Hey, could you please have a look at this? 
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Can someone point me in the direction of the rules please? Iād love to give this a go
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Here it is:
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Well shit looks like my car never saved and my turbo was definitely not running enough boost. Submitted a revision, tried my best to make it look like the original, which I shared the screenshots of here earlier. 
Does anyone feel like volunteering their power number (even +/-30 kW) so I can see how woefully underpowered my first attempt is?
Who is racemaster for this round so I can send in my entry?
Send it to Darkshine and Nomade, I think
not entering this roundā¦ sadly
ok I will accept entries for another 6 hrs then the deadline is closed please send entries to myself at this stage
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ok guys my internet is playing up atm (feck Telstra) I am sending this from my phone I will attempt to have the entries list up tomorrow I apologize for the short delay to scrutinizing
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OK cars that I have received and scrutinized. If you are not on this list please be certain you have sent you entry to me, for those that I have sent PMās you are entitled to Send me revisions.
@ramthecowy
@Steel
@Nomade0013
@Detsikeulii
@one85db
@JohnWaldock
@gridghost
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wow quad postā¦
Ok update and news time.
First the calculations have been completed, the reviews and photoās will come in the next week or so.
Secondly both myself and KLinardo can no longer complete our duties so I am calling on Nomade013 to take over the Racemaster position. However if Nomade cannot take-on these duties I may be asking for someone to step up into the Racemaster position if the competition is to continue. So at this stage I would like to ask if anyone is interested in the commentator position? [which arguable takes the most amount of time and work]
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Iāll humble accept to substitute you, sir.
As you said, the most time-consuming part of the challenge is the announcer, so I can be the racemaster without much problem.
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Just so everyone is clear, I will handle this round. An explanation will follow the reviews.
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THE RESULTS
please note that pictures are in no particular order
The winter months are a hectic time at Boss Motorsports. Race seasons are over and garage queen cars wont be driven during the periods of inclement weather. Not to mention the dreaded return of the antithesis to undercarriage health: road salt. This lull in performance car utilization and enjoyment often lands many of them in the small tuning shop in Blue Anchor for their yearly tune-up or possible upgrade now that St. Nick has come and gone, leaving car parts for all the good little race car drivers.
For me, this meant loads of paperwork and trying to wrangle together my crew. I wasnāt being helped by the fact that one of my more dependable mechanics (and even more dependable friend), Joe, had bought another Bronco, bringing the grand total to something like 4 vehicles in various states of repair and operability. āIt doesnāt help me that Joe wants to turn wrenches on these damn Broncos rather than customer cars.ā My other mechanic Chris was off trying to make short films and kept pestering me to use customer cars as star cars. I had let him go back into the fields to film some scene for a horror movie he was planning, so I imagined I wouldnāt see him for a while. My cousin was out of town on other work, and my father was busy working on the carburetor from his station wagon in an effort to get the float to stop sticking. āI should really actually hire some full-time staff around hereā¦ā
Just then, the mail came and a box was unceremoniously placed on my desk. āReturn address of Australia?ā
ā¦
āI didnāt order anything for Australia. And even if I had, a Ford Falcon would not fit in this box.ā Just then I heard the car carrier come in. āOh, crap. Thatās today?ā I quickly ripped open the Australian package and, sure enough, eight sets of keys were nestled on top of a spreadsheet displaying car stats and a note that simply read āAPL2ā.
I donāt have time to do reviews. Not now. Not during this time of year. I need to politely back out of this one. But, I made a commitment and Iām a man of my word. Iāll give this one more go. Itās a shame because I did enjoy doing this, but I have other priorities at the moment.
āAll right, what did they send me?ā, I pondered as I walked outside to the car carrier that had eight examples of hatches with protruding arches and almighty wings scattered across the gambit. āGo-karts. They sent me overgrown go-karts. Well at least I have a whole farm to test these on. I wonder if that one can jump Route 73 if I get enough speedā¦ā
@Ramthecowy
The Cavarella āKey-haāā¦ āK-eye-haāā¦ the āK-eye-harāā¦ forget it. I canāt say the name of this car. It will now be known as the āgray carā. At least with all the body panel available in the back theyāll be able to print C-A-V-A-L-L-E-R-A [space] K-I-E-H-A-S-R-A-U-S-K-U across the back somewhereā¦ I do really like gun-metal gray, but I just donāt know if it works on this car. I also canāt like the headlights. Someone went way too crazy with these LED strips that they want me to call headlights. You can tell that the four round lights in the grille are what really do the work. Besides, the strips are off kilter and the spacing doesnāt seem to have any rhyme or reason to it.
