Storm Automotive - (2016)

[Madrias]

Late 2010

Time for Trucks

Most of our lineup has, undoubtedly, been cars. Sure, we’ve dabbled in trucks, but nothing that could be considered serious. The original Wolf had independant rear suspension, the Jackal had a carrying capacity of less than a quarter ton, the 2000’s era Storm Swift pickup was too small, and while the Brute was good, it’s still quite old.

We decided it was time to change that.

Continuing to name our trucks after canines, the Storm Husky is our new 3/4-ton truck. Again, our AluStar 8 Large Block inline 4 shows up, providing 3.6 liters of displacement and 206 horsepower. What makes it better than our previous small truck offerings?

Solid axle rear suspension. We went with coil springs for our light-duty 3/4-ton pickup truck to provide a little better ride quality while still maintaining a useful truck.

The interior is a simple, yet comfortable bench seat with seatbelts for three people, with a fairly standard CD player in the dash for entertainment. At $23,140, we think you definitely get what you paid for in this truck.

Of course, if you actually hate having money and you want the ultimate little successor to the Jackal, you could pony up the $47,580 for the Husky GT-R. Still packing the same suspension kit, this 3/4 ton truck can still haul just like a normal truck, but can also haul ass.

Who needs common sense when you can have 1000 horsepower in your 4 cylinder pickup truck? Painted in Storm Automotive’s now-exclusive GT-R Rocket-Flame Orange as an option, the Husky GT-R is a quick little hound that doesn’t fear the race track.

This time, the interior’s a pair of racing bucket seats, and instead of a PowerShift automatic, you’ve got a paddle-shifted ShiftTronic II with 6 speeds. Because, again, we’re not letting you smoke the clutch on a thousand-horsepower engine.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Why is Storm Automotive putting this 1000 horsepower engine in everything?” Because we can. And it cost us a good amount of money to develop a thousand horsepower engine, so we’d better make good use of it.

But, I understand. Maybe you need a more serious truck. Something bigger, with a towing capacity rivaling small trains in some countries.

The Storm Wolf HD 2200 is a 1-ton pickup truck with attitude. A high-displacement, high-torque naturally-aspirated straight six hauls this beastly dually-flared pickup around with the intent to haul everything.

Towing capacity? We’ve not found the limit yet. What we do know is that it’ll happily drag the metal supply racks around our shop. Seating capacity? 5, in comfort. Entertainment? CD player and satellite navigation.

So why have we gone for a big straight six over a V8 or a V6 or a V12? Simplicity. If we choose to do so in the future, we can put one big turbocharger on this engine and make even more power and torque.

And for $37,650, you can have a truck with tried-and-true old-school technology, built to tug heavy trailers, haul heavy loads, and last damn-near-forever.

Madrias - Storm Husky.zip (49.5 KB)
Madrias - Storm Wolf.zip (23.3 KB)

[squidhead]

1. No, you are not going to use these in the next time attack. I promise :smiley
2. Pursuit of laptimes through power is not how you do it, it’s a brute force method that is very ineffective on a racetrack. And a racetrack is where you’re staking your claim.

[Madrias]

1: Wasn’t intending on these being in the next time attack. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be stuck trying to figure out how to make something from the Automatic years actually kinda sporty.

2: Wasn’t going for maximum laptimes, just insane power. Somewhat just having fun because I ran out of decent ideas and plans.

[squidhead]

OFCOURSE you weren’t (wink wink). How could I think so (wink)!

Also if you’re running out of decent ideas - pick up a challenge, restrict yourself heavily. It will take a ton of time to figure out but once you do you will not only be able to build better cars, but also will feel a sense of serious accomplishment.

[Madrias]

Well, got any challenge ideas to toss at me? Because I’d probably take up the challenge and see if I can manage to accomplish it.

[squidhead]

The year is 2016, and BBC is trying to fix the all but destroyed Top Gear. The challenge is running against a new Maesima Prova RR on the dunsfold test track, but as the Prova is driven by the presenter Rory Reid it is being challenged by The Stig in the Storm Minivan. The minivan must be wearing sports tires, and still have the interior so the viewers do not see the difference of the stock vs modified van. Also low gains in publicity have restricted your company to giving the engineers a very very limited budget. You may not use the 1000hp version, you can barely afford a swap of transmission. You may not swap the engine. As much restriction on yourself as possible etc. The more restrictions the more impressive it will be.

