recommended version: NTSC (myth or above players who don’t try tiziano’s sc can use pal for the course, and either pal or ntsc for the lap)
recommended character: penta (fast or acceleration for ntsc-u)
6 seconds lap (tiziano’s SC)

18 seconds Sl with tiziano’s sc

Difficulty: GOD+

Simply S-turn, or fast start + U-turn to go up the hill behind the finish line, make 3 turbos, jump to get a good cresting on top of the hill, get a good SG and… pray. No one has managed to do this shortcut on the first lap, but it is technically possible, if you get really lucky with the SG without reserves. You need insane luck in the froggy to keep SG, plus a lot of luck on the wall, which makes this one of the hardest achievements on CTR. But the worst part is that you’ll need to do another Tiziano’s SC in the third lap to make this strategy worth something in a course (18:xx, 29:xx, 6:xx). Technically, you could also do this in each lap to do something like 18:xx, 18:xx, 18:xx, but that would be clearly in TAS territory.