oh boy now that thought about it.
my car is just a flop… so many wrong choices…
i might have been drunk on something when i made it 
also. congrats to Nialoftara for winning this one. i’m looking up for your challenge next
Congrats to all, especially the winners.
Good job (as always) on the challenge strop!
Now, i will make a revised version of mine and name it “strop edition” 
Such an awesome read. Thanks for taking the effort strop.
Congrats to Nialoftara , 400 HP Frontwheel-Drive won, i can’t believe it
Fuel economy and the green hell laptime (for a 400HP FF ) were indeed impressive tho.
Good job! I didn’t expect a review of all the contenders.
And congrats to the winners.
Although maybe entering a car literally designed in the 90s was not such a good idea.
Excellent reviews Strop.
Congratulations Nialoftara awesome car.
I’ll get some history and lore up ASAP.
Wow, okay wasn’t expecting to win that, thank you Strop for that utterly unexpected and in depth review of all entries, you’ve set a very high bar to start this off! Congradulations to everyone else those were some damn fine cars I was up against. I will attempt to remain humble despite knowing that the founder of GG drives a Centauri.
Due to my work and home schedules I am kinda forced to make this a 1 week round as well, I just do not have much time to judge and review cars before next weekend. (Especially as I’m just starting to work on my own challenge.) That said I am still game to run it!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it.
The year is 2007, I am a working parent, we are well off if not exactly well to do. The time has come to retire one of our cars, the kids are too big and it is a bit on the older side, we are shopping for a new car, it will be our first fresh from the showroom floor! But given our family size and the multitude of activities we will be needing the car for we are looking at minivans, but the new wave of CUV’s and wagons are also tempting, although a premium mid sized sedan with a lot of storage space might also work but it would have to be really good.
Ideally we are looking for a brand new car, a model year 2007, but we might be tempted by a slightly older one, but not too old.
We are primarily concerned about safety, utility, practicality, reliability, drivability and comfort.
It must seat at least 5, though more is better.
It must use regular fuel.
Prices should be around $35,000, we are already splurging a bit because we want a safe and fun car for the kids so it should not be much higher than that.
Round closes midnight of January 31st EST
Congratulations Nial! And all of the cars were a great read Strop! Loved it all. Sure all were strong contenders. Can’t wait till the next round, really satisfied with second spot.
Edit: oh, question: are we supposed to build “extra profit” margin into that 35k?
That was a good challenge! Congratulations, Niall!
Yeah, I know, I forgot to make the car not look too bold. Still, at least it provided a good driving experience.
So, onto making a 2007 vehicle… Not a problem.
Congratulations, Nial, Dragawn, rapidbacon and HighOctaneLove! Apparently, my meaning of “a tame looking car” can equal “an aggressive car” for some reasons. Raising the quality of the fuel tab seems to be an efficient way to increase the reliability of the engine, at least from what I did with my entry.
Also, thanks for making good reviews for all the cars, Strop!
That’s exactly correct Urbanliner, the fuel injectors give the best returns on reliability under modern circumstances. Unless you’re making an extremely top end engine, then you’ll need to pay attention to the valvetrain.
A 2007 CUV huh? That’ll be different for me. I don’t even have a company that makes that kind of thing, except possibly…
Congrats to all the winners! This was a fun challenge, and strop, I would be interested in that modified trim you made. I’m always looking for ways to improve my cars.
Love the Reviews there. I’m not at all dissatisfied with my performance, and congratulations to the winners.
I actually already have a family car in 07, and it sells for a lot less than 35 Grand. I’m wondering if it would be worth it to sell it at a way cheaper price or try to improve it for more money…
I’m having to switch production time between two different challenge cars right now, so I’m getting nearly the full experience.
Honestly disappointed with my performance given I wasn’t even an honorable mention, but I’m still learning and know what to improve next time.
Congrats to the winners.
Cheers - Racer13
I agree. After reading all the entries (Max kudo’s Strop, they’re all entertaining without being unduly harsh or too flattering, 
) I would have been tempted to buy Nialloftara’s entry as well! 
So looking forward to next round; this competition concept is so much fun!!! 
As a final summary to the previous round, before gearing up for the next round, I think the trick to balancing all those things was actually all in considering the weight of your vital components. More weight = needs more grip and power = more expensive in general unless you cut corners. It also implies that you’re using either a bigger engine, better interior, larger platform or a combination of all of those things. Therefore, any budget challenge which doesn’t strongly favour comfort or utility over everything else (think Man With a Van, or Farm Truck), you should automatically think ‘what is an appropriate size without being too small?’
