Storm Automotive - (2016)

[Madrias]

1987

A bit of a rough year for Storm Automotive, 1987 brought with it a number of design changes, some forced on the company by the company’s own lawyers, who had been given inches and decided to take miles. This year, they enforced a strict maximum horsepower on Storm Automotive, forcing every car they’d sell in 1987 to have less than 200 horsepower.

Half the engine team quit overnight. Those who remained were outraged at the demanded specifications for their next car. Four cylinders, no turbocharger, less than 2 liters displacement, and FWD.

But, those remaining in the engine team did their job, building the engine for, as they called it, “The world’s most miserable shitbox.”

An all-aluminum block and head were chosen, trying to decrease the weight of all of the components involved in the process to create the engine. To reduce the likelyhood of people actually modifying the engine to produce power, they were instructed to install a cast iron crank, despite the high weight. I-Beam steel connecting rods and Forged pistons soon followed the crank into the block, trying to counter the weight of the stupidly heavy iron crankshaft.

Having to run on regular unleaded gasoline, the compression ratio was 8.0:1, with a very low cam profile mandated by the lawyers, again causing problems. Multi-point EFI helped save the engine, even with just the single throttle body being allowed, as it allowed for a better fuel delivery, making the absurd 15.0:1 fueling ratio possible. A performance intake and highly-advanced ignition timing made up for the stupidity a little bit, although the requirement to have two cheap baffled mufflers and nothing more expensive than a basic tubular exhaust header seriously dampened power.

The result?

Inevitably, it had to go in a car, even though no one wanted to touch that engine with someone else’s 10-foot pole, and so it was agreed that they’d all work on the car to make it at least do one thing right.

The Storm Excel’s creation wasn’t something anyone looked forward to, but it was a car they had to make.

A corrosion-resistant steel unibody made up the body shell of the car, skinned in aluminum body panels, and settled on double-wishbone suspension, front and rear. The little engine was bolted up to a 5 speed stick with a viscous limited slip to ensure even power delivery. Hard tires were chosen, a decent long-life road tire being a recommended thing. 16 inch alloy rims held 175mm wide tires, both front and rear. To save weight, instead of a traditional spare tire, a tire-patch-kit was included in the trunk, along with instructions on how to use it. Solid discs and 2 piston calipers helped drag the front of the car down, while drum brakes settled out back, and despite this arrangement, no brake fade was ever noticed. Underneath the car, a full belly-tray covered everything, with just two little access holes for draining the oil from the gearbox and from the engine.

The interior team focused on making everything dull and gray, yet pleasant enough for an inexpensive car. The seats were high-quality cloth instead of leather, but managed to pull off the higher-class premium feel, as did the premium-grade cassette deck. Power Steering and Anti-lock brakes were standard, making the car very easy to drive. Safety was pretty standard for a late 80’s car, including a solitary driver’s side airbag designed to help the seatbelt restrain the driver in the event of a serious accident.

The paint colors were normally fairly mundane, but one color exclusive to the Storm Excel, never used in another Storm vehicle, was the never-named shade of purple seen on this example.

The Excel didn’t sell all that well initially, until word started to spread about the ‘insane’ gas mileage you could get. Sales inevitably picked up a little, although nowhere near as grand as previous cars had been.

As for Storm Automotive’s lawyers? They got the sack after this incident. It was decided unanimously through the company that even though the insurance companies wanted less powerful cars to be produced, if someone wrecked the car, the company was not liable so long as they built safe, dependable cars for the general public alongside the high-speed road monsters that people couldn’t get enough of.

The engine team eventually came back together once the news was spread that the horror was over with. As for the company, they accepted that if a car’s really that bad, it should be the new company car, and so 10 of them in the new shade of purple were kept as company cars.

Rumor has it one still exists in the modern age as a company car, although rarely ever driven with good reason…

[Madrias]

1988

Breaking into the van market was something we hadn’t done since the failed Trooper project, but we believed this time we could do it right. We decided, rather than making another god-awful passenger van no one wanted, we’d start with a cargo van, and a big one.

The Courier XL was designed around everyone’s need for a bigger bloody van. Our aged 6 liter V8 was chosen for reliability, putting out 355 horsepower, fed into a 4 speed automatic with an overdrive gear.

Concerns about safety led to our engineers putting extra lights in the CargoMax roof riser, duplicating the typical tail-lights up high to allow other drivers to see what the van driver was doing. One of the designers mockingly called it “air traffic control” and the name stuck.

