REVIEWS Pt. 2
1st Round Bins (Continued from last post)
Shibuya Prohibition Encore by @ArizonaCaseo
Without much beating around the bush, I will immediately tell you this is not it. A decent handful of retromodern cars have been entered and this one severely falls flat in terms of overall design, cohesion, proportions and detailing.
This is because open wheelers like the prowler had a pretty streamlined body from front to back, instead of having a bigass nose that protrudes from the torso.
It actually reminds me more of the Prangler Concept car.
The rear end is not too flattering either IMO. It’s just a standard looking rear end that doesn’t really beat the “used to be a normal car that got converted into a boomer open wheeler” allegations.
I mean come on. That’s just not a line that’s easy on the eyes.
Not doing too well mechanically either. It’s just a weird mishmash of different parts that shouldn’t go together if considering the class of this car, which makes me think the engineering decisions were based on “green number go up”.
Quick tip, the engine would’ve been better off by letting it rev a few hundred more.
This is what I mean. You can afford to put something as specialized as tubular headers, but not a high flowing exhaust system?
Choice quote from Jazz:
"If I had to buy a boomermobile, I’d at least get something that makes me look cool and trendy. Also those front suspensions are giving me serious Mark Webber flashbacks.
Mara Zora Mk3 4.6 AMM Prototype by @AndiD
I will preface this by saying you should’ve collabed with someone for the design.
Nice attempt at a Cygnet. You actually went a step further and put in something called the “Ekonom V8” which I can only presume is a cheap and very fuel efficient variant of the 4.6L V8 in this tiny nugget. And I have several issues with that.
The engine is fully constructed of AlSi from the outside, pretty high tech machining.
And then you pull this shit off. I can confirm something for you right now, even if you leave the LFC pistons in, and switch the crank and conrods to Forged Light, you get an engine that’s lighter, is way more responsive and smoother for barely any rise in costs. The lightness contributes to better fuel economy too. This is just a case of “let me go absolutely basic because this is the economical option”. Well in this case, it certainly wasn’t of best value.
Mechanically speaking, everything else is mostly fine. I don’t get why you wouldn’t switch up the steering for the obviously sportier V8 model though.
I’ve driven a boosted Holden Cruze SRIV once and I can tell you, the insanely high torque through the FWD system paired with the numb and dead Electric steering would make this car absolutely unfun to drive.
Honestly for the base sticker price of 24100, this is a pretty well packaged car in the end. Like it goes to 100 fast, is terrible on fuel and servicing but that’s expected, turns pretty well too. But it has some issues here and there.
I’d say it’d at least get a fighting chance if it looked a bit better.
I mean, like… There’s not a lot to go off of and while I do like the headlights, everything else just kinda falls flat.
Why does the diffuser span throughout the whole cheek?
Absolutely boyracer looking wing for 2009.
Choice quote from Jazz:
“Shame, some extra time on the cooking pot and this would’ve been a lot better. Promising concept, not stellar execution.”
Ban Tiao Type M96 by @ldub0775 and @Vento
I sort of don’t wanna put this here, but I kinda have to.
I did appreciate the lore bit. It was funny to read and was relatively intricate.
Both mechanically, and aesthetically, this has many issues that bring it down all the way to the front end of first round bins.
I personally don’t find the design of this truck to write much about. It’s a fair bit different in its shape than the usual DongFengs, SHACMANs and FAWs. More Eastern European if you will. In terms of fixture usage and how it looks regardless of context, it’s decent. I’ve yet to do a proper full 3D build so I respect coherent looking full 3D builds and this is definitely one.
The engineering makes me feel weird about it because while it’s not exactly horribly wrong, it’s not the most believable either. I mean Chinese hybrid military truck with an SOHC V12 engine ehhhhh… We also have small cast headers with a high flowing cat, which seems like a “number go green” offense.
It doesn’t make sense to have any kind of infotainment other than basic in a truck like this but I won’t knock too much on it. It having air suspensions and having adaptive dampers with active offroad sway bars is what throws me off. It doesn’t make sense for the sort of application this truck would have unless we’re talking something super specific that I haven’t thought about yet.
Finally, we come to the issue of the fact that lore-wise, the hybrid motor/battery doth not work. If you disregard the one party trick it has with is the huge battery bank connected to the hybrid powertrain, it kinda becomes dead weight. At 14k USD, I could buy an actual used scania/mercedes/volvo bus here and there’s a possibility it’d be a hybrid 5 cylinder diesel one too. And it’d be way cooler and practical than this truck. Not to mention because this is obsolete Chinese tech, this’d be practically unfixable if something went severely south.
All things considered, this is one of the more elaborate entries of the first round bins, but it has to go.
Choice quote from Jazz:
“I’m sure we could turn this into something really cool. I’m just not sure if I could get that hybrid powertrain functioning and even then, if there’s other things that go wrong in it, I have fuck all official support to lean on.”
This is where we begin 2nd Round Bins.
If you’ve reached this far, good job. You’ve beaten the threshold and quality control check for le quirky cars and made it to the actual quirky list.
KMA KM310 XLC by @abg7
Yeah I can guess the origin of this machination from the name and styling of it.
