Black Tiger Sex Machine - Rune.zip (89.1 KB)
How about the Original ECV Rune?
A simple money maker that became a staple of the ECV brand. It’s simple, and effective at what it does.
Well, it’s a luxury car, but I figure 280 horsepower isn’t too wild. 1982 Storm Sentinel.
Madrias - Storm Sentinel.zip (144.5 KB)
Comes with two trims, one AWD, one RWD.
I’ve sent one 
Yes somewhere up the top is my kei car with 66hp
Here is my Mott Works Apollo
rcracer11m - Apollo.zip (158.7 KB)
It comes in 3 trims, BE which is the base trim designed to be cheap and efficient, the ES trim which is supposed to be economical and sporty, and the SP trim which is supposed to be very sporty.
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Time for me to finally contribute something to society.
The year is 1982, and I’ve finally got enough money from my small car business to splurge on a nice luxury car… What better way, I figured, then to check out with the people at Storm Automotive, and their Sentinel, new for 1982, because it’s the eighties, and everything is new!
Now, Let’s talk about the looks… After all, with a car this prestigious, it should draw a crowd with it’s styling. Now, to be honest, and in a year where everything is new, Storm boldly declare to show a car with a classic style. Pre-War, I would have guessed. The type of car Stalin would arrive in. When I first laid eyes on the car, I really wasn’t too fond of it… The dual headlights and the dual grill remind me more of a truck than a luxury car… And particularly when you stare at it head on, it looks a bit dinky, even with the winged badge… But as I followed along the sides more and more, I could start to get a feel for the look this car was going for. Classic, Dainty, Elegant. Quite nice. I think the pillars in particular give the car a good shape. Up Unti- JEEZ THAT REAR END.
Okay, maybe I overreacted, but holy hell, did the manufacturing accidently order eighty billion too many rear lights, and the designers had no choice but to use them up? 3 or 4 lights would have looked just fine, and from a distance, so does this. But when you examine the fine details, it’s just a mess. Overall, classy. Not what I would personally purchase, but very nice. Not too shouty, not too subtle either.
Inside is a similar story. It rather follows the style of the Outside, which Is something I usually look for. Consistency is important, and it didn’t disappoint. Although, that’s where the compliments end. It’s a bit dissapointing for a car of this class. Yes, it is comfortable, but it’s certainly not gonna knock you out with it’s amazing style or luxury… It’s certainly high end, but I don’t feel like there was much attention to detail here. Like they where given 2 Hours to design the most luxurious car possible. Big deal? not even kinda. However, what IS a big deal is the Driving experience. This car should be an easy glide around town… And it’s not. It’s pretty miserable at low speeds actually. The throttle isn’t linear at all. You’ve got a few inches of pedal travel where little happens, but then if you tap it just a teeeny bit more, the car lets out a growl, and the whole body lurches forward, throwing all the occupants with it. Pretty miserable. Why? I wondered. Well, As I read the specs, this car has a 3.6 Liter DOHC Inline 6, with a turbo stuck on it. Turbocharging? on a luxury car? I started out my company with a turbocharged car just a few short years before this, and the technology has evolved since then. But that was a SPORTS car. Not a luxury car. I could only wonder why… Turbos are for boosting performance, and In a car like this, it would be perfectly acceptable for a giant engine with a terrible power to displacement ratio, and just be an easy drive. Look. I get it. I sound like one of those whiners in the 50s who claimed the Prince needed a bigger engine. (And It Did) But the power isn’t the issue here. It’s the delivery of power, and the rwd model is just a mess, and the tires don’t help. 175s. Front and rear, and steel wheels. Sigh that’s acceptable when you’re a little econobox with 110 Horsepower. If you nail it in the RWD model, even with the Fancy diff and 4 speed auto, you’re gonna spin this thing around. The AWD fixes these issues, and offers .1 Less MPG. If you’re gonna get this car, get the AWD one, no buts. My only complaint is that the lurchy diesel feeling hasn’t left.