Managing 13 MPG while being comfortable enough for three crewmen to get from job-site to job-site meant we sold a good number of these as fleet vans. A few smaller shipping companies bought a large number of these vans, and at least two notable examples were converted into ambulances.

Eventually, we knew we’d have to make a smaller version, and probably wouldn’t hurt to have a passenger van, but those were just design scribbles on the board for some other year.

[Madrias]

1989

We weren’t the first into the Minivan Market, but we did bring a few interesting features along when we introduced the Overland to the world. Designed as a luxury minivan, we decided that we’d use technology learned from our Courier line of vans, regarding the sliding rear doors. An experiment led to us building the Overland with sliding front doors as well, something which led to many of these vans being used as company cars, mandated on those who were notorious for dinging doors on more expensive cars.

Using the same base engine as the Medusa, just without turbochargers, the Overland was gifted with 200+ horsepower through our simple and effective AWD system. A simple 4-speed automatic made driving really, really easy, and the interior was set up with luxury grade materials and seating for 8 people.

While some criticized the van for looking like an overgrown hand-held vacuum cleaner, others praised it for the unique sliding front doors, the comfortable seating arrangement, and the not-altogether-terrible gas mileage for a huge van. With fold-flat third row seating, and optionally removable mid-row seating, there was enough room for any cargo you wanted to move, though the suspension wasn’t really built for large quantities of weight.

At the same time, the Courier’s two alternative versions showed up.

The Workmann traded AWD for being cheaper, still carrying 3 tradesmen into the job site.

The simpler-named GL trim was built for passengers, and could carry 9 people with ease. It was also RWD, like the Workmann, but not to keep costs down, more to share parts with the Workmann trim line. With three bench seats, it was simple and effective at carrying people in the premium-grade interior.

With two passenger vans in the market, Storm Automotive looked to the future, wondering what the 90’s would hold in store for the company.

[JohnWaldock]

i think your styling is very on point for the 80’s

[Madrias]

I actually took inspiration from a lot of the 80’s cars for this period. Plain, simple, boxy, not much to look at, but they get you where you need to go.

[Madrias]

1990

The Envy Turbo Coupe from 1975 was a good car, but held back by technological limitations of the era. No AWD, crappy catalytic converters, and journal bearings in the turbochargers all held it back. While the Mechanical Fuel Injection system worked well enough, it was stupidly expensive and had been found to be a little on the unreliable side after a few years.

But, the 90’s were a perfect time to change those things. We’d improved our AWD technology over the years, and finally had a suitably-90’s name for it. SymTrak, as a result of our 50:50 drive split, symmetrical between front and rear wheels. With viscous limited slip differentials front, center, and rear, it gave the new Envy Turbo Coupe enough grip to launch the heavier, bigger car easily.

We chose to use the same base engine, our 6 liter V8, using our more modern Multi-Point EFI, and twin ball-bearing turbochargers to make the most of the engine. At the same time, it showed how well-tuned the original engine was, as the modern engine makes just a little more power than the old 1975 version, despite all the new tech hiding inside. This, more than anything, told us the old cast iron 70’s vintage engine had finally outlived the usefulness in our lineup. While we would continue producing the engine for many, many more years as a crate engine, the Envy was to be the last production car we’d use that engine in.

We kept the 2+2 layout and upgraded to an all-premium interior, though chose to produce the Envy with all corrosion-resistant steel on the exterior. While we had aluminum presses and full capabilities to manufacture in aluminum, steel was used due to the better safety it would inevitably offer in a crash. Given that we packed 532 horsepower into this car, we felt it’d be rather a bad decision to make another “Poison Green Coffin.” The pop-up headlights were dropped in favor of large, flush-mounted headlight buckets, improving aerodynamics with the lights on, while the close-tucked mirrors reduced wind drag. Despite actually making more power, the Mk2 actually got marginally better mileage than the 1975 Envy.

The revived Envy Turbo Coupe sold surprisingly well, catering to every guy who wanted to win the stop-light drag race, or take it to a drag strip. Sure, it wasn’t supercharged, but the scream of twin turbos was a sound that quickly became feared with the 4.5 second 0-60 times, and the stock 12.7 quarter mile, easily exceeding that if modified. With a top speed of 193.8 miles per hour, the Envy quickly became a strong car-of-choice for any V8 muscle enthusiast, despite the AWD system.

