Back in 1984 we decided to round up a few of the more promising ‘Homologation’ cars featured in Group A and to thrust them forward into the pages of tomorrow, while Group B may be where the money really goes, we focused on Group A because of the availability of cars made for this class. These are cars any car enthusiast should be able to afford if they chose to budget well, or had a well paying steady job, and they are very capable at the 27-30k price point when fully equipped. Fast forward to 1988 and we have an impressive new lineup. They’re no slouches either so it was quite difficult to narrow our list down to what we consider to be the three strongest cars in this bracket. The three in question happen to be from Shromet, Komodo, and Matteo Miglia.
Shromet, an American company which attempted to claw its way onto the scene in the mid 70s amidst the ever tightening emissions, and fueled by the owners drive to make a cleaner car. Komodo, an Indonesia based company started as an industrial engine manufacture in a post-war world. Finally we have Matteo Miglia, a company founded in Italy by a man of the same name, who only wants to prove that the world is wrong.
We have a saying around here, ‘age before beauty’ and with that we open the review with the Komodo Kasai Buredo (but we’re just going to call it the Fireblade).
What’s odd is that the Fireblade comes from the oldest of the manufactures, and looks the least like any other car we’ve seen to date. If I had to put it into words, I would say that this might be what we are moving towards in the next 10 years or so, gone are the hard angular lines and jagged corners, all we are left with is a sleek, and streamlined vehicle. The headlights are fully encompassed housings and use the new H3 style headlights which provide dramatically improved lighting over the still standard 2D1 2B1 most manufactures still equip on vehicles sold in America.
The interior the Fireblade seats a family of 4 comfortably, and 5 if you have young ones. Though as a 2-door the driver or passenger will have to be inconvenienced if some one behind them needs to exit the vehicle. But why would you want to leave, the seats are made of a very high quality vinyl which passes for leather at a glance, the front seats are fully adjustable and the rear seats feature a folding armrest if the middle seat is left un-occupied. The cabin is small enough that the front only heating and air conditioning keeps the entire cabin a comfortable temperature for all, and road noise is canceled out very well, which results in a pleasant ride.
Moving onto the important bits, the Fireblade is powered by an all iron inline-six slightly undersquare 2.8L which delivers 228hp at 6,900. This twin cam four valve boat anchor has a well behaved torque curve which delivers very usable power from 3,800 all the way to the RPM limiter, all the while running so smooth you could place a full glass on the valve cover and not loose a drop. Due to the use of an open air housing and long tube headers, this engine isn’t quiet enough to pass off as your average driver, but is just loud enough to let you enjoy it when you are having fun. Connecting the power to the wheels is full time AWD system with just the tiniest of rear bias, and with a geared LSD in both the front and rear diff, you will be hard pressed to get the Fireblade to burn any rubber. Thanks to that iron weight in the front, the vehicle is unfortunately a little nose heavy, and with the factory 205mm tires, that shows as we drove it around on our test track. The vehicle wanted to plow if you entered a corner too fast, and with its almost equal power distribution inducing power over-steer is a lesson in futility. However thanks to the massive 280mm front rotors, and appropriately sized 230mm rear rotors, the Fireblades weaknesses can be overcome by braking early and powering out. Thanks to the AWD, even the generic rubber off the showroom floor keeps the vehicle well planted.
Moving on from that, we have the Shromet Radiant, a playful hatchback which delicately blurs the line between functional station wagon, and pure built sports car. You see the Radiant is not in any danger of winning any awards for beauty. Because from the front it becomes apparent that this little number has more forward facing lighting than a Boeing 727.
While the Radiants primary emission is forward projection, Shromet kept the exhaust note well hidden, and the vehicle emissions down with addition of some tricky air injection system. The Radiant is more than bright enough to illuminate the darkest of paths, you are going to be thankfull for that forward light so it may distract you from the almost appalling interior of the Radiant. The seats are molded out of a rugged plastic and have only the minimum amount of cushion, and road noise bleeds through every panel. Thankfully with the quiet engine, interior noise wasn’t deafening. The audio deck is above average, but is drowned out by road noise at higher speeds. Infact, the only thing the Radiant truly excels at on the interior, is keeping the occupants safe. With an award winning frontal and side impact safety rating from the NHTSA.
Getting down to the nitty gritty, the Radiant is powered by a massive aluminum inline-six 2.8L engine, and when we say massive, we mean it. When we reached out to Shromet to see if they would inform us why the engine was so physically large. Without risking any secrets we can at least inform you that the reason is because they used a large bore and short stroke combination. With such a large rotational mass, balance was critical and the entire lower end of the engine is precisely machined finished, and Shromet claimed that each part was balanced. The result is a lively 207hp at 6,600, and a similarly smooth powerband. To get the power to the earth, the Radiant also features a full time AWD system with a perfect 50/50 split, but instead of geared LSDs, Shromet equipped the vehicle with manual locking hubs, so for sporty driving on the road, you get less of pushing effect as you drive hard, and when you do decide to go off the pavement, simply make come to a stop, place the vehicle in neutral and engage the mechanical lockers. At that point it is simply point and shoot, as the Radiant cares not for the troubles of a dirt path. All you need do is keep your noisy foot down (not so noisy in factory spec) and the Radiant will do the rest for you.
