CSR2 PP Explained: Why Same PP Doesn't Mean Same Speed

PP is the number CSR2 puts on every car, every upgrade screen and every event entry, so it's natural to read it as a speed rating. Higher PP, faster car. It's also the most common way players misjudge their garage.

We used our CSR2 world records sheet to test it. The sheet lists the PP and record time for 1,251 cars across all five tiers, which is enough to see what PP does and doesn't tell you. Short answer: it tells you a lot less than it looks like.

What PP actually measures

PP is the game's single-number summary of a car's build. Fit an upgrade and it goes up. Many events use it to decide which cars can enter, which is why it matters so much.

What it doesn't measure is how well the car uses that build. Gearing, the tune, the star level, Elite Customs level and the person driving all change the result without moving the number. That gap is where everything below comes from.

CSR2 PP ranges by tier

For reference, these are the PP ranges of the records on our sheet. Each tier has a fairly narrow band, and the bands barely overlap:

Tier	Lowest PP	Highest PP	Most common
Tier 1	349	360	354
Tier 2	348	485	481
Tier 3	448	587	581
Tier 4	546	676	673
Tier 5	642	726	713

Records pile up at a handful of PP values

The first thing the sheet shows is how bunched up PP is. In each tier, a single value holds a huge share of the records:

Tier	Most common PP	Records at that PP	Share of the tier
Tier 5	713	578 of 890	65%
Tier 4	673	138 of 232	59%
Tier 3	581	38 of 81	47%
Tier 2	481	9 of 32	28%

In Tier 5, a further 191 records sit at 714 and 89 at 715. So for most of the cars you'll compare in Tier 5, PP is essentially the same number. If it's the same for nearly everyone, it can't be what separates them.

Same PP, seconds apart

Here's the range of record times among cars with exactly the same PP:

Tier	PP	Fastest record	Slowest record	Gap	Middle half of cars
Tier 5	713	6.505	9.823	3.32s	6.865 to 7.648
Tier 4	673	9.445	12.447	3.00s	9.866 to 10.484
Tier 3	581	7.077	8.693	1.62s	7.299 to 7.863
Tier 2	481	8.273	10.171	1.90s	8.570 to 9.541

From our sheet at the time of writing. Records improve, so treat the exact figures as a snapshot.

At 713 PP in Tier 5, the fastest record belongs to the BTTF Part III Time Machine at 6.505 seconds. The slowest is the Bugatti EB110 SS at Elite Customs Level 0, at 9.823. Same number on the screen, more than three seconds apart on the strip. Even ignoring the extremes, the middle half of 713 PP cars spreads across three quarters of a second, which in Tier 5 is the difference between the top of a leaderboard and nowhere near it.

More PP doesn't mean faster

If PP were a speed rating, the fastest Tier 5 records would have the highest PP. They don't:

Tier 5 PP	Best record at that PP	Its rank in Tier 5
713	BTTF Part III Time Machine, 6.505	1st
712	Czinger 21C, 6.669	31st
714	INDYCAR, 6.788	93rd
715	Bugatti Bolide, 6.797	108th
Above 715 (8 cars)	Letty's Chevrolet Nova SS, 7.004	268th

All twenty of the fastest Tier 5 records sit at exactly 713 PP. The single highest-PP car on the whole sheet, Letty's Nova SS at 726, ranks 268th. (It's one of the film cars we ranked in CSR2 Fast and Furious cars.) A 712 PP car, the Czinger 21C, beats every record at 714 and above.

Across whole tiers the relationship is loose at best. In Tiers 2 to 4, higher PP does go with faster times on average, but with so many exceptions that it's a poor guide to any one car. In Tier 5 the link is weak, and in Tier 1 there's no relationship at all.

Lower PP, faster car

The sheet is full of cars that beat higher-PP rivals. Some of the clearest:

• Tier 2: a Porsche 718 Boxster S with a stock engine and a Stage 5 gearbox holds a top-five record at 459 PP, ahead of cars at 481 and above.
• Tier 3: 61 records below the tier's top PP of 587 are faster than the typical car at 587.
• Tier 4: the fastest record, the Ford Mustang Dark Horse, runs at 669 PP, below most of the cars it beats.

Several of these are deliberate. On 23 records, the sheet notes that parts were held back on purpose, such as a gearbox left at Stage 5 or a fusion removed. We went through those in our look at what record holders do differently.

What PP leaves out

If PP doesn't decide speed, what does? The records point to the same list every time:

• The chassis. Some cars simply use their build better. That's why a handful of models dominate the top of every tier in our best cars by tier breakdown.
• Star level. A purple-star car and its gold-star twin usually have the same PP, yet purple is faster in 218 of 226 pairs we compared. See purple star vs gold star.
• Elite Customs level. On every car we compared, the PP didn't change between levels, while the time dropped by a typical 0.56 seconds. Our Elite Customs analysis has the numbers.
• The tune. Final drive, tyre and nitro settings can move a car by tenths without touching its PP. The CSR2 best tune data shows which settings the records favour.
• The driver. Record holders beat the dyno on almost every car, by a tenth in Tier 5 and three tenths in Tier 1.

How to use PP properly

PP is still important. It just answers a different question from the one most players ask it.

• Use it to check eligibility. Its real job is deciding which events a car can enter. Before upgrading, check the PP limit of the events you race. Going one point over can lock a finished car out of the races it was built for.
• Don't chase it for its own sake. In Tier 5, the records say 713 is where the fastest cars live. Pushing past it isn't a shortcut to speed.
• Compare like with like. When two cars share a PP, compare their record times on the records sheet instead. That tells you far more.
• Read it alongside the version. Same model and same PP can still hide a different star level or Elite Customs level. Check both before you buy or build.

Our upgrade order guide covers how to build a car to a bracket without overshooting it.

Read the PP, race the records

PP describes a car's build, not its speed. In Tier 5, 65% of records sit at exactly 713 PP, the top twenty all do, and times at that one PP span more than three seconds. Use PP to check which events a car can enter, and use the record times to decide which car is actually fast.