In fact, some people actually started preferring the SymTrak AWD for their daily-dose of fun. This was a muscle car that could tear off from the light with only a few feeble chirps of protest from the tires, blister down the track at high speed, and win races before some cars could get power to the ground.

While the insurance companies made sure that no mere teenager could ever afford to drive an Envy Turbo Coupe, it made itself the bedroom-poster car of many American teenagers, as well as that perfect “I’m 27 years old and I need something fun” second car.

Plus, the inevitable handful of high-speed accidents did keep doctors busy patching up crazy fools who thought the street was their race track, only to encounter a rush-hour traffic jam going way-too-fast. However, it did prove that the decision to use steel in the car’s construction was the right move, as it was the doctors, not the coroners, who were busy with Envy Fever.

Being the last production car to have the old version of the 6 liter V8, the surviving cars became highly collectible.

[Madrias]

1990 - Part 2

New ideas, old names. With SymTrak being a success, and the powerful V6 engine from the Overland and the Medusa proving to be very popular, it was time to bring a concept back to life, with a new idea, a new plan.

The Gunslinger was assembled with a corrosion-resistant steel monocoque chassis for safety, as we aimed to do something we’d done just twice before, once in a concept, and once in a production vehicle: putting the engine behind the seats.

The Gunslinger had an aluminum skin, which would have resulted in a poor safety rating under normal circumstances. However, our new Storm SafeT program meant we were going to put better safety systems in our faster cars. With Advanced safety features like airbags for both passenger and driver, side-curtain air bags, and an integrated safety rollover cage built into the chassis, the Gunslinger aimed to be a safe and fun mid-engine sports car.

A lightly-modified SymTrak system was fitted to the longitudinally-mounted V6 engine. Having AWD made the V6-powered mid-engine sports-car easy to drive, as did having Traction Control. Like all mid-engine cars, the Gunslinger does tend toward a hint of oversteer, but remains controllable due to traction control and adaptive dampers.

With a sporty interior, premium-grade cassette tape deck, and an array of bold, bright colors to choose from, the Storm Gunslinger sold well to those wanting an inexpensive mid-engine sports car. Insurance companies grew to hate the Gunslinger, as the inexpensive M-AWD platform let more young drivers experience the fun of going really-damn-fast. The Gunslinger’s 154 MPH top speed meant there was a lot of get-up-and-go, and some people inevitably put it to the test.

The Gunslinger sold for less than $20,000 when it was brand new. After a few years, the inexpensive sports car found its way into the hands of lots of younger drivers, who promptly put the safety systems to the ultimate test. They passed the test, although there were three casualties, and those three involved speeds recorded on the onboard data recorders exceeding 120 MPH, speeds that weren’t tested for head-on collisions with other cars.

Jim Shade, CEO and President of the Company, had this to say about the fatal accidents:

“We did all that we could to save lives in this car. The data recorders run until the airbags deploy, in a continuous loop for 30 minutes. All three fatalities had one thing in common: The driver wasn’t wearing their seatbelt. All the safety systems in the world won’t save someone who won’t take the 10 seconds to save themselves. Yes, we could put more airbags in the car, we could put ignition lockouts on the seatbelts, and we could redesign the windshield to be more resistant to impacts, but the results would still be the same. We tried. We can’t make people wear safety belts. The Xenon had ignition lockout on the driver’s seatbelt. The number of cars that went through a service center and had the driver’s side seatbelt buckled, stuffed into the seat padding, was astronomical. We attempted it again in the Turbo Pilot, except requiring relatching between ignition cycles, and yet still there were ‘No-Seatbelt’ casualties. Until the Law makes people wear their seatbelts, there will be fatal car accidents that we cannot prevent. That is the unfortunate and ugly truth.”

[abg7]

Now this is a real NSX rival, but with a longitudinally mounted engine and AWD. The Envy Turbo Coupe, on the other hand, is a grand tourer, so why does it look like a Le Mans GT1 racer with its huge wing? You could have used the smaller wing from @Corvette6317 in its place and still provided the same level of downforce. Still, I am sure that both cars were the cream of the crop back then, and are still a wonderful drive today.

[Madrias]

The Envy Turbo Coupe wears the same wing as it’s 70’s vintage counterpart, which would have had plenty of use on the track. Consider the 70’s vintage one the homologation version, wing and all.