[Madrias]

Could be an interesting challenge. Not sure how fast a Maesima Prova RR is around the test track, but I can give a go with the Serenity in her Luxury form.

So, 2016, using the 2010 Storm Serenity, no thousand horsepower engines, have to use sports tires, keep the 7-speed PowerShift Automatic, the 2.6 liter engine cannot be swapped. I’m going to try to keep away from turbocharging and force myself to go Naturally Aspirated because it’d be a fair restriction, I’ve almost certainly got the bigger engine. Keeping the 7 seats, because they’re part of the LX package. And I’m not going to scrap the safety because that’s just not right.

[squidhead]

Here’s the kicker. Going in and finding new pistons is pretty much an easy task so you can change piston material and CR by about +/- 2points. The camshaft can not be swapped unless to the one from the same family of the engine. You can lower or increase CR further by 1 point by using twin gaskets. The gearbox can be changed, so does the final drive, you could even get a single clutch sequential racing box (+5 quality). The tires provided are street legal max performance units, so they’re very soft. Consider this a sports tires +5 quality. You can do minor changes to the exterior that people will not notice, spoilers, lips, vents etc. The aero can be improved with things like duct tape (another +5 there). The BBC Health and Safety, however does require you to have some in it. And since BBC are awful, they demand the strictest standard - 40. The noise is a problem aswell, since you can’t just straight pipe stuff in UK - neighbours will call the police, your car will have to comply with the 60 noise or lower. You also found that you don’t have time to engineer a new suspension, so new setup for the old one would be the best course of action.

Good luck

[Madrias]

What’s the fuel we’ll be racing on? Regular or Premium Unleaded?

[Rk38]

You’d be racing against at time of 1:17.00. Good luck!

[Madrias]

I’m going to have to turbocharge it. Cam profile of 16 with VVL profile of 30 is not something that is known for making any power, so I need to do something about that.

However, because the Prova RR makes 325.8 kilowatts of power, which converts to 436.9 horsepower, so 437 horsepower rounded smoothly, I’m going to limit myself to no higher than 500 horsepower, despite the van’s much heavier frame.

So the Maesima Prova RR Coupe weighs 1270.5 kilograms against the Serenity’s 1885 kilograms, currently, and I need to somehow lose 10 seconds. Currently, my engine produces 284 horsepower with the turbo, running on Premium Unleaded. 284 horsepower converts back to 211.7 kilowatts. I think it might actually be doable. Granted, the Prova is FWD and I’m keeping the AWD unit in the Serenity, so… if I can do 10 seconds faster while maintaining lower power, that’d make me feel a lot better.

Edit: Okay, cast connecting rods have got to go, they’re junk. I’m using the I-Beam Steel ones from the 1996 Storm Knight GT-4T, and I’m considering the cylinder head as well for the 30/80 cam/vvl setup. Though I’ll see if conrods help first.

Edit 2: With the Knight GT-4T’s cylinder head and connecting rods, down to 1:21.03. Current horsepower is 430.

Now, granted, I pulled the quality out of the Luxury Infotainment, Luxury seats, and Advanced Safety enough to match the weight of the 2010 original, but I felt that was more than fair: the seats would not get better and heavier, the radio wouldn’t get heavier, and the safety wouldn’t get heavier in 6 years time on a car made in 2010. But it’s still a mint-condition van, so the seats, radio, and safety are all the same as the old van.

[squidhead]

You know… it should LOOK like you got a stereo and all the seats, not actuallyhave them functional. I’d drop the quality on those stating that only the seat frames with the leather around it were left, while the insides were gutted.

[Madrias]

Was trying to see how close I could get before I started doing something like that.

Edit: With seats and entertainment down to -15 quality, the Serenity is down to 1:19.71. We’re getting closer. Time to start seeing where we can lose a little more weight.

Edit 2: Safety down to 41, removed the power steering, fiddled with the suspension, and mildly increased the power, down to 1:18.54. So tempted just to yank the half-shafts and SymTrak unit and see how it does as RWD.

Edit 3: 1:18:16 with 0 quality on basic infotainment instead of luxury. It’s equivalent to having a CD player behind the faceplate of the original unit, I suppose. Might try dropping luxury seats down to premium to try reducing weight, because that’s the biggest enemy right now.

