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I have downloaded a few world record time trial ghosts. In them (as expected) they take corners perfectly, execute shortcuts precisely and generally fly around the map ridiculously quickly.
But it seems that a key part of the strategy is to constantly jump and turn (even on straights). Whenever I have tried this it has resulted in me slowing down or turning off course.
What is the technique to doing this? How does this actually cause the karts to go so fast?
These players are utilizing a technique that's been dubbed as "fire hopping" or "frogging". This technique allows players to prolong a speed boost by hopping. This happens because players lose boost speed faster when in contact with the ground than in the air.
All vehicles are capable of fire hopping, except for sports bikes, because of their unique drift hop style.
Some players consider this technique to be an exploit, as it doesn't appear to be intended by the developers, but others do not. You can read more about it (and view it in action) in this Kotaku article.
Drifting or turning on straightaways is not beneficial in MK8 (although it was in MK:DS), but players will often begin drifting into a turn before they actually reach that turn. This is to build up a boost faster and to cut the turn as close as possible.
When you boost, touching the ground slows you down to normal speed pretty fast. Jumping helps you prolong the effect from the boosting, by slowing you down only when you touch the ground between jumps.
Just like in real life, the speed of your cart is detrimened by the amount of frictin you have. this means that on the ground you wiil be slower because, of course, friction on the ground is higher than in the air. therefore you should jump the f*ck up!! :)