As for being a rival to anything, the Gunslinger isn’t all that powerful.

Oh, and do consider this: Look at the dates the cars were posted in comparison to when the new wing came out. It didn’t exist for the first one, and while it may have existed for the second one, I wasn’t going to use it, instead going for similar looks. Go ahead, look at both cars, you’ll see a lot of similar features. Some of us like to keep a similar look between cars named the same.

[Madrias]

1994

After several years of model refreshes, Storm Automotive revealed a new idea they’d been working on. Attempting to break into a market that had slowly started to develop, the sports-truck, they took an engine that’d been shelved 10 years earlier and dropped it into a unibody truck chassis, then let the Engine Design Team go crazy with it.

The Storm Jackal used a V6 made back in 1984 as the base, an engine that had been developed as competition against V8’s of the same time, but was shelved when Jim Shade took over. With the insurance companies and lawyers being told exactly where they could put all that paperwork, horsepower was back on the table, in large quantities.

Fitted with SymTrak AWD, the Jackal still tried to rip the tires off of the rims, mostly due to the 557 horsepower supplied by the twin-turbocharged V6. The Jackal was never intended to be a proper and solid truck, instead being designed strictly as the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing. It looked like a truck from all angles except the front, further increasing the stealth factor.

At the front, the water-to-air intercooler partially stuck through the plastic safety bumper, allowing the intercooler’s rather prominent radiator to have access to ice cold air moving at high speed. Many criticized the decision to place the intercooler in such a precarious location, placing it at risk of being damaged by parking dividers, curbs, and minor accidents.

When questioned about the lack of the advanced safety features found in the Gunslinger, the use of aluminum body panels instead of steel, and the horrifyingly bad gas mileage, Jim Shade had this to say:

“The public has spoken. They don’t appreciate all the extra safety equipment we placed in the Gunslinger and the updated Envy. The Jackal has all it needs, provided you use common sense, wear your seat belt, and drive the speed limit on public roads. If you want to go fast, take it to a track. As for the gas mileage, here’s a good thought experiment. You can have good gas mileage. You can have a lot of power. You can have an inexpensive car. Pick two. We’ll be selling the Jackal on dealership lots for $24,000. Consider that price and the 153 MPH top speed, the 500 horsepower V6, and the premium seats for five when you try to figure out which two we chose.”

(Note: The version that would have been sold would not have the intercooler piping sticking through the bumper and front of the truck. That would have been routed internally out of the way, leaving just the intercooler and the liquid-cooling unit outside the truck.)

The Jackal quickly became popular, although with the wrong crowds entirely. Being inexpensive, the Jackal was favored by young hooligans with too much money and not enough brains, who beat the crap out of the truck, then sold it once the engine started developing expensive problems. They were bought secondhand by hooligans who didn’t have that much money, and were still short on brains, who beat the crap out of what was left of the truck and sold it when they encountered the engine’s critical design flaw: Turbocharger bearing failures. The truck, at that point nearing 7 years old, encountered the final group of hooligans, who had just seen a movie in theaters about street racing, undercover cops, and crazy modifications. With aftermarket parts being readily available, and a Fast and Furious movie as inspiration, these hooligans took the truck to new, scary power levels, then raced them through city streets in highly illegal drag races.

Most of these trucks ended up looking like this shortly before either being dragged off to an impound lot, or being wrapped around a tree.

Unfortunately, finding a Storm Jackal in unmodified, working condition is nearly impossible. A few examples surely exist, but their owners would be rather reluctant to part with them, having seen what typically happens.

[abg7]

This is an insane sports truck, reminiscent of the GMC Syclone but much crazier. Who in their right mind would put what is essentially an R35 GT-R drivetrain into a truck? Nobody would, but I’m glad you did!

[Madrias]

1995

Technology marches on. With the research teams working as fast as possible, the engine development team sticking to their ritual of blowing up an engine at least once per week, and a multitude of voluntary inspections on some of our employees’ cars, a new technology for making engines better had been found.

While VVT has been a staple since it came out, even just on the intake cam, for making an engine perform better through the rev-range, the standard camshaft leaves a lot to be desired. Either you have to sacrifice your low-end grunt for some high-end scream, or you have to sacrifice the rev-monster in favor of a little torque. And while a turbo can help a little, it really can’t help enough to offset poor cam profiles.

