Downforce FAQ
54 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Set-Up and Playing the Game
The Auction
- What happens to a car that no one bids on during the auction?
- Must every player own a car after the auction?
- When only as many cars remain as players without a car, can players who already own a car still bid?
- What happens if the last player without a car has no card matching the remaining car's colour and no wild?
- Are the cards used to make a bid returned to your hand?
- After the auction, are the Speed-8 cards of the cars you won added to your hand?
- How do you pass or bid with a Wild card in an auction?
The Race
- Can you choose to move a car fewer spaces than its full movement?
- Can a wild move on a speed card target a car that has already finished or that is blocked?
- When moving opponents' cars with a movement card, must you take the fastest route?
- On a map with touching lanes, can a car change lanes into a space it touches?
- Can a car pass the race leader in Downforce?
The Betting
Power Cards
- Does Determined count every space a car moves into during the speed card's movement, or only the final space?
- If you own several cars, does Determined apply to each of them?
- Does Determined trigger on other players' turns, including when an opponent moves your car?
- When is the Determined bonus movement applied relative to a rough-road space?
- On another player's turn, who moves the extra two spaces from Determined?
- Do square spaces count as rectangular spaces for the Determined power?
- Can the Determined power trigger more than once in the same turn?
- Can a car use the Experienced power to move into the space in front of it when that space is also behind it on the track?
- When a car with the Patient power passes through cars, and the space it would end on is occupied, where does it stop?
- With the Daring power, can you choose which cars on the speed card get the extra one?
- Does a Wild count as one of the colors for the Daring power?
- Can the Aware power move a car that a movement card also moves in the same turn?
- Can the Aggressive power be used on a Speed-8 card?
- How does the Cunning power card affect moving cars on other players' turns?
- With Unpredictable, can one card give the same car both its printed move and a wild move?
- Can Unpredictable let you use both wilds on a double-wild card for the same colour?
- Are Downforce power cards one-time use, discarded after they are played?
- Do a player's power cards apply to one car or to all of their cars?
Finishing the Race
- Do players keep playing speed cards after their cars cross the finish line?
- If an Aware move takes your last car across the finish line, do you still play a speed card that turn?
- If a car never finishes the race, does its owner still get prize money or bet payouts?
- What happens when all cards are played before every car has crossed the finish line?
Downforce: Danger CircuitExpansion
- In Danger Circuit, can a car move onto a dangerous space when it is not needed to get past another car?
- In Danger Circuit, can a car move diagonally between two diagonally adjacent spaces across a lane divider?
- Does the Tough power's two extra spaces repeat while the car is still next to a rumble strip?
- If a car starts its turn next to a rumble strip and does not move, can the Tough power's two extra spaces be used later?
- Does the Ambitious power depend on which car triggered the betting line?
- If a car with Ambitious crosses two betting lines in one move, how far does it move?
- What counts as a Tight Space for the Reckless power?
- Can Reckless extra movement chain through several Tight Spaces in one turn?
- When does the Defensive power move happen?
Downforce: Wild RideExpansion
- Can a car use a ramp when the extra movement comes from a power card such as Ambitious?
- Can an Unpredictable wild move let a car jump a ramp it could not otherwise reach at its printed speed?
- Can a car use a ramp when it reaches the speed only through a Wild value?
- What does 'the car has at least 1 space of movement remaining' require for a ramp?
- When a car launches from Duel ramp 3, can it land on either landing space?
- What happens when a car lands on a numbered diagonal-lined ramp space?
- Does Experienced trigger when a car that is not directly in front of you moves into the ramp landing spot?