Speed Challenge Competition (Updated 2023)

One of the promotions Sega Europe/Dreamarena did for MSR was this Speed Challenge competition.....

Sega has launched a slew of online contests for all you Metropolis Street Racer fans out there, stretching into the beginning of April

Bizarre Creations' Dreamcast stunner Metropolis Street Racer is receiving all the online support Sega can muster. Fancy yourself as hot property on the highways of London, San Francisco and Tokyo? Here's your chance to tell the world.

Dubbed the Speed Challenge Competition, Sega's event will run till the beginning of April, and asks you to upload your best times on a variety of courses in a search for the overall European champion of the most ridiculously realistic driving experience ever created.

Add these dates to your diaries:

The London Challenge:                 December 15 2000 - January 12 2001

The San Francisco Challenge:      January 15 - February 9 2001

The Tokyo Challenge:                   February 12 - March 9 2001

The Three City Challenge:           March 12 - April 6 2001

The overall closing date is April 6 2001

So start your engines and get busy. Sega may be offering a car to the speediest in Europe, but is yet to make its mind up on the final goody up for grabs. 

What are you waiting for?

Taken from old CVG website.  Dated Thursday 11 January 2001.

https://web.archive.org/web/20010518152246/http://www.computerandvideogames.com/story.cfm?sid=2028

Basically this was a 'fastest lap' competition over 3 courses (one in each city) using MSR's headline car, the VX220/Speedster.  After getting a fast time, you would then upload them to the leaderboards within Dreamarena.  Here's a picture of the London ranking (scanned from ODM #17):

Frustratingly you are forced to drive with automatic gears and ABS on, however those winning players still managed some spectacular times:

The London Challenge (St James's Park/Long/Parliament Street South II)

Best lap: 1'10.422 set by benvollo (France)

The San Francisco Challenge (Financial District/Medium/Market West II) 

Best lap: 1'01.327 set by Sirus (UK)

The Tokyo Challenge (Shinjuku/Long/Higashi-Dori Kita II)

Best lap: 0'56.034 set by Manasel (Spain)

Original link: Sega Europe News Archive (March 2001)

Here's an interview with the San Francisco Challenge winner in ODM #18:

2023 update: A commentator who took part in The London Challenge told me about the watch they received as a runner-up prize.  It was a 'Swatch New Chrono Overdrive SK413' that was released circa 1998.  A picture is below.  In my opinion, the runner-ups received a better prize than the winners (who got a Dreamcast wheel).

The Speed Challenge option can be found by selecting INTERNET on the main menu.  Of course you are unable to upload your times since Dreamarena has been closed since March 2002!  I managed to beat the above times in 2010/2011 but not via the Speed Challenge option.  Instead I made Time Trials of the above courses so I could use manual gears and switch ABS off.  Here are my video replays for each course however if you think I'm fast, just remember the winners had to do it in automatic!

If you can get your Dreamcast online and wish to challenge my times, the above Time Trial files can be obtained at: https://dreamcastlive.net/metropolis-street-racer-dlc/

August 2023 update: I have now managed to beat the competition times using Speed Challenge rules (automatic gears and ABS).  Please see the following link for more information: https://msrdreamcast.blogspot.com/2023/08/my-speed-challenge-quest.html