Edit 4: Oh, come on! 1:17.59 with -15 Premium seats, -15 basic infotainment, adjusted the brakes for better balance, went from 17 inch alloys to 18 inch alloys to fit bigger front disks. I know there’s more speed in the van, but I can’t get it out of the suspension, I don’t know enough about suspension tuning to know how to make it any faster that way.

Edit 5: 1:17:15. Switched safety from Advanced 10’s - 6 to Standard 10’s -3 to reduce weight, added a touch more power. I’m struggling, but I’m close. I need to figure out how to shed 0.16 seconds…

[Madrias]

Madrias - Storm Serenity MK2.zip (74.4 KB)

It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure, and I had to really push the boundaries of what was allowable in the challenge, but… She’s still got her stock block and stock crankshaft, and while it took quite a while, the demon tweak, ironically, was going up one more inch of rim size. But as you can see by the final result, I was infuriatingly close after making half-a-dozen spitball guesses with the suspension.

Granted, the Stig’s gonna have to drive his ass off to win, but the van’s capable of winning.

[Madrias]

Breaking Continuity to bring the 2016 Storm Shadow, the 10 Year Special Edition.

Luke has a small statement to go with these cars:

“Our goal was not to make the most powerful, the fastest, or the most fuel efficient. Instead, the goal was to honor the original Shadow’s more powerful forms, leaving the shackles of the Hybrid designs behind. While hybrids will return to the Shadow, we felt enthusiasts of powerful and luxurious cars would appreciate having the Shadow’s more aggressive versions back.”

Most importantly, the Shadow has two versions. One introduces our new AluStar XII V12, a powerful 7 liter V12 engine we’ll surely use well into the future. The other, we’ll see a bit later. What’s most important to know is that these are aimed as performance luxury sedans, and that while the prices are high, you’re getting a lot of car for the money.

So that’s the V12 version. But before you AluStar III purists start screaming that the Shadow came with the AluStar III V8 engine, and that it’s not right that we’ve put a V12 in the Shadow…

The mighty AluStar III makes a bold comeback, wearing twin snails and aiming more for performance than for luxury. Not to say that you can’t ride in comfort, or that the car’s undrivable, in fact, both of those would be wrong. This car is meant to be comfortable, and our test drivers have found it to be easy to drive, despite the power figures.

Your eyes do not deceive you. That car has 1005 horsepower, and yet it’s easy to drive. We intended to make the AluStar purists proud with this car, and so we’ve cranked the crazy dial up to 9. Not 10, not 11, because this is a drivable car, not a dyno-queen’s nightmare. Enjoy the thrill available when the twin turbochargers reach their peak of 16.5 PSI worth of boost, and the power scales a beautiful curve up to power figures previously unimagined in a sedan. Hear the AluStar’s mighty roar as the bypass valve open and send the snarling, violent exhaust note right past the mufflers as you use the ShiftTronic II 7 speed sequential to pass slower, more mundane cars.

Or, feel free to cruise around and enjoy knowing that you’ve got an exclusive model year of the Storm Shadow, one where the GT-R badge is implied instead of shown.

The Shadow will be on sale starting immediately.

Madrias - Storm Shadow.zip (55.4 KB)

(And no, even I haven’t bothered running them around any tracks, so I don’t know if they’re quick or not.)

[DeusExMackia]

Well considering you’re getting 1000 hp for little over $100k, I’d call that the bargain of the century. Combining that with the equipment levels you’re talking about, and, well…

@Madrias

you’re getting a lot of car for the money.

You aren’t lying!

[Madrias]

It’s typical “Storm No-Frills” luxury, but it’s all luxury grade stuff, plus our usual Advanced +3 Safety. That, and I wanted to see if I could make 1000 horsepower even remotely drivable, let alone easily sold. With both the 1000 horsepower V8 edition and the only-slightly-less powerful V12 edition snagging scores in the Hyper tab over 100, and in the Super tab above 97, I’d say we hit the right price and power-to-drivability ratio.

That said, there’s stiff competition on that front.

[DeusExMackia]

No doubt about that there, it’s an exceptional all-rounder. I reckon a sacrifice of super high end luxury is worth it for all that power in a manageable package at an incredible price like that.