I do like the wingā¦ from the front. This wing just seems like something that a giant muscle car could only pull off. From the front, the Kieā¦ this car can almost add itās name to that list. Then, you walk around the back and realize why they donāt use these things anymore. It looks hideous on anything that has a degree of curvature behind the wheel arches. More importantly, there is no decklid to speak of on this car, so the wing is mounted to the wheel arches themselves. Donāt get a blowout in a corner, or youāll lose grip and downforce.
Finally, the taillights are justā¦ different. They wrap around two vents that seem to have no purpose other than to serve as a stencil for the aforementioned taillights, which, might I add, are also thin slits. Regardless, I do like the venting the car displays in the rear bumper where the dual exhaust has been housed. I also like the front grille design and the in-set quad light array. I just wish the headlights played along a little better.
Inside the car had a 1600cc I4 with a turbo that left you waiting for the power until 4000 RPM. From there to 9200 RPM there was 15 PSI of forced induction ready to get you wherever you wanted to go rather quickly thanks to 356 HP being squeezed out of this four-pot. The VVT and VVL certainly helped achieve those numbers. The high end cam profile was absolutely stratospheric. The valve springs must be forged from titanium to deal with that kind of lift. And, even with 15 PSI of turbo, thereās still a 11.4:1 compression ratio. If this thing knocks those AlSi heads are going to explode.
The car was quick with a 0-60 time of 3.2 seconds. The downforce from the wing was also rediculous, however it was completely unbalanced with nothing to keep the front planted. Steering could become numb through a high speed corner and made even worse by trying to accelerate out of a turn. The car was fun, though and getting her sideways on the sandy fields was no problem at all.
Overall, this car was mid-pack on the track. It was competitive, sure, but it didnāt have the gusto to keep up with some of the other cars. There just wasnāt enough confidence in that front end. It was the most drivable car, but the least sporty. That dichotomy was the carās undermining. It was easy to drive fast, but you just couldnāt push it. This car was the second most reliable and third cheapest, leaving me to wonder whether or not it could have saved a little cash in some places to find a little more speed. āSend it back, put a splitter on the front, and get back to me.ā
@Steel
What was the design guy thinking? What was the paint guy thinking? What in the world were they trying to accomplish? Turquoiseā¦ vents everywhereā¦ tiny front grille (was it even needed with all the other cooling orifices?)ā¦ and even tinier headlights. This car is a more apt example of when Swiss cheese goes bad rather than car design.
I wonāt be able to see anything if I start kicking up dust with these tiny beams. More importantly, I think I can send dirt and dust through this thing at all four corners with this vent layout. Finally, Iām concerned that the amount of openings may actually reduce the structural integrity of the car. Not to mention the nightmare this is going to cause for the air filter. If I donāt clog it by the time Iām done testing, Iāll be disappointed in myself. And the color will just make sure everyone is keenly aware of when a body panel rips itself from this display.
The rear is a little more subdued, but the trend of useless vents in the hatch has continued for some reason I cannot quite decipher. The AJR Sidewinder RRR oddly has itās taillights mounted inboard on the hatch leaving nothing but body panel at the corners. The lights are also a simplistic round shape with smaller round indicators mostly overlapping the taillights, but just barely breaking the perfect circumference of the taillights to give a little bit of a distinctive shape. Although, the designers were smart to not put a reverse light on the other side, making things to look like a certain well-known cartoon mouse.
The AJ R Sidewinde r RRR has so many Rs in its name because thatās the sound you make when the engine finally hits 4500 RPM. That, or its the fiberglass vibrating itself to oblivion thanks to all the vents having to hold on to a 1600cc motor that just took a hit of 23.8 PSI of boost. Itās a long wait to 4500 RPM. During that wait, the car is legitimately painful to drive. You donāt crack 100 HP until ~4000 on the tach. If youāre not dropping the hammer from the get-go, nothing happens.