This is not inherently a bad concept, or a bad idea at all. I do enjoy my lightweight, hilariously small engine, high output sportscars. The kerb weight on this nugget is insane at 515 kg dry. It has exactly what you need for an amazing driving experience and NOTHING more. This effectively has the p/w ratio of a motorbike with 110 horsepower, so it ends up going to 100 km/h in 4.9s while having the power of a Corolla. Low speed cornering is quite good but high speed cornering leaves a little to be desired. Probably has to do with not having any real aero parts.
I think it slowly starts to fall apart at two things, the prestige perception you get with a 3 cylinder engine while costing so much new and still a measurable chunk with the used car calculator. The other is how it looks. You’ve managed to make the fairly sexy McLaren body look bloated and pedestrian. It looks like a GTA IV NPC car at best. I hate being this blunt to an otherwise very decent entry, but I cannot stress enough how higher this would’ve been on the list if it had better looks.
I would highly suggest revising the looks some day because with the overall engineering and concept of this, this is really good. It gets insane fuel economy for the performance, probably needs better high speed cornering, super low service costs too. Comfort is low but who’s looking for comfort in an all carbon fiber superlight sportscar? 60 drivability for zero steering assists is something I find impressive too.
Choice quote from Jazz:
“It looks like it’s from a mid 2000s video game, yet it was so ahead of time with its engineering. I’d love this in my garage but I’d never be in love with how it looks.”
PlanarPG42 Genoace EX-A 2.5 by @lotto77
This cunt is very 90s 'straya-core in the sense it sort of tries to mimic Japanese cars in various ways and it has all the elements of looking good, but somehow it ends up looking rather messy and peculiar.
It has its charms and I think it has the potential to look better than how it looks right now with the exact same fixtures just proportioned and positioned differently.
You also need to do the transparent plastic bumper thing better. You either go all out and make the internals behind the transparent parts actually look good and not the default automation ugly shit or you don’t do it at all and actually retain its good looks rather than trying to make it a party piece.
Fuck you tryna do with these stretched ass lettterings?
You have a grand total of 4 lamps and 3 of them are ginormous, the foglamps absolutely don’t need to be this big. I also don’t see the point of the vent-side small lights when you already have the foglamps, because DRLs didn’t really exist in 90s 'straya cars. Like if my choice was between this and a late 90s/early 00s golf, it’d be a golf every day.
I would say the engine is fairly realistic and has respectable stats, with the quirky twin turbo 3L V8 pushing 320hp, very adequate for something as small and light as this. The single throttle body sort of clashes with the overall advanced engine and not messing with the ignition timing/fuel mapping tells me there’s still some potential that could be harnessed from this. The baffled/reverse flow combo is rather baffling too.
We also have yet another case of heavy torque steering inducing dead-feeling car with the FWD, LSD and Hydraulic Ball steering setup. Just give it a proper rack and pinion if you’re pushing this much horsepower mate, or maybe don’t make it FWD and make it a real quirkmobile. Spring tuning is definitely as default as it gets, and the car could be a lot better with a proper suspension tune.
Overall, if the looks and the small engineering gaffs were mended, this’d be a lot better of a car and would’ve made it a round above. I did not mean to be harsh by any means but I also wanted this to succeed since small hatchbacks with unusual engines and high power output is something I very much enjoy.
Choice quote from Jazz:
“This could’ve had the impact of an XR5 but it’s about as good as a boosted Barina, and that’s just sad honestly. What a missed opportunity”
Katami Cheers T-S by @bang6111
I enjoy this, I will admit. Has very Crown Comfort meets JZX Chaser Tourer vibes. The supercharger is weirdly accurate too considering how Toyota used them in the sporty models of their rather pedestrian cars.
My primary issue with it is it doesn’t look that special and when that happens, designers tend to go for hyperdetailing or at least detailing in a way that makes the car look very intricate. I’m not asking you to make me a 800 fixture car, but I can absolutely tell you this could’ve looked a lot better with more effort put on the design. I don’t think the base of the design looks bad, I just think it could’ve been expanded upon for an entry for a CSR.
Engineering is pretty accurate, aftermarket mods considered. ESC is a bit much for a taxi model, especially since something like that would be ripped out the minute it was modded to be a drift car. And honestly this is my other issue. You can absolutely retain its stock sleeper looks but if you want to introduce it as a heavily modified sleeper drift machine with that many mods on the lore page, you could’ve done a better job with the overall aesthetics. Like even the ride height doesn’t seem right for something that has aftermarket coilovers.
A Levin GT-Z Corolla for example.
But I digress. This is not a bad car overall and definitely would’ve gone further, if the competition wasn’t as stiff as it is or if there was more effort from the design department.
Choice quote from Jazz:
"There’s sleepers, and then there’s this. In no way this looks like a modded drift car. Underwhelming looks for the performance it has. I like it but I’m unsure of the value it packs.
2nd Round TBC… Whenever I can.
PS: I may or may not have had some alcohol in me while writing these, so the last few reviews may feel more like a rant. Let me know if you want more objective reviews.
(for anyone interested, it’s basically a mixture of Citroen BX and Subaru Forester with a turbo - with less power though; I’ll publish it some day…)
