Glossary

Every acronym, abbreviation, and jargon term used in The Undercut, decoded.

A

• ABS — Anti-lock Braking System. In game: part of the Electronics component; helps avoid lockups in braking zones.
• ADA — Adaptability, one of the 6 driver stats (1–20). Drives recovery from mistakes, charge ceiling, learning rate.
• AGG — Aggressivity, driver stat. Drives overtake attempt rate, gap-keeping, defensive style.
• AI Director — the simulation’s per-tick decision system that runs engine map / lift&coast / overtake push / pit calls for every car.
• Apex — the inside line of a corner; not a UI term but you’ll see it in commentary (“missed apex”).

B

• Base acceptance — sponsor / supplier acceptance probability of a stock offer (0.0–1.0). Negotiation modifies it live.
• Big mistake — Tier-3 driver mistake, becomes a Spin or Crash with potential damage.
• Body — chassis component (monocoque rigidity). Affects cornering precision.
• Brake — chassis component. Affects braking-zone deceleration.
• Budget rating — sponsor / supplier 1–10 scale, drives the per-GP cheque.
• Budget tier — career start choice (Small / Medium / Large), sets starting reputation + budget.

C

• CON — Consistency, driver stat. Drives mistake probability and tire wear smoothness.
• CarModel — the technical bundle of all 11 components on a single car.
• Catastrophic crash — Tier-4 collision, ≥ 355 kN. Parts can be reduced 60–100%.
• Cliff — the steep performance drop when tires are worn past their lifetime threshold. Default cliff at 75% wear, then a secondary cliff past 100%.
• Client contract — supplier deal where YOU pay them. ~70% of suppliers prefer this.
• Close-call — tracked event when two cars come within lateral danger envelope (2.5 m). Logged for post-race analysis.
• Cooling system — powertrain component. Lower engine heat damage rate.
• Crash state — when a car is in the active crash physics state machine (Sliding / BarrierImpact / Stopped / Recovering / Cleared).
• Current_perf — a part’s live performance value. The thing that feeds the speed multiplier.

D

• Debrief — post-race screen showing results, championship, prize money, repair triage, sponsor objective updates.
• Deficit — initial_perf − current_perf for a part. The thing repair fixes.
• DNF — Did Not Finish. Either retired or crashed out.
• Dirty air — aero turbulence behind a leading car. Reduces grip, heats tires faster, costs lap time.
• Draft — slipstream bonus on straights when running close behind another car. Disabled in qualifying.
• Dry — climate flag for hot calendars (Bahrain, Phoenix, Mexico, etc.). Visual presets 001–003.

E

• Effective stat — driver stat after stamina debuff (effective_intelligence, etc.). What the sim actually uses.
• Electronics — powertrain component. TC / ABS / diff mapping. Affects accel, braking, cornering.
• Endurance (engine) — supplier rating. How many km before engine wear starts triggering failure rolls.
• Engine — powertrain component. Speed on straights. Driven by the engine supplier’s base_power.
• Engine map — driver setting 0–10. Lower = save fuel + heat, slower; higher = max power, more wear.

F

• FCY — Full Course Yellow. All sectors yellow flag, leader at 50% pace, no overtaking.
• Fiability — a part’s reliability multiplier (0.70–1.20). Higher = fewer mid-race failures.
• Floor — chassis component. Aero contribution + diffuser efficiency.
• fpl — Fuel per lap (kg). The rolling per-lap consumption average used for refuel calculations.
• Front wing — chassis component. Front aero, draft tradeoff.
• Fuel system — powertrain component. Per-lap fuel rate efficiency.

G

• Gearbox — powertrain component. Acceleration zone bonus, gear-change snap.
• GP — Grand Prix. One race weekend.
• Grid — the starting order for a race, decided by qualifying.

H

• Happiness — sponsor / supplier 0–100 stat. Drifts based on your performance vs. their objective.
• Health — a part’s structural condition (0–100). Informational; very low = imminent failure.

I

• Initial_perf — a part’s “fresh” reference value. Repair target.
• INT — Intelligence, driver stat. Drives mistake severity (not probability), pressure resistance, lift&coast efficiency.