However, this thing was made for the track where it did well with three podiums. While the Sidewinder had the same 0-60 as the Kiā¦ last car, it was about 5 MPH faster up top, had balanced downforce, and gripped like the dickens ā pulling 1.11g regardless of corner speed. This led to a second place finish at the ATT, a third at the strip, and another silver medal at Mt. Stanley. In order to accomplish those feats, the Sidewinder skimped on reliability and safety, but it still pulled through where it counted. Its second places, though, are actually the fastest accepted times due to a disqualification of the fastest car at the ATT, the strip, and Mt. Stanley. So the Sidewinder is really the quickest car within the rules with the exception of the strip where it lagged behind by a mere two seconds.
@Dorifto_Dorito
The EADC Weasel Rally came with a note on the spreadsheet: āDisqualified for insufficient reliability.ā My only thought was āTHEN WHY DID YOU SEND IT TO ME?ā Well itās here. Iām not going to waste time driving it, but we know itās the fastest car on every track. Funny how skimping on reliability finds time on the track. Letās talk about the looks of the car.
Itās actually the most sensible car weāve seen to this point. I acutally like the design. The front fascia is aggressive, yet friendly and not obnoxious in any way. The Weasel also foregoes a wing in favor of a diffuser mounted underneath the bumper. The body lines are striking and the fixtures are molded to compliment and accentuate those lines. The taillights are impeccably placed amid some of the odd angles this body makes you contend with. If I was going to buy a 3-door rally hatch, this one would probably take the cake. However, rules are rules, and you canāt weasel your way to a win by skimping on the reliability floor everyone else had to operate on.
@Nomade0013
āChrist, there are quite a few typos on this spreadsheet. Good thing each set of keys comes with a tag with the pertinent information.ā The Gamma - REX screams rally car. It also screams āLook at me, Iām here, Iām red, I have the signature quad auxiliary light set-up, race me, race me, RACE ME!!!ā
The red car drew attention to all of its aerodynamic bits by contrasting them with matte black finish. Usually, Iād admonish a car for drawing too much attention to itself, but the design of the REX was actually a decent thing to draw attention to. My only gripe was that the taillights were a little big for the body. Other than that, every detail down to the hood scoop looked like it had serious thought put into it. Even the headlights were all lined up despite the slight upward bow they followed. It was really nice work.
The engine was a 1599cc I4 with 17.1 PSI of boost which made the motor good for 401 HP. This car was slightly quicker to spool than the Sidewinder RRR, but only doing so 100 RPM sooner for ~5 less PSI. It didnāt seem to be a great trade off, all things considered. I would have gladly sacrificed that boost for getting it 1000 RPM sooner, but this car did have the second best average power rating of the group, so that 17.1 PSI helps you out longer than most.
The REX was very quick from 0-60 ā accomplishing the feat in three seconds flat. Unfortunately, the car struggled on top speed, coming in around 10 MPH slower than the previous competitors. In addition, the grip wasnāt too astounding coming in at 1.03 and 1.06gs at low and high speeds respectively. Thatās even with a substantial amount of downforce in the front and rear. Something in the suspension must be off a few ticks.
Those few ticks are what kept the REX off the top of the leader board; coming in just behind the Sidewinder at the track. At the ATT the deficit was almost two whole seconds. At the strip the REX was the fastest accepted time and, at Mt. Stanley, the gap was about a second. Cornering ā cornering cost this car.
@Detsikeulii
Remember what I said about the Weasel taking the cake for design? Forget it. Nix it. Erase it from your memory, folks. The Birch Perkele 1600 is the sole owner of that distinction. Itās even a dark shade of my favorite color with matte accents of my second favorite color. Iām not crazy about the wheels, but thatās an easy fix and everything else, except maybe the taillights, are placed to perfection. Lord someone get me a fan because this car just turned up the heat.
Ethical dilemma about possibly awarding bonus points to a disqualified car now averted, letās look into this car from a more objective standpoint. Donāt get me wrong. I could go on about the aggressive and angular vents that make the car pop against its subdued blue paintwork, but the only constructive thing I can say about subjective looks is that the taillights donāt really fit the rest of the design. Theyāre too round and smooth against the razor sharp appearance of this car. They might have looked better if they were smaller and had some more angle to them, but thatās just me. So letās get to the stats.
