Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Strap into the cockpit for a high-octane 1960s racing simulation featuring a streamlined gear-shifting hand matrix and a ruthless, push-your-luck engine management loop for the ultimate tactical motorsport showdown.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal (designed by Asger Harding Granerud and Daniel Skjold Pedersen, published by Days of Wonder) captures the raw adrenaline, smoking tires, and razor-sharp positioning of classic Grand Prix racing. Moving completely away from simple roll-and-move dice mechanics, this widely acclaimed hit relies entirely on strategic hand management and card drafting. The core objective is beautifully clear: players must pilot their race cars across treacherous, winding tracks, managing their speed through straightaways and hairpins to cross the finish line ahead of the pack.

The primary strategic hurdle lies in managing your engine's thermal threshold—represented by a finite pool of literal Heat cards. Each round, you choose your gear, which determines exactly how many cards you must play from your hand to move forward. Shifting gears too quickly, boosting for extra speed, or flying into tight corners faster than the speed limit forces you to flood your deck with unplayable Heat cards from your engine pool. If your hand gets clogged with Heat, your car will stall or violently spin out into the grass, losing precious track positioning. True victory requires masterfully utilizing the slipstream mechanic to jump past rivals for free and cooling down your engine in lower gears to purge the heat cards back into your pool. It is a masterclass in modern racing design, packing deep hand customization, module upgrades, weather variants, and a fully automated "Legends" AI driver system into a gripping 60-minute session.

Game Specs at a Glance:
Age Range: 10+ Years
Publisher: Days of Wonder / Asmodee
Play Time: 60 Minutes
Player Count: 1-6 Player
Complexity: Medium (Hand Management, Push-Your-Luck, Deck Filtering, Variable Player Powers)

What's in the Box?

• 2 Giant Double-Sided Game Boards
• 6 Detailed Plastic Race Cars
• 6 Custom Wooden Gear Tokens
• 330 Premium Playing Cards
• 35 Custom Weather and Track Condition Tokens
• 1 Championship Scorepad
• 1 Illustrated Rulebook