked at S1826 (MAX+PRO, Elite Tuning: 0,+8,0,+8) if converted into an Elite Car. However, Elite-converted Cars do not have the special UI graphics of the normal Elite Cars and can be used unlimitedly without requiring tune-ups. In the latter instance, it is possible for a Chevrolet 2016 Camaro SS to have a top speed stat of 307.4 mph/495.0 km/h at MAX+PRO+Tuning Kit through Elite Car conversion.

Trivia

 * The sound effect used for skipping/completing an Elite Car's maintenance reuses the sound effect played when collecting a Quality Check in Research & Development.
 * If an Elite Car finishes its tune-up while the game is closed, the player will receive a push notification saying, “(Elite Car name) is ready to rule the road! Race your Elite Car now!”