Rd. 2 RESULTS
Chapter 14: Consumer car segment 1955-1963 - sports (pt. 2)
Left to right: Wolfram Wyvern 3.5 @abg7, Benetsch Gwesda 38SK @Texaslav, Edgewater Silverstone GT @ldub0775, Wolfe Cerberus V8 313 Sport @karhgath, Mayland Mark 5 Estate @TheYugo45GV, Walkenhorst 5p3 Roadster @Fayeding_Spray, Vizzuri Laonda Prestazione @Aruna, Capital-Pegazzo Grand Emissary @Prium
The last remaining segment in Letara: the luxury sports cars. Perhaps the most coveted cars on the market, they are the fastest, loudest, and (hopefully) best performing cars of all. Not meant to be practical by any means, these are fully focused on performance and some comfort too. And their price shows exactly that no corners were cut in the chase to be the ‘top dog’ in Letara.
There were no cars in this segment in 1955 - so the Wolfe Cerberus 250 partially filled the void for a year. In 1956 the Walkenhorst 5p3 Roadster was released. It had a real luxury price tag too, matching the Ariete S if we look across to the luxury family segment, or the Daniloski KimiQuattro wagon. It was, however, more expensive to maintain than either. It was a medium-sized, 2-seater convertible coupe with light aluminium panels, manual folding soft-top, and a slightly disappointing premium/premium interior. But this car was all about performance. It had a 3L V8 with aluminium head, quad-Weber carbs, and performance intakes and headers. Wheelspin was kept in check with a clutched differential and sports-compound tires. It had the best acceleration of any sports car thus far at 7.5 s 0-100 km/h, and a top speed of 227 km/h - both marginally beaten by the Daniloski only. But it was a really difficult car to drive, and it was superbly uncomfortable - worse than the Popas in fact. At this price point that was simply unacceptable. And to top it all off, it ran on Ethanol-enriched fuel, but the engineers reversed the timing map, making the car supremely unreliable. So even though this car was very fast in a straight line, and looked quite cute, it never managed to sell in Letara.
In 1958 the Vizzuri Laonda Prestazione hit the market alongside its truck sibling. It was immediately regarded as one of the most uniquely good looking cars on the market, further accentuated by a nice metallic paint finish. The Vizzuri was quite expensive - one of the more expensive cars on the road - but it had very reasonable long-term upkeep, making it a nice value proposition. This car too had a light aluminum panel exterior reducing the weight despite being a pretty large coupe. It had more of a GT feel with four full luxury seats and a luxury radio. Sports tires made sure that the power from the large V8 made it to the tarmac. It was superbly fast too, just marginally slower than the Walkenhorst or the Daniloski - but still under 8s 0-100 km/h and over 222 km/h top speed. But in contrast to the Walkenhorst, the Vizzuri was quite easy to drive, and had pretty good comfort too. It was not nimble in the absolute sense, but for its size and weight it did quite well in corners. Just like its siblings, this was just an all-round solid car with exceptional performance at a decent price. Perhaps not quite as unique as the Vantaggio, it still captured the hearts of many with its looks, and claimed a good portion of the ‘luxury sports’ market, and even filled a small role in the ‘luxury sedan’ market for those buyers who wanted even more performance than the Laonda Special had.
In this same year the Capital-Pegazzo Grand Emissary was released. It was by far the most expensive car car to buy in all of Letara. Yet, its upkeep was also quite reasonable - for this price bracket of course. This car was about the same size as the Vizzuri, but only had a 2/+2 seating arrangement. The interior was an exceptionally high-grade hand-made affair with a phonograph. Slightly taking away from its sportiness was the ladder frame under the shell, however. The V12 engine was unique in the sports segment and a huge selling point - only the Chupacabra could also boast having such a prestigious engine. Performance was not earth-shattering, but still pretty decent if we look at the “by the book” numbers. “By the book”, because the true statistics of the car were greatly inflated due to the fact that the car shipped with illegal radial tires - and the performance reported was with those radials mounted. People were forced to swap to cross-plies before driving off the lot - and on these tires the car was a little sluggish for the segment, and comfort was nowhere near the claimed “riding on clouds experience” that was advertised. But don’t get us wrong, the car was still pretty damn comfortable - the let down was only in comparison to expectations. So how did it do? Well, given that it was the most expensive money could buy, some rich folk bought it simply for bragging rights. But realistically, everyone knew that it was a pretty bad value proposition, because you could get more comfortable or better performing vehicles for cheaper.
