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Tear off the L-plates, pull off those furry dice and put to sleep that nodding dog - you're going racing in a Supersprint car, burning rubber in this Activision conversion (on the Electric Dreams label) of an coin-op original.

You choose from eight circuits of different shapes and varying difficulty, competing with three other cars over a minimum of four laps.

And there's a two-player option, where the two players can have the track to themselves or face the further confusion of a third, computer-controlled car.

Constant concentration is essential as you steer your car around the tortuous corners of each track, accelerating over the tarmac. Should you collide with the side of the track at a slow speed you are merely delayed; pranging trackside at high speed causes your racing car to explode. A helicopter flies a new one out to you, but valuable time is lost.

On some circuits there are underpasses which you'll have to drive through blind, temporary short cuts that only you can use (to gain time on your mechanical adversaries), and ramps that enable you to leap over obstacles.

Random objects appear on the track: you can drive over pads to earn bonus scores, and if three or more golden spanners are collected there's a bonus at the race's end. The bonuses include extra tyre traction, power for greater speed, turbo acceleration and extra scoring potential.

But it's not all plain driving. Oil slicks can send your car into a spin, water slicks delay you, and the tornado that improbably patrols the course sends your car whirling out of control.

When a race is over the times of the first three cars are given, complete with their fastest lap times.

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: small but colourful
Sound: limited
Options: choice of tracks, two-player option

'Games like this are great fun in the arcades with people all around you and sound blasting out of the machine, but an atmosphere like that is very hard to create in the peace and quiet of your own home. And when the game on its own is transplanted into a tiny Spectrum, problems appear. The collision-detection is the worst problem of all; I often found myself stuck on the side of the track but not actually touching anything, which is terribly infuriating. It goes without saying that the two-player option improves the game immensely, but then YOU'RE making the fun, not the game you paid for. Supersprint is effective up to a point but you can't do much with such a simple game.'

'I expect Supersprint is as good as we're going to get in this genre, but it's still not very good. The graphics are small (like the arcade original's), and though the game is quite playable I didn't find it very addictive, despite good reports of the original. Addicts of the arcade game might find this to their taste, but it lacks a little something.'

'Well, I don't know about THE car-racing game - the graphics aren't anything to shout about, small cars on an uninteresting background. Still, there is some playability here even though I've never won a game. Jumps, tornadoes and the odd helicopter give it that extra boost of gameplay but I'm afraid it's not enough - sorry Activision, this is a licence wasted.'