But, what if you could vary how far the valves open? That’s exactly what the engineers were working on. Storm’s new Valve Control Technology allows the engine to run the equivalent of two completely different cams. Need some low-end grunt and fuel efficiency? We’ll set the primary cam profile lower to keep the torque and power in the low-end, while sipping fuel. Also need some high-end scream and tons of power? Set the secondary cam profile to what we’d normally dial in, and suddenly you have an engine that can do both.

The first engine to feature VCT is our new 3 liter, DOHC V6.

Some might question the rather unimpressive power figures and lackluster fuel efficiency. We’re learning, and we figured, what better way to test VCT with the public than to put this whole package into the most tame kind of vehicle on the road?

The Storm Serenity is our replacement for the Overland minivan. Featuring better aerodynamics and power sliding rear doors, power opening hatch, and fold-flat seats as standard equipment, as well as two transmission options, a 4 speed automatic or a 5 speed automatic, the Serenity is designed to provide premium transportation at a budget price. For a hint over $20,000, the Deluxe Edition is yours to drive.

The interior is designed for comfort for 7 people, with the middle row containing 3 seats and the third row containing 2 seats. The Deluxe Edition gives these seats power folding capabilities, allowing your minivan to convert from humble 7 seat people carrier to have 5 seats with some cargo space, or to fold all the rear seats flat and give yourself all that cargo room for loading those large, but not overly heavy objects. The entertainment package offers up a premium-quality CD player with a cassette deck, as well as Storm MultiPlay technology. MultiPlay lets the rear seat passengers plug in a set of headphones to one of the provided audio jacks and select their music source from the radio, the CD player, or the cassette deck. The panels near each of the seats will allow control over the appropriate device (in case of conflicts, the first turned on maintains control) allowing the rear seat passengers to operate the tape deck, CD player, or radio independantly, without having to bother the driver. While MultiPlay is operational, it supports up to 7 different audio sources!*

You’d think that the Serenity would get poor gas mileage, given that it has an automatic transmission and can carry seven people comfortably. Wrong! The Serenity is capable of 27 miles per gallon combined thanks to VCT and the latest PowerShift Automatic Transmission. With 5 speeds, this matches the gear counts of a lot of sports cars you’ve seen on the streets, but it’ll do all the hard work for you.

*Seven sound sources is the logical maximum, consisting of one CD player, one tape player, and five different radio stations. Only 5 jacks are provided, resulting in only 6 sources available at once. Radio quality not guaranteed if more than 3 radio stations are dialed in at once. Using MultiPlay to play the same audio source as the Driver has selected may result in undesired operation.

Despite the glaring problems of people using the wrong settings on the radio, the Serenity made for a decent minivan. It fit the market people wanted it for, and people soon began seeing these parked in a row outside schools, with parents picking up children to take them to various different places.

–

In the same year, Storm Automotive decided to do something about the Gunslinger’s poor handling characteristics. Having received a couple reviews noting that the handling was dancing on the razor’s edge, and that the modest amount of power was good, although lacking low-end grunt, the company decided the best course of action would be reaction.

Sure, it’s five years down the line, but what better way to try giving people a kick in the butt with another chomp at the mid-engine cherry?

Starting at a little over $20,500, the revised Gunslinger was more expensive, carrying the weight of more improvements onboard. In a last great hurrah for the 1986 based 3 liter V6, the GTX Turbo version of the Gunslinger cranked out a still-very-modest 276 horsepower. In an attempt to improve low end power, the cam profile was adjusted to a more mild nature, while the turbochargers were used to keep the high-end power available.

The Gunslinger received a mild cosmetic facelift, removing the ‘oversize nostrils’ that served little purpose in favor of a larger lower air intake, allowing just as much air to hit the radiator. The once-decorative side-scoops near the window line now acted as ram-air intakes for the engine’s two hungry snails. The intercooler found itself mounted to the back of the car, and the rear deck lid had the vents adjusted, favoring a fast moving air channel to cram air into the intercooler. The rear vents were opened wider to allow the intercooler to do its job, despite getting warmer air from the engine compartment. Fog lamps were added to the front in order to promote better driving safety in poor weather conditions, and the rear spoiler was changed to appease those who thought the rounded wing looked out of place.

Inside, the seats have barely changed from the original, remaining the high-quality sculpted seats designed for a sports car. However, the expensive radio package has disappeared in favor of a standard cassette player, because now, you’ll actually be able to try using it.

