Cen that was sneaky LOL.
Also Tom, only 1hp??? My god that’s a shit superpower. Can I have at least like 1000? 
Sorry, you’re only 1 horse, not 1000 horses in one
…you know it took me that many hours to get the joke. I blame night shift.
Anyway! The bottom half of that story is a little light on the pictures in the latter half. This shall be rectified soon.
I’m not going to pretend that this is a new edition, or a rebuild. It’s supposed to be the same car as the one I released previously, but with the release of the new shell, which looks absolutely magnificent, there was an opportunity to model the [color=#FF0000]Ascension Mephisto[/color] in a body that was much closer to my original concept.
Unfortunately, due to the rebalancing in this build (which will definitely change again in the future anyway!) the stats also changed. It’s harder to get as much power out of a turbo engine. The car is 100kg heavier (because any less and it actually can’t put all the power down due to the decreased downforce). It also uses rather different tyres, including rears so damn wide one would have to employ a manufacturer to specifically make them at great cost. However, they’re entirely consistent with the core aims of this car: front-engined AWD with a 2000hp engine, 400km/h top speed, and laps Nordschleife in less than 7 minutes (which, in this build, is quite difficult to do!)
I won’t finalise any details until the final build, when I (hopefully) get my trick aero back muahahahaha 
I think once the game is properly released, I’ll catalog our entire range (which is rather small).
Edit: Ah crap, I forgot the characteristic front daytime LED lights. Oh well, no big.
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I am not so keen on the rear of the car. Way too many vents for my liking, but the rest is sublime
This is a common problem encountered with my designs, because I’m attempting to use the vents to cosmetically represent other fixtures. In this case, an integrated splitter which originates from the downforce undertray. Since the cars I build tend to be stripped out track racers, they feature open rear body design like those which you see on supercars like the Pagani Zonda. Unfortunately that’s not the main focus of the Automation bodies, so I butcher the rears in this fashion when I force an emulation.
Perhaps these old concept sketches will give you an idea of the original intention.
I get the idea, Strop. And i agree, it’s hard to do some fancy front/rear bumper designs with what we currently have in Automation. But try placing a big grille underneath all those vents so you have a black “background” and you can use the outlines of the vents to generate the shapes you want. That’s something i did on my most recent car, the Buzzard, and i hope that helps a bit 
Greets,
Tom
You must have been communicating to me telepathically, because that is precisely the idea I had while driving home! Gonna try it now.
EDIT: This does wonders for coherence. Another great design tip from Tom!
That new back end is fantastic!
As always, TheTom giving us some nice Design tips.
I also think the actual grilles/vents sections are very limited… At least there are some guys doing add-ons in the “3D Artists Modding” section.
Could we have a presentation for Sleipnir? After BSLL obviously.
After BSLL I’ll be retuning sleipnir, as its aero is not up to scratch (note the fact it is still not the top of the main airfield leaderboard!) Once that’s been rectified I’ll get the presentation going.
Well, try overtaking the man van…
(I might give a more ridiculous name.)
[quote=“rileybanks”]Well, try overtaking the man van…
(I might give a more ridiculous name.)[/quote]
My ridiculously overpowered van is currently called simply the “Yolovan”
Haha guys… only problem with that van challenge is that I’m hard pressed to build to the requirements.
Now that Gryphon Gear has some established credentials with success both in supply and tuning of race cars, and of our racing division, Team Ninja Horse, and our team of engineers have grown into a cohesive unit with the know how and resources to turn vision into reality, we have been able to expand upon the platforms on which our projects and jobs are based.
[size=150]The Comrade Underground Racing Cup[/size]
The People’s Republic of Comrade is a small Communist regime so secretive and isolated all we know is that it lies somewhere within Former Soviet controlled territory. However, no-one that didn’t want to, would stay an island forever, and so it was that man’s natural aspiration for thrills, competition, adventure resulted in the formation of an underground racing league. As is with all Communist regimes, the government provided car was by far the predominant vehicle, and in this case, typically, it came in the form of a rusty, ultra-cheap brick designed to be built from scratch to off the factory floor in less than half a day. The Comrade Clunker, as it was affectionately called, was therefore truly a People’s car, a representative of the coal miner’s commuter, with a 0-100 time of 18.9 seconds and an engine whose valves would float and fall apart if you pushed it too hard.