Overall, What are my thoughts on this car? It shows promise. It’s not what I could call a prestigious car, but it’s snazzy, and pretty sleek. It’s got a pretty nice power curve, and an even nicer torque curve. Very flat. Much to my liking. once you get it rolling, and feels especially nice on the highway for doing pulls. But it feels unfinished. Very unfinished. They could stand to put more attention to detail in the interior, make the turbo softer or slower, or even ditch it altogether.
2 Likes
Well, I know it doesn’t excuse it, but it was built by the same factory that built the Duke, and was right at the end of the ultra-high-horsepower era.
As for the rear styling, I will admit, I was experimenting with an alternate style that I also felt didn’t work out.
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If someone wants to review my mid 60s family car - the Braconash, feel free.
Microwave - Braconash.zip (106.6 KB)
I’m not sure if it exported both the automatic and manual versions. If it exported both, then take your pick. If it only exported the manual one, then of course do the manual one.
Original post: MicroDesigns - Braconash/Hyperhatch - #39 by Microwave
Thanks in advance!
When I open your car a grille or vent you have used is either not loading or not one I have subbed to - the cooling is only 10kJ. @Microwave Can you tell me which ones I need?
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=695125601
Here @ramthecowy.
EDIT: I’d like to clarify something: My car is not meant to be a muscle car. Had a miniature brainfart whilst writing my first post. It’s a premium/semi-sporty family sedan.
Well, @Microwave, seeing as I have a soft spot for 60s family cars (especially my very own Erin Merna), I decided to review you car! 
So here we go:
###User Review: 1967 Braconash 318 (Manual)
Being from Britain, I’m only used to European-sized vehicles, meaning that the idea of this 5.4m long behemoth being a ‘family’ car was strange to me. But, then again, it is - as far as I can tell - America, so I’ll just have to assume that’s what they’re used to over there.
The Braconash is, in short, a lovely car, designed and built with far more care than I’m used to on American vehicles. It’s got an effortless sense of friendliness to it. It welcomes you into its vast cabin, which by the way is as luxurious as you’d expect it. Pale leather seats, wooden dashboard and beautifully detailed instruments. I like.
Starting the Braconash brings to life the 5.2l single-cam V8, which produces 222 hp. It certainly doesn’t rev high, but the slow response of the engine only continues that theme of friendliness. The low and thwarty rumble of its engine is reassuring, and actually using it is nice too; a good torque curve makes this car a joy to cruise in.
Driving this thing is unusual for me. I’m not used to massive cars like this and it did take some getting used to, but that didn’t prevent me from seeing some of the strengths of this cars design. For one, the suspension is superb. It’s tuned pretty much perfectly; no reverb whatsoever from going over bumps in the road and it never bounces. For a 1.6 ton car, that’s pretty impressive. It’s handling characteristics certainly aren’t anything to write home about - in fact they’re appalling for any performance driving - but they’re easy on the hand, plus the power steering made it nice to use around town and not too hard to park. Acceleration was also great, particular for a car from this time, plus the brakes aren’t half bad either.
Now onto some downsides. For one, there’s no getting round that it is massive. You couldn’t use this thing on British roads at all, and its sheer size does create some maneuverability issues, made worse by the collosal C pillars at the back of the car. There’s no getting round that they’re a major hindrance in terms of visibility. Economy too wasn’t up to my European standards, with an average of 16.8 mpg.
Then again though, those are fairly minor issues. Sure, the visibility issues are annoying when you’re trying to park in a parking lot, but then again, how often would you be visiting such a place in this car? And does paying more for fuel matter to you if you can actually afford one of these? Whatsmore, there are suggestions that the reliability of this car is excellent, and with decent service costs, it could actually end up being a fairly low-cost vehicle to run in the long term.
For me, the Braconash’s real strengths are found in how friendly a car it is. From the smooth and characterful looks (that exuberate majesty and class) to the plush interior and pleasant feel of how it drives, this car is a real gentle giant of the road. It’s certainly not for me as it’s totally unsuited to European roads, but I’d be honored to own one were I an American.
Score: 8/10
For: Friendly styling, superb build quality, gentle driving characteristics
Against: Questionable fuel economy, sheer size, some visibility issues
6 Likes
Thanks for taking the time to write this review! Very fair and well writen.
