The Ayatsuji Centauri
The Honda Civic Type-R can eat ou- ahem.
Traveling from Earth to Alpha Centauri is an incredibly long travel, forty-one trillion kilometers to be exact. And in a car as fun as the Centauri? The journey would be an excellent one.
Does a car need to be a record-holder or a trend-setter to be a truly fantastic one? We don’t think so, and we’re not saying that because we’re bitter that our Green Hell lap times were laughably slow! When you feel like you’re riding on the edge of snap oversteer, but your FWD drivetrain says “how about no” and keeps you barely in control, you’ll certainly be having the drive of a lifetime.
An Economy Car? Blasphemy!
An economy car by Ayatsuji!? But that violates their like, only principle! That’s no fun!
Let us finish our demonstration before you question us dear viewer, because I think you’ll find this economy car is no ordinary economy car!
It’s a fairly basic hot hatch on the surface, I don’t actually have much in the way of “quips” for the design. I’m trying to practice more normal, modern design, and of course, using JDM cars as influence. I don’t think it looks bad, but I feel like it’s missing something.
Outputting 193 horsepower from an NA 2.0L Inline 4, the Centauri certainly isn’t a slouch in its base form. It’s quite reminiscent of Honda’s original Type-R’s, the DC2 and EK9 really.
The Centauri is an interesting breed when it comes to statistics. Running Medium Compound Tires, it pulls 1.11 lateral G’s in the corners, and then falls off to .0872 in the high speed corners. It goes from 0-100 in 6.78 seconds and has a 14.94 quarter mile time.
And of course, what would an economy car be if we didn’t talk about economy? It gets 7.2 Liters per 100KM, 32.6 MPG for those who use America-Units. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. But you probably already know - there’s more, after all I have mentioned the Civic Type-R at least once. And the Trim is named “Base”.
The Arrival of Ayatune
Speed is a from of art, and we at Ayatune pride ourselves on being the Da Vinci of speed.
The majority of car companies have some form of “tuner division” nowadays, whether it’s TRD, Nismo, AMG, or whatever they call it. Ours is Ayatune.
You’ll notice that the car was kept mostly the same, the design changes being subtle and purely for performance. Those changes are in the form of improved cooling to suit the addition of a turbocharger and intercooler, as well as a secret weapon in the form of aerodynamics. You’ll see how big of a difference that wing makes when you see the cornering G’s.
Trivia time: What’s the quickest way to make more power? If you answered “staple a turbocharger to it”, you would be 100% correct! With 320 Nm and 298 horsepower, the R3-T20DIR is certainly proof of such a theory. If that’s not good enough proof for you, perhaps some spicy lap times will be!
Coming in sixteen seconds faster around the Automation test track, the Ayatune Centauri proves itself to be faster than is little brother in every way. It even pulls a 8:07.67 around Green Hell, a almost a minute faster than the stock Centauri’s 9:06!
Comparing cornering g’s isn’t exactly fair, since we’re comparing Sports Compound to Medium Compound - however we can compare Medium to Medium and Sports to Sports. On Medium Compound,you’d be looking at 1.13/1.11 g’s as compared to 1.11/0.87 on the original Centauri. On Sports Compound, you’d be looking at 1.22/1.21 g’s on the Ayatune, versus 1.19/0.94 g’s.
As for economy, the wing does increase drag and harm economy, however that’s not to say it has dreadful economy! Pulling 8.4 Liters per 100 KM, or 28 miles per gallon, it won’t drive you broke if you decide to punch on it.
The only catch is that the Ayatune is a two-seater. But let’s just gloss over that.
The Conclusion
The world of hatchbacks is a world of joy in our eyes, having a car that can punch on it and bring home the groceries. Your daily driver doesn’t have to be some dull Altima or Corolla, it can be fun and interesting. We think it should be.
Notes and Author Comments
I was surprised by what a tough decision making the Ayatune 2-seats was. It’s such a dumb idea and no hot-hatch should be, but man I was too tempted to not do it. I should probably re-tune it as an AWD and keep that sweet sweet 1.22g’s if I can, but oh well.
Other notes: I’m considering making an Ayatune Engine page, so if anyone has remotely any interest in that, let me know. I enjoy tuning engines and I do need to improve my turbo tuning skills. Also, I’m considering making a separate Ayatune thread and making tuned versions of others’ cars, if anyone would be interested in doing such a thing with me that is. So yeah, let me know if those things interest you.
