Right away, Gary was able to eliminate a few competitors to his value pick of the Somervell. During his studies of the more expensive cars in magazines, he noticed a few keywords, phrases, and ways of speaking about cars that indicated they were sportier or more fun. As such, he decided to read about all the cars he wanted to test drive the next day. Thankfully, a series of Auto and Operator articles covered everything he was interested in, and then some. He sorted them by price, and got to reading.
Luxury Sports Sedans. Or, the executive car. Fast, fun, yet comfortable, practical, and the sort of car you can drive to work every day. We’ve come to love these cars over the last few years, and now a storm of them is taking the premium and luxury market by storm.
Up first is the Katana Osaro USDM SF Turbo… lots of letters, not much substance. This car provides solid handling for the price, but at this dollar value we’d hoped to see something with a bit more style. The front end is novel and well executed, but the sides are very uninspired. The tail is really nice, but none of the parts ever seem to come together. Combined with the very okay performance from the turbocharged engine, mediocre safety, average comfort… and frankly, it just isn’t that engaging to drive, despite being sort of a handful.
The Stoica-Moretti 350 was a car we were pretty excited about from its looks, but upon close inspection, things fall apart. On the surface, we have a legitimately fast car with a high-tech V8, a supremely quality interior, and fun driving characteristics. The issue comes, though, that for the money it really isn’t offering enough. That V8 is fast, but not a whole lot faster than many six-cylinder mid-range or entry level cars, and the focus on comfort-to-cost ratio has left the car’s accessibility in the dust: it’s a real pain to maneuver, one of the hardest cars to drive we’ve seen in a while.
Despite its long-winded name, the Planar SM45 Owlsa EX-S 3.8 is not a bad vehicle. It fails to deliver on comfort and engaging handling, but it’s reliable, offers about average fuel economy for this segment, and boasts a surprisingly low cost of long-term ownership. Unfortunately, it’s hard to recommend because it’s slow, not very agile, and just outdone in a lot of ways by some of its competition.
Such as the Swanson 237 SPNX, perhaps the Owlsa’s closest competitor. For $600 more, you get a car that is improved in almost every way, aside from a jump in cost of ownership. It’s a real thrill to drive, with the huge flat-six motor delivering awesome power as soon as you touch the throttle. While the styling is perhaps a little too aggressive in the front, it’s still a good looking car, and to us is arguably the best deal in this bracket.
And here’s the opposing argument. The Valkyrja GS-6x4 is a staggering $8,200 more than the SPNX, but it’s… slightly slower to the 1/4 mile, and almost 2 seconds slower to 60. But straight lines are not the Valkyrja’s forte, despite squeaking under the 13-second mark. This car is the most agile by an order of magnitude. Huge tires with a very aggressive tune allow it to be a real monster on the track. A stunningly assertive suspension tune, a peppy engine, and graceful ease of driving make this car truly compelling. However, reliability does suffer a substantial dip, and $8,200 is a lot of money.
Which nobody mentioned to the Hexen TTV6 MkIII. This car is extremely fast in a straight line, breaking under the 12-second mark. Handling isn’t bad either. Unfortunately, a staggeringly high cost of ownership, mediocre comfort, and a dull driving experience make it hard to recommend. If you like the futuristic styling, though, there isn’t really anything else like it.
The Roamer Executive 3.5 EX is one of those bittersweet things in life. The engineering team and the design team were making different cars, for one, with the exterior being reminiscent of a commuter car. Meanwhile, it’s a rough-and-tumble race car underneath. Sadly, it’s just too expensive and unreliable to really succeed as the sleeper-car it was trying to be, and falls short of the mark.
2-1 Results
Passed Over:
- @Calja-05 Katana Osaro USDM SF Turbo K Package - Just not good enough overall, falling short in many key categories.
- @pentiumbased Stoica-Moretti 350 -Mediocre key stats and poor drivability result in a car with good feature choices coming apart at the seams. Probably should have been more expensive.
- @lotto77 Planar SM45 Owlsa EX-S 3.8 - If the SPNX hadn’t basically been a 1-to-1 upgrade of this car (aside from service costs and a sub-1.0 reliability dip), this would have moved on. You got the prompt exactly right, but the styling was a little off, and the key stats were just not there, limited harshly by poor throttle response and speed.
- @Arianne777 Hexen TTV6 MkIII - It’s hard to say why this car is so expensive, considering that despite being the fastest, it’s not actually that much faster than the SPNX. The poor secondary stats (worst in several of them) and throttle response are the main failing of this car (it had one of the lowest combined Fun scores).
- @Mausil Roamer Executive 3.5 EX You are barking up the right tree, but need a little more time in the oven. One of the earliest submissions, and a little bit of fine-tuning or clearer vision could have eliminated many of its flaws. It’s slow for the price, the most expensive entry, doesn’t handle too well, and has the lowest comfort. But the styling is an improvement compared to some other stuff I’ve seen from you.
Moving On:
- @Ludvig Swanson 237 SPNX - The first car to beat the Somervell in terms of fun, and it still gets beaten in a few departments. However, it’s worthy of the price jump.
- @moroza Valkyrja GS-6x4 - The “buy once cry once” mentality of this car earns it the right to move on. It’s fast, agile, and serious car.
I split it back up because 1 car into part 2 driving reviews, I realized it was gonna be way too long and complex if I didn’t. Thankfully, the field is narrowed enough for me to get the next part out in relatively short order.