As a European myself, it can be more difficult to make these kinds of cars due to the fact that it’s easy to go “NEEDS MORE 8L V8 AND HUGE FINS”, so this time around I did my best to make a very toned down car. I think I succeeded!
4 Likes
Yeah! It’s certainly a lot less shouty than other American cars. Hence why I liked it 
You hit the nail on the head with your review; the Braconash is clearly too big for most of Europe but is clearly much less out of place where the roads are wider (such as Australia and America). And while it’s not very sporting at all, on the other hand it is an excellent luxury land yacht. In short, it’s a relaxed cruiser more at home on the Pacific Motorway than the Great Alpine Road.
taking a shot at this
they say it’s purely an econo city car. efficient and cheap. but looking at it’s bigger brothers, it seems that is has more potential than just cheap and efficient. now i’m focusing on the BE trim, and not the others, but will mention a bit of the other trims
coming on to the front… it’s… squinty… most of the ornaments are small and inline. they do look good if you quarantine them away from the car. it’s just they’re too small. then there’s the, uh… is it a triple fog lamp or DRL set? it looks good from the front, but there’s a lot of lights, although they’re small ones, but that’s a lot of lamps to go out, and needs replacement.
there’s nothing to write home about on the side. because there’s… nothing, except for the door handle. not even side indicators? that has to be illegal on some country. so i think i have the version that is not for most of the 1st world nations.
on the rear end. it looks… eh, not boring, not ugly, it’s okay, acceptable. except for the trims on the bumper, and the too-big-exhaust-tips that are over the top.
now let’s start reading the spec sheets and look at the undercarriage. it’s… a full alumunium car. alu monocoque and alu panels… so what was that about cheap? well the car size IS really small, so maybe that won’t affect the price as much as i think. and then, full double suspension all around. this isn’t a cheap and efficient city car, no, the base is way too complex for it. is may be good on the road. but it’s going to be a nightmare to maintain for average joe that knows nothing about a car except for the throttle and the brake. which is most of the car buyer on this market is.
but then again, the bigger brothers are way more performance and sport oriented. so this is an example of a higher priced and more complex car dumbed down, instead of the more common, cheaper normal car, tuned up for performance that we see today. rear longitudinal mounted engine. not the transverse mounted engine that are more common on rear engined car. yet another proof that it’s a performance car, not an econobox.
the engine is an undersquared 1L inline 4 with DOHC 4 valves featuring both VVL and VVT. seems normal for a small car such as this right? not quite. it revs to 9kRPM, it has full forged bottom end components, makes 100HP, but it’s at 8300RPM, it has individual throttle per cylinder, tubular exhaust headers, straight through + reverse flow mufflers. but except for the fancy bottom end parts, everything else is just standard quality components. but this engine just SCREAMS performance, not an eco engine. and with performance engines that revs high, you know what that means? it’s a bitch for novice drivers, which there are a lot of them in this market they’re aiming for. big power? sure, but it’s all on the later 1/3rd of the rev range. and barely any torque down low, so the engine need to be revved a bit higher, which may seem trivial, but to some beginners, revving the engine high is a little bit scarier. with an engine so small, they should’ve focused on the lower end torque rather than the overall power band. because only car enthusiast can use the whole power band effectively. overall, nicely tuned engine, but the tune focus was wrong.
so finally going inside, there’s just a normal standard interior you would expect of a usual hatchback. but with rather more basic entertainment system. it has a 6 speed single clutch sequential gearbox, with the 6th gear being an overdrive, the gear change is as smooth as a women’s skin, there’s barely any jolt on normal driving conditions, quick and responsive on spirited driving. but the tires. 185 on the rear is fine, but 155 on the front really brings worries. it’s too thin for proper traction. i know that it’s an attempt to alleviate the inherent oversteer-y nature of a rear mounted engine car, but i think they could’ve done it another way around, like with suspension tuning. speaking of which, it has progressive springs, and semi-active swaybars. other than that. there’s nothing more to write about.
