Trying to get 3* on final Time Attack in Ghost City

[iie-kyo]

I need some help with getting 3* for Ghost City. Seems like no matter how fast I go I am always 3-5 seconds short.

Some things I've made sure to do is to gain as much nitro as possible drifting off corners, saving rewards so I dont activate them unless I need the boost, and also going down the middle of the road in the middle part of the course so you can basically knock down all those road barriers. Driving through them in a straight line gives you a LOT of boost, but this still doesn't feel like it's enough.

Is there a shortcut I'm missing or am I just doing it wrong? I've been going at this for 2 hours and it's driving me (no pun intended) nuts. It's the last thing I gotta do for this game before I put it away for good.

Anyone got any tips for this final time attack?