Sorry for being a bit late on this. It was really hard to choose a winner since two cars ended up being very close, but in very different ways. After thinking things over, I have decided on a winner now, so only the writeup is missing, should not take too many days.
FINAL JUDGING
Aesthetics was of course an important part of this, but beauty is nothing without brains, they say. After a little break, Davyd decided to look a little more in depth on the specs of the cars, also, doing a simulated test drive of them all, that at least should give a little hint about how they would behave on the road...
ARVA P21 Nachalnyk ZRD
The engine in this car is nothing but a beast, a naturally aspirated 8.3 litre V10 with 527 hp. That makes the car the fastest accelerating one - but it also means that the fuel economy is at an abysmal 21.6 litres per 100 km, and that have passed acceptable amounts by far, especially when comparing to the other proposals. It is mated to an 8 speed advanced auto and a multi link rear axle with a viscous diff. It now has 4 wheel disc brakes - maybe a bit surprising to have non-vented single piston units up front, but if it works, it works. The power steering is of the variable electric type, and it has ESC, as well as semi active dampening and sway bars, which all in all makes it an easy car to drive, and yet fast and fun. The safety has gotten a rather massive upgrade, more than any other entry.
At least judging by the simulation, it could not be said that there are any major flaws in this car, when it comes to driving. It should probably be rather comfortable with its 4 seater premium interior and premium HUD infotainment, even though the suspension setup is firm, and It has very gentle driving characteristics considering its performance, brakes have good balance and not too much problems with fading, it is also the cheapest of them all to buy at $26000. But there are no free lunches, and the fuel economy (which was already mentioned) can not be justified, neither can the high service costs of $2581.3.
ARVA P21+N
One out of two builds that barely makes into the budget limits. With “only” 400 hp out of its 4.4 litre V12, acceleration suffers a bit compared to the ZRD, on the other hand it has its speed limiter at a less restrictive 300 km/h, compared to the ZRDs 249 km/h. Like the ZRD it now has a multilink rear suspension, in this case with a helical diff, and the gearbox is a 6 speed manual. It has vented disc brakes all around, as well as ABS, as its only driving aid added. Another area where it is simpler than the ZRD is the steering - a regular hydraulic power R&P. Also, the safety equipment has hardly been updated compared to the original, and the infotainment system is a bit simpler than in the ZRD.
Driving it in the simulation, it feels a bit less like a modern car than the ZRD, for the better and for the worse - you’re less insulated from your surroundings, and it feels “sportier” - just not as easy to drive or comfortable. But the handling is rather similar to the ZRD, gentle, and pulls just under 1 G. The brakes are better balanced and the fading is non-existant here.
Also, even if it is one of the most expensive proposals, it is surprisingly sparse on the fuel drops at 9.6 litres per 100 km. At $1360, service costs are almost half the ones of the ZRD too.
LG ARVA P21
This vehicle is powered by a 305 hp, 4 litre, SOHC 16 valve V8, with VVT and a rather noticeable implementation of VVL. It lacks a little bit in performance comparing to the two previous entries, but not enough to disturb. On the other hand, while a 10.9 litre per 100 km fuel consumption isn’t necessarily bad, it is still a bit disappointing when the P21+N could do with over a litre less, despite its more powerful engine. The rear suspension is now a double wishbone unit, but only with an open differential. A 6 speed automated manual is not the most obvious choice of transmission, but it works if it works, I guess.
Like the P21+N, it lacks variable steering, but it is converted to R&P with hydraulic power assist, and it has both ESC and launch control. It also has vented discs all around, and while the safety equipment isn’t as extensively updated as in the ZRD, it’s still a noticeable bump there. The price is sane at $26400, so are the service costs at $1400.8.
The upgrade in comfort should be noticeable compared to the original, while having a slightly practicality premium by keeping the bench seats, but driving it in the simulation revealed a car that was feeling a bit more “bland” up to a point, than the ZRD or P21+N. Up to a point, since this car has problems with terminal oversteering. Also, the brake balance felt very much off, with overpowered rear brakes, albeit with no fading problems. But to sum it up, this car really wasn’t without its flaws.
MONS CUSTOMS ARVA P21 “NATASHA”
This car has the smallest engine of them all, only a 2.5 litre inline six. 216 hp is of course not bad, but of course it still means that the performance isn’t really up to the others. Fact is, it is even a bit slow by the standards of today, but of course it is an improvement over the original, though this more serves the role as a cool cruiser than something you blow the doors off sports cars with. With a 24 valve layout and VVL, the engine is fully modern and it also shows in the fuel economy that is the best of all the cars - 9.5 litres per 100 km - but it is honestly speaking not that impressive when the V12 P21+N manages 9.6.