Such cars aren’t normally the kind of fare Gryphon Gear indulge in, but when we received the request from a client only known as Yuri, representing his client, only to be known as Evgeny, we knew there was potential. Yuri was a genius, truly resourceful and knowledgeable, with tabs on information from all over the world and about his government, knowing just how to move to both allay the concerns and evade the detection of the Commissars, to avoid a lifetime in the Gulags. Evgeny had the true driving blood in him, for he insisted the car not be visually modified beyond what was absolutely necessary, and he stipulated that no driving aids be added to the car. With that in mind, we set to work, and returned to him, on a budget of only $5000, a true sleeper car: a retuned version of the venerated Holden OHV V8 producing 409bhp, crammed into a hoon mobile not only good at smoking the rear wheels, but also whipping around the track faster than many a sports and even super car.
[size=85]Steers every which way except straight![/size]
Weeks later, we were pleased to hear that Evgeny had skillfully piloted his car to a third place in the cup, also picking up a bonus accolade of Most Powerful car, our pride and joy. But stunningly, we learnt that the winner ran a more balanced setup, using a turbo i6! Gryphon Gear is not accustomed to the unique performance attributes of the i6, but given this news we feel that at some point it would be well worth looking into, for future development projects.
[size=150]Economy Racers[/size]
While also not our usual suit, we’ve had some experience in combining economy with speed, most notably in partnership with Dragotec, as the team Belua Autoteknik, that competed in the Automation Endurance Challenge. However, in that challenge, it was Dragotec that provided most of the input in engine development, and Gryphon Gear developed the chassis and tuning.
This time, we embarked on another budget project with some unique challenges. It also happened to coincide with the need to build a new car for our chief designer, Strop [size=85](Ed: because some engineers decided to ‘borrow’ my Civic and turn it into an unstreetable race car without my permission!!! - strop)[/size]. Together, Strop and his girlfriend, (only known as E), penned a retro inspired FF bubble car affectionately dubbed “Mushu”, after a certain character from Disney animated film Mulan.
The civilian spec car features a super lightweight spaceframe aluminium chassis with carbon fiber panels. Powered by a V8 in its purest form, the mini block, a 1.3L turbo producing 121hp at 8500rpm going on to a rev limit of 10000rpm. Even with four premium seats, standard insulation, entertainment and safety, the car weighs a scant 750kg, meaning it does the 0-100 in a zippy 5.9s but sips less than 5L/100km and passes the most stringent of emissions regulations. With medium compound 225 sports tyres all around and a big ducktail on the boot lid, the car is equal parts sport, equal parts comfort, and completely driveable. E was thrilled, and as a result, Strop was very pleased with the end result.
The race version, however, was an entirely different prospect. Using the same basic platform, it was stripped to 528kg and boosted to just over 300bhp for an insane power to weight ratio of about 570hp:tonne. On race quality semi slicks, it was as quick as a supercar doing 0-100 in just 4 seconds, able to pull 2g laterally at its top speed of 243km/h, all on the stipulated MPG of over 40mpg, emissions of less than 30g/km, while remaining very reliable. This spec was able to beat several supercars around the track and, despite the natural limitations of its drivetrain, seems to be a solid contender in the Economy Racers Cup.
[size=85]Retro style, future performance![/size]
[size=150]Automation Touring Car Championship[/size]
Our main commitment for our tame racing driver, Kai Kristensen, will be the upcoming ATCC season, for builds using technology from 1996 or earlier. Given that it was open to all kinds of body types, we felt there was an opportunity to enter an old favourite from our home country, the 1976 Holden Gemini TX. Now that we’re gaining experience with race-regulation spaceframe chassis to add to our repertoire of predominantly carbon fibre builds, to build to budget, we chose the far cheaper build in order to invest more in the engine (as we always do), pushing out a decent 379hp from a 1.3L turbo 4 pot. It’s a far cry from the >1000bhp stuff we (and Kai) like playing with, but apparently no sanctioned race code wants to run that kind of power anymore, for probably very good reason…
[size=85]If this doesn’t work out, at least we can enter it into Drift GP tournaments…[/size]
Because of, once again, a handy power to weight ratio of over 500bhp:metric tonne, the car is well capable of burning as much rubber as a Summernats skidpad monster, more so because regulations state the cars can’t run any more than 215s. A stock Honda Civic runs 215s, just to give you some perspective. And the Mephisto currently runs 455 rears, to give you a bit more perspective.
Team Ninja Horse will be trackside in the coming weeks, so check out how the competition unfolds!
