Pipe Dream: We used to speculate on GameFAQs that the various gates would be used for future online play. Massive Showoff contest on five Pipe Dream tracks...
The tunnel you could see underneath was actually the one from the left bowl, (with that secret entrance activated by jumping on the Pipe Dream logo, etc,...)
Snowdream: I discovered the speedboost under the start gate and took a screenshot of it.
It can still be seen at:
http://www.merqurycity.com/ssxpages/picturegallery.html
I remember corresponding with Cody Ritchie at the time, here is an excerpt of the interview I conducted with him (and which Gondee and I are still trying to publish, lol!)
<i><b>Cody:</b>Here's a little tidbit for you. I saw somewhere that you had found the power-up icons underneath the track, and that you thought they were leftovers or misplaced ones. Well, they serve a purpose in the game (for technical reasons), and were put there intentionally, but can not be grabbed or used in any way. There's also animating signs and other FX objects placed under there usually. I was hoping not many people would see them, damn that manual replay camera!!
<b>Grandmort:</b>Actually The first thing I thought about when I saw it was that it was placed there on purpose to act invisibly on your character when launching from the gate during a race! (As when running in the World Circuit Mode and when winning some race quarter-finals one will actually start the following semi-final, and final, with plenty of boost! ...sweet sound that boost!) Could that be it? That would make sense to me but I might be totally wrong here... Yes, I saw some signs under there too, LOL!
<b>Cody:</b>Nope, nothing as complicated as that. It's just a technical thing to make the textures scroll on objects in the game, as little trick I used to make it go fast and not eat up any CPU time. The boost stuff is coded in.</i>