The hilarious headlines alone made this worth reading.
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Narrator: no, it does not.
Joking aside, glad to make it to the finals with all those awesome looking car! Iāve had many people come to me in the streets yesterday, on the verge of crying āThank you sir for bringing back the jank, the ZLK saved my life and my marriage.ā I hope it will do the same for you.
The writing is top notch as usual and the price bracket mix will make this a very interesting final. Good luck to all the finalists!
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I appreciate the review! This challenge gave me a chance to try and redeem myself from my porky ass CW8 entry. All the weight saving I did thrown right back into the engine smh. Im gonna go back and take those 60lbs out and look at the stats, I have gotten dinged for that a few times. I gotta try and understand that better, the more weight I give, the more smooth the engine is and vice versa. I feel like Iām missing something 
. Thanks for a dope challenge once again and may the best car win!!
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I take that as āit looks good, but not quite good enough to reach the top two in its classā.
Still, the fact that I got this close to reaching the final phase of judging is a small victory in and of itself, considering how good its engineering was (and even more so given that the trim I submitted was very track-focused).
Youāre right that more balancing weight makes the engine smoother - but aside from making the car itself heavier, it also tanks throttle response, and throttle response is currently one of the key stats influencing sportiness. When I checked it out, you could keep idle at a relatively modest 1000 rpm and up response from 30 to 70.
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Man!!! Thats makes so much sense!! I couldnt figure out for the life of me why I couldnt adjust the throttle response stat, for this and a few other builds. Thankyou for that.
The trade-off for reduced balancing mass is that, in addition to raising the idle speed (thus causing a loss of both comfort and drivability), it also lowers the safe RPM limit for any and all bottom end components currently fitted, so itās best not to go too far in that direction for high-performance applications.
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FINALS
This is the end. I forgot to change this section so thereās just nothing lol
Recommended Section Soundtrack: Mastodon - Megalodon
The cheapest roadster to make it to this illustrious six-car shortlist (and on of the two four-cylinder cars), the Solare is sadly the first to go. It maintains a solid bar when compared to the wider roadster field, showcasing above-average and not to mention aggressive looks, relatively affordable running costs and a compliant road feel - but when compared to the best of the best, it doesnāt particularly impress. The little Katami simply isnāt on-level, even when its modest price is considered, with the requisite levels of refinement, speed and panache in this market sector.
As said previously, the ZLK is a tour de force. Aside from being technologically advanced and refined, it is a very aggressively positioned corner carver, coming standard with some of the most aggressive tires money can buy. āOn paperā, itās among the top vehicles in the class whilst undercutting most of the other straight-six superbruisers around. The problem lies, as it tends to in such cases, in the looks: The RĆ©gal is very much notā¦ regal. Standing next to the other cars, it has a puny, self-shrinking stance, and its automatic hardtop roof does not look very sculpted or sturdy when up. Standing next to even the Katami, it looks somewhat out of its depth - and for a luxury roadster like this, itās simply unacceptable.
Let me make something adamantly clear: The Fulgur Fenja is an amazingly engineered car, and not even really one whose engineering can be necessarily considered too clinical or methodical - indeed, the boxer-six is a visceral midrange-pulling beast with six loud, responsive, free-flowing throttle bodies. No, the problem here is design. See, in isolation, clear headlights and taillights with a detailed look at internals are a distinctive and interesting trend for the turn of the century, but they look weird on a blobbish, Porsche-aping body that feels like a 90s take on retromodern nostalgia for the 60s. It looks like a New Beetle rendition of a Karmann Ghia. The fact that you can get a sexy Italian roadster thatās also part of this shortlist for $100 less does not help.
This is it, then: The three best roadsters you can get in 2002. And for some reason, theyāre all very blue.
Two are mid-engined; Two are targa tops; Two are six-cylinders. They all have flaws that were close to fatal in the general running.
