Excellent F1 racing board game Downforce is souping up with an expansion

Forget the Danger Zone – the place to be next year is the Danger Circuit, the first expansion for brilliant car-racing game Downforce.

Downforce, of course, is the revamped and rereleased version of Wolfgang Kramer’s ‘70s abstract classic Tempo, which later became Top Race and the F1-themed Niki Lauda’s Formel 1.

Downforce essentially leaves Kramer’s original design alone, maintaining the same auction and secret bidding on race cars with card-driven competition around a track.

If you’ve read the latest issue of Tabletop Gaming, you’ll know that we absolutely loved Restoration Games’ reboot of the series, awarding it our prestigious Editor’s Choice badge as a result of its thrilling gameplay and fantastic visuals.

That means we’re especially excited to hear that the first expansion for Downforce will give the game an extra two tracks and six driver powers.

The tracks are Switchback Pass, which involves a lot of tight spaces that can be used to overtake rival cars, and Crosstown Speedway, an environment full of split tracks and crossover loops, presenting the chance for drivers at the back of the pack to block those at the front.

Among the racer powers are the chance to be defensive – letting you move your car even when its not supposed to – and ambitious, which gives cars an extra boost when they cross the tracks’ betting lines.

The two tracks come on a new double-sided board illustrated by cover artist Tavis Coburn, while the new powers are simply shuffled in with the others at the start of a game.

Downforce: Danger Circuit is due out next summer.