0-60? 3.5 seconds. āUh oh.ā Top speed? 155.6 MPH. Cornering grip? 1.05g low speed. 1.06g high speed. āThis isnāt looking good for topping the stats leader board.ā Circuit times? Second slowest of the group. Drag strip? 5th of 8. Culprit? Not enough power to make up for modest gripā¦ or vice versa.
The engine, unfortunately only throws down 363 HP thanks to 21.9 PSI of boost that doesnāt show up until 4900 RPM. That can be forgivable if the redline breaks 5 digits, but in this case the 1600cc I6 gives up the ghost at only 8500 RPM. The result of all this is a supremely reliable and nice sounding engine, but when you only have 1600cc to play with, an I6 is just going to be too many cylinders, especially when turbos are required.
This is just an oversight on the engineering teamās part. They increased required components by 50%, but couldnāt get a second turbo on there because those extra parts donāt help make up an extra bank. Not to mention, youāre dealing with more weight stretched over the front axle which isnāt doing any favors for the 54.5/45.5 weight distribution.
In the end, the car was just subpar where it counted. Itās not particularly drivable or sporty. It is the cheapest, most reliable, and second safest car where it falls short 0.8 points. However, the average power was second worst and the weight that power had to move around was also more than most of the competitors were advertizing with the Birch coming in just over 2500 lbs. The more competitive cars were at least 200 pounds lighter and had about 35 more horses at their disposal. Power-to-weight was the demise of my favorite car.
@one85db
If you asked people in the United States during the 1950s what alien cars would look like, you might get a mental image that looks somewhat like the OMG Krawl. Its deep blue-green paint coupled with several forward facing lights of small diameter to give it a real foreign look. The light fixtures were also clear surrounding the actual lights, but had an eerie green back plate that didnāt match the car at all. Even things like the tailpipes just look too small on this car. The taillights mimic the front giving this car a real beady-eyed look overall. The grilles and vents come together to almost make a honeycomb look. The Krawl is actually quite attractive below the headlights. Attention to detail was certainly paid, I just donāt know if the details focused on were the best way to go.
The engine is a 1600cc FPV8 5-valve set-up. Yeah, you read that right. 200cc cylinders. Bore? 2.717". Stroke? 2.106". Redline? Only 8200 RPM. āI can see the writing on the wall and I havenāt even started it yet.ā That feeling of dismay was confirmed when the dyno sheets simply read back 338 HP. This thing has twin turbos thanks to the V configuration and makes 25.6 PSI of boost, but itās nowhere near the 400 HP some of the competitors are making with half the cylinders and turbos.
The one place this car actually stood out was at the ATT where it registered the third fastest accepted time, in no small part to increasing downforce with increasing speed. The grip levels at high speed hit 1.11g while the low speed struggled at 1.01g. Oddly enough this car behaved better the faster you could hit a corner. This was favorable around the sweeping curves of most of the ATT, but abysmal in tighter sections and at Mt. Stanley where the Krawl rolled into a second-to-worst finish.
The Krawl also had the honors of being both the most sporty and the safest car we tested. We all thought that was a strange and unlikely pairing. The car was the least drivable of the bunch, making it the exact opposite of the Kiehaā¦ sigh ā¦ the gray car we started the day with. Unfortunately, supreme sportiness didnāt lead to top track times and the Krawl certainly wasnāt running away with this competition.
@JohnWaldock
āIs John trying to kill me with this one? We were just e-mailing each other about life the other weekā¦ā, I thought aloud as I read one of the key stats. Yes, the JHW Epoque WRC-P receives the wooden spoon for screaming metal deathtrap in this round of the APL with a safety score of 0.0 points. Yes, the actual numerical score did, in fact, look like my face when I read the safety rating the first time: 
āWell I aināt driving this one. Thatās for certain. But how am I going to test itā¦
ā¦
ā¦
HEY CHRIS! CāMERE!ā
Several tense moments later:
Well Chris managed to survive. We were all shocked. Thatās equal parts because of the zero-point-zero safety rating and the fact that I let my manic friend/car guy/up-and-coming movie-maker test drive this thing. (All you need to know to understand Chris is that when I told him it had 0.0 safety points he wanted to drive it more and asked to keep it.) The JHW didnāt exactly survive the tests, though. I mean, it survived. It still drives. It didnāt crash. And it didnāt Ford Pinto or Chevy Corvair Chris.
