For some reason I believe the same.
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bruh I didn’t just lose because of the flippin’ techpool 
Aight fair enough I guess I’ll pay more attention to the rules next time haha
I doubt I’m gonna win with the amount of skilled competition here, especially with my lackluster interior, but I’m hoping to at least make middle of the road thanks to the decent sportiness for such a low powered car, without it being utterly unreliable, undriveable, or uncomfortable. Just… mostly uncomfortable. Somewhere around 61 drivability, 12.5 sportiness and comfort, 38.5 safety, 81 reliability. Not terrible, though I did have to all the way to the price cap, and the service costs are an annoying $580/yr because of the interior
Due to the heatwave here, judging can get delayed. It’s just not pleasant to sit in front of the computer for too long ATM.
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A few thoughts:
- This is completely fair;
- This makes me feel better about the fact that I blame my Swedish ancestry in part for the fact that I am constantly sweaty;
- For all my European friends who find the American fascination with air conditioning strange (and admitting that there are certainly many ways Americans have our own idiosyncrasies and issues), it looks like current weather in Sweden would pass for a welcome relief from summer heat in much of the United States, which, other than Alaska, is essentially entirely south of Paris and largely on roughly the same latitude as the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Middle East; and
- I bet there are a few folks on this forum from tropical regions who could easily tell all of us that we don’t understand anything about what true heat and humidity is…and a few folks from far northern or far southern climes (like Sweden) who could tell all of us we don’t understand what true cold is.
Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe and comfortable in whatever season or weather you find yourselves in, and may all of your heating/cooling systems be appropriately functional. The ability of the Internet and a fascination with cars to bring people together from all over the world, from all climates, seasons, and time zones, is a strange and wonderful thing.
Looking forward to seeing the next round of reviews whenever the heat breaks enough to allow!
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Yo.
Is currently winter here in my home state in Oz, but in summer it does regularly get up above 35° C with at least 85% humidity. Some days have even gone +40° with near 100% humidity.
Funnily enough, there was a town near the middle of the country that was one day shy of beating their old record for the longest stretch of days with the hottest temp over 45° C. The day they would have beaten it, it was 44.9°.
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Like, here in Colombia, we live close to the equator, so it’s either very rainy or very dry, but always within “tolerable” ranges of temperature (not over 35°C most of the time, nor below 10°C), but, yeah, Humidity kinda makes the difference here. Not too long ago there was a landslide near of where I live because it rained heavily thrice on that same day.
Rain and Temp mostly depends on the region, though (Colombia is a country which Geographically is divided by 3 Mountain Ranges, Western, Central, and Eastern, all part of the Andes, and has various biomes, like San Andres Islands, the La Guajira and Tatacoa Deserts, the Caribbean and Pacific Coasts, Cities like Medellín [between Mountain Ranges] or Bogotá [set in a Plateau in the mountains], the Eastern Plains, the Amazonian Rainforest, etc).
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Fun fact: I had to do a project on Colombia in third grade complete with clay modeling a topographic map of the country. It was very difficult with all those mountain ranges, and I think the first one my partner and I made fell apart. I felt like I got payback later in the school year when my draw for doing a project on an African country gave me Botswana–which is just about completely flat.
There’s a tongue-in-cheek saying in the U.S. about the heat in parts of the American southwest–which is basically a desert where average high temperatures in the summer are over 100 F/40 C–of, “Yeah, but it’s a dry heat.” Humidity definitely makes it worse, but at a certain point, hot is just hot.
Also, to those of you who might say that I have taken this thread totally off topic by inviting a discussion of the weather, I say you are 100% correct.
But I also point out to you that when the conversation dies down and there’s nothing else to talk about in real life, isn’t weather pretty much the universal go-to conversation topic? So I would like to think that during the lull in discussion of cars, I’m just filling in with the exact sort of thing that would happen if we were all in a real-life conversation.
I promise that the moment we get back to cars or Knugcab tells me to knock it off, there will be no further weather commentary from me.
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Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
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Hey, I live just kilometers below the Arctic Circle, I am 100% sure it will have fixed itself in a couple of months!
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Hot? Just use a fan smh 
Hehe. Actually I am doing the judging now, slow but steady, so part 1 should not be that far away.
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(It has finally cooled down and I have done the actual judging now, so expect a more steady pace now)
KSAC 2: THE RUNABOUT
PART 2A:Eliminations
Vibeke started her journey with car shopping by going to the library, looking up a book with all the cars sold on the danish market in 1984. There, she could sort out what wasn’t of interest, and pick out cars that seemed to be especially interesting. The first six cars she found was the ones that follows now.
