Championship Update

The Winter 2016 Update (v2.8.1) is the eighteenth update of Asphalt 8: Airborne. It was released on December 14, 2016 for iOS, December 15 for Android and soon wil be avaliable on Windows.

Announcement
Enjoy your winter holidays with amazing new content!

McLAREN CHAMPIONSHIP:

We will introduce, for the first time in Asphalt history, McLaren race cars! Take one of these beautiful high-performance racers for the ultimate test run around the world! Rack up trophies as you beat challenges and earn big rewards to ultimately unlock cars.

NEW CAR LINEUP:

A total of 8 new speedsters are coming, including the Aston Martin Vulcan and Mosler Land Shark. Look for them to come out one by one in the shop over the coming weeks.

JOIN THE HOLIDAY RUSH:

Dashing down the course, on a holiday racing spree... Unlock a GIFT from all of us if you play this Cup daily! Get the BMW M2 for FREE just for racing in the Christmas Cup every day! Stay tuned on our Facebook page for the dates!

NEW EVENTS:

Get ready for new Enduro and R&amp;D events! Participate in them to get a chance to make the Chevrolet Impala and Arash AF10 yours!

New cars

 * Class C
 * BMW M2 (Elite Car)
 * McLaren M14A (Championship Car)


 * Class B
 * 2010 Bentley Continental Supersports (Elite Car)


 * Class A
 * Chevrolet Corvette C3 - originally from the Autumn 2016 Update (Multiplayer League reward)
 * McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 (Championship Car)
 * Chevrolet Impala (Enduro Car, Elite Car)


 * Class S
 * Mosler Land Shark (Elite Car)
 * Aston Martin Vulcan (Multiplayer League reward)
 * Arash AF10 (R&D Car)

The new cars will need the following Engine Cards:
 * V8: Arash AF10
 * Serial Racing Engine: McLaren M14A

McLaren Championship


Similar to Research & Development and Enduro Double Down Challenges, the Championship lets you "test drive" a car without owning it. It is a series of races with given objectives using the car at stake, much like R&D. Each time the user participates in race of the Championship, a Tire is used, and every eight hours all five tires are restocked, as do all three Proto Keys every three hours. Each qualifying race has a primary goal, and two secondary goals, which are unlocked when the primary goal has been fulfilled. The primary goal still has to be fulfilled while achieving the secondary goals in subsequent attempts.

The Championship also features new race types, Auto-Start (Time Attack) and Warm-Up. In Auto-start, you're dropped in the middle of a race and have to take over the wheel at some point; in Warm-Up, you need to keep your engine revs in a certain zone in order to get a good start into the race.

Various Changes

 * The McLaren M14A and McLaren Mercedes MP4-25 don't have the usual 5 levels of Upgrades plus 5 levels of Pro Kits, but 10 levels of Pro Kits instead; as do cars in Asphalt Xtreme.
 * New Engine card added: Serial Racing Engine, needed for the McLaren M14A.
 * Another new Legendary Engine card added for the McLaren Mercedes MP4-25.
 * A new season appears after the Exclusive Metal Events (or Season 9 for non-iOS users) called McLaren Legends Season, which requires the user to own a McLaren Race Car (McLaren M14A or McLaren Mercedes MP4-25) in order to play it.
 * New Collections "Mercedes", "BMW", and "British Gentlemen" added. These Collections are currently the only way to view the BMW M2, 2010 Bentley Continental Supersports, and Aston Martin Vulcan.

Bugs / Glitches

 * Bugged Button-based Control Schemes: All control schemes that involve on-screen buttons are bugged, now taking one second to fully load upon the end of the countdown. This has resulted in time penalties for many players, leaving Tilt to Steer the only viable option.

Trivia

 * First update to require iOS 8 for all iOS users, meaning that the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation are no longer compatible.
 * The Chevrolet Corvette C3's Car Mastery Challenge 10 no longer awards and now awards a much smaller Token payout in addition to a Credits payout.
 * New loading screen of 2 McLaren Mercedes MP4-25's in San Diego Harbor.
 * New sound effects sequence for Engine sounds.
 * With this update, the first open-top vehicles since Asphalt 7: Heat are reintroduced into the mainline Asphalt series.
 * Open-top vehicles, such as the Ariel Nomad, also exist in offroad spinoff Asphalt Xtreme.
 * The driver now also appears in the car for the first time since Asphalt 7: Heat. This is currently only for the Formula One cars. The fully-dressed race driver is, except for the wheels, the only animated part of the car: he turns his head when you're making a turn, or moves sometimes a bit up and down. When the car wrecks, the driver disappears instantaneously.
 * This is also the first update since the Santa's Gift Update a year back to feature a new car in the icon used for the update; in this case, the McLaren Mercedes MP4-25.
 * This is also the first update released in December since 2013 to not feature any new tracks and also the first update released in December to not feature the Alps in any promotional images.
 * It is also the first update released in December to not add any new Class D cars.
 * Monaco has been renamed to Azure Coast for unknown reasons.
 * The logo for nanoFlowcell has been updated.
 * Starting with this update, it is now possible to watch video ads to gain free Pro Boxes or Double Credits for a race.