Clash Of The Titans
From Steer Magazine
(With minimal CSS because it’s late and I don’t wanna)
With the new GT Hypercar regulations, the days of Homologation Specials are upon us once more. Actual, honest race cars are about to be hitting the streets… And we got two of them.
On one side, we get the Mons Vapor R. It’s a beautiful classical machine, the same shape used all those decades back when Mons broke onto the racing scene. If you look closer, you can spot all the nice modern features, like the holographic gauges, the more refined aerodynamics and such - but some hapless steward is bound to let this baby loose onto the historic racing circuit.
We don’t even need to pop the hood to get a look at the engine running this baby. The most prominent sight is the four double-throat horizontal carbs, with nice free-flowing filters. Under that, we get to see eight beautiful cylinders adding up to 458 cubic inches, pumping 590 horses through to the rear wheels… If you can manage them.
The car is completely stripped bare of most creature comforts. A 6-speed stick shift is your greatest and only companion, with an eLSD and ABS as your only aids. The only barrier between your body and the road is the electric power steering - although this isn’t the awful, static system of old, you still definitely notice it. The Mons is a race car, through and through. There’s no radio or screens - but the car provides enough pure, unadulterated fun, so long as you can keep it pointing the right way. It’s clean, pure and simple. Any garage in the country should be able to fix it - which includes the garages at your local track.
Now, we get the other side, and it’s anything but classical. The Zephorus GTS Alternate looks like it belongs on a launchpad, not your local track. With its sloped, aggressive lines and its carefully molded front fascia and smooth undertray providing the lowest drag possible, this is not a normal car.
Stepping around to the back only confirms this. The intakes of the car are completely exposed, a hole having been cut to let all five carburetors get all the air they need. That’s right, all five - rather than the traditional V8, they have added an extra two cylinders. It’s 30 cubic inches smaller than the Mons, though, and it has almost 50 fewer horsepower. Thanks to the lack of filters, you’ll be paying more at the garage. The added muffler doesn’t seem to do too much, as it actually sounded ever so slightly louder than the Mons - but both will certainly wake the neighbours. The two engines are remarkably similar, it must be said - tried and proven Overhead Valve designs with one DCOE carburetor for every two cylinders, and a fancy, modern Aluminium-Silicon construction.
The Zephorus makes a couple of different choices for your comfort. There’s a sequential shifter, which makes life easier - but the geared rather than electronic diff doesn’t help matters. The car comes with grippier tyres, but even the (regrettably steel) rims aren’t swappable between front and back - unlike the Mons (which at least uses alloy rims). All of these are minor, however, compared to how the cabin feels. You get far more plush seats, and the latest and greatest in entertainment and displays. The ride experience is a breeze too, thanks to factory-standard air suspension. It’s a car you can happily just drive to the track. You’d think this makes it heavier than the Mons, but the high-tech looks come with a high-tech carbon fiber chassis. And, of course, a high-tech price tag.
The Zephorus, however, hides a dark secret. We aren’t sure how, but the Car Guru had a look under the hood and experimented. He made the smallest of tweaks to the fuel system, swapped in 100 RON fuel, and it led to what we can only call an embarassing outcome for the boffins at Zephorus. What outcome? Well, it ended up with as much power as the Mons, for one.
So, the first remaining question is, as always, track times. Even with 50 hp being sapped away, the Zephorus is the faster car. It clocked at 1:59.72 on our longer track, and 1:11.89 on the shorter one. The Mons, meanwhile, clocked at 2:00.69 and 1:12.43. Once the Guru had his way? We pushed the Zephorus down to 1:58.90 and 1:11.41, an unbelievable gap.
So the obvious answer is to just go for the Zephorus, right? Well… I am not so convinced. We saw a whole lot of wear and tear on our unit just after one day of use, while the Mons seems more reliable for long drives - the lack of a filter doesn’t help. The Zephorus is more comfortable, sure, but how much will you be driving it? There’s also the matter of cost. The Mons costs just 72600, while the Zephorus is 113000 - and the Zephorus costs almost 2000 more to keep running. Would you rather drive a slow car fast, or a fast car to the garage?
So, firstly, I just want to congratulate both entrants here. These are some amazing, beautiful, otherworldly cars, and they deserve all the praise possible. It’s great to see some truly unconventional designs - although, like the last unconventional challenge, not too many of them. Just the way things go, I suppose. They both absolutely hit what I was aiming for, both in different ways. The heartbreaking thing about the Zephorus, however, was that it was dumping waaaaay too much fuel into the cylinders. That tweak the Guru made? Yeah, it was literally just bumping the car down to the 12.6 it’s supposed to run at, rather than the 12 it was running at. I have no idea how something like that happens, especially given that there’s a warning for that, and it’s heartbreaking.
Also, uh, funny story, I was gonna do this awesome Old London photo with both cars, but the first photo didn’t save and the second generated a bugsplat and it’s super late for me so… I may do more showcase cars in the morning, these cars definitely deserve it - and they made nice use of the new stuff we got in 4.2.