Many of you might remember the stats in 1.9 Kart.
In 2.1 Kart, they have been dramatically reworked. They now work hand-in-hand with the changes to friction that have been hinted in previous posts.
To confirm, in 2.1 Kart friction is a lot lower. This was a change pioneered by Iceman, and though it took me until recently with adjusting balance of the cast for the stats detailed below, everyone in Kart's dev team have warmed up to this change.
This change in friction means a loss of speed when making wide turns, as opposed to 1.9's breakneck pace and sticky drifting. This works well with making the overhaul to stats more noticeable, and every character with unique stats will now feel different. As development progresses and more characters are introduced, your choice in character may not be due to a cast favorite, but because one of them meshes better with your play style than another.
Stats in 2.1 Kart have changed from "Speed" "Handling" "Recovery", to two: "Speed" and "Weight".
Speed affects both top speed and acceleration simultaneously. The lower a character's speed stat, the higher their acceleration will be. With the change to friction causing a loss in speed, a dramatically high top-speed may not necessarily out-pace a dramatically high acceleration.
Weight changes how a character handles in a number of ways. By default, drifting provides a gradual inward curve, and awards drift sparks and turbos over time, which can be gained faster by drifting 'inward' rather than 'outward'.
A light character will have much more control over their drift, being capable of taking corners very tightly. A heavy character with have much less control, and the automatic curve becomes much more 'straight'. This straighter curve comes with the advantage that drifting inward does not cause you to lose as much speed, while at the same time allowing you to gain drift boosts much quicker to compensate the difficulty in turning.
In general, drift boosts are accumulated much faster by a 'accel, heavy' character than they are by a 'speed, light' character. In fact, while the latter might sound like the optimal play style (lighting speed and tight corners!), the inability to gain boosts cause them to lose a lot of speed.
We have reached a point in balancing where entire races between these four extremes still have remarkably close results, so your decision on which character to play relies entirely on preference and skill.