I think all in all, if we can continue to inspire each other that can only be a good thing!
After considerable thought, the staff at Gryphon Gear decided that the excitement of the Mephisto was simply too much not to prepare a ready-for-production proof-of-concept. After all, I think it’s worth reiterating that while there are people around here who build >2000hp engines, and there are people around here who build great sports cars, the number of people who would put a >2000hp engine in a sports car are… somewhat fewer.
Now that the design had been nailed down, we set to work tweaking everything else, maintaining, above all else, the most important parameters: that it attain a top speed of at least 437km/h, accelerate from 0-100km/h in 2.7s, and lap Nordschleife in less than 7 minutes.
With a chassis that was lightened by about 3kg (at the cost of a little body rigidity), and a retuned suspension, we were able to install much improved safety measures, and even air conditioning (running on a separate power cycle from the drivetrain). The interior trim even got a little work so while spartan, it resembles more climbing into a supercar instead of the cabin of a Baja 1000 trophy truck. But think more like… F40 like trim, where the paint (where applied) is so thin in parts you can still see the fiber weave beneath it!
Without further ado, here’s the updated set of concept sketches:
I left some extra lines in the main sketch on the top left, to demonstrate the shapes I was working with. The back, as you can see, has been detailed further, with the outside frame losing a little of its bulk and wrapping more tightly around the rear light array (so moving away from Shelby, and more towards a Pagani and McLaren style).
What I’d like to spend a little more time talking about here though, is the cabin. Most of it is bare to the point that you can clearly see the carbon fiber crossweave underneath the lacquer. In fact, you may appreciate that ease of access isn’t exactly a priority (doesn’t it bring back the mad 90s supercar nostalgia!), given you have to wriggle yourself over the lower struts of the rollcage before lowering yourself into a bucket seat so ridiculously deep that it pretty much sucks your butt into it. In fact, this is precisely the idea, because with up to 1.5g of longitudinal acceleration and 1.34g of lateral acceleration, you really don’t want to be flying all over the cabin while trying to steer this thing. That said, you’ll probably still need the four point harness to actually keep you in the seat because it also pulls up to 2.8g of deceleration. And surprisingly, in addition to the rather visible rollcage, well hidden away is a complete driver, passenger and curtain airbag system, because the car’s chassis has fantastical rigidity, and we don’t want you getting whiplash should you plow it into a barrier (but please, we’d rather nobody plow it into a barrier because that would make us cry, which is why we have the absolute world’s best traction control and stability system in this car. That said, even that doesn’t stop the car from laying a big fat pair of 11s in first…)
With only a measly 42kg allocated to the interior fixtures (less than the brake system, which weighs a hefty 60kg!), there was little left over after the seats (already superlight bucket seats with marginally reduced foam), the essential driving fixtures, the air conditioning unit, and the power windows (because well, having those ridiculous windup handles would have been… well, ridiculous). As with the modern “race” bred supercars, the steering wheel itself has most of the driver-operated cockpit controls on it (buttons for indicator, wipers and headlights plus, not visible, offset push ignition). The places we felt paramount to use solid materials were in the pedals, the steering wheel, and the gear shift, which, as you can see, is a short throw lever mounted high on the console right next to the steering wheel for quick access. Too many times I have read that an aspiring sports car which gets its identity confused has a lackluster feel in the shifter, which can really ruin the whole experience especially if you want to bang it around a track, and given just how much torque this beast has to cope with (2394Nm @ 6400rpm), the heft and feel of the shifter absolutely has to match the gravitas of what it’s dealing with. On that note, you may notice that the central driveshaft housing is kind of… large. To put things into perspective, the transmission, an original wet dual-clutch six speed manual gearbox developed by our own staff as even the toughest preexisting DSG on the market (used in the Veyron Supersport), can only cope with half of what this car demands. The result is a drivetrain so ultra-heavy-duty it weighs as much as the engine plus chassis combined. Understandably, this made fitting an actual console like you might find on most road cars for the air-conditioning and entertainment ystem and all that jazz, somewhat impractical, so the dials for the aircon are set on a single raised strip along with the dial to navigate the car’s central computer UI.
You may have noticed, in a very conspicuous location, a certain dial that appears to be covered by a plastic case and surrounded by a black and yellow striped warning border, like the missile launch switch on a fighter jet. This is the stability control dial.
On any other car, this may look tacky and trying too hard, but in this case, we thought about it very carefully. First, we didn’t want to annoy buyers by hiding the dial in some godforsaken cranny beyond the edges of the trim (like my daily drive), as if we ever thought you weren’t going to want to turn at least the traction control off. So we placed it right at the edge of your fingertips if you were to rest your arm on the central column. That said, you have to be absolutely positive you actually do want the traction control turned off, before you turn that dial, because if [size=85]and when[/size] you do, it should not and can not ever be an accident, and we cannot accept any responsibility if you do actually do this and then have an accident. But we suspect if you’re even buying this car in the first place, you knew that already 
See why I named this car after Mephistopheles?
