Well bugger. 19 CSRs later it was about time I got myself throw into the bin due to minmax. I guess MGR didn’t raise an eyebrow at my body panels during CSR 99 considering I had a hand-made interior for that one…
I guess this is what I get for being lazy and cloning one of my old entries to repost. Seriously, it looked like the only complaint was the body panels.
CSR121: FINAL
2 WEEKS LATER
Roughly 10 PM on a Sunday night. Kayla holds her phone to her ear as it rings on an outgoing call.
“I hope he’s still up”
“Hello?”
“Hey Dad, It’s Kayla.”
“Hey! Glad to hear from you. Did you set up those test drives?”
“Yeah, actually, one yesterday and two today.”
“What did you think? Tell me about them”
“The first was a 1990 Neubran Vitesse NR-Technik. The owner said it’s a German-spec model, and showed off a magazine cover the vehicle graced in the late 90s. The engine starts up smoothly and settles into a smooth idle. Taking off, turbo lag is minimal, and once one boost, throttle response is stellar thanks to the individual throttle bodies. The interior is sporty and nice, with a nice sound system and a tape deck. And it’s so cool looking. A pretty shade of purple overlays a well proportioned and handsome shape. It’s attractive, but purposeful, and has a cool aggressive low body kit.“
“What else”
“The 2nd car was a 1990 Edelgard Wyvern GTX. The owner was a brash, angry guy with a MAGA hat, and when me and my friend Steve went to go see it, the owner assumed he was the one who wanted to buy it. Steve had mentioned to me on the way there that those oddly run on just regular, and have the reputation of absolutely bulletproof reliability”
“Yes, that’s true, but they can have some rust issues depending on how it was used.”
“It starts and runs nicely. The idle is smoother than I’d have expected from a big V8, and it pulls really hard. Lots of low-end torque, but still pulls really hard all the way to redline. The ride was rougher than the Neubran, and although the interior was similar, the sound system was just OK. It has a pretty tall first gear, I accidentally stalled it during the test drive, but I think I would get used to it, and it’s more fun up in the mountains than the Neubran was. It looks pretty cool, but not Vitesse cool.”
“And you drove another one today?
“Yeah, a 1990 Seikatsu GR30 Turbo VX+. The owner was a really intense guy who was really nervous about handing the keys over to me because of my age, but he didn’t put up too much of a fight. He clearly loves the car. It’s got fewer miles and a cheaper price than the others. Oddly enough, it’s also tuned for regular. It’s a far more aggressive looking car than the other two, with a lower seating position and wider stance. Not quite as handsome as the Neubran but undoubtedly a spectacle on it’s own. The interior isn’t as nice as the other two, but is still nice, and has a better sound system than the Wyvern. Runs good, and has the lowest mileage of the three. No issues, it starts up nicely as well and has a slightly more lopey idle than the Nuebran, but it’s still a smooth-as-silk turbo I6. It’s not as instantaneously responsive as the Neubran was, but the engine’s got more punch and it makes for a really fast car. Not as fast as the Wyvern, but it pulls hard. The ride was nicer than the Wyvern, but not as nice as the Neubran, and it was especially crashy over road imperfections at the front wheels. It handles excellently and was a ton of fun to drive as well.”
“Do you have a favorite?”
“I’ve got to think it over dad.”
“Don’t wait too long. Used cars like these sell fast. If you want my opinion, I’m partial to the Neubran, it’s the safest option and the one I’m least afraid of you wrecking.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“You know what I mean. If it were up to me you’d stick to the GTI. But I know the whole point of this purchase is to carve out some independence and I know that when I was your age, I bought myself a car that wasn’t half as safe as any of those three. You’re a smart girl; if these are the cars you want, I’m sure you’ve put enough thought into it, and if not, well, that’s a good life lesson too.”
“Thanks dad. I’ll keep you updated.”