ACZ MOXIE H3A (Kreator)
There is no doubt what the major selling point of the ACZ is - the price. A brand new car for $6090 AMU is almost unbelievable, even making a car like the AutoZum AZ1 look expensive. And for the money, what you get is almost impressive. It is by no means a special car, but it follows what nowadays is the standard formula. Transverse engine, front wheel drive, McPherson struts up front and Torsion beam in the rear. Its 34 hp, carbed 942 cc inline 3 (mated to a 4 speed manual transmission) is of course not a powerhouse, but it gives adequate performance. The small size makes it nimble, and the handling does not offer any surprises, even if old school 4 wheel drums and ball type steering does not make the ride a thrill either. Of course, such a simple car makes some sacrifices, such as rather abysmal comfort, but even if it feels cheaply built, we think the simple construction will make it hold up somewhat well in the long run. It also is almost unbelievably cheap to service at $369.90 AMU. Well worth its money, but on the other hand, cars in this class are rarely expensive, and there are cars where you can pay a little bit more, but also get all your money in return for a more refined car, so the choice is all yours.
AUTOZUM AZ1 600 (Angelustyle)
The AutoZum is a price fighter at $6910, but our opinion is, don’t bother with it. The even cheaper ACZ Moxie is better at more or less everything, spare for the slightly better comfort in the AutoZum because of its independent rear suspension. Other than that, it is a rather straightforward small car. Transverse engine, front wheel drive, strut suspension up front. A 29 hp 603 cc inline 3 cylinder means that it is rather underpowered even for a vehicle in this class - which still does not mean that the fuel economy is anything to brag about, considering the size of the car. Nimble and easy to drive, rack and pinion steering but still antique drum brakes all around, a 4 speed manual transmission that works rather well. Not exciting, but functional, but considering that, the sedan body hurts flexibility compared to a hatchback. Service costs are high for a car this simple, and the owners haven’t been satisfied with build quality and reliability this far. Safety wise, it is lacking behind more or less anything even in this class. So, even among bread and butter cars, we would say that there are way better alternatives.
BOVOS NUGGY (Ultimate_Billy)
Looks are subjective, but most people seems to think that the Bovos Nuggy is a pleasant little car to look at, both on the inside and out. It also feels a little more grown up than it is, thanks to a (for its size) high level of comfort and refinement, safety equipment you usually find only in larger cars and frisky performance (well, for being from a 42 hp 1 litre inline 3 cylinder anyway), maybe thanks to its 3 valve head allowing it to breathe better.
If the cylinder head is advanced, the brakes are not, 4 wheel drums. On the other hand, the front brakes still feels overpowered compared to the rear, better than the opposite but could still have been tuned better, and the gearing of the 4 speed manual is rather awkward, making this a car that is not as pleasant to drive as it could be. Not to mention fuel economy that would be expected from cars one class larger, but is a bit disappoiting in a car like this. Combine that with rather high service costs and a purchase price at the higher end (again, for this class), and the question is if you could not as well go for something slightly larger. You won’t really get the small car advantages in this package, and the “large car qualities” it has would best be experienced in a slightly larger car. Reliability of the Bovos seems to be questionable too.
CONSTELLATION N112E (Oldmanbuick)
The Constellation N112E is not overly cheap for a small economy car at $8720 AMU. Spare for a 3 valve cylinder head, you won’t get overly fancy tech either, a 54 hp 1.1 litre inline 3 cylinder mated to a 4 speed manual, front wheel drive (but surprisingly enough for the class with a longitudinally mounted engine), struts up front and torsion beam rear axle. What you get is instead a combination of traits that makes this a really good and sane daily driver. It is fast for what it is, very well built, has very cheap service costs, it is one of the very safest small cars on the market, and overall it feels like you will put your money where it actually pays off. If there are drawbacks with the Constellation? Yes, you pay for the performance with a significantly worse fuel economy than the class leaders, and it can be a bit tricky to handle on its cheap, long life rubber, especially considering that the front brakes is a bit underpowered (maybe disc brakes would have been preferrable here). But no car can be perfect and overall the Constellation is a tempting package for the small car buyer.
CYGNEOIE POULIAN 1.1 (Xsneakysimx)
The Poulian 1.1 offers frisky performance at its decent $8130 price point, which also includes a 5 speed transmission and front disc brakes, but that’s more or less everything this car is selling on, honestly speaking. Despite the modern appearance, the construction feels a bit old fashioned and clumsy, with a solid rear axle and an “uniframe” layout instead of a true unibody. The car overall feels a bit forgettable, it is mediocre at best in most areas, understeering is remarkable and things like fuel economy and service costs being somewhat more costly than the class leaders eats into its tempting price. But a 51 hp inline 4 (1.1 litre 2V SOHC layout) is more than what many competitors will offer, so it could maybe be seen as a decent driveline in an otherwise mediocre car. Swift, not utterly bad at anything, and affordable. It is up to you to decide if that’s good enough to lure you as a buyer.
