Special Machine

Special Machines in the Ridge Racer series (sometimes unofficially referred to as "devil cars", "extra trial cars" or "duel cars") are special vehicles that are unlocked by completing special tournaments and races.

Most of them have very extreme performance, and are highly desirable, sometimes with unique technologies and/or design language compared to regular vehicles, and thus, requires effort to be beaten, as traditionally, special cars are to be challenged to a duel.

Some special machines (especially in Rage Racer, Ridge Racer (PSP) and 6) require other unlocking methods such as purchasing them when they become available through progression, completing certain Grands Prix and/or even beating the high score of the mini-games.

Most special machines are either based on advanced race cars, high-end exotic cars, experimental concepts, anti-gravity ships and in some cases, cartoony vehicles.

The Lizard Nightmare from Ridge Racer Type 4, one of the most iconic special machines in the series.

List of special machines

Ridge Racer (console version)

• 13th Racing: The original special machine, the original 13th Racing car is a Group C race car that is fought in Extra T.T. race, the final race of the game.

Ridge Racer Revolution

• 13th Racing: Same as the original. This car is fought in the Novice Time Trial, after completing all 3 races. The car is playable from start in Pocket Racer, based on Ridge Racer Revolution's engine.
• 13th Racing Kid: A smaller (yet leaner) version of the 13th Racing Car, this car is fought in the Intermediate Time Trial.
• White Angel: The original "angel" car, created as the opposite of the devilish nature of the 13th Racing car, with beautiful lines of a supercar. This car is fought in the Expert Time Trial. The car is also playable in Pocket Racer, and is also added in the Ridge Racer Turbo demo included with R4: Ridge Racer Type 4.

Rage Racer

In Rage Racer, special cars are unofficially referred to as "Class 6" cars (they are only referred as "Class ?" instead in-game), where they are available upon progressing towards the near-final stages of the Extra GP. As compared to challenging them to a duel, these cars need to be purchased. All of these cars have different names in the Japanese version.

• Lizard Bulldog (Lizard Tempest in Japan): A supercharged hot-rod car known for its powerful acceleration.
• Age Vainqure (Age Victorie in Japan): A bubble-top prototype sports car with good handling, and the only one that can be equipped with automatic transmission among the three cars.
• Assoluto Squaldon (Assoluto Dragone in Japan): The ultimate car in the game; its list price of 6,666,666 eg makes it the car the "devil" car in the game. It is highly aerodynamic, has the most horsepower out of every car in the game and also features the fastest top speed.

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

See also: Extra Trial

• Assoluto Vulcano: A car that is technically an anti-gravity ship, which is equipped with an anti-gravity engine and generators to help it float in the air. For some reason however, the car is still able to make drifts. The predecessor to the Pronzione.
• Age Solo Ecureuil: A 3-wheeled bubble car with almost instant acceleration and only one gear (thereby making manual transmission almost moot), but is the slowest among all Extra Trial cars, however, has extremely tight cornering. Has the "angel" status in the game.
• Terrazi Utopia: A land speed record car powered by rocket thrusters, which is perhaps the predecessor of the Terrajin.
• Lizard Nightmare: The "devil" car, resembling a Group C Le Mans car like the original. However, the car is considered different from the 13th Racing car, which became the Crinale instead. It is also powered by nuclear fusion technology.
• 'Pac-Man: Awarded for unlocking all 320 cars in the game. The car itself in question is basically a silhouette of Pac-Man with wheels (as his legs), an engine fitted in the rear, with him smiling, doing the "thumbs up" and *wink wink* gestures.

Ridge Racer V

• Danver Spectra: A highly tuned 50's American lowrider/muscle car with a powerful supercharged engine. Being a Drift type car, it has very slippery handling.
• Rivelta Crinale: The 13th Racing car returns in V, with the brand and model name revealed, and some changes to the front headlights.
• Soldat Rumeur: A rear-engined city car, modified with a supercar engine and very grippy handling.
• Kamata Angelus: The White Angel car returns from Revolution, now a car with excellent grip abilities, and is also the fastest car in the game (and the entire series).
• Pac-Man and Pac-Man's Ghosts: Unlocked after completing the Pac-Man GP. This is the first time we see Pac-Man himself driving his own vehicle. He drives a Porsche 356 A 1500 GS GT Carrera Speedster, while the ghosts use scooters.

Ridge Racer (PSP) series

• Pac-Man: Pac-Man drives a plane-like go-kart in both games, both with different looks (he uses a propeller plane in the first and a more modern jet-like plane in the second).
• Kamata Angelus: The new Angelus features a futuristic and streamlined, barrel shaped design with a gas jet turbine engine, but returns to the original look in 2.
• Soldat Crinale: The new Crinale features a more aerodynamic and futuristic look, but reverts to the Rivelta-designed original look in 2.
• Rally-X Car (1 only): A car based on the car appearing in New Rally-X, the "loading screen" game featured in the PSP games. Unlike the other special cars in the game, you can unlock it by completing the "Thriller" tour and scoring over 50,000 points in the New Rally-X minigame. Whenever it fires nitrous it releases pixels that resemble the "smoke screen" effect in the said minigame, which has no effect whatsoever on opponent cars.
• Terrazi Wild Gang (2 only): A compact rear-engined car with extreme performance, it became a regular car in 6.
• Danver Hijack (2 only): A highly tuned pick-up car, originally a car made by Lizard in Rage Racer. Like the Wild Gang, it became a regular car in 6.
• Age Angelus Kid and Age Crinale Kid (2 only): Based on the Ecureuil, but with four wheels. They are fought in different tours, and are almost no different from each other than in name and livery.
• Yamasa Raggio (2 only): A real-life version of the Soldat Raggio, shown at the 2006 Tokyo Auto Salon, based on Honda NSX engine, chassis and running gear.

