A new event started yesterday, in time for the Chinese / Lunar New Year (of the Monkey). I can't quite make out what it's called, but here's what I've seen so far on the event structure.
Prize
The event car we're racing for here is a Jaguar F-Type. It started out as a three-star with uncommon parts and a PR of around 570, if I remember correctly. I'd say that classifies it as a "sports class", around the BMW M4, but below the Nissan GT-R, for example.
Event currencies
Usually, events have their own special currency and "prototype" parts, which convert into regular items afterwards. In this one, the system is a bit more complicated.
While we have an event currency, you don't actually earn it directly from racing. Instead, racing yields "aura", which can be traded for a "red pack" at the price of 60000 aura points. The red pack contains materials, event cash, and (allegedly) blueprints.
The "aura" points accumulate a lot faster than regular cash rewards (I'd say at a 10x rate), so this isn't actually bad value.
There is, of course, the regular event market, where items can be bought for event cash and gold.
Races
The races are surprisingly difficult - I had to re-run some on the first day. This is mainly due to the colour scheme - we've got night races with a dark-red scheme overlayed, so visibility is absolutely minimal.
In addition to that, there's a new special "obstacle" element - "aura gates". A small section of the track is "open" (about one third), the rest is blocked by a red screen. Hitting the gate gives a nitro refill, hitting the red block screen causes car damage and significant slowdown (similar to a collision).
This makes drifting almost impossible when it occurs, since the gates are on the "ideal" track, so the inner lines in curves, and drifting doesn't give you enough control to keep it tight.
Also, the AI players are obviously on that lane as well, so it gets very crowded very quickly, even on tracks that would normally classify as easy.
Money traps
Here we've got the usual suspects. Car parts and blueprints in the market cost gold, with blueprints trading at a fair 50G per piece (250G for 5). Race skip prices are fair as well so far, but expect them to increase sharply in later levels.
You can get the "red packs" for gold, if you're lacking the aura points, as well.
Strategy
All in all, I'm not overly excited about the Jaguar. There are better cars in the regular game that can be built up without too much effort, like the BMW M4.
The difficulty seems steep, encouraging buy-outs. As for blueprints, the race series yield 10 (15 for the last). With a requirement of 15 to get to stage 4, I think we'll be ending up at stage 6, short 25 for the full upgrade. I haven't seen any so far in the "red packs", so I wouldn't bet on gold-buying those. If you're after this car, and have the gold stashed, best value is going to be buying in the event market.
Repeat races can give event cash directly, which is valuable, and the aura points add up quickly, so I can definitely recommend doing as many repeats as you can. Tickets have a 30m refill rate, so there should be a fair bit of space, especially in the beginning.
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