This is a FWD Sport Compact car directed towards younger drivers.
The goal was to make a MY2020 competitor to the Mazda MX-3, Honda Del Sol, Ford Puma and other cheaper compact coupes of the 90s. These days its closest competitor is the Veloster N.
Let me know what you think!
*Facelift details:
*Reworked engine. (+500rpm redline, smaller turbo for impoved torque curve and MPG.)
*Switched from 5 Seats to 2+2, that and some other minor tweaks dropped the weight by 102kg.
*Those technical changes dropped the fuel consumption by 0.8L and 0-100 time by 0.9s.
*Reworked taillights and headlights.
*Smaller rear air vents.
*Reworked lower grill area / foglight housing.
First of all, that’s a really nice design, looks good and seems like it’d be fun to drive!
Some points I noticed though…
Points of Interest
This car looks like a hot hatch, not a coupe, and thus doesn’t really nail the market you’re aiming for. You could make this a 5 door, hide the rear door handle Alfa style, then it’d be a really cool GTi competitor.
Body seems too large. The MX3, Puma et al. were really compact so I was expecting 2.3 to 2.4m in the wheelbase, not over 2.6m. No idea whether there’s a smaller body that’ll work with your design, but the car seems too big for the engine size and state of tune.
The car seems to be too heavy, especially since it’s FWD, which seems like it comes from a combination of chassis materials and overall body size. I suggest using light AHS steel in the chassis, since this style of car sells at a premium, so you can reduce weight and improve handling and agility. You could also reduce the seat count to 4 (or even 2+2) to reduce weight as well, which would make sense for a budget coupe, IMO.
The engine is too peaky, you don’t want peak power to happen at peak RPM!, so either you need to increase the redline or detune the cams etc. to move peak power closer to 6500RPM. Since, IMO, this engine is too small, I’d suggest a 1.6-1.8L engine with less boost making about 150-170Kw. A lighter body will help here, since the reduced weight will make the lesser power output of the higher displacement engine feel stronger than your current setup.
The Toyota-esque black mark coming from the rear lights is, IMO, dumb. It’s a design trend for trendiness sake only and will die off without anyone mourning its passing… Your buyers will thank you for leaving it off the final production version! Also, the extra red light extension from the tailights towards the rear badge looks fussy and untidy when the rest of the design is smooth, rounded and connected.
Hopefully this is the kind of feedback you were looking for. It’s a nice car and, with some adjustments, could be an awesome car, IMO of course, hahaha!
P.S. If you were to make this car AWD, increase displacement to about 1.7L and let me paint it Bogliq blue, I’d say you would be looking at, literally, the perfect car!!!
Another reason why a plain steel chassis won’t cut it: customers expect their cars to have very good environmental resistance, and at the very least, you’d need treated steel to achieve that.
Also, in addition to the DCT, a six-speed manual transmission should also be offered, if only to appeal to those who prefer to shift gears themselves.
Finally… Those cars you listed are no longer in production in their original form. It would be better to treat the Magei as their spiritual successor.
Also, the extra red light extension from the tailights towards the rear badge looks fussy and untidy when the rest of the design is smooth, rounded and connected.