Finally, the place where what’s happening gets shown, the LCD display. We decided against any fancy tricks, and opted for the simplest way to convey the important information, fast. And in this car, that’d be the tacho, the speedo, the gear selection, and whether you need to shift. As for format, we elected to follow the format that most modern race modified cars use, as it’s effective. The layout of the dials on the right can be customised via the UI to either show boost, temp or fuel, or all three at the same time, and of course, we recommend that you only do so while the car is stationary, though in reality, if you have a spare moment on the straight, we do have a separate button on the right hand column that allows you to switch instantly between modes. Otherwise, if there’s any information that you actually need to know, the display will tell you.
Needless to say, there’s no actual entertainment system, because between the organ-mashing acceleration, the roar of the 6.8L V8 and the whine of the bi-turbo, you already have all the entertainment you need. We’ve crafted a pure bred road legal racing machine that (in theory) you could drive hard in and not boil to a crisp, and we happen to think that’s a bloody good thing.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Drivetrain:
6.8L Quad Cam DI 40v Turbo V8 (Boost: 2.84bar @ 5600rpm)
98RON minimum
1727.5kw @ 7400rpm
2394Nm @ 6400rpm
Power/ton: 1187.6kw/1592.9hp
6 spd double clutch manual w/ short throw quick shifter
Chassis:
Layout: AWD
Seats: 2 superlight racing bucket
Body/frame: Carbon fiber monocoque chassis and skin
Steering: 2WS rack & pinion, variable electric assist (can be disabled)
Tires: sport compound road 245/30R18, 335/20R18
Suspension: Double wishbone, front and rear
Brakes: Front: 375mm slotted rotors, ceramic pads, 4 pistons, Rear: 325mm slotted rotors, ceramic pads, 1 piston
Dimensions:
Ride height: 173mm
Wheelbase: 2706mm
Track Width: 1555mm
Curb Weight: 1454.6kg
Weight Distribution: 55.1F/44.9R
Safety:
ABS, TCS, DSC (can be disabled)
4 point harness
Full rollcage
Fuel cell
Driver, passenger, curtain airbags
Performance:
0-100km/h: 2.7s
0-200km/h: 4.7s
0-300km/h: 7.6s
Qtr Mile: 8.6s @ 323km/h
0-400km/h: 14.2s
1000m: 14.3s
Full mile: 19.6s
0-437km/h: ~22s (with DRS on)
100-0km/h: 29.4m
Cornering: 1.34g @ 92.1km/h
THINGS THIS CAR HAS BECAUSE YOU WILL NEED IT:
Air conditioning [size=85]because pure race cars get past 50 degrees Celcius inside and not everybody is that hardcore.[/size]
Power windows [size=85]because having to install those big manual windy things completely ruins the carbon fiber trim.[/size]
GPS with waypoint marker, telemetry and lap timer [size=85]because this is a track car, duh.[/size]
Its own indemnity and insurance policy [size=85]enough said.[/size]
THINGS THIS CAR DOES NOT AND WILL NOT HAVE:
A trunk [size=85]because you’re not driving this car to the golf course, that’s for sure.[/size]
A stereo [size=85]because the Turbo V8 is all the sweet music you’ll need.[/size]
Bluetooth [size=85]because if you’re going to be talking to somebody outside the car, it’ll be during a race, and you’ll be wearing a helmet fitted with comlink.[/size]
Cup holders [size=85]because seriously?[/size]
Vanity mirrors in sunguards [size=85]because as if you’re going to have time to look at yourself, besides, mirrors are unnecessary weight.[/size]
Cruise control [size=85]because you are NOT driving this car on a highway cruise, unless that highway is the Autobahn and you want to try cracking 400, in which case why did you need cruise control again…?[/size]
Like responsible people, we’ve been very clear as to the risks of driving, let alone purchasing this completely bonkers hellspawn of automotive engineering. But then again, we completely irresponsibly brought it into existence and unleashed it upon the world. And we can’t say we’re sorry for that.
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The reason for this is because each design helped push me in a certain direction with individual elements, but it was a direction rather different from the overall directions of each entry! Should this be unsatisfactory, of course I would be happy to offer something in return for your efforts (besides I’m sure we can think of something better than a ghost monogram on the carbon fiber thread).
Thanks strop, i really like experimenting with all the tools/fixtures that the game has to offer. What i love about it is the fact that with a bit of imagination you can do almost anything. Well, there’s no MR cars yet and the bodyshells we have right now don’t really look like 2014, some look like early-mid 2000s, some look older obviously. That said, i think with a bit of creativity you can make a not-so-modern-looking bodyshell into something that looks very modern. The coupe shell with the long wheelbase is a great example for how many different looks you can make with just one basic platform. By elongating the back window and the rear end, as well as adding some simple round headlights and a big grille, you can make something that looks like a 60’s or 70’s muscle car. But if you add modern-looking headlights, maybe even some LEDs, and a few vents in addition to the grille, and you have a car that could be produced today!
With an engine like that, i think it might understeer, because of all that weight on the front axle. That, combined with what happens when you hit the throttle halfway through a corner, will probably make for a let’s say unique driving experience 