The weight of the engine is absolutely instrumental to determining the dynamic characteristics of your car. Where niall was very clever was that the sedan is a bit longer so doesn’t carry as bad a F:R weight imbalance as, say, the hatch, but at the same time having more weight over the front wheels meant more driving traction. That, and the fact the rest of the tuning was subtly geared to accommodate this was why it was so fast around the track. Because it stuck to standard interior instead of premium like so many of the others, it also turned out to be a good 100kg lighter than the average, including the hatchbacks, which were all around 1600kg. Which is a lot for a hatch, that’s more what I’d expect from a medium-large sedan or a CUV.
Making a 6L V8 is hilarious and gives you huge power but had a lot of compromises: very low redline, huge slab of block in the front that made the car difficult to tune dynamically, and it was by far and away the worst at the pump. In everyday real world markets, the importance of the concept of right-sizing cannot be overstated.
Thanks for the feedback, Strop. It will definitely help me in the future.
I’m not in any way saying the Series 6 Wagon was good, which is why I’m not surprised it didn’t make the list. My competitive nature dictates that I’m disappointed by that result, but I’m not surprised. It was extremely fast in a straight line, moderately well equipped for the money, among the better looking cars available, which I’m proud of, I’m learning to work with fixtures better, and theoretically very spacious. With current game calculations we’ll never really know for certain. Other than that I will admit it wasn’t fantastic, and I was never pleased with the economy. As I saw other entries being posted I realized that you would really have to like the good aspects of the Series 6 to ignore the bad aspects and choose it over something else, which I knew wasn’t going to happen. I don’t know you well, but I understand you well enough to realize that you are a reasonable man who takes everything into account.
In reality I was trying to make points in other places to make up for comprises in more important areas. I could have fit somewhat bigger tyres on the rear but I wanted to go for the bonus points of having the same tyres all around, which ended up not playing much into the equation. The fact of the matter is that I made a car with stats in the average range of everything else, but the terrible gas mileage killed it. Trying to wow you with an impressive engine didn’t compensate for that, and in the real world probably wouldn’t for most markets.
But now I have tons of information for the next iteration, of which there will be one, and plenty of ideas to make it better. The 6L V8 with AWD will probably stay, but it may become a track package rather than a sport package, with a more reasonable powerplant for the sport package. The only place to go is up.
Cheers - Racer13
[quote=“Racer13”]Thanks for the feedback, Strop. It will definitely help me in the future.
I’m not in any way saying the Series 6 Wagon was good, which is why I’m not surprised it didn’t make the list. My competitive nature dictates that I’m disappointed by that result, but I’m not surprised. It was extremely fast in a straight line, moderately well equipped for the money, among the better looking cars available, which I’m proud of, I’m learning to work with fixtures better, and theoretically very spacious. With current game calculations we’ll never really know for certain. Other than that I will admit it wasn’t fantastic, and I was never pleased with the economy. As I saw other entries being posted I realized that you would really have to like the good aspects of the Series 6 to ignore the bad aspects and choose it over something else, which I knew wasn’t going to happen. I don’t know you well, but I understand you well enough to realize that you are a reasonable man who takes everything into account.
In reality I was trying to make points in other places to make up for comprises in more important areas. I could have fit somewhat bigger tyres on the rear but I wanted to go for the bonus points of having the same tyres all around, which ended up not playing much into the equation. The fact of the matter is that I made a car with stats in the average range of everything else, but the terrible gas mileage killed it. Trying to wow you with an impressive engine didn’t compensate for that, and in the real world probably wouldn’t for most markets.
But now I have tons of information for the next iteration, of which there will be one, and plenty of ideas to make it better. The 6L V8 with AWD will probably stay, but it may become a track package rather than a sport package, with a more reasonable powerplant for the sport package. The only place to go is up.
Cheers - Racer13[/quote]
However, you may still have won in the Australian market though… There are a large number of cashed up Aussies who’d relish the thought of 6L of V8 and would see the lairy driving characteristics as a benefit, not a flaw! 
I still win the least power prize
YAY for me. I’m bad at this game
@Vri You’re not bad, you’re just good at making detuned engines. I actually seem to have a problem with not knowing how to make detuned engines, so maybe we can share notes and both end up in some sort of middle ground.
@HighOctaneLove Well at least there is a market somewhere. Just not the market I was after, haha. Always look on the bright side of life, right?
Cheers - Racer13