FULGUR FABIO (Ch_Flash)
Many people will feel like they are doing a good thing by choosing a domestic brand, the appearance is neat and modern, and you get a 60 hp 1.25 litre inline 4 that gives great performance. The car appears modern otherwise too with a typical strut/torsion beam layout, front wheel drive, 5 speed transmission and front disc brakes, even power steering included in the price. It also seems to have more thoughts put into safety than most other small cars. But if this is the best that the danish car industry can get out of such a seemingly tempting concept, we are genuinely worried for their future. The handling is twitchy, the build quality bad, fuel economy is the worst in its class, service costs are high, despite the power steering it is lacking in comfort, there are more faults to it than we even bother to list. The only positive thing to say other than what we already have said, is that it is a more pleasant car than the AutoZum - for $1800 AMU more, which makes it a worse purchase. A true lemon.
OOC SUMMARY
@Kreator - Admirable to have squeezed all of this into that tiny price point, and it could have been a winner, with a more budget conscious buyer and more pleasant aesthetics, the later pulling down the score here. Unfortunately it was not enough for it to pass to the finals, but it seems like you have a decent grip about the engineering, so just keep training on the styling and you might have winners for future challenges, eventually.
@Angelustyle - Styling was maybe not bad, just that everything built on that body will look like a Mini ripoff so it is a bit hard to judge. Overall maybe the worst car, though, but you handicapped yourself a lot by using so little of the techpool. That might have been a lore thing in this case, I know you have quite a fleshed out lore for shitbox companies. Needless to say, it will not pass to the finals.
@Ultimate_Billy - A good looking car from the inside and out. Unfortunately it feels like it missed the goal a bit, it sacrificed most of the key stats (where it did rather mediocre) for scoring well in the lesser ones. That usually does not end up in the finals, so you’re guessing right, your car will not pass on to them.
@oldmanbuick - I can clearly see how you get better for every build when I look at the challenge hosting history for me, and this car doesn’t have any major mistakes, it feels like a “complete” build that also has styling that feels solid. Eats most of the budget but seems like you put the money where it counts. Hence, I won’t review it too much here, since it will continue to the finals.
@xsneakyxsimx - IMO, forgetable (not ugly but forgetable) styling, forgetable engineering (with some weird choices like the “partial unibody”). The car is at a lower mid level in most stats, but manages to squeeze out frisky performance for a decent price. That’s not enough for the finals in this case, however.
@Ch_Flash - Excellent styling (but I suppose it was a mistake from your side to forget the mirrors, not what I expected to see from you TBH) as usual. Engineering among the worst, kind of surprises me how bad the car scored in almost any aspect except for performance and safety, since the overall engineering seems to be sane. Maybe it would have been an idea to put more time into the boring and time consuming number crunching and slider abuse. IMO, you’re one of the top notch designers in this community, which makes me feel bad to most of the time have to reject your cars from the finals due to engineering quality that does not match. Needless to say, that was the case this time too, unfortunately.
TO BE CONTINUED
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The American mind cannot comprehend a car in any class with 54 horsepower being described as “fast” or having “performance”…
Thanks for the thoughtful review! Eager to see how the next rounds play out.
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Too bad nobody ever offers an engineering collaborator or something…
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I mean, that was exactly what I had intended since I saw the car being a shortened version of the Chèvre Panier, so I suppose mission accomplished?
Keep in mind that everything is relative to the other cars…none of them are “fast” really
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Styling always seems to be my downfall for these challenges. I can never tell what a “good” styled car is compared to a “bad” styled car, only that some have more fixtures than others.
Maybe next challenge I enter I should collab for engineering.
It’s quite subjective. More or less often if it looks like something you’d see on the roads, it’s good. A well designed car isn’t always flashy or intriguing. You just need to put thought into the design, even if it was a basic one. And molding. Always molding. Personally, I just look at a car and then copy the entire design with some minor design changes. Then I claim it’s my own and that I have never seen that particular irl car before.
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Well, being “dead last”, is still an achievement for me… I should’ve entered better (but I didn’t really think of anything that’d not look similar to the competition).
Still very glad to have participated, since this is the first challenge I take part in in like, half a year I think.