Decisions, Decisions:
Style: Advantage Neubran. Subtle tweaks to the shape of the vehicle make the very-Japanese shaped body look fresh and convincingly German. The attention to detail in the detail is unparalleled; every grill, vent, light, and badge has more detail than initially meets the eye. The Seikatsu is no slouch either though. It’s wild and outlandish, and creates a mixture of angles and organic shapes that creates a hell of an impression, and succeeds in creating a car that looks like I can’t decide if it’s from the 80s or the 90s, and I couldn’t talk about this car without mentioning the vaporwave sunset taillamps. When the aggressiveness is combined with the car’s width, it looks closer to a supercar than an affordable sports car. The Edelgard is in its own right a good looking car, and like the Nuebran, making this very-Japanese shaped body look convincingly American is no small feat. The ducktail rear spoiler, charmingly gaudy “WYVERN” badging in the bumper, and rear louvers do the trick from the back, and the pinched character line and squared-off, hideaway headlamp front fascia all look quite nice, but when the other two set the bar so high, it’s Edelgard falls behind in this regard.
Fun to drive factor: advantage Edelgard. Despite it’s traditionally American solid rear axle, the Edelgard has sportier handling than the Nuebran and sportiness only negligibly less than the Seikatsu. It’s power to weight ratio exceeds that of the other two, with its torquey naturally aspirated V8, and gives the best acceleration times of the three. The Seikatsu isn’t far behind though, it is a touch sportier, and it’s not too far behind in acceleration tests. The Nuebran is the most pedestrian of the three, with the lowest sportiness, least power and torque, and heaviest weight. It’s no slouch in the grand scheme of all the entrants, and has nice throttle response thanks to it’s use of individual throttle bodies, richer, AFR, and premium fuel, but does fall behind the other finalists overall in the fun to drive factor.
Reliability and running costs: advantage Edelgard. Impressive once again, the Wyvern provided the highest trim reliability of the entire test at 72.3, and engine reliability nearly on par with the very best. Combined reliability scores come out to a massive 11.5 point advantage over the Nuebran and even more significant 13 point advantage over the Seikatsu. It has higher mileage than the other two, and unimpressive environmental resistance, but not enough to wither away that huge reliability advantage. Running costs for the Seikatsu are the cheapest, but by only $6 a year compared to the Edelgard, and when combined car and engine running costs are taken into account, there is still only a $14 per year between them. The Nuebran is more expensive, but still a fairly negligible $56.50 per year, and has slightly better trim reliability than the Seikatsu, and identical engine reliability to it, but higher mileage.
Well-Roundedness and Usability: advantage Neubran. The Nuebran is the most comfortable car of the three. It has more compliant suspension tuning and a slightly nicer interior and sound system combo than the other two. Although it uses Premium fuel to the other two’s regular, it has the lowest fuel costs, and cruises on the highway at a pretty good 2900 rpm at 75 mph. The Edelgard cruises well on the highway too, at 2800 rpm at 75 mph, but it’s gearing isn’t good around town due to a very tall first gear. A tall first is less troublesome with a large NA engine with excellent low end torque, but this is still quite a tall first gear. The Edelgard has a slightly less spacious interior, and while similarly appointed to the Neubran, it has lower quality sound system. Unsurprisingly, with it’s sold rear axle, the Edelgard isn’t as comfortable. The Seikatsu splits the difference between the two on comfort, but despite it’s ultra-sporty exterior, uses a more pedestrian standard interior compared to the sport interior found on the other two. It has an extremely stiff front sway bar and the lowest ride height of the three. The Seikatsu would aslo be the toughest to fit friends in, and it cruises at 75 mph at 3300 rpm. Fuel costs are less than that of the Edelgard, but more than the Neubran.
3 WEEKS LATER:
On a hot and sunny midsummer day, Kayla makes a spirited drive through the mountains. Windows down, and sunroof open, her ponytail whips around in the wind. Braking into a downhill left hander, she downshifts from 3rd to 2nd, attempting to heel-toe but she doesn’t quite have the hang of it yet in the new car. Even though she gooses the throttle too much for a smooth downshift, she’s not too annoyed with herself, because the throttle blip fills her ears with beautiful V8 music. On corner exit, she gooses the throttle and second, and the rear slightly breaks traction, but stays in check with only a little unwinding of the wheel input. “The GTI made things so easy,” she thinks to herself, “hustling this around is something I will learn. I’m not there yet. But this Edelgard should last forever if I take good care of it, so I should have plenty of time to learn this car like the back of my hand.”
