u/DrYoshister

Ring Engine provides +12 in all stats as well at +3 speed

Hyper Ring Engine provides (up to) +100 in all stats but no speed

Stats cap at 100 so regardless of machine type you're capped at 100. Since Ring Engine provides +3 speed (Effectively an uncapped +60 speed stat), you need a speed of 28 or lower for Hyper Ring Engine to provide more speed than Ring Engine. Since stats (without gadgets) have a lower and upper limit of 20 and 80 respectively, this only leaves room for specific handling builds to get that full 73-80 speed stat. This bonus also requires being at max rings, whereas Ring Engine gets that +72 if you have even one ring.

tl;dr Ring Engine >>>>>> Hyper Ring Engine unless you really want that ~+50 boost stat

Also Ring Gain Boost is weird on non-Power

Video above shows Accel and Boost (with nearly identical accel stat) both hitting a truck on Cyberspace, which causes the standard 1.5s of hitstun and halfing of top speed (You can't see it but I was cruising before the video starts).

The clips are timed by the frame the 20 rings are loss as the start and hitting the highest cruising speed as the finish.

Do not that the numbers will vary a bit in practice but generally gear shifts make the biggest difference in recovery time, and Boost/Handling have the worst, so it's best to bypass them with drift boosts, dash panels, wisps, or slip bounty.

The numbers:

60 Accel on Accel Car, No Drift: ~4.167s

60 Accel on Accel Car, Lv1 Quick Charge: ~2.65s

60 Accel on Accel Car, Quick Recovery: ~3.23s

60 Accel on Accel Car, Double Ring Engine: ~3.45s

58 Accel on Extreme Gear, No Drift: ~4.63s

58 Accel on Extreme Gear, Lv1 Quick Charge: ~2.57s

58 Accel on Extreme Gear, Quick Recovery: ~3.167s

58 Accel on Extreme Gear, Double Ring Engine: ~3.94s

Machine type, Acceleration stat, and Power stat do not impact hitstun, it is set by damage source and is typically 1.5 seconds, during which you do not accelerate. (Being at 0 rings doubles hitstun iirc)

Quick Recovery decreases hitstun to ~0.45 seconds (Rough estimate) so you save about a second due to being able to recover sooner. I think the EG clip might be influenced by the bump with the truck? Not sure. Maybe boards just get more off QR somehow lol

tl;dr there are two types of speed boosts:
Drifts, which are:

• Drift Boosts (+15 for lv1, +25 for lv2-4)
• Trick Boosts (+15)
• Dash Panels (+25, equivalent to lv2/lv3 drift for purple/blue panels)
• Collision Boost (+25 for 0.5s)
• Wisp Boosts (+25, equivalent to lv3 iirc. +30 for King Wisp)

Slipstream, which are:

• Slipstream (+20)
• Ring Gain Boost (+7.5 for 1-Slot, +15 for 2-Slot. Stacks)
• Ring Engine (+3 for Ring Engine, +9 for Hyper Ring Engine if used with Ring Engine)
• Perfect Charge Boost (+7.5)
• The top speed gained from having 0-100+ rings (+7.5 at 99 rings, +15 at 100+)

Drifts can overlap but it's fairly minimal, Slipstream is capped at +38 (+48 on power). Machines are also capped at ~250-260 speed (regardless of speed setting).

Double Ring Engine made bagging pretty weak due to now fast it was but since Legend Comp 5 is a Slipstream fest I was able to run Comeback Kit with Wisp Hoarder Kit to pretty good effect

Main goal of this build is to sandbag into 9th (9-12th get best item rng), while being as close to 1st as possible so you have the least amount of ground to build up. Typically being near 1st at the end of lap 2 and just stopping is ideal, and 110 ring limit should ensure you have the max ring speed boost. You pull 3 items at the start of lap 3 (1 from Wisp Hoarder Kit, 2 from Comeback Kit) and they're typically some combination of Triple Wisp, Truck, Lazer, and Drill.

What items you want varies a bit (Sand Road's last two cuts are terrible for Lazer and Drill due to putting you on outward lines, Minecraft World and Metal Harbor's big jumps are prime realestate for Lazer/Drill) and some tracks are better for it than others, but it's pretty consistent if you can make up for lost time with good cornering. It took me 11 races to go from 1774 to 1859, and 6/11 of those were wins (another 3 were top 3 finishes). I might be the only guy to hit Emerald with Comeback Kit so I figured I'd explain my thought process even if Wisp Hoarder Kit did about 80% of the lifting

I like my Miku car that has 67 accel handling

All of this was recorded from a session I did today, giving TDUC a proper whirl for the first time

Definitely off-meta now and really wants Boost stat minmaxxing but it's such a thrill to play, especially when you get reward with moving ahead in position rather than keeping up with 8 other people in the lobby. Getting to basically ignore tornados and slicers is awesome too

I'll definitely need to learn snap drifting to take better corners but this is a fun playstyle