Fred is powered by the Freebanger, which makes 62.7hp, so Fred is very affordable to insure and yet it’s enough to accelerate Fred from 0-100km/h in a reasonable 12.3 seconds. This is thanks to Fred’s low weight and the 5-speed manual transmission. The fuel economy is also a very reasonable 5.0l/100km.
While the purchase price of 15,700$ is not the cheapest in the field, it’s still well inside Kasperi’s budget. And if you’re wondering where your money is going considering the small size of both the car and the engine, let me list some of the features included in the price:
Partial alu body panels, Front disc brakes, Standard interior, Standard CD, Variable hydraulic power steering, ABS and a manual locker for better off-roading.
In short, Fred is well-equipped for the price, practical, light and nimble, affordable to run and reliable.
The Kumos Toros is a nippy economy car. Its 3 cylinder 1.3L uses only 8.6L/100Km, while still offering strong torque and getting to 100Km/h in 12.2 seconds.
It will get you where you need to go, on or off the road.
With a 1.2-litre inline-3 developing only 74 horsepower, our most basic trim of our entry-level supermini, the K1, may appear to be nothing more than basic transportation, but it still has the mod-cons a budget-conscious buyer would need - air conditioning, a heater, a driver’s side airbag, and ABS. If you wish, you can order extra-cost options such as automatic transmission, alloy wheels, metallic paint, a CD player and even a sunroof - but even without them, the K1 1.2 is still a great deal. Especially with its combined cycle economy figure of well over 40 mpg, and a base price of just $15,700 to go along with its high projected reliability ratings. And with 5 seats and a spacious luggage compartment for its size, you can take it out on a long road trip without any complaints at all. So go ahead, test drive it at your nearest dealer - you know you want one!
Mara’s abortive attempt at creating a small city car replacement for the ancient ageing Tovarish in the mid 1990s left them with a reasonably well-developed, reasonably modern and quite efficient 3-cylinder engine (‘Troika’), but no car to put it in. Hence, they decided to equip the base model Zvezda hatchbacks and sedans in their first facelift after five years with the Troika engine instead of using the same hefty iron-block 1.8l DAOHC Progress I4 engine as the higher spec models.
Only modest exterior changes were applied to the first Zvezda facelift
The Troika was an all-new and all-aluminium I3 engine, named after the traditional Archanan way of harness driving a carriage with three horses side-by-side*. As a compromise between cost and fuel efficiency, the engine had 3 valves per cylinder, leading to a unique 9V engine layout. Especially in export tune for 95 RON, the performance was at least adequate, and fuel economy much improved over the Progress I4.
The downside was that the Troika was not really cheaper to manufacture than the less sophisticated Progress, so the base Zvezda models kept their - albeit already very competitive - sub AM$13k price point in the facelift, despite the engine downgrade. Due do a looming steel shortage in Archana, the facelifted Zvezdas also received aluminium panels in a few selected areas.
I thought of Multilink/Double wishbone as frequently used in my car lineup, but ET limits didn’t allow me to, while still fighting the crossover segment in the challenge. Even if treating the marketing like a Wrangler sort of thing when it’s not remotely close, but yeah
The initial version of my car had a small 3cyl engine, very comparable to the cars submitted here so far. BUT, I decided to go above and beyond and put a decent 4cyl in there. That 4cyl cost me dearly in terms of mpg, all in the name of HP. SMH. I feel like my car delivers decent performance though, can’t wait to see how it stacks up against the competition.
I have rarely seen resubmissions allowed outside of massive issues like broken mods/bodies or because of shock updates. A resub for a mechanical tweak is something I have not seen in a very very long while.
I had no choice but to do that or I’d exceed limits.