Thanks @strop for providing us with a trio of incredible performance cars! I expected each of them to deliver on their promises, and I am glad they all did!
Now, here are a pair of front-engined supercars from simpler times when there really was no replacement for displacement or driver involvement.
I originally created the Albury Crusader III for one of my company threads, but realized that it would be best shared here. This Australian-made sports car is a bargain at just under $25k with a 10% markup, but has well over 400 bhp under its hood, courtesy of a six-liter all-alloy overhead-valve cross-plane V8, and only comes with a six-speed manual. I tuned it to be as fun to drive as it is fast on a track, and the low curb weight of 3050 lbs. clearly helped (speaking of which, it was distributed 50/50, just like @strop’s Courcheval Manta Touring). I drew inspiration from contemporary real-life front-engined, rear-drive normally aspirated sports cars such as the C5 Corvette Z06, original SRT Viper, 550 Maranello, DB7 Vantage, and TVR Tuscan Speed Six. Yes, there is stability and traction control, but you can (dis)engage either or both of them with a push of a button for each. The high top speed (nearly 190 mph!) and rapid acceleration (0-60 mph in 4.7 seconds) were not really targets to be reached, but by-products of the car’s excellent engineering, which is the case with the other car I have chosen to share in this thread.
ahertono - Albury Crusader III.zip (92.1 KB)
The Harris CS60 Coupe was originally built for CSR15, and was the first car I submitted for any competition, if only because CSR15 was the first round to allow modern supercars (which I am especially good at building) due to the liberal rules of the round (front-engined, rear-drive, normally-aspirated). It was certainly a great supercar and was only rejected by @KLinardo because it was actually too much of a supercar, which was a decisive factor in the third round of cuts he made. Yet at just under $40K with a 10% markup, it’s still great value for its class. The amazing thing is that I managed to pull this off with all sorts of fancy stuff such as an electronically controlled LSD, active aero, direct injection, downforce undertray and a high-quality premium interior incorporating a premium satnav system and advanced safety suite. But while the Crusader III sounds like thunder, the CS60 Coupe has an exhaust note reminiscent of a 3.5-liter F1 car and revs to 8500 rpm - 1800 more than the Crusader. It, too, is exclusively available with a six-speed manual. And while it is clearly heavier than the Crusader, it has over 60% more power and, thanks to direct injection, is actually more economical. While the CS60 Coupe looks and feels Italian, it is actually British - I was clearly inspired by the 599 GTO and V12 Vantage, both among the best front-engined grand tourers of their time, when designing this beast. Despite being just 0.3 seconds faster to 60 than the Crusader III, the CS60 can do one thing that the Crusader can’t: reach 200 mph or more - 208.266 mph, to be exact. I will even mention this beast in one of my company threads if I get the chance!
After completing each of these cars, I am now starting to wish that at least one of them actually existed in real life, and wondering how much they would be worth in 2016 given the near-universality of forced induction and self-shifting gearboxes even among the current crop of high-performance cars.
On a broader scale, I tend to see this thread as a place to obtain the cars I want so that I can improve them, given that some vehicles here were submitted using an earlier build of the game and must thus be updated.
ahertono - CSR15 - abg7.zip (93.7 KB)
