Need for Speed Underground - Tips and Tricks

Easy money

The Underground mode is full of surprises. Just take a regular VW Golf and max-out its performance. You can now trade it in for the best unlocked car so far, maybe a Nissan Skyline. Downgrade the new car to a minimum and trade it again for VW Golf. Fast and effective, you're now about $6,000 richer. Do this as many times as desired. It's a good way to make money for regular-mode upgrades or tweaking around the car part shop.


Easy wins

If you just can't win a circuit, sprint, or lap knockout race, simply take off all of your engine performance mods then try again. Although it works for every car, the Nissan Skyline will benefit the most. There is no need to take off handling mods.


Easier drag wins

Drag races will never again be a problem for you. Once you get into the fourth gear, use your nitrous and see the speed meter skyrocket into the red zone. This calls out for a gear shift which will actually be perfect, and will in turn gain you more speed. Do this as often as possible if you have nitrous. You gain the same kind of boost if you tap the nitrous key when the race starts.


Easy drift points

Turn on your third person view mode and keep steering while watching the car from behind. The stability controls must be turned off from the car options. Once the competition gets tough, go to the engine upgrade section and refit stock tires to your chosen wheels as it will make drifting easier. To drift properly approach a bend with great speed, back off the throttle, turn, and then return to full throttle. It takes a bit of practice, but you can earn 50,000 style points fast. Remember to refit your good tires when going back to street racing. Massive drifts should be tried in stunt arenas only.


Easy style points

Once you have unlocked the oval drift track, you should play it a couple of times in the "Quick Race" mode. The trick is to race around it using the handbrake to slide into the corners, which will in turn grant you decent style points. The meter should be filled fast enough, thus you'll unlock reward after reward.


Shortcuts

Need for Speed was always a shortcut game. Knowing and taking advantage of shortcuts takes good positioning and skill, thus they're not for everyone to perform successfully. Prepare yourself by searching alternative routes on your in-game map. They will usually resemble separate roads, but are rather narrow and risky. One hidden shortcut can be unlocked at the beginning of the race which takes place in front of the prison. Crash in the prison gate when the race starts, for an unusual underground shortcut. It only works after the race where Samantha offers you a reward for racing to the prison in time.


Better rims

Cars are specially designed to support specific rim sizes and not any bigger. Developers forgot about this to some extent. Just take the Skyline which can fit 20s and trade it for a Miata, which usually has 17s. As a result, you'll be the pleased owner of a Miata with the 20s that the Skyline had. Of course, don't attempt to install other rims since you will spoil your newly acquired rims (they go back to the maximum allowed size).


Unlockable cars

To get a spectacular 1988 Nissan Skyline GTR34, just select Underground mode and complete at least the first 80 missions. Acura RSX is the perfect tool to help you deal with challenging Samantha. Once you defeat her on the medium difficulty setting, you just need to win the next drag race and the car will be yours. Eddie's Nissan Skyline is unlocked by getting enough style points. As stated before, the special drift mode will help you get the car faster. Kurt's Killer Ride can be unlocked by a perfect use of a Stock Mazda RX-7. Samantha's car on the other hand requires all the vinyls and a lot of style points. The next filled up meter should do the trick.