@andymac3d - it looks really great.
I found the background buildings just a little distracting, and I wonder if you shouldn’t just fade them back a little during the race (although they look very nice). See what other people think…
A technical point - the inside track will have the shortest distance, and the outside track the longest, because the direction is always clockwise. I’m not sure if this matters, depending on how you’ve programmed it.
I had a look at your blog: nice to read your recent summary of thoughts about your project. It is a bit scary to see how long it is, and i understand you really need support from followers to keep going on.
Thanks for your support and feedback everyone (nice tweet by @Simeon on the TLL feed as well!)
@Jmv38 - I think the blog (and more recently Twitter) has helped keep a bit of focus, especially during times I’ve been busy with other projects and work stuff (of which there is a lot!). I tend to go in bursts of activity on this project, with perhaps not much happening for a week or so and then ill blitz a few things against my to-do list. Above all, I guess the temptation to just ‘bash something out’ and move on is huge - but I really want to push Codea as far as I can and make a quality game - hence, the protracted development time to get it just right. I’ll get there in the end I’m sure. 
@Ignatz - yes, you’re right about the background. The ‘short track’ really doesn’t help things as you can quickly do a full circuit in about 15-20 seconds… Which means you make a full 360 degree sweep of the backround quite quickly. I have a few thoughts on this - some are to do with cosmetically ‘knocking it back’ as you suggested. The other is ‘gearing’ it - so the background doesn’t move as fast relative to the where your looking. I think there’s a few retro racing games that used this to good effect without it looking odd.
As far as the competitive advantage on inside/outside lanes -there is currently none! This a conscious decision and is based on the parametric nature of how I’ve implemented my Beziers… However, each lane will have on the next version colour coded ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ zones to give extra strategic points to avoid or hit that modulate speed. Also, additional jeopardy is from hitting a curve too fast and you fly off - which works pretty well and gives another angle to make sure the player monitors their speed. Without this, the game is too easy as you just need to keep on full throttle throughout!
I’m genuinely interested in anyone else’s observations on racing games in general - especially AI and win strategies. To be honest, I think this is a bit easier with slot racing games as the steering behaviour is less important and it really boils down to the relative positions on the track and speed.
@Zoyt - yes, the controls are still under development. I really want to simplify these further. One thing that’s changed is not having a ‘thrust/accel’ button - this is now a ‘brake’. I found you spend most of the time accelerating, so there was no advantage to having this as a redundant control (and knackering your finger in the process as it was always held down!)… The ‘brake’ works much better. I’ll probably put the left/right lane change buttons on each size of the screen in the end.
Anyway, thanks for everyone’s interest! Keep following the blog and I’ll try and post things more regularly as progress starts speeding up over the coming months! 
@andymac3d Good to see you back here again. As I said before this is brilliant and an amazing example of Codea’s capabilities, but I have just one suggestion. Try approaching the yaw angle of the camera to the cars angle as for me it looks quite rigid how it is now.
@Luatee - thanks! Back on here after a bit of a break - will chip in a bit more frequently as well! Ps. Your comment re:yaw angle is noted
Grieta work! I am impressed by content already made. Keep going on it!
@andymac3d - you might find this article interesting if you haven’t seen it already
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132313/the_pure_advantage_advanced_.php
And another on things like power ups
@Ignatz - thanks for these. I’m familiar with the Gamasutra one (rubber-banding and stuff)… But not the second article which was hugely insightful!
I think racing-game AI is hugely interesting and quite hard to get right for these reasons. Certainly it’s more obvious than most genres whether you are either winning or not and how to make the games still fun if you’re way behind the leader with no chance of catching up.
I think I’ve still got a bit of work to do to alleviate these problems as it’s still relatively easy to pull away from the other Buggyz after a few laps and hold the lead position. I really want it to be a bit more like a track cycling race, where the last lap is a lot more of a close (but exciting!) finish and more to do with positioning and tactics than simply raw speed. I have a few ideas for this - so let’s see.
@andymac3d One idea to make it harder would be to have a left to right joystick bar like this (couldn’t find an image so have a text example):
<----O---->
You drag the circle in the middle left to right to match the turning angle of the buggy, if it’s not accurate then the buggy slows down allowing the computer to catch up. You could make it its own game mode too.
Where is a link to the code for this game? It sounds really interesting and I really want to play it
I really like the look of the game and am sure it will be a very polished release to the App Store. I’m interested in your analogy of a track cycling race, something I watch a bit of on TV.
The key to cycling track races where there are other riders is to conserve energy when you need to and expend it at the right times. In a race where the first across the line wins (known as a scratch race), then mostly having the energy at the end is the best tactic. This isn’t just a case of saving energy but not damaging your muscles too much before then. This could transfer to Buggyz as having a number of turbo boosts to use, possibly damaging tyres or your engine if you use the turbo too often or do not draft behind other buggies enough.
Equally important is to actually use your energy! If you save it to the end and can’t spend it before the finish, it will be too late to catch up.
The other type of group race on a track is a points race, where riders sprint for points every x laps, with 1st place getting 5 points, 2nd 3 points, and so on. Riders get double points on the last lap, and gain 20 points if they lap the main field (not just any one rider, but the main bunch of riders). Perhaps this would offer a different game mode to extend playability?
Apologies if you know this already about track racing.
Based on your earlier post about the player only braking and not choosing to accelerate by holding a button, this doesn’t translate to cycling where all movement is a choice to expend effort. Perhaps a halfway solution could be if the player presses no button then their buggy moves at a moderate speed, but they brake for corners and to avoid crashes if they use a turbo boost?
@time_trial - yes, this is pretty much where I’m heading with Buggyz re:elements of track cycling and trying to develop a slightly different core game mechanic than a standard racing type game (hence, it’s taking a bit of time as I test and try out things)
I’ve analysed all the standard track events (pursuit, points race, Madison, scratch race and keirin) and sort of distilled down the elements of what makes them interesting. Indeed, I’ve got one prototype that works a bit like the keirin - a pace car sets the lead, and the others can’t overtake until the last lap. It then makes everything a bit more tactical. Although, I agree that this sort of approach needs some sort of energy budget/resource that you expend throughout the race to make it work - else it’s too easy.
Above all, it’s trying to balance something quite tactical with the arcade aspects that’s proving to be the challenge. Although, I do think some of the race mechanics of track cycling will definitely end up in the final game.
Your brake/turbo idea is pretty much what’s happening currently in the latest prototype which works really well.
@Luatee - I’ll look into if this idea is feasible.
Thanks for the further info, @andymac3d. I’ve no idea how to replicate a pursuit race mechanic, as that’s down to a really fine balance of effort over 4 minutes. And the madison! 
Now that’s a challenge! Maybe a bump between cars to replace the hand sling?!
Given the glut of games and apps available in the store nowadays, games have to offer something different to set them apart and I think you are taking a clever and novel approach with track cycling mechanics. Really looking forward to seeing this progress and then playing it!