Stank Gum Race is horrible

[Quaint]

I have put some 35 hours into the game and had great fun. I upgraded both max and the magnum opus a lot. Yet this race drives me furious. I tried it before and went back to an older save to upgrade some more. But it still seem insanely hard, much more than the rest of the game. A huge reason for this is how driving and collisions handle. In normal death races I am used to win on first try. But in the stank gum race you only need to touch a wall to send your car spinning. And once you loose sight of stank gum, it is very hard to get back to him. He drives extremely fast whether you are in sight or not. Even with top speed maxed out you can barely catch him. Extremely frustrating. I'd very much like a way of bypassing this race, even if it means cheating.

[Fordfahrer]

I made it in the second try, you need to practice more ;)

[Ganzo]

Set up the car for speed and handling. Drive under the healing sprays. Spam thunderpoos at Stank Gum, you can get a free hit at the start of the race if you are quick enough. Keep trying! I found this part of the game to be really fun and did it at about 40hrs in, took me about 8 trys.

[,,,,,,,]

then u just dont have any skills :)

[Smudge40k]

Originally posted by Obsidian:

Set up the car for speed and handling. Drive under the healing sprays. Spam thunderpoos at Stank Gum, you can get a free hit at the start of the race if you are quick enough. Keep trying! I found this part of the game to be really fun and did it at about 40hrs in, took me about 8 trys. :MMForFun:

what this guy says works i just had handeling and speed on my car and spammed thunderpoon did it first go

[[TAW] Derisat Hartfelt]

how is this hard for people, just blow him up asap. i did it last night for my 2nd game. 1st time each time, no issues. you aren't supposed to race him to the finish, you're supposed to kill him. Thunderpoon him to death, stay behind him even if it means taking your finger OFF the accellerator

[[AoS]Bullett]

I did this first time, thought it was way too easy. Quite suprised people are having trouble.
Although I lost him at the start I think he must have crashed as once I got the hang of the track and caught up he was easy to defeat. I am no gaming god either.

[Bib Fortuna]

Worst mission in the game. Of all places to not have a mini-map, this isn't one.

[Zombie Lenin]

I had to try 10 times before I cheesed it with a zero armor, kamikaze run.
If you can't kill him in the first 40 seconds, restart.
It's impossible to race with keyboard controls.

[Daniel]

I did this on first try. Walked away barely alive. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, the adrenaline !!!

[Bib Fortuna]

After 15 or so tries and switching to a controller, I finished this only because in the first 40 seconds I was able to knock his health down to a sliver. He ended up dying off-screen somewhere, presumably from hitting another car or something.

[jcalberta]

Why wasnt this the Game of the Year?

This race is very difficult for me. I've tried over and over. Keep reconfigering my car. IIll try the handling and speed config. It is very hard with a keyboad - thats for sure. The game was very obviously designed to be played with a pad. It does even accomodate a keyboard config. I've never been forced to use a pad before, but this could be the game that does it.

I've hit him several times with the poon but i just get too damaged and cant finish. I will make it eventually, but it's pretty frustrating.

And hey pal, don't be so snarky. It ISNT easy for everybody. No shame.

I would say that this is probably the last thing in the game you should do. Do everything else first. Kill all the bosses etc.

[BionicWolf]

Done it half a dozen times using the speed demon...simply avoiding the minion vehicles and pooning his a$$ when close enough-The car is most essential (and of course avoiding the walls) boosting in bursts and 4 or 5 poon hits.

[BlackWater]

This took some attempts, but with a maxed out thunderpoon, it was easy, once I figured out how far to stay back and still be able to target, save your shots for straightaways and take advantage of any clear shots, the other buggys swarm to launched thunderpoons Ive noticed.

[Xoltan]

There is a lot of really good advice here on this thread (excluding "I beat it in first try" infuriating submissions). I was having a ton of difficulty with this one playing casually from my living room setup. It wasn't until I moved into the office that I started to feel much more competent. Key advice I can add to the stack: Reduce your latency to the game engine. Don't try to play over a Steam Link / nVidia Shield; use wired input device(s); make sure your display doesn't introduce lag (most TVs do by default). I will admit that the race isn't easy, but it was possible after I moved to the office. I will post my full car configuration at the end here, because I was infinitely curious what other people managed to win with, but not all options are necessary. Key points are definitely handling, speed, and thunderpoon damage/reload time. Be prepared after you beat the race to immediately get engaged in a prolonged ground combat scene. Take your time with it and you should be able to get through first shot. If you need tips there, I can start another thread with how I ran it. Back to the race, try to target Stank Gum immediately after "Go" and fire a Thunderpoon at him (hopefully it will hit). Drive to the right around the line of accelerating cars and by the time you catch up to Stank, your Thunderpoon should be ready again. Shoot again without targeting. Keep as close as you can, without getting directly on him (mines), to the side of him (flames), or off the main line (into the walls). Here is some help on the general path I took:
Right - steam / health
Right - avoid barricade *
Left - avoid flames
Left - steam / health
Left - avoid barricade *
*These are easy to miss, so don't be surprised if you don't see / consider this an option
It may be a good suggestion to just run the track a few times without focusing on actually killing Stank, so you can get used to it. It helped me to do this if I started getting too frustrated (happened often). If he gets too far away and you want to restart (it's really not that easy to catch back up with him), just turn around and drive backwards for a little bit. This will allow you to start the race over. The reason people are saying "it was easy, I beat it in XX seconds!", is because it is easier to beat him in under a minute, rather than get stuck in a wall, lose track of him, and try to catch back up with him. Hang in there, it will feel so good when you throw that final Thunderpoon up his rear end and the subsequent cut-scene is highly gratifying.

Ramming Grill None
Armor Big Buddy Bars (low-mid) *
Engine Ultimate V6 (max :: V6)
Exhaust President Exhaust (max)
Tires Slick Rubs (max)
Suspension Big Whammy Lift Kit (max)
Boost Quad Nitro Boost (max)
Rims None
Boarder Spikes None
Sniper Rifle Maximum Mag (max) **
Harpoon Massive Hook Attachment (max) **
Thunderpoon Thunderpoon of Awe (max)
Side Burners Blow Torches (max) **
Repair Speed Superior Repair Tools (max) **
Car Body Wild Hunt ***
Body Color Primer ****
Decals Eye ***
Hood Ornament (front) Sly One (handling) *****
Hood Ornament (back) The Lawrel (handling) *****
** Not helpful in this race
*** Purely cosmetic: http://madmax.gamepedia.com/Car_Bodies
**** Fire resistance (note: Racing Paint could add a race advantage but is unproven)
***** Another good option would be Weaponry Boost as it should help Tenderloin reload quicker

[fjk1138]

I was able to do it without the maxed out thunderpoon, but you really have to be reallyaggressive to win. Ignore the other cars as best as possible and just pummel the main one as hard as you can. The key is to not hit any of the walls - you might as well restart the race if that happens.