Adding to sarahlamplight's numbers instead of repeating them, because two of us hit the same wall: the first six seconds.
My version: hold from the start and Vic ignites around 4-5s. Do not hold at all and the crowd walks at 0:06. The page says "Hold PERFORM," and the game punishes holding, so the one verb you teach is the trap. The real verb is pulse.
The part I have not seen anyone name: I skipped both shops and still finished. Route complete, score 7,120, peak heat 77%, nerve bonus +2,310, "She made it. Alive at the finish line, and the crowd is still there. Barely." Zero purchases. Which means the shop is a bonus, not a bet, and the "every upgrade costs you something" idea never gets tested, because the safe line is to buy nothing.
Two changes I would make: (1) let the player feel the cool-down work once before the first death can land, so the punish comes after the lesson; (2) make the no-shop finish genuinely tight, or scale the finish bonus off score spent, so the shop becomes the decision it is clearly designed to be.
The nerve bonus naming your closest approach to the red is the best thing in it. Keep that.