Shromet did however deliver a car which costs very little to keep on the road, and is extremely capable, thanks to have 4 full doors a family will have no problems making this the daily work vehicle / weekend fun time car. Because of its rugged AWD, no place will be off limits on camping trips, and thanks to its hatchback nature, there is plenty of room for camping gear. It really is interesting to see such a versatile vehicle in this segment, and it might just be a sign of things to come in the future.
This brings us to our Italian friend, the Matteo Miglia Legatus.
Italians like to pride themselves on the beauty of their automobiles, the well contoured lines, bold shapes, and the gloss of their paint. Boy were we surprised when we received a Toyota MR-2. Now that is an unjust attack on our part, what we have here is an homage to the Fiat X1/9, a small affordable mid engine sports car with big plans for the world. The biggest problem with this segment is we always are left wanting more. More engine, more power, more features. This is where Matteo Miglia got it right.
You see by keeping things simple, we have a rare case of the Italians sticking their heads into a segment of the market they rarely do. That segment is reliability, this is a very durable little car, because here we have a high revving, smooth running, quiet operation car which offers no objections to be driven like a lunatic. Take it up to the redline, and bang it into another gear, and the car offers no counter to your statement, no grind of objection or hesitation as you abruptly transition from on to off throttle. Coupled with some of the tamest expression from an Italian builder we’ve seen in years.
Just look at it, it isn’t distracting, but it doesn’t cry out “look at me, look at me” It just wants to blend into the sports car segment, and it does that very well. It approaches on stealth with its quiet engine, and just audible exhaust note, than scurries off in a hurry leaving you confused and dazed as to what exactly just happened. The interior of the car is clearly sport oriented with its aggressive sport bucket seats which hold you in place very well, but they have a level of quality to them which makes them not uncomfortable. The audio feature is passable, and the driver assists work without flaw, though I am willing to bet that most owners will take a hacksaw to the second muffler in a hurry, as this car is a joy to drive hard.
Unlike its brethren in this report, the Legatus is powered by a 60° V-Six which delivers its 229hp at a late 7,300, and unlike the others the engine obviously prefers to spend its time in the sweet spot which is 4800-7900. It was quite evident to us that this engine was setup more for ‘spirited’ driving then the others, and it showed. If not for the noise and emission regulations, we are sure that this would be your typical Italian screamer. Because the Legatus only delivers its power to the rear wheels, on factory rubber the first gear is ‘the tire squealing gear’. Because this car is built for Group A Homologation, we were scratching our head as to why anyone would build a rear drive platform still. Lancia proved that AWD would be dominant with the Delta in group B, and the Sierra Cosworth RS is racking up wins in Group A. But it all made sense once we got it off the pavement. Once you lock the mechanical hubs in the back, the Legatos has enough ground clearance, enough grip, and most importantly, controllable over-steer, that it is a sideways brawler, counter steer is your friend and hold on for dear life. Because we didn’t do any scientific tests on our dirt track, we couldn’t tell you if the Radiant was faster or not, but the Legatos was more fun.
Now this is all good and well, but which one is the best? That is not as easy of a discussion. All three cars had their own unique place.
lets look at a few raw stats.
We can see quite clearly that if we only look at the specs of these cars, there really is no clear cut winner, so in the end, we just had to go with our gut feeling, and this writers opinion.
In the end, the car that comes out on top for us the Shromet Radiant, its total versatility just lets it do so much more than its competitors, through and through it is good car, though a bit noisy.
If you cannot find a Shromet dealer, fret not, for the Komodo Fireblade is an excellent silver medal to take home. Far more geared for the road, and much more comfortable, just don’t expect to get as far off the road.
That leaves us with the second runner up, the Matteo Miglia Legatus. I wouldn’t view this as the 3rd place car, but instead view this is the quirky cousin you have, they are a blast to hang around with, but you’ll find you waste too much time doing the fun stuff, and forget to do your job.
In case anyone missed the results posted a page back.
3rd Place: 212.07 points
Matteo Miglia - Legatus: “It was said that the MR Platform would never again be competitive in this sport, they were wrong.”
2nd Place: 212.22 points
Komodo - Kadai Buredo: “With it’s sleek styling, and amazingly easy drive at high speeds, we can almost forgive it for its lowest in class off-road performance.”
1st Place: 251.24 points
Shromet - Radiant: “This is what happens then Practicality and Utility decide to make a Rally car, as indomitable off the pavement, as it is on.
barely more than a tenth separated us, but your car turned out to score excellently in this challenge. Congrats to DrNarfy for topping the charts too.