[Madrias]

2011

Roar Like a Lion

Storm Automotive decided 2011 needed to be the year they returned to the muscle-car market. So many people had been begging for something with two doors and tons of power for a while now.

A lot of time and effort went into deciding the design of the new car. Retro muscle is the in thing to do, after all, but we wanted to do things right. Too close to old-school and we’d over-do it, and lose the interest of our customers. Too new-school, and we’d miss the boat to do things right.

That, and we tried to come up with something radical and new for rounding out the new lineup.

The Storm Wildcat is more than just a car, it’s a chassis platform for us to build onto with various different ideas. The first car to be built in the lineup is the GS trim. Packing the AluStar VI, our V6, and 325 horsepower through AWD, this is the car for those who just want a muscle car for looks.

It is a proper 2+2 car, as we figured a pure 2 seater wouldn’t appeal to those buying the V6 model.

With 28 MPG, it makes up for what comes after it by being somewhat fuel efficient.

But if you’re the sort of guy who wants a little RWD fun, you’ve got some options, too. Unfortunately, they’re all 4 cylinders. But… It’s the Large Block AluStar inline 4, so you’ll have some fun.

The 4-sport combines a turbocharged 3.6 liter inline 4 with a 6 speed stick to provide you a ton of fun in a 2 seat car.

26 MPG means you’re not going to lose your wallet at the pump, either, and we know how good RWD is for drifting.

But maybe you’re willing to sacrifice a bit more to get a little more speed.

Here, we stripped the radio from the car, upgraded the gearbox slightly, added a performance clutch, and tuned the suspension for track days as well.

Sure, the Road/Track package is more expensive overall, but… We feel that if you’re desperate to go fast, it’s worth it.

And, if you feel some insanity is worth the extra money, we have that as an option, too.

This Thunderbolt Yellow beast would have, in any other car, gotten the GT-R badge. Instead, it gets the GT-4 badge because it’s just not fast enough to topple the true GT-R.

However, you do get a nice ShiftTronic II and RWD, so enjoy your 1000 horsepower burnouts down Main Street while bouncing off of the rev limiter.

And with the 4 cylinder squad out of the way, let’s double the cylinder count, shall we?

Starting in the basement of power is the GT trim. Again, we’re back up to 4 seats, and AWD returns, but we’re rocking the AluStar III V8.

Tuned for a very happy 530 horsepower, the AluStar III runs quite nicely, reasonably tame for the average muscle-car driver, without trying to lunge across lanes of traffic into crowds.

But if you need more power, go for broke and get the GT-R trim.

With 1000+ horsepower on tap, and active aerodynamics, this car is fast. Still carrying 4 seats, this car packs a ShiftTronic II six speed designed to keep you in control.

Plus, with a thundering 6 liter twin-turbo V8, you’ll win that burnout contest out of the car meet, despite having all four wheels driving.

But, even we get nostalgic sometimes.

Even we sometimes find ourselves looking at an old design for some inspiration.

This version of the Wildcat summons the spirit of the Envy Turbo Coupe and binds it with all the insanity it brings.

Yes, you’ve read that correctly. That is 1200 horsepower, AWD, and a 6 speed manual transmission. The clutch in this car costs $500 for just the parts alone, and even more to have it installed, so don’t burn it.

Luke has mentioned that driving the Wildcat Envy Turbo Coupe is like sitting behind the wheel of an intercontinental ballistic missile. It will catapult to 60 in 2.6 seconds, roar to almost 150 miles per hour in less than 10 seconds, reach 190 in a little under 18 seconds, and continue burning road up to 228 miles per hour. First and second gear disappear in a 1.2g slug-fest with the turbocharged beast, and cornering at speed is still no real issue for the Wildcat.

If you think the Wildcat Envy Turbo Coupe is not yet insane enough, you need to go see the nearest mental institution.

The Envy is only available in Poison Green.

Madrias - Storm Wildcat.zip (163.9 KB)

[DeusExMackia]

Not too sure about having 8 exhausts on the back of the my car, and I’m not sure about the colour on the 4-Sport trim, but the Wildcat certainly seems to set the standard for the modern muscle car. I’d even call it progressive for the vehicle type given that you can have it fitted with AWD!