French Guiana

French Guiana is a department of France located northeast of Brazil. It is also a race track in Asphalt 8: Airborne.
== Asphalt 8: Airborne==
===Overview===
French Guiana has two race track variants:
French Guiana 		The regular route. Races here run across the track in a clockwise configuration.
Fr. Guiana Rev.		The reverse route. Races here run across the track in a counter-clockwise configuration.
On the regular version, the Start Line is located near the Ariane 5 rocket's launchpad. On the reverse version, the Start Line is located in a transit tunnel between the runway area and the intertwining roads.
French Guiana is a medium-length track (with the reverse track named Fr. Guiana Rev.), inside the Guiana Space Centre, which is operated by real-life entities such as the ESA, CNES, and Arianespace, as well as the fictitious Abelion Corporation. A track that is 3.342 mi (5.381 km) long, it is apparently filled with a space port theme, evidenced by the abundance of rockets in the track.
The Ariane 5 rocket is shown standing on its launchpad and is emblazoned with the flags of the ESA member countries.
At the beginning of the regular track, there are two ramps that allow players to fly past the rocket, although it is not advisable to do so until the second lap, as jumping past the rocket poses an extremely high risk of wrecking. In both tracks, the rocket eventually blasts off into space, but the timing for this event is different: on the regular track, the rocket blasts off at the beginning of the second lap, while on the reverse track, the rocket blasts off when the player is about to drive through it for the first time. The rocket is never present in Gate Drift events set in French Guiana. In the Career mode, the rocket may actually blast off at the beginning of the race instead.
After exiting the hangar there is a set of two intertwining roads inspired by a similar South American road system where players jump from one to the next, collecting large amounts of nitro; it is also a common wrecking place if when switching from the lower to higher road your car goes sideways and crashes between the road and the wall. Towards either side of this track section is an array of satellite dishes and observatory buildings akin to those seen at the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory's Atacama Compact Array.
Near the end of each track in French Guiana is a long runway that eventually splits into half. On this runway are the biggest dangers of the race: gigantic moving crawlers that are present in odd-numbered laps, regardless of the game mode chosen. However, on the second lap, the crawlers are replaced with a Space Shuttle flying above the runway. In multiplayer, caution is recommended as the crawlers appear on every lap; on the first lap, the crawlers will start to move onto the runway and will begin to move out of the runway on the second lap.
At the end of the race, the track goes through a small jungle.
There is no traffic in French Guiana, regardless of the number of racers in the race, which makes it a smoother track than most others.
The following vehicles have their banners depicted in French Guiana:
* Alfa Romeo MiTo GTA
* Pontiac Solstice GXP
* Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X
* Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive
* Range Rover Evoque Coupe HSE Dynamic
* Lotus Exige S Coupe
* Ferrari 612 Scaglietti
* Renault Alpine Celebration
* DS Survolt
* Mercedes-Benz Biome
* Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 2013
* Maserati MC12
* Cadillac CTS-V Coupe Race Car
* RUF RT 12 S
* Ferrari FF
* Jaguar C-X75
* Genty Akylone
* McLaren Mercedes MP4-25
* Lamborghini Veneno
* HTT Pléthore LC 750
* Renault Sport R.S. 01
* Zenvo TS1 GT 10th Anniversary Edition
* McLaren Senna
* Lamborghini Sián FKP 37
The Brazil track in Asphalt Nitro reuses French Guiana's track layout, but has the same starting point in the reverse track as on the forwards track.
=== Recommendations ===
* Vehicles with decent handling and acceleration (e.g. TRION NEMESIS) are recommended for this track. This is an otherwise simple track for the most part.
* To take full advantage of the runway, vehicles with good top speed and good nitro duration (e.g. Mercedes-Benz Biome) are also recommended.
* To save time, take the left path at the beginning of the regular track.
* Warning: When approacing the branching path that eventually merges into the runway, be careful while exiting the left-hand path, as if the player turns to the right aggressively, they can sometimes run the risk of randomly skidding and wrecking.
=== Trivia ===
* Just like with several other tracks in the game, French Guiana has a different starting point for the reverse version of the track when compared to the forwards version of the track.
* There are no variations in time of day on this track, regardless of whether the variant is regular or reverse.
* French Guiana's background sound effects are reused for Rio de Janeiro's Ipanema Showdown and Oceanview Derby tracks.
* Like Nevada Rev., French Guiana Rev. sometimes has a glitch where AI racers finish the race in around 20 seconds. This is much rarer, though.
* On the French Guiana Rev. track, if the player chooses to race backwards from the start line towards the runway area, they will see the 3 crawlers parked adjacent to each other, with one sitting in the middle of the runway and the other two parked on either side. On the normal track layout, the 3 crawlers will instead be seen parked on either side of the runway without any of them blocking the middle. In both cases, the crawlers will not move at all unless the player either resume their race the proper way and come back to the runway area, or the game disqualifies them for not completing the race (or wrecking, in the case of a Flawless race).
