Well, as I’m not going to be able to get this reviewed by a certain someone who took a whack from a banhammer recently, I might as well put this up here to see what others think of it.
Note: Uses mods from the High Quality Essentials. I’m fairly sure that’s all it needs to work, but, might be wise to have most of the Steam Mods just to be safe anyway.
This is not like the Gunslinger in the slightest. This was back when Storm Automotive was trying to be the fastest name in town, and using leading-edge technology to do so. It’s also when the design teams hadn’t yet agreed to build the same car together, leading to a gratuitous number of odd design choices, like, for example, a high-horsepower engine in a luxury station wagon.
I’m a 90s kid. So this review is written from the point of view of 1990 figures and performance.
#Storm Gunslinger
Well, this is interesting. A mid-engined AWD platform from 1990, something generally reserved for the dead Group B rally cars and Subarus. But Storm is a US company, and as I said earlier, not many US car makers bother with mid-engined as a mainstream thing. Not that they aren’t good at it of course, if the RS200 was anything to go by.
The application for this car is somewhat different though, it’s rather on the “mild” side for Storm Automotive. Fun in a light-ish car, not too crazy. The number one question for me would be if the drive to all four wheels is worth the extra weight over, say, an MR2.
First impressions and the car carries a rather upbeat tone with its almost neon shade of yellow. The front looks a bit like it has oversized nostrils (cannot unsee). Else, it looks every bit the part of a Storm sports car with aggressive, squarish rear light and big wing. It’s promising.
Under the bootlid is a rather fancy 24v DOHC 3.0L V6 putting out a rather handsome 265bhp. The cam profile is tuned to the very high end, making for a rather lopey, rough idle, and it takes premium 95RON, leaving no illusions that even mild as it is, this car is for sports enthusiasts, not pretenders. I take special note of the individual throttle bodies, all six of them, for at these power figures they don’t increase input, but they do offer a 20% increase in throttle response over a standard body when paired with the MPFI system. Fancy stuff indeed.
The interior is also a fancy business. Bucket sport seats inform you that you’re here to drive. But the surprisingly advanced cassette player with high fidelity sound system had me wondering. I wasn’t all that sure I’d be taking advantage of it much… unless there was somebody I wanted to impress!
How does it drive? With a 5 speed manual and fancy geared LSD, it accelerates even faster than the number suggest. Under 6 seconds to 100km/h is very brisk for the price point. The diff really keeps wheelspin under control, locking up under hard acceleration. But Symtrak’s power distribution does not match the weight distribution, rather, it’s split 50:50 by default, hence the wheelspin that the Gunslinger does get is from the front tyres. Additionally, the car is subject to some torque steer.
On the other hand, the balance of the handling is characteristic of that which makes M-AWD a notoriously difficult (and in the case of Group B rally, fatal): oversteer. This car turns right on the limit to start with, and even pushing it a little harder makes the rear step out. It takes instant reflexes to catch it, making this a very twitchy and nervous handler. Even being forewarned, it comes as a nasty surprise, as the ride itself is pliant and largely fuss-free over bumps. Add to this brakes with power designed for vehicles probably about twice its size, and pretty much anything outside of city traffic driving produced the whoosh and grind of ABS activation. I was glad for the ABS, otherwise I honestly might have ended this review wrapped around a telegraph pole.
I think that would be the number one major issue I had with the car. If not for that, I would have infinitely more confidence pushing it harder through the flowing, twisting passes of… of where? Transgraafian? Trollstigen? Stelvio? Well, I suppose I could always go to Galena, lol.
Likes:
Mostly consistent engineering vision
Fat has been trimmed for the most part, including aluminium panels
Responsive NA motor with more than enough poke
Won’t send me broke at the pump (19mpg is pretty good for a 1990 sports car with 265bhp, and gas was cheap back then)
Dislikes:
The handling will definitely kill you
I’m not sure anybody’s going to appreciate the benefit of the premium stereo, they’re probably too busy gripping the wheel with white knuckles
Engine is a bit peaky and so idle is very rough and low end suffers
Not convinced of benefit of having AWD, but as it is, power distribution could have been bumped to match weight distribution
Recommendations:
It would be ok to sacrifice a bit of top end power for more torque down bottom. Your acceleration in the low to mid range will be significantly better, meaning significantly better 0-100 times.
I would personally drop the AWD, but if you’re keeping it, then match torque to weight distribution for lowest wheelspin and best drivability
The game recommends 165F/215R. That’s a good combo.
You’ll need to increase rear camber. Terminal understeer is best in this configuration
You can get slightly better drivability by twiddling with the damper values. It doesn’t necessarily correlate to the most settled ride when weight distribution is very askew, but generally comes close
Actually about what I expected. I’ll keep it in mind for when I decide to revisit the Gunslinger in more modern years. M-AWD will be kept, but I’ll definitely be adjusting to match what was said here.
As for the stereo, yeah, I probably could’ve gotten away with a cheaper radio, but I didn’t want to feel like I was giving too little car for too much money. Still, I’ll keep it noted for the revisit down the line that a more standard stereo package will be just as easily appreciated if the car isn’t trying to murder you.