That is due almost entirely to the fact that a lot of modification went into the already-modified SymTrak unit, creating a new variant, SymTrak-M. The M variants are designed to funnel more power to the rear wheels by default, enabling the M-AWD platform of the Gunslinger to retain nearly the same drivability it had, despite gaining the harshness of the turbochargers.

As for fuel efficiency, it’s improved thanks to our new 6 speed manual transmission, making it still a viable option to anyone looking for mid-engine thrills on a budget. The latest and greatest safety gear aids in keeping you alive, even in the worst of conditions. The new Storm Safe-T-Net^ works to keep you safe behind the wheel by bringing synergy to the table.

######^Safe-T-Net combines seat belts, air bags, ignition lockouts, electric pumps, and an integrated rollover safety bar to make our cars safer in the worst accidents. How does it work so well? Let’s start where it all begins, the seat belts. Safe-T-Net uses an ignition lockout to enforce the use of the seat belt by disabling the car’s electronic ignition circuitry if the seat belt is not properly connected. This relies on a weight sensor, a continuity sensor, and a few other rather simple circuits to make sure that unless the seat belt is unbuckled when the weight is removed from the seat, or the belt is buckled when there’s weight added into the seat, the ignition will not fire. What makes Safe-T-Net different from other attempts at ignition lockout is that most just disable the starter, preventing starting, but not preventing someone from unbelting after the car is started. Safe-T-Net disables the ignition, and will shut off the engine should someone try unbuckling their belt. Most people will typically try the belt trick once or twice in their driveway, posing no risk to other drivers when the engine inevitably stalls. However, we know there are always those ‘special’ people who will either unbuckle their belt at speed, or haven’t used their belts properly around their children, who will unbuckle at speed. You’d think this would be dangerous, as in most cars, the power steering and power assisted brake system suddenly stop working. This is where the electric pumps come into play, keeping power steering and power brakes working, even if the engine’s died. This is also great in case of random stalls, or engine trouble, as it’ll be easier to get the car to a safe location out of traffic with these functions working. So how do the air bags come into play? Well, Safe-T-Net uses side curtain air bags to prevent head injury from contacting the side windows, as well as the primary steering-wheel air bag and the dashboard-mounted passenger side air bag. Like a conventional airbag, a Storm Safe-T-Net airbag inflates rapidly, forming a protective cushion between you and the steering wheel or windshield. Unlike a conventional airbag, however, a Safe-T-Net airbag deflates slower, providing additional protection against multiple successive impacts, such as those commonly found in violent roll overs and multi-car accidents. Also, unlike a conventional airbag, a Safe-T-Net Airbag Control Module can set off the air bags under excessive G-Force loads, such as those experienced in a violent roll-over, providing a layer of protection not previously available in the event of such an accident. Again in contrast to conventional airbags, Safe-T-Net bags are not deployed in low-speed incidents where the seatbelt is enough to prevent injury. This saves you and your insurance company a lot of money.

In the end, the Gunslinger GTX Turbo ended up performing about on par with the older car. While it’d been tamed some from handling adjustments, the turbo got people into trouble. On the other hand, the Safe-T-Net complete synergistic safety system made sure that the only fatality from the GTX Turbo edition was caused by a driver trying to run the crossing gates at the railroad crossing, only to have his passenger unbuckle the seat belt and bail out. An investigation into whether the Safe-T-Net system was at fault was called for, only to be blocked by Storm Automotive’s new legal team, who claimed:

“It is not Storm Automotive’s duty to investigate whether the safety equipment was at fault or not. The fault lies with the driver, who chose to run the crossing gates with an approaching train.”

[Yamahafazer600]

That looks like a cheap 90’s CZ6

[Madrias]

To quote the often used statement from a different car company, “We’re not Saminda”. We’re willing to admit that if you drive our cars like a maniac, they’ll probably put you in the hospital or the morgue, but not from lack of trying to keep you safe.

(That said, 1998 is approaching, and it’ll be a bit of a doozy for us. I can say it in two-and-a-half words. SymTrak Problems.)

[abg7]

You have clearly responded to other users’ reviews (including mine) of the original Gunslinger. It now feels even more like an RS200 with its twin-turbo V6 and AWD, and with all those other improvements, it should be a more complete car than previously.