Ridge Racer 6 and 7

Due to their similarities, Ridge Racer 6 and 7 have the same line-up of Special cars. They are in the Special class in the sixth game and Category 1 class in the seventh game. Only three cars were changed in design between the two.

• Kamata Angelus: The Angelus features a hypercar look in 6, and the turbine-powered, barrel shaped car (from the PSP games) in 7. Unlike the one in Ridge Racer (PSP), the Angelus in Ridge Racer 7 has six wheels instead of four.
• Soldat Crinale: The Crinale features a Le Mans Prototype look in 6, and the more futuristic look (also from the PSP games) in 7.
• Assoluto Pronzione: The successor to the Vulcano, an anti-gravity hover machine, and is more streamlined and efficient than its predecessor.
• Age Ultranova: A lightweight single-seater race car, stated to be a replica of Age's winning car in 2004 Ridge World Grand Prix.
• Himmel 490B: A futuristic car with two arches connecting to the wheels instead of a suspension (design inspired by the brand's "H" logo), and is also an electric vehicle with an inline-6 as a potential range extender.
• Gnade G00: A prototype racing version of a one-off luxury sedan concept car.
• Terrazi Terrajin: The successor to the Utopia, a rocket car with an unusual design. In contrast to the Utopia, which was a land-speed record car, the Terrajin assumes the appearance of a rocket-powered dragster.
• Danver Bass Cruiser: A diesel-powered SUV with audio systems in the back.
• Pac-Man: Namco's mascot appears in both games in a UFO-shaped exoskeletal vehicle, with a different design in both games. Specifically, the UFO he uses in the seventh game is based from the Andorgenesis in Xevious.

• Monstrous: The "final boss" car, a limousine with the nitrous system located in the car's back seat and trunk, where it "shape-shifts" when nitrous is being used. The Monstrous also has an unknown manufacturer as well.

Pachislot Ridge Racer

• Soldat Crinale: A special machine sporting a more futuristic look (From the first PSP game and 7)
• Devil Trailer: A trailer said to be connected to the Crinale.

Ridge Racer 3D

• Kamata ANGL Concept: Same as the Angelus from 7, but with a different name, and has a higher top speed. Canonically, this is the final iteration of the Angelus line-up.
• Soldat Crinale: Same as the Crinale from 7, but is slightly faster.
• Age Solo Petit 500: Same as the Ecureuils (Angelus Kid and Crinale Kid variants) from second PSP game, with a new third livery representing the brand.
• Lucky & Wild Mad Bull: A supercharged hot-rod machine, likely the spiritual successor of Lizard Bulldog/Tempest. It is known for its quick nitrous charge, but short boosts.
• Pac-Man: In this game, Pac-Man uses the Solvalou spaceship from Xevious, with Sheonite-like devices on the front.
• New Rally-X Car: Same as the Rally-X car from the first PSP game, although much faster and is re-purposed with the triple nitrous system in the more modern games.

Ridge Racer (PlayStation Vita)

• Zihua Archangel: Replacing the Kamata Angelus, the Archangel is a Chinese supercar, based from Hong Kong, that holds the Angel car status in the game, and is the direct successor to the Angelus model series.
• Soldat Crinale: The Crinale returns in the Vita game, with a new Le Mans prototype look.

Trivia

• As special machines require them to be challenged to a duel in which they must be defeated to obtain them, this is similar to "pink-slip racing" where racers usually put their cars on the line, and also where the loser is forced to give up their car to the winner.
• The New Rally-X from Ridge Racer (PSP) and Pac-Man's vehicle in Ridge Racer 6 are the only two special machines that require the player to beat the high score of the mini-game, besides completing certain duels and/or Grands Prix to unlock.
• With the introduction of custom parts in Ridge Racer 7, this may have caused some car balancing issues as regular cars in Category 1, if equipped with certain upgrades and even plug-in units, may surpass the performance of special machines. While certain machines like the Soldat Crinale, Age Ultranova, and Danver Bass Cruiser can boast excellent ultimate charge rates, meaning they can keep up with even normal machines equipped with Normal+U Nitrous, the rest can't achieve those rates, causing them to be left behind on most occasions.
• From the PSP games, the drift types of all special machines are labeled as "special", even if they may have either Standard, Mild or Dynamic qualities. This is likely because of their varying shapes, sizes and technologies.
• The Kamata Angelus, Soldat Crinale, Monstrous and Namco Pac-Man in Ridge Racer 7 are the only cars in the game whose default racing number cannot be changed, likely because the number zero and 13 have been both symbolic and synonymous with the two cars, respectively, and as for the Monstrous and Pac-Man, this is because of the lack thereof.
• Special machines are also known for having more unique unlock cutscenes compared to other cars, most especially in Ridge Racer 7, where they are seen either being unloaded from an Antonov-like cargo plane inside a hangar, carried over to an airport-like location via a computer-controlled lift hovering on an underground terminal, or even inside a mysterious, futuristic, and peculiar-looking parking garage built around an elevator silo (resembling a spider's legs) and revolving, pod-like containment units.
  • Depending on the car unlocked, the cinematography of the cutscenes, such as the shots, angles, colors and lighting may vary.

Ridge Racer 7 - all special machine unlock cutscenes

Video showing all unlock cutscenes of special machines in Ridge Racer 7