Congratulations @Xepy, the 1990 Edelgard Wyvern GTX wins CSR121. With good looks, strong sportiness, excellent performance, and reliability far and above all of the other entrants, Kayla has selected to buy the Edelgard Wyvern GTX.
Top 10:
- 1990 Edelgard Wyvern GTX @Xepy
- 1990 Seikatsu GR30 Turbo VX+ @Tzuyu_main
- 1990 Neubran Vitesse NR-Technik @Ryan93 & @MGR_99
- 1994 GEC GS2 Turbo @abg7
- 1990 Suisei Denreisha G2 @Falling_Comet
- 1992 Cascadia Hariken VT @thecarlover
- 1992 Aria Kaze GT 2+2 @Boiled_Steak
- 1995 Forea Mezor @vouge
- 1996 Honghu Beifeng 3.0S @yangx2
- 1995 Rhusuki Kuesa GT5 @Repti
Superlatives:
Most Expensive initial price: 1985 Silver-York Accolade Zacspeed Edition, $43,900.
Least Expensive initial price: 1989 Shromet Ableton, $19,100.
Highest Mileage: 1989 Letto Cacca, 277,833 miles.
Lowest Mileage: 1995 Marossa Espada BTS, 110,513 miles.
Best Fuel Economy: 1989 Letto Cacca, 38.9 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 1985 Silver-York Accolade Zacspeed Edition, 10.2 mpg
Cheapest Service Costs: 1989 Shromet Ableton, $581.8
Most expensive Service Costs: Panamericana Gira Junior SR, $1813.9
Best 0-60: tie, 1992 SSV Galaxy GT-Apex and 1990 Edelgard Wyvern GTX, 5.47s
Worst 0-60: 1989 Shromet Ableton, 9.31s
Thank you to everyone who competed in this massive CSR, thank you! If your car made it today’s elims, take pride in that. Really strong competition and a lot of good cars.
21 Likes
I was hoping you’d do a Best & Worse of stats at the end, glad to see my hopes of being most fuel efficient ended up happening, there’s a reason my engine never made much power! (Tuned for fuel economy, plus car should be light weight & therefore shouldn’t need a ton of power)
Ayy, the podium streak has finally peaked on a first. Just make sure you do rustproofing Kayla lol
Anyways I do have an idea for hosting and some time to actually do so thanks to this whole pandemic thing, so please wait a day or two while I solidify my idea and write a ruleset up.
Edit: Also I’ll have to keep check of the openbeta to live, so it may be further delayed, but yeah should have the rules up soon enough
13 Likes
Yooooooo congratulations @Xepy !
For my third CSR, second place is pretty great. I’ll take it.
7 Likes
Hooray- my car wasn’t on the end car stats, so it was perfectly average!
Congratulations @Xepy!
I’m glad to see Pepper and I won a couple of superlatives mmm, fuel… I can’t wait to see what happens next.
6 Likes
Good on Xepy taking the win with probably the largest and stiffest no pun intended competition I’ve ever seen on a CSR. Congrats!
On the other hand, yeah oof. No ABS and no power steering, not surprised she’d find it harder to drive. I guess I was hoping Kayla would see the simplicity of it nicer to work on. And of course, the analog appeal of it all and the boost to reliability… but how the hell Xepy managed 72 trim reliability is a mystery to me. Seriously I’m asking lol
And another note, I can’t help but notice aluminum was more of a disadvantage than otherwise. Would steel have been better? The environmental resistance aspect of that is what concerns me, In fact I’m kinda surprised that was hardly mentioned at all.
2 Likes
The reason why full aluminum was a disadvantage is for realism; as far as I could tell, fully aluminum bodies weren’t something that would have been a realistic choice for something less than exotic at that point in time.
For what it’s worth, at a certain level, the cars were all very good, and yours is one of them. A lack of power steering and ABS aren’t an instabin, especially not at the light weight of your car. More a nitpick to try and help choose between strong options.
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It was mostly the engine, the NA OHC V8 (65 reliability on engine thereabouts) put the car at around 70 base reliability, plus my usual reliability tricks squeezed out another 2 for relatively little costs.
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Thank you for such dedication, that was a large amount of cars to judge!
With all your remarks on the engine I know now where to improve!
GG to @Xepy for the win!
3 Likes
Ayy, at least I got lowest mileage award (though probably for all the wrong reasons lol)