[Madrias]

Oh, I wanted to do this after seeing those reviews. I know the original Gunslinger had flaws, that’s why I put it up for review. I also knew I could work it into the company lineup as the model refresh as it hadn’t been too long since I’d made it.

After all, I paid attention to the fact that the power distribution could be made better, that it needed a bit of an adjustment in power, and that the aesthetics could use a tweak. Aesthetics was easy, that’s the model refresh. Power, distribution, and tire balancing, well, that wasn’t something I knew to do. I don’t typically do mid-engine cars.

And no, the original concept Gunslinger doesn’t count. If that thing’s considered anything, it’s undrivable. That thing uses 70’s turbo tech to make 300 horsepower with that crappy 2 liter I4 I had.

[Darkshine5]

Can i please buy one? And if u have any courier xl from the 80’s i would take one for the dsd museum

[Madrias]

Sure. Just name the cars you want, I’ll get them up and running for you.

[Madrias]

1996

As much as we had been avoiding the return of the I4, it became inevitable to have at least one four-cylinder powered car in the lineup. Something fuel efficient, and yet fun.

We now had VCT on our side, which meant we could do both at the same time, and we’d played around with turbos for quite a while now, too, so we were eager to get started.

We settled on a design plan for our new I4 engine. It’d need to be big enough and strong enough to handle competing against V6 engines, because otherwise we’d be in trouble. We needed the variable valve lift and timing components, which enabled VCT. We also needed the ability to turbocharge the engine, so it couldn’t be too wild at the base level. We settled with this:

The base model engine ended up with 2.6 liters of displacement, and was tuned for economy, despite throwing down 156 horsepower. The entire engine block and cylinder head was assembled from Aluminum Silicon Alloy, allowing the engine to remain lighter weight than many other inline 4 counterparts.

Naturally, this engine had to be fitted into a car. Our choice was to slip the new engine into our new four-door compact sedan, the Storm Knight.

The Storm Knight GS-E was designed to be powerful, light, a little fun, but above all else, a touch on the efficient side. With SymTrak AWD and Advanced Safety on an aluminum body, the Knight was reasonably safe to drive, and while acceleration left something to be desired, at 9 seconds to 60 miles per hour, the 31.6 MPG made up for that nicely.

Inside the GS-E, we’d installed 5 seats with good quality cloth, and a fairly average cassette deck, because we were focusing on this car being kept inexpensive. At less than $15,000, the Knight GS-E was many parents’ answer to a kid wanting a new car. Kids learned to respect the sturdy AWD platform, and the 155 horsepower I4 under the hood, as the VCT was tuned for a very smooth transition in the GS-E’s engine. It could be felt, but at no time did the car ever really feel like a rocket. However, there was a lot of aftermarket for these cars, not because of the GS-E, but the GT-4T.

While the GS-E was the tame, mild-mannered fuel sipper, the GT-4T got the turbocharger package.

Helping the turbocharged Knight to 60 in 5.3 seconds was the new SymTrak+ Gear-Driven AWD, replacing the belt-driven front-wheel-drive unit with a gear-driven one. It also was equipped with geared limited slip differentials front and rear, and came with a 6 speed manual instead of the GS-E’s 5 speed.

The interior of the GT-4T was stepped up a grade, swapping high-quality cloth in favor of leather, and the cassette deck for a CD player. As this was a sports-compact and not a sports-car, we felt it was necessary to offer more for the extra money, other than an engine that drops the fuel economy down to 27.2 MPG.

For less than $21,000, the Knight GT-4T could be yours.

Of course, a common thing for people to do was to put parts made for the “4T,” as the kids ended up calling it, on the GS-E, making the GS-E something of a minor legend. The engines were built tough enough to handle modification, and aftermarket companies quickly picked up and made parts for those seeking even more power.

As an inexpensive pair of cars, the Storm Knight proved that the I4 was here to stay in the lineup, just being careful where it was used.

However, we were hearing some disturbing rumors about our earlier SymTrak units. A few cars had been in for service, and the drivers were complaining about a screeching sound under hard acceleration. Inspection of the SymTrak units showed the front-wheel-drive transfer belts had been worn down, causing the toothed belts to slip on the pulleys. Given that these cars had over 65,000 miles on them, we decided it was best just to replace the belts with new factory units and send the cars back on their way. This appears to have fixed the problem.

[squidhead]

@Madrias

there was a lot of aftermarket for these cars

Can KHT produce a tuning kit for this?