now the brakes… WAYYYYYYYY over powered, 300mm solid disc on the front, and 215 vented on the rear. both single piston. sure it does the job good. TOO good. as soon as the ABS system shits itself, the brake system just won’t be controllable. last up, it has semi clad undertray. which, at this point it’s pretty useless, it does little compared to the added weight and cost. and it’s not just a normal one either, it’s got way more attention than it needs.
in the end, it’s a very drivable car, yet still fun, with a lot of BUT.
it’s driveable BUT only when everything is working properly. like the ABS system not letting you lock your brakes.
it’s fun, BUT only for those who knows how to pull out the max potential from the car.
it’s economical, but it’s only economical because of it’s weight and aerodynamics. had the engine supported it. it has way more potential
summaried into 1 sentence
###the car is good at what does do, just have the wrong focus in mine when it was designed for.
now my car.
a complete ecobox with either a more basic family oriented sedan. or, slightly up classed hatchback.
Cool-K - Ziotry.zip (105.6 KB)
Thaks for reviewing my car, I’ll probably have a look at some of the problems you mentioned and try to adjust them.
As for low end torque I’m not sure how much more I could give it, it already uses a fairly low cam setting plus I really lie how smooth the torque curve is with how its set up currently but that engine was designed fairly quickly as I had to redo it it for the car since the original engine became too big with one of the updates and I think the old engine did make a bit more low end as it still made 100hp but the torque curve was falt rather than the smooth rising curve of this engine.
My philosophy for designing this car was to make something I would really like to drive and own so it may be slightly compromised due to that.
Also I may review your car when I get time as I need to work on my reviewing skills for when I win a CSR round. And I’m generally interested in looking at other peoples design philosophies.
Yikes, I’ve lost track of this thread. Been a busy week. I promised to upload something ages ago, so here it finally is. Stable build. It does have a vmo lip in it. I can guarantee you it’s not buggy.
@titleguy1 reviewed the original prototype of Gryphon Gear’s 2017 Ouroboros in an article published in Upshift. Like all other models GG produces, it carries a single model name with no trim designation. But it is designed to be the start of a new era: the era of the eco-hypercar. This is especially significant for a company whose short track record of mad-mobiles was made with gas-guzzlers that fairly needed an oil refinery to run and relied on sheer brute force. This, coming from a head of design who could be quoted earlier that decade as saying they didn’t want to be smart, they wanted to be fast.
Fast forward some years, and the tune’s changed. Being fast means being smarter. 2016’s Salamander, 800bhp and 11L/100km was already a world apart from the usual 2000bhp and 25L/100km. But it was just a test. This here is a car that is even lighter, compact, and civilised. It’s strange to be saying less is more, especially when talking about hypercars, but here is a world-beating hypercar good for a sub 7-minute Green Hell lap on sports tyres, with just 656bhp. And it gets 5.73L/100km, or 41mpg, with a 0-100km/h of 2.9s, a 10s flat quarter mile, onto a top speed of 373km/h. And for its price, it has its sights aimed squarely at the 911 GT2 RS by producing a car with 918 levels of performance. Why would one bother to make a hypercar economical? It’s an engineering concern when thinking about the auto industry of the future, now that it is moving sharply towards a post-petroleum market.
Unlike what submission to a GT shootout might have suggested, this isn’t a car to get comfortable in. It’s designed to be streetable, and even somewhat liveable. But as with all things GG, it’s an exploration of how one achieves fast, and in this case, fast for less.
Design is mostly there, there may be a few small details I’m not sold on but we’re getting close to changing builds anyway so there’s no point lol.
McHorseguy - Ouroboros.zip (109.4 KB)
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Gryphon Gear is at it again. As if they haven’t made enough hypercars already, they made one that will get 40 MPG +. That’s better than even the thriftiest econoboxes on the roads today, and those don’t have 600+ horsepower and won’t do 230 mph. The Ouroboros puts itself in a unique position in the incredibly competitive hypercar segment in that it while it there quite a few faster, there won’t be one that can achieve similar levels of economy. While economy is quite frankly irrelevant when cross shopping hypercars, on this car it becomes a game changer, a representation of how far ahead Gryphon Gear is at producing efficient powerplants.