L

• Lift & Coast (L&C) — driver setting. Lifts throttle earlier before braking zones to save fuel + tire temp. Costs ~2–4% lap time.
• Limp to pit — terminal-damage car driving slowly back to pit to retire. Suspension ≤ 60%, body ≤ 50%, or floor ≤ 40%.
• Lockup — small driver mistake. Brake locks in a braking zone, generates flat-spot, costs lap time.

M

• Marketing dept — infrastructure department 6. Income multiplier + sponsor scouting.
• Mid-race dump — Shift+F12 in race UI. Outputs CSV files for post-race analysis.
• Min reputation — sponsor / supplier gate. Your team rep must be ≥ this number.
• Mistake caution — post-mistake risk reduction multiplier on the next mistake’s probability. Set when a mistake fires, decays over seconds.

O

• Out lap — first lap after a pit stop. Cold tires, brakes; ~3% pace penalty decaying over 2000m.
• Overtake advantage — physics-based attack score (-0.3 to +0.5). Stored on a committed overtake, gives ±5% speed boost.
• Overtake push — driver setting. Doubles per-tick attempt probability + adds mistake risk in active overtake.

P

• PAC — Pace, driver stat. Pure speed.
• Part stats — the 5 fields per component (current_perf, initial_perf, potential, health, fiability).
• Partnership contract — supplier deal where the supplier pays YOU. ~30% prefer this.
• PFS — “Pit Forum & Services” — the in-game e-mail / news brand.
• Pit window — the band of laps where a planned pit stop is acceptable (target ± 2 laps).
• Potential — cap on how high a part’s current_perf can be improved via R&D (1.00–1.15).
• Pressure — driver mental stress (0.0–1.0). Climbs in the 1-second engagement window. Blunts effective stats, raises mistake risk.
• Principal sponsor — top-tier sponsor contract, x2 base payout, biggest logo placement.
• Prominence rating — sponsor 1–10 scale. Public profile. Money multiplier + reputation gate.

Q

• Quali — Qualifying session. 30-minute timed session ahead of the race.

R

• R&D — Research & Development. Infrastructure department 1; also the in-game tab for repair / improve / design.
• Race tick — one simulation step. Default 2 ms, scaled by sim speed multiplier.
• Rear wing — chassis component. Rear aero, straight-line drag.
• Reputation — team-level 0–100 stat. Grows with results + Marketing level. Gates which sponsors / suppliers will deal with you.
• Rubber level — track surface 0.0 (green) – 1.0 (full grip). Builds exponentially across the weekend.

S

• S/F — Start / Finish line. The lap timing reference.
• Safety Car (SC) — physical pace car deployed for major incidents. Field formation behind, then restart.
• Secondary sponsor — non-Principal contract, x1 base payout.
• Sector — 1 of 3 timing sections per lap.
• Side-by-side — state when two cars are laterally overlapped + close longitudinally. Resolved at next braking zone.
• Slipstream — straight-line draft boost.
• Soft / Hard — the two tire compounds. Soft = +1.5% pace, 1.5× wear; Hard = -1.0% pace, 0.7× wear.
• STA — Stamina, driver stat. Slows fatigue across a race.
• Stay Behind — team order. Driver skips overtake against same-team car ahead.
• Strategy A / B / C — 3 pre-generated pit strategies per car (aggressive / balanced / conservative).
• Suspension — chassis component. Mechanical grip in corners + braking.

T

• Telemetry — per-tick CSV recording of car / driver state. Off by default; toggle in race_config.
• Tier (force) — collision force tier 1–4. T1/T2 logged only, T3+ damages parts.
• Tire compound — Soft or Hard. (Medium kept in code but unused in strategies.)
• Track evolution — rubber buildup across laps. Speeds out-laps, late-race grip.
• Track state — current rubber_level + evolution rate.

U

• Undercut — pit early to gain time on a rival via fresh tires. AI tries to react.
• Out-lap penalty — see Out lap.

W

• Weekend pipeline — Practice → Qualifying → Race → Debrief sequence.
• WU — Work Units. Per-weekend R&D budget. Drives repair / improve / reliability / design throughput.

Y

• Yield — qualifying-only behaviour where slow lap cars pull aside to let fast lap cars through.
• Yellow flag — sector-localised warning after a crash; 70% speed cap, no overtaking.

Z

• Zone — 1 of 3 race-tick zones (Accelerating / Lifting / Braking). Most game effects are zone-weighted.