* In 2-Lap single-player races on the French Guiana Rev. track, a space shuttle can be seen taking off over the runway like a conventional airplane on the second lap, instead of the crawlers. In real life, the Space Shuttle would lift off vertically(nose facing upwards) from a launch pad while mounted on top of an external tank with the aid of two solid rocket boosters.
* Additionally, on the regular track, the Space Shuttle can be seen firing retrograde thrusters from its underside as well as its main engines upon landing. In real life, the Space Shuttle would land unpowered like a glider, and only use the thrusters while in orbit and during re-entry. The main engines would only be used during the spacecraft's ascent.
* The Abelion Corporation runs operations in both San Diego Harbor and French Guiana. In San Diego Harbor, it co-owns much of the military hardware, the shipyard and one of the huge warehouses. In French Guiana, it owns the white spherical water tanks which feature in some pre-race screens and are seen near the satellite dish array. It also has a logo underneath the launch pad for the Ariane 5 Rocket in partnership with the C.L.G.I. Corporation (formerly) and the I.R.G.S.T. Corporation (currently).
* Near the observatory laboratories between the winding roads and the hangar, there is a row of 8 flags lining the road on the longer path. These flags represent the partner countries of the Guiana Space Program. The countries featured are Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
*The control tower at the end of the runway bears a resemblance to the one at Singapore's Changi Airport.
* From August 3 to August 30, 2018, an advertising campaign for Asphalt 9: Legends was featured in the form of billboards in various locations across both versions of the track.
** These billboards re-appeared on December 13, 2018, however the extra pre-race cinematics featuring said billboards are no longer present.
=== Gallery ===
<tabber> French Guiana = 
French Guiana banner a8.png|Banner
A8FrenchGuiana.PNG|Track layout.
French Guiana pre-race.png|Pre-race screen.
Asphalt 8 Double Knockdown.png|Starting line of the French Guiana track. Here, an Audi RS 4 Avant performs a Double Knockdown on a Lamborghini Urus and Audi TTS Coupé.
A8 Air Time Metal Effect.png|A Peugeot SR1 jumping through the Ariane 5 launch site.
French Guiana warehouse.png|An Audi RS 4 Avant performing a Drifting Knockdown on a Lotus Exige S Coupe in the warehouse.
Rusak.jpg|A Scion FR-S having wrecked in French Guiana, presumably as a result of failing to cleanly jump through the Ariane 5 launch site on the first lap.
Chevrolet Camaro GS infected and maxed out.png|A Chevrolet Camaro GS with Extra Tank on the French Guiana runway in the second lap of an Infected race.
French Guiana post-race.png|A TRION NEMESIS after a race in French Guiana.
Screenshot_2017-02-21-20-29-27.jpg|A Lamborghini Aventador SV wrecking as a result of running straight into a crawler.
Screenshot_2017-06-17-09-26-42.png|Pre-race screen.
Decal Promo Art.png
Screenshot_2018-02-09-00-51-29 copy.png|Abelion's former partner C.L.G.I. (left) and current partner I.R.G.S.T. (right).
Screenshot_2018-04-30-09-55-47.png|The Ariane 5 Rocket prior to lift-off.
Screenshot_2018-04-30-09-57-32.png|The Ariane 5 Rocket lifting off.
Screenshot_2018-08-04-00-24-09.png|A billboard for Asphalt 9: Legends, placed at the base of the in-game version of the Changi Control Tower.
|-| Fr. Guiana Rev. = 
Fr. Guiana Rev. banner a8.png|Banner
A8Fr.GuianaRev..PNG|Track layout.
Fr. Guiana Rev. pre-race.png|Opening screen.
Fr. Guiana Rev. post-race.png|A McLaren 570S after a race in Fr. Guiana Rev.
Screenshot_2017-05-23-19-46-46.png|Two of the gigantic crawlers that sometimes cross the runway.
Screenshot_2017-06-13-14-37-52.png|The satellite array that is found on the winding track section of Guiana Space Center.
Screenshot_2017-12-22-01-01-49.png|A secondary shot of the satellite array.
Screenshot_2017-06-13-23-33-58.png|A shot of the launch pad containing the Ariane 5 rocket.
French Guiana jungle.png|A shot of the jungle in French Guiana.
Screenshot_2017-06-17-09-35-42.png|A secondary shot of the jungle in French Guiana.
Screenshot_2017-12-20-12-05-32.png|The tunnel portion of the track.
</tabber>
== See also ==
* Patagonia, Rio de Janeiro, Bogota Airport and Buenos Aires - other tracks set in South America.
Category:Locations
Category:South America
Category:Asphalt 8 Race Tracks
Category:France
Category:Asphalt 8: Airborne