No, the JHW was just awful. Like, not-even-close-to-the-next-worst-car awful. I felt bad, but the numbers donāt lie. It was the slowest at both circuits and at the strip. At the ATT it was over 2 seconds behind the next slowest car; at Mt. Stanley it was only 0.04 seconds behind; and at the strip it was right behind the crawl with 0.01 seconds separating the two. The Krawl and the JHW were both the only two cars to run an 1/4 mile in the 12 second bracket.
Unfortunately, things didnāt get much better off the track. Third most drivable, but third-least sporty. Fourth most reliable, least safe (covered at length above), and third least average power. It was also the second-worst offroader, which was even more reason to be surprised that Chris brought it back from the fields in one piece. (Both he and the car, for that matter.)
Looks-wise I donāt have much to say; itās just a little bland and the white isnāt helping. I like how the vents and splitter come together on this car, but the rest is unremarkableā¦ except the rear. If you look at this car dead on from the back, as if you were sitting in traffic behind it, it looks like a goofy robot. Itās never a good thing when your car has an easily discernible face.
Iāve heard stories about what would happen to one of these if @Kai from Gryphon Gear got hold of it.
@gridghost
The Scarab Flare RX looks like it needs two more doors, a trunk instead of a hatch, and a V8. I like the look of the car, but it doesnāt fit in with the other competitors. The front is more generic, but bold with its pointed grille mounted above a three-piece vent layout. Itās traditional but modern. The headlights donāt really add much, but they go with the design. Itās the back, though, that is a true masterpiece. I think the rear of this body is difficult to work with, but the folks at Scarab nailed it and they nailed it good and hard. I could write about it, but I just have to let you look at this one:
The way the trim connects the emblem and the taillights is fantastic. The vents in the rear break up the bulbous bumper of this body while the mid exhausts in the large vent once again break things up while centering on symmetry. This car is also my favorite color, so it lands in the bonus points runner-up sport for me.
Mechanically the Flare sports a 1600cc I4 that makes a piddly 302 HP. While I do admire the fact that rating is at 302, this is no Boss. However, this car does come to life much earlier thanks to 18.7 PSI of boost showing up at 3700 RPM. Thankfully, that means you cross 100 HP before the tach clears 3500 RPM. This car nailed the broad power band and was our top finisher for average power.
On the track, that broad powerband did not equate to beautiful lap times. At the ATT and the strip the car was the third slowest. Meanwhile, at Mt. Stanley the Flare shot off to a bronze trophy and second quickest of the accepted times. Grip was impressive hitting 1.12g at low speed and 1.11g at a quicker pace in the corners. This was exceptionally impressive considering the car was aerodynamically neutral. The car just didnāt have the acceleration or power to take advantage of the corner speed it could carry. However, on more technical tracks, the 100 missing horsepower wouldnāt (and didnāt) matter.
The Flare also brought home points in many other categories. It was the the second most drivable behind the Kieharā¦ gray car, fourth in sportiness and price, fifth in reliability and safety, and third in engine reliability and offroad. The Flare wasnāt the best at anything, and a little under-powered for my taste, but it made up for its shortcomings with some really balanced engineering. The Flare could be an exceptional case of being average; a well rounded car to end the day on indeed.
Congrats go to Detsikeulii, dorifto dorifto and Gridghost
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Well fought battle, everyone, congratulations to @Dorifto_Dorito @gridghost and @Detsikeulii for the wins!
Thanks again to @KLinardo and @Darkshine5 for holding this awesome round! Thanks so much for all your contributions and your awesome challenges, it has been great fun and Iām certainly looking forward to the rounds to come.
(God damn it I was literally one point away from potential third place ughhh)
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Thanks for the great challenge. Sadly i couldnt do much about the reliability, i had a 3000 word history essay to do, and I was unable to rectify the car.
Gratz @Dorifto_Dorito and @Detsikeulii for well done cars
And a big thanx to @KLinardo and @Darkshine5 for hosting this challenge
And making a car that spools early wasnāt really the thing here it seems 
Lousy tracktimes all around, but yey!!! highest average power and lowest HP 
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Welp, RIP me.
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