I’ll put my butt in the fire, although I don’t have much of Storm Automotive’s Modern Years covered yet. What is there is our '55 to '84, and a lot look similar in the early days. At the same time, I was inspired by and not-quite-competing with TurboJ’s Patriot Motor Force, although it looks like I’ll need to find some new inspiration for competition.
Storm Automotive Company Thread
Luke’s story would start in 2000, so it’s a bit of a way off. Right now, the story picks up in a transfer of ownership and a taming of the insanity.
As for giving some ratings to cars that were posted here, and then posting something modern-ish that I’ve got for people to pick at, I’ll start from the bottom and work my way up.
Gryphon Gear: I’d give a solid 8/10 for the company: they make cars that go fast and look good, and they cost a lot. Sadly, some require special attention to the fact that you’ll need a professional racing driver just to take it around the block.
- Ouroboros: 6/10. A fuel-sipping hypercar in the midst of the “Add more fuel, gain 1 MPH” crowd, the Ouroboros says, “Hey, look at me! I’m just as fast and I won’t burn through five credit cards worth of gasoline just to have a good track day.”
- Mercury: 10/10. What good is a fast car that you cannot drive? Even Luke wouldn’t touch this one, and he could probably afford it, and could probably drive it.
- Mephisto: 8/10. The car that every kid has a poster on the wall for, because it’s radical and fast and it looks cool and it’s fast and it’s a street legal racecar and it’s fast. Did we mention it’s fast?
- Nightfury: 10/10. A literal street-legal race car.
Erin Motor Company, with an overall rating of 5/10, right in the middle. As a whole, there’s not a lot of wild designs, and as such, it’s more a normal car company, like Subaru, Ford, or Toyota.
- Visto: 4/10, because it’s a tiny little thing with advertising saying “Now we’ve added even more plastic” with it having no horsepower. Probably a decent candidate for engine swaps and outright ricing it out with a big fake bodykit and a massive wing with wheel spacers.
- Berlose X-AllDrive: Yeah, I’ll agree with you, 8/10. It outwardly says “I go fast, get out of my way” without any provocation.
- Scarlet: 7/10. Not quite as radical a car as some I’ve seen, and very plain in looks, not that it’s a bad thing. However, add 2 points if the driver bought it in red, and another if it’s a convertible.
- Merna: I’d probably rate this one a 3/10, honestly. It doesn’t look that outlandish, it looks slightly up-market, and yet there’s just something about the angle on those headlights that makes me think, without looking up stats, that people who buy it will think it goes fast.
Not gonna look up the company, but the Petoskey Stag makes the next on the list, and like any good sports truck, it makes an 8/10, just like the Ford Lightning F150, Dodge Ram SRT-10, etc. would.
The Petoskey Montauk RTX Aero gets an instant 7/10. Outlandishly huge wing (yes, I know, those were a thing in the good old days of Nascar when cars were just modified showroom cars), bright sunburst yellow paint, and dual twin-tip exhausts.
Komodo Motors Phyton Base: 6/10. I could see people abusing the thing as a hot hatch, because they’re too cheap to buy one of the more interestingly-named models with more power. Those kind of people would be the ones to spout about things like, “She’s got a mag-block, yo, she’ll blow your doors off like you’re sitting still” while sitting next to a slightly non-descript black station wagon with a heavily vented hood. Otherwise, the average driver wouldn’t care that the engine’s been beautifully crafted from magnesium, or that it has AlSi heads, they’d never use the 6900 RPM, and they’d probably buy it with an automatic. But, that said, the base has to go up a notch on it’s own, but it stays there, despite adding a turbo or doing engine work.
Rennen Automotive, based on the three pictures available and the pinch of information, would weigh in at a 5 overall for me. You make luxury cars, but you’re making drivers’ luxury cars. And occasionally you make something wild and outlandish and fun because what’s life without a speeding ticket?
LaVache Horseless Carriages. Just from the company name, I’ve got to up-rate it to a 6/10. Not because of anything bad, but it sounds like something you’d use as a retort with an overly posh voice while holding your snifter of brandy. “It is not a car, it is a horseless carriage, you uneducated simpleton.”
However, the LaVache Skywarp ('85) gets a 6.2/10 from me. Left unmodified, it’s a nice car, but I could see it being driven to hell and back by old folks, who then sell the car, a driver who just got his permit and begged his parents to buy him a car ends up with it, and in an attempt to make a nice car into something ‘cool’, he spends every paycheck on fixing the little things wrong after 30 years of abuse, as well as 20 inch rims, a wing that looks like it was pilfered from the Montauk, a fart cannon with a turbo whistle in it, and an ancient aftermarket alternator that kinda sounds like a supercharger if you’ve never heard one before.
The '88 Skywarp Turbo II doesn’t, however, get the 6 douche points from the previous model. It manages a cool 3/10, and that’s only because someone’s bound to stomp the accelerator at least once and wake that engine up. However, there’s not much room for dumb modifications, those who bought these are going to care for them (Just ask anyone who still has a Buick Grand National instead of the Buick Regal from the same year), and their sleeper quality has only gotten better with time.