I’ll listen to the game’s recommendations next time when tuning Mid Engine, because I really have no clue what I’m doing with that layout. As for rear camber increases, also noted.
Still, always nice to hear from one of the masters of the mid-engine layout. At least I know the things that need to be tweaked for future mid-engine cars to make them less… hazardous to drive.
Sportiness, driving pleasure, refinement, high-end performance, design, handbuilt… This is the description about the Montes Amagosta, one of the best GT cars of the History.
This version of the Amagosta, the MRP biturbo, it features a low-lag and high-revving biturbocharged 5.8L V12 handbuilt engine, with 651HP at 8200RPM, and 644Nm at 2600RPM, attached to a manual 6-speed MRP gearbox, making an explosive cocktail, mixing high-performance for trackdays, with luxury and comfort for everyday.
The AWD ensures security and increases the mechanical traction and drag…
REQUIRED MODS (from Steam):
-All VMO (a.k.a el chasco) mods.
-All mod wheels.
-NormanVauxhall exhausts.
-Felgen indicators.
-Weasel 918 lip pack.
-Raz Aventador Vents.
I’ll do it since I’ve built a Hyper GT too so I have a point of reference.
The Amagosta is Montes’ latest hyper GT, a fine one at that. If excess can be boiled down to one car this would be it. Why did you use a carbon body? Because we can. Why did you use a V12 because we can. Because we can seems to be defining point of this machine.
And what a machine. On the outside it has the ideal blend of aggressiveness and muscle with subtlety and grace. Although if I’m honest, personally not a big fan of that massive chrome grill and GT wing. Latter kills the subtle and dignified look, while on the former the chrome is just too thick.
And you get to the inside. What an interior! It makes a Gulfstream jet feel like an economy class flight from Rynair, abundant very soft and smooth leather on the dash and seats stitched in such a beautiful shade of black for this model. A very smart interior system too, capable of excellent sound quality and a navigation system that isn’t annoying to use. Sound proofing is excellent too, it is quieter a top end luxury car at highway speeds while still having the distinctive V12 wail when pushed.
And for regular driving, it is flawless. Smooth, comfortable, efficient, quiet while packing enough punch to deliver smiles when you want it to. A truly peerless GT. However, it is honestly quite lackluster on the track. On the edge, the car understeers quite severely, not helped by it’s all wheel drive system and rear ward traction bias. Despite highly effective carbon brakes, the car feels very out of it’s element when taken to the track. No lift at high speeds, but not nearly enough down force for it to be a track weapon. The all wheel drive is also more of a liability at high speeds, the car struggles to accelerate at the top while not offering increased cornering speeds.
Also a few design choices warrant some headscratching. Why if the car was to be lush and luxurious, would you put a carbon fiber monocoque? Seems to counteract it’s purpose completely, as the car with a full carbon body still dials in at 1654 kg. Also the semi slick tires simply kill regular road drivability especially when wet, forcing it to rely on assists and the driver to be very very careful. The very hard suspension setting seems to be rather counterproductive as well.
Again, no other car will provide the blend of refinement or comfort and speed that this car does. The big big problem is, it is just quite frankly not a good track car. 7:27 on Green Hell is barely quicker (4 seconds) than a (I apologize for abit of self promotion, but they’re in the same bracket performance wise) Dimension Hypero, a car with slightly worse power to weight ratio and tires. Montes should simply focus and providing peerless luxury and speed and not focus on track capabilities, especially in it’s price bracket, which creeps dangerously close to the likes of the KHT Eau Rouge, and that car is 40 seconds quicker on the Nurburgring.
A peerless tourer, an outclassed track car, the Montes Amagosta is like a 747 trying to be a stunt plane. While with enough effort, it is doable, Montes has gotten so many things right with the car that they should emphasize rather than try and cover more bases.
Likes:
-Excellent interior and sound proofing
-High fuel efficiency
-Punchy torque curve and turbo
-Smooth engine
-Manual Gearbox
Dislikes:
-It really should stay away from the track
-Rough suspension
-Semi slicks are awful for daily use
-Understeers hard on track use
Suggestions:
-Make it the greatest GT, not a GT1 racer. This thing is the most refined luxury machine I’ve seen.
That’s about it really. A superb machine that’s simply trying to be so much at once.
(I’ll be trying to avoid comparing to real-world cars from now on. As for me, I’m playing it as not being owner of Storm Automotive, so yeah, this car’s a bit out of my league. However, I will not be having my character, Luke, review this car. As much as I somewhat want to, I feel the main review covered everything that has to be said.)
Another day, another car in the driveway to review. This time it’s the SSP Nine-50. I’ve heard a little about this car before, and it’s supposed to be a really powerful hypercar. To be honest, I’m a little nervous, as while I’ve driven some high-horsepower things to review them, this is my first time dealing with upper triple digit horsepower figures. After all, I’ve not been able to contact any of the big companies to get some bigger horsepower numbers here. But enough about other companies, this is about the Nine-50.