The Wolfram Wyvern 3.5 was released in 1959. Its price came in at the bottom of the ‘luxury’ segment, also straddling the ‘premium’ and ‘luxury’ line as the Wolfe. Interesting how two cars with ‘wolf’ in their name ended up next to each others… but we digress. Where the Wolfe also straddled the ‘family’ segment, the Wyvern is solidly a performance-oriented sports car. It had two premium seats and a premium radio, sports tires, and four-wheel disk brakes. Power came from a 3.5L I6 with a DOCH aluminium head. Performance-wise, it was very solid in deed. 0-100 in 7.5 secs and a top speed of 215 km/h: this was the cheapest way to get these kinds of numbers. When we said that the potential Vausse buyers who wanted to go over 200 km/h could just save a little more and buy something else? This is what we meant. They would go for the Wolfram. Being a true sports car, comfort was not as high as some others, but it was still quite acceptable. The car was also very nimble and relatively easy to drive. So it also satisfied those who wanted some more excitement on the twisty roads. It’s only Achilles heel was its price point - not quite expensive and prestigious enough to entice the truly rich, but too expensive even for most premium sports car buyers (not that there were many of those either). So it only sold to those who absolutely had to have a car going over 200, because this was the cheapest way to do so.
The Benetsch Gwesda 38SK was introduced in 1960. It was a little more expensive than the Wolfram, but was perhaps more a competitor for the Wolfe as it also had 4 full seats - albeit in a smaller unibody car. It had premium/premium interior, sport tires, and all-round disk brakes. Its engine had some modern touches like the aluminium head, it still retained some older technology, such as the pushrod design. The car was quite the looker too, especially enhanced with a nice metallic paint job. It was also quite unique in the segment with its engine in the rear. Performance-wise, it was roughly on par with the Wolfram - a little slower top speed, but a hair faster acceleration. In terms of comfort and ease of driving you could not split the two. However, the Benetsch was more comfortable on straights than in corners. In the end, it fell into the same price-desirability vacuum as the Wolfram. And due to its comfort and prestige deficit compared to the Wolfe, it also didn’t quite manage to bridge into the ‘family’ segment like the Wolfe did.
Speaking of the Wolfe, they released the Cerberus V8 313 Sport this same year. It was priced quite a bit higher than the Benetsch, and in contrast to its Executive Convertable sibling, this was a lot more solidly aimed at the sports market. This one was a 2/+2 seater coupe with a luxury/premium interior. Medium-compound tires and solid disk brakes were on all four corners. The car had a brand new, all-aluminium V8 block and head, but retained a pushrod design. It had good straight-line performance with under 8 sec 0-100 km/h acceleration and a top speed of 222 km/h, but unfortunately that’s where the good things ended. It was not a nimble car and a handful to drive under even the best conditions. It was also not overly comfortable - not quite back-breaking, but in this segment people expected a little more comfort anyway. Perhaps if its performance had been exceptional, then this could be forgiven - but cheaper cars could do what the Wolfe could, do it better, and keep their occupants more comfortable. So the Cerberus V8 never really took off.
People had to wait for two more years until the next sports car on the market was released, the Edgewater Silverstone GT. Now here was something not seen before! A small 2-seater coupe with monocoque construction, fibreglass panels and the engine mounted in a central position! This was a pure sports car if there ever was one. Curiously, it did have a premium/luxury interior and medium compound tires; one might’ve expected sports? It did of course have solid disk brakes all round. It had a small but modern all-aluminium I4 engine with a DOHC head. However, the engine was perhaps a little too small, as the car was not actually that fast. It accelerated 0-100 km/h in 8.7 seconds (at least a second slower than its nearest rivals), and only managed 172 km/h. This was certainly a disappointment for such a sporty looking car. Additionally, it was not that easy to drive and it wasn’t even that nimble. What it did have - also perhaps surprisingly - was good comfort. So it was a little bit of an odd-ball… a super sports design with good comfort but lacking performance. As such, most people considered this whole ‘mid-engine fibreglass’ concept a bit of a failed experiment, and the car never caught on. Of course there were the few eccentric rich folks with a mind for quirky engineering who still bought one to brag to their equally engineering-minded friends.
The last sports car on the market was the Mayland Mark 5 Estate. This was another unique and interesting entry on the market. The window-sticker advertised it as a “shooting brake” - a fancy name that basically meant that it was a 2-seater coupe, but it was also a wagon in a weird way. Price-wise it slotted in between the Wolfe V8 and the Walkenhorst, so with those two not really in contention on the market, it found itself in a bit of a lonely place between the lower-end of the ‘luxury-sports’ segment, and the true upper echelon. Now, the engineering of this car was also interesting. It had a modern monocoque chassis and light aluminium panels, a more traditional large V8 with pushrod head that was strangled a bit, an automatic gearbox and clutched differential, and the only car with some bottom cladding to reduce drag. It had a luxury interior and a phonograph. As for the other characteristics of the car, it also ran into the same issue as the Capital - namely that it shipped and was advertised with radial tires. So customers had to switch tires immediately, which was a bit of a drag. Nevertheless, consumers reported a decent (not good, but decent) rate of acceleration and a very high top speed rivalling the fastest cars in Letara. Comfort was reported as acceptable in this price range, but nothing special. As far as driving characteristics go, it was decent in a straight line, but fell apart in corners. So in the end, this car’s main draw was its uniqueness more than anything else. It saw much the same popularity as the Edgewater - bought by a few who wanted something unique and wanted to stand out from the crowd, but wasn’t an overall desirable car to own.
This concludes all the results of Letara 1955-1963. See you soon in the Preface of Round 3!