In typical Gryphon Gear fashion, the exterior is a polarizing look, a unique blend of curves and vents that results in an ultimately bizzare yet incredibly cool looking machine. There is simply nothing short of KHT Eau Rouge that has nearly the amount of visual impact this car has.
The interior and ride is surprisingly snug too. Gryphon Gear’s strange and uber flashy interior with more buttons and switches than a nuclear submarine is actually not that bad of a place to be in. The very compliant suspension and silky smooth powerplant makes city driving no more of a hassle or any thirstier than a regular commuter, not counting the visibility and very low driving position.
On the tracks, the car accelerates like a superbike. There’s not a massive amount of kick up rear but there’s very little weight to push and drag to fight and it shows. 10 second quarters with a 230 plus mph top speed, the car glides to top speed with very little resistance, whether from air or weight. On the corners, it drives like any normal high performance road car. Not that it’s a bad thing by any means, it can still carry enormous amounts of corner speed however, it really just isn’t as sharp as a proper track car. Tires are clearly lacking, being ultra high performance road tires, while great for back road carving, starts to show it’s limits very quickly when pushed. The oversteery suspension set up certainly helps in making things more interesting though and the various electronics restrain the car from eating it’s own tail. Brakes being standard performance steel vented discs begin losing feel and feel mushy after a long drive on the track. While it can put down impressive lap times, the car really doesn’t feel at home at the track.
Back road runs in the car however, are fantastic. The much lower speeds meant the tires are completely adequate and as an added bonus, they’re still usable in the rain. The light weight meant you could chuck the car around with ease, and the steering is very communicative with minimal assist. The dual clutch gearbox is smooth, shifts are fast and easy, and the gears are properly spaced to bring out the most of the powerband when needed, and get 41 mpg when it isn’t.
With amazing efficiency at the level of performance, the Ouroborous brings a different game to the hypercar market that none of it’s competitors could match. And honestly it drives better than any other Gryphon Gear offering too. It’s a good break to see a true road oriented hypercar than a track monster chasing for numbers.
Likes:
-Amazing Efficiency
-Best driving GG machine
-Show stopping looks
-Great usability and easy to drive in all occasions
-Comfortable ride
Dislikes:
-Low downforce means it never feels like a race car.
-Sports tires have a very clear grip limit
-Efficiency kinda dies in more spirited driving (Based on economy graph, it seems to be significantly thirstier when at peak power)
-Track experience is somewhat lacking
@strop Essentially what I got from this car is that it’s a wonderful road car, but it falls short on track driving, not numbers wise obviously. Also how do you plan to profit off a 60% mark up?
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I’ve got no idea currently what markup to use, so likely that number is a) low and needs to be closer to 100% b) aided by the fact this has a lot less PU and so the new production line opening for this tier of car is able to produce hundreds of units a year, not just two dozen. Furthermore, the components of this tier of car are surprisingly modular. New ‘models’ don’t exactly reinvent the wheel except in body design, because the design team’s primary concern is how to exploit aerodynamics and create polarising looks.
In terms of compromises for the road and track, certainly there will be limitations compared to a million dollar plus hypercar. It will depend on one’s expectations. Probably the biggest inferred limitation is that this car doesn’t have the capacity to change its nature through on-board controls (unlike the 2017 Mercury you saw, which represents the pointiest end of GG’s tech explorations). This car does use a ‘one size fits most’ approach because it’s supposed to be more convenient. Interestingly enough another reviewer raised similar comments about the brakes and handling (I don’t recall tuning the car to oversteer tho) with its predecessor, Salamander. But carbon parts are very bitey and more importantly, expensive.
Well to be honest when looking at cars I look at the production costs and PU numbers when determining realistic pricing and competitors. At it’s current state, I think the car should realistically be sold at about $250,000 +, which at that price point, it will have to fight big boys like the Eau Rouge SL, and GG’s very own Mercury. Certainly it is cheaper than the two, but past $100K price difference is pretty much moot, since people who can buy $200K cars can usually buy $600K cars. I personally recommend glued aluminum monocoques so that the car can successfully sell at it’s current price point, and prevents cannibalizing your own sales.