The first thing that hits me is the almost-Bogliq blue paint-scheme. On some cars, it’s a little jarring, but here, it’ll knock you out, and in a good way. Honestly, if this car were red or yellow, it’d lose some of that sharpness, that unique factor that draws you in. The second thing I noticed is the aggressive profile. This car looks a bit mean, a little angry. It looks like it wants to outright kill the tires while blowing the doors off of the competition.
The Nine-50 is low to the ground, and the lowered line of the front lights and grill makes the car appear even lower. The hood is modestly ventilated, which makes sense given the 7 liter V12 hiding underneath. This modest ventilation continues down the side, with a vent near the side-marker turn signal, as well as numerous air passages near the side exhaust.
Near the rear wheel arch, there appears to be more vents, which I can only assume are for brake cooling. The ones on the roof, I’m still puzzled about, although I suppose they do have a function.
At the back end of the Nine-50, there’s a thin LED strip as the main tail light, with short vertical turn signals, and short horizontal brake lights. It appears that SSP decided that placing the reverse light and rear reflector in the middle of the diffuser was the best idea. And it kinda works, actually. Speaking of diffusers, this thing is massive. In contrast, the rear wing is rather small. However, if it works, it works.
Inside the Nine-50, it’s equally impressive as the outside was. These bucket seats are extra soft, but they still have enough firmness to hold you in place through the twisty stuff. In the middle of the car, a modest six-speaker sound system sits above the seven speed stickshift. Good thing I’m comfortable with rowing my own, because that’s a lot of gears. Turning the radio on and connecting my phone, I’m pleased to say that the radio’s actually pretty average. Not a bad thing, given that this car on the outside screams to the world “I’m a race car.” I suspect when I turn the key that I’m going to never hear that radio again.
Wrong! Amazingly, this car makes 950+ horsepower while staying quieter than a mouse fart. I suspect it could be quieter if it had standard intakes instead of performance, and I suspect the race exhaust headers also help punch up the noise on the big engine, but, it’s not bad. And the V12 has a good strong note to it. Revving it in the driveway, I can almost feel the valve lift change at just past 5000 RPM.
So, I know what everyone wants to know, how does it drive?
Well, it’s a little bit scary, but not entirely unexpected. You see, it’s 900+ horsepower, but SSP decided that the Nine-50 was going to fire all of this through the high-quality transmission, electronic differential, and out through the rear tires. Which is why, even with the street-legal semi-slicks on it, the Nine-50 will still burn the rear tires if you’re too harsh on the gas. Even with the traction control trying to keep you from doing so.
Now, I will admit, it took me a lot of time to get up the courage to drive this car on the street. First, I had to wait for it to quit raining, because heck no, I’m not driving semi-slicks in the bloody rain. I do not want to wipe out in a nearly $200,000 car. Then I had to pick my route to drive on, and even that took a lot of planning. Again, I didn’t want someone else bumping into this very-expensive driving machine. Especially because I still had to return it when I was done.
But, once the rain stopped, and once I had a basic route set up, I got some basic numbers. The Nine-50 will quite happily, with Launch Control active and suspension set in Sport Mode, thanks to the semi-active dampers, blister and burn the rear tires all the way to a 3.7 second 0-60 time. If you happen to be doing about 50, and you feel the need to go 75 for some reason, it’ll do so in a little over a second-and-a-half.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find enough stretch of unpopulated road free of speed limits to see if the 222 MPH top speed was exactly true or not, but I suspect it is, given how happy the car is to accelerate rather quite violently. What I did do was take the Nine-50 to the local drag-strip and pulled an 11 second quarter mile. Which, let’s face it, is seriously fast.
Now, all this power comes at a price. The Nine-50 gets almost 16 MPG on average. But, that’s 16 MPG with 950 horsepower.
Driving the Nine-50 for a week, I’d describe it as pleasantly nervewracking. It’s a lot of fun to drive, and it’s certainly quite capable of handling the power, and that makes it easier to drive, though it’s not exactly easy to drive. It’s rear-wheel-drive with a lot of power. Despite the luxury grade seats, it’s not super comfortable, but it won’t kill your bottom on a road trip, either. It’s safe enough that you’d likely survive the wipeout at 222 miles per hour, although no one ever wants to find that out the hard way.
I’d rate my Week with the SSP Nine-50 as an 8/10, and recommend that if you’ve got the money to buy one, seriously think about test driving it.
Pros:
-Very sporty
-Keeps to the traditional F-RWD layout
-Safe
-950+ Horsepower
-Decent fuel efficiency for the amount of available power
Cons:
-Semi slick tires means it’s more suited to the track than the street.
-May have performed better with a sequential gearbox
Neutral:
-Good styling that matches the type of car
-Very good performance
(Note: I know, 8/10 seems a bit low, but… In all facts, it’s actually really good. To get the perfect 10/10 from me is going to be really, really hard. I wouldn’t even give it to myself. 8/10 just set the bar with a high-performance two-door coupe.)
Excellent writeup on one of the craziest front-engined supercars I have ever seen! Reminds me of the Aston Martin Vulcan (and the V12 Vantage, and the One-77), for some reason…
but I would love to see some compacts.