While it is true that the automatic drift mode was likely intended to be no more than training wheels for new players, it quickly found niche usecases in high level time trials almost immediately after the game's release. Automatic initially held two world records. The first of which was DK Mountain^[1] from day 1 up until about a month after the game's release in April of 2008. This was done on auto kart. DK Mountain has turns which favor outside drift, most famously culminating in it's 2009 kart world record by Biohazard^[2]. So it makes sense that using auto kart used to be the way to go in the primitive days, as not having to worry about the miniturbos made the sharp turns on the track easier to navigate.

The second automatic world record was set on Moonview Highway 4 days after the game's release and remained the meta up until 2013^[3]. Another plus of automatic drift is that it allows you turn in your wheelie without losing speed. This is in stark composition to manual, where you lose a fair amount of time at even the slightest nudge. On MH after the bridge section miniturbo, it is difficult to keep your alignment without rewheeling on manual. Combine that with the high amount of boost panels on the track allowing auto not to lose much time to miniturbos, as well as the straightaway where Spear's higher speed stat gains time over the Flame Runner^[4] and the result was automatic being the easiest and most reliable way to set high caliber times for many years. Flame Runner Manual was always considered to be hypothetically faster, but it took a while for human play to catch up to the TAS.

Later on, Brett would pioneer the DS Peach Gardens hedge maze strategy in 2010. This technique involved holding your wheelie in a straight line through the hedge maze^[5], as opposed to manual which has to go around^[6]. Doing this saved a ton of time. Though automatic initially only held the DS Peach Gardens record from 2010 to 2012, new strategies were found in 2018. Auto would hold the record from then up until 2023 when a flame runner strategy was found that gave it a slight edge^[7]. Automatic is still theoretically faster than manual in TAS however^[8], and would likely be near-equal to manual if not for the pacelock. On lap 3 there is a chain chomp which blocks the hedge maze path^[9], which currently limits the potential of automatic in real time attempts.

Despite having held some world records, as well as being quite strong on other tracks that have more gradual turns such as GBA Shy Guy Beach and DS Yoshi Falls, automatic is a sparsely played category. The purpose behind this website is to hopefully make understanding this playstyle easier and accessible for new players.

I am most accessible through email; I will try to respond to any mail that I receive! If you are submitting a time, please ensure first that the time you are submitting qualifies for an automatic top 10. If this is your first time submitting a time, you will need to supply a CTGP link or ghost file proving the run's legitimacy.