Connected to a 5 speed advanced auto, that’s not really anything amazing by the standards of today but it does its job well. The main driveline upgrade is instead the addition of a helical AWD system. The rear axle is changed to a multilink unit. It has vented discs up front and solid ones in the rear, electric variable steering and ESC. Safety wise, it sports similar upgrades to the Lightning Garage entry.
It is absolutely not a corner carver compared to the other entries, the simulation said, and combined with the front-biased AWD system, (relatively) low power output and automatic transmission, this is maybe not the most exciting car in the world to take out on a twisty mountain road. Instead, it is hilariously easy, relaxing and effortless to drive. The AWD also means that it is the only car in the quartet that can tackle bad roads, like, at all. Also, the comfort should be fantastic with its 4 seater luxury interior, luxury HUD infotainment system and comfort tuned suspension. That also means that the whole budget is eaten up, but at $1317.10 the service costs are sane.
FINAL RESULTS
4.- @Ch_Flash
A car that unfortunately not only had some engineering flaws, like terminal oversteering, it also had rather mediocre stats, spare for practicality where it did shine. To top that off, the aesthetics were not really what I felt the client was looking for, and I was not keen about them myself either, despite usually loving your designs. Oh, well, you can’t please everyone every time.
3.- @Riley
A car that had quite good stats overall. Hot wheels aesthetics - well, you did them great and I can see how you were thinking, I just didn’t feel that they were totally what the client was looking for. However, the terrible fuel economy and service costs just wasn’t worth it this time, making this a clear third place, if it had been a little more economical, judging would have been even harder.
2.- @cake_ape
Most stats were great - spare for sportiness and performance. That especially goes for the driveability stat - where you moved the goalposts somewhere where the other cars could not reach them, but it was also the only car that had something resembling offroad performance. The main gripe is that I feel that the aesthetics were a bit out of scope this time.
1.- @moroza
The only car more or less nailing the aesthetics part! Sportiest and one of the fastest entries, but worst driveability, safety and comfort. It is still the winner, and it wasn’t the easiest decision this time. The fourth and third place was obvious, but your car and Cake’s were great in totally different ways. I was all the time leaning towards your car as the winner, but Cake’s was too good to just throw away. Running them through a spreadsheet looking to see how they improved compared to the original, counted for the weighting of stats, they were more or less equally improved - but in very different ways.
Finally, maybe as a joke, I said to myself that “Moroza’s car is obviously better at being a street rod, but worse at being a Corolla” - but that made things very obvious TBH - what was the brief and which car got closest to it? ARM is after all not a challenge that should focus only on “brrr green numbers go up” - and I know that you’re not working that way, Cake, so it should not be taken personally, but you probably know what I mean. Speaking of “green numbers go up”, both cars had some amounts of stuff that could have been seen as minmaxing/cheese in a CSR or similar. Moroza by using a bit of negative quality and keeping some things basic to be able to squeeze more stuff in. Cake by moving the goalposts on some stats far enough to afford to lose on others. But since this is ARM I don’t care - it is after all about tailoring a car for a specific customer, which means some things could be sacrificed to improve others.
So, congratulations, Moroza, on your first ever ARM win!
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For the most part, I wasn’t chasing numbers; I specced the car as I would want it myself. The game may give drivability points for the alphabet soup of electronic nannies in modern cars, but I personally eschew it IRL and set up this car accordingly. That it saved money better spent on the important stuff - chassis and engine - was a bonus, with the ongoing hope that Davyd was indeed looking for a capable and reasonable hotrod, not a Corolla.
Negative quality = we used some junkyard parts, ok?
The Hot Wheels’ rear is hot, but how that monstrous engine - nearly double the DCMW crate engine in mine - somehow leaves it over half a second slower to 100 is baffling.
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Well, appears like it worked well, right?
Indeed. ARM30 will be up within a couple of weeks.
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Thanks again for hosting @Knugcab and congrats to @moroza for your first ARM win - well deserved! You’re right Knugcab, I went on a bit of a numbers-chasing expedition, exactly because I struggled so much with the aesthetics on this one. I kinda went down the blind alley of body moulding and then got stuck. I could not touch moroza’s aesthetics, that thing is just superb. So yea, my only hope was stats, but as you say, that is not all ARM is about 
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