Gryphon Gear’s first, indelible mark upon the world of racing came in the form of the purpose built record-smasher, the Nightfury. A retro inspired, rebuilt Camaro in appearance, it featured all new technology under a carbon skin. We poured absolutely everything we had into a total risk, all-or-nothing venture, and thankfully the bid paid off, else we would have ended up like every other failed small bespoke tuner enterprise, in receivership. As it were, we secured the use of a Formula 1 inspired aero kit, and coupled to a big block naturally aspirated V8 capable of over 1500 horses driving all four wheels, we had a car to beat all super, hyper, and mega cars around the track. In other words, we had a race car in the skin of a road car, one that was legal to drive on the road.
Of course, it was completely impossible to drive on the road, with a body kit so bulky and integrated that it scraped on everything larger than a pebble, could not be removed at all, and at freeway speeds, generated so much drag the car sucked up close to 30L/100km. The whole idea of a race car you could drive to the track yourself was fundamentally flawed, in that the driver who could even drive such a car on the race track without dying in a massive fireball (one of the most frequently used phrases at Gryphon Gear) would already have been carting it on a trailer. As a result, the Track Day Special, which generated a lot of initial hype, only spawned less than a dozen examples, which were all sold to sponsors of the effort for a huge loss, before it was deemed unviable and to be consigned to the museum, as an example of the utter madness of brute force engineering. But not before it rewrote several records, including a time attack turbo variant called the Turbo X, which soundly thrashed Stephen Bellof’s all time fastest lap around Nordschleife… from a standing start.
It was fortunate, then, that hot on the heels of the Nightfury, came an overall win as part of a supergroup in the Bavarian Rally Challenge, as well as a complete lockout in the aforementioned Automation Endurance Challenge, the growing success of Team Ninja Horse, and the release of Mephisto. Nightfury was promptly replaced on the production line, never to be seen again.
Until now.
With refinements in design and an aero package far more suited to the every day drive, the Nightfury is reborn anew to match (and beat) the modern hypercars. For now, no new technical whizzbangery has been added to the car, in line with the original vision. Simply put, it is neater, more reliable, more economical, and easier to live with*, but still has all the bite of the original Track Day Special. Try over 1400hp, and under 14L/100km.
*though we acknowledge that it’s still not THAT easy to live with. And we would still recommend using semi-slicks instead of sports compound tyres, though it still beats the hell out of a Huayra on the latter. It easily laps Nordschleife in under 7 minutes. This is hypercar beating performance on the same budget. If you can afford the car, that is, it costs nearly as much as the Mephisto to make so we kind of have to price it accordingly or we’ll go broke…
For years, we’ve focused on one thing: getting the basics right. And by basics, we mean the very direct components that generate power, and put it down on the ground. Now that we have attained a satisfactory level with our expertise, it will soon be time to expand our skill set, into the realm of next generation technology. We hope to release an optimised prototype of an MR supercar before this time, in preparation for the change, one that you may have seen in action on the drag strip, in design competitions, and in testing.
Otherwise, stay tuned for the spiritual successors to our first generation legends!
[quote=“strop”]http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb476/stropmd/Nightfury-2_zps321d442f.png
http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb476/stropmd/Nightfury-3_zps5f094d43.png[/quote]
You must have extreme patience to be able to place all of those lights perfectly…
Ha, that’s nothing compared to some of the other users around here. I wussed out after barely 14 pairs of LEDs 
(That said I once made a car which had an entire 2 rows of LED tail lights. That was an array of about 64 pairs of square tail lights… and after that I realised the end result was pretty fugly so I never posted it…)
The man van is my latest attempt on the Airfield record. 1:9.1
Oh yes, I see what you mean now. I thought you were referring to the Ultimate van race.
I also have a van that beats the record. I discovered this shortly after VosNox gave me the van and I realised I could fit 465s on all four wheels in the mid engined variant. That’s just ridiculous, and I think it probably ought to be nerfed
…but that didn’t stop me from building something. I’m still not sure I want to submit a time before I actually reoptimise Sleipnir.
It’s been a while.
A big news update is coming.
So too are some new cars.
While you wait, consider this: the one to one power to weight ratio is an increasingly often bandied about concept. But that’s getting a bit old for us. What’s the next level? Is it possible to make a car with over two horses to every kilogram?
Take one look at the quarter mile drag cars and you’ll find the answer is yes, quite easily. So then ask yourself this: is it possible to make a car that has over two horses to every kilogram… lap Nordschleife in under 7 minutes?
I’ll let you ponder that one while you wait 
About time you designed a comfortable, luxury family sedan 