The Tristella Corvus Spyder is the elegant Italian on the right. Already lauded for its looks by multiple journalists and TV shows, itās cool as ice and loaded with features. Its SOHC VVTL 2.7 V6 is probably the smartest-performing engine out of the bunch with seriously impressive specific output, itās got this trioās only folding and hiding top, and the best sound system - and it drives best, with a quality powered rack contributing to a balance of ease and precision. Aside from being nominally less comfortable with the ragtop up, the Corvus only really has one issue - but itās a big one. As a true Italian sports car, it is flaky and unreliable, moreso than perhaps anything else on the market. The engine block is fragile, and the aluminum structure is not smartly enough engineered to avoid making the interior creak and making you think somethingās wrong. Itās got a character true to its country of origin - and itās only the driving goodness of it and the looks that have gotten it this far.
The Hoffsman Alsophis is the psychotic-looking rascal on the left, and thatās honestly problem number one. While pure sportiness and even raciness is welcome in the roadster world, the Hoffsmanās look feels more like a crushed/squished-up version of a hypercar. Itās got spectacles that would make a Zonda blush, a slasher smile, two-tone paint (And I think the bottom white is just a poor choice). The baby bolide does justify itself with a nonexistent curb weight leading to spectacular acceleration and some otherworldly adhesion (at the cost of the crossed toe specs erasing your unique-spec tires lickety split), but thatās problem number two. On most peopleās Cool Walls, this thing would be a Seriously Uncool car - it requires copious explanation and overall gives off a striped-stockings nerd vibe. Then again, maybe nerdy vibes and boy-racer looks are not as egregious violations considering that, at the end of the day, the Alsophis is the fastest track car money can buy in this segment, for very little money.
The Voltari Kiruna is the big wide one in the middle, and aside from sharing a similar roof arrangement, it really couldnāt be much more different from the Hoffsman than it already is. Twice that little carās weight, with a big, dumb, screeching straight-six up front, a cabin with ample space in the back, and nowhere near the level of chassis aggression and adhesion. But the sportiness and performance sacrifices mean the Voltari can focus on everything else - and the car is, as a result, either a high-level pick or an outright quantum step change in most of the other roadster priorities, including absolutely unmatched safety. It is the absolute best roadster āon pointsā, if youāre willing to pay for it. Looks really good, too.
In the end, though, there can only be one king of the roadsters. The Hoffsman isnāt it: Too racy, and would lose nothing at all by being a coupe. Between two GTs that remain, thereās a solidly built, muscular front-engine targa, and thereās a boisterous mini-exotic that is better in every other way, cheaper, and would steamroll a beauty contest. I think you all know where this is going.
FINISHING ORDER
1st: @Xepy
2nd: @vero94773
3rd: @Kanye_West & @chiefzach2018
4th: @moroza & @Ch_Flash
5th: @karhgath
6th: @bang6111
7th: @Riley
8th: @Danicoptero
9th: @Ritz & @Knugcab
10th: @the-chowi
FACTOIDS
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The engine selection was diverse this round: Boxers, Vs and Inlines were represented, with 4 to 6 cylinders and 3 to 5 valves per each. Just 1 contestant used an iron block, though, and all but one were naturally aspirated.
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Engines were biased towards revviness with the lowest redline being 6600 and 7 entries over 8000, and 9 cars incorporating variable valve lift.
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The most popular type of chassis was a bonded aluminum monocoque, with 10 such entries - followed by high-strength steel with 5. The most popular panel material was a steel/aluminum mix, including 3 such cars with an aluminum chassis - meaning the only steel on the car was panels.
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10 cars were mid-engined, 8 front-engined, and just one was rear-engined. Transverse engine placement was favored among the midships, five to three; obviously, the front-engined ones favored longitudinal mounting 6 to 2.
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11 cars were soft-topped and 8 hard-topped, with both categories tending to forgo a power mechanism (7 soft tops and 5 hard tops). The Zephorus Amida managed to combine a power-folding hardtop (and supposedly powered doors) with a sub-1 ton weight.
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Just one car - the ESP Flatout - used anything other than a traditional manual transmission, going for a clutchless one instead. Further down in the drivetrain, everybody went with some kind of LSD, overwhelmingly geared ones (13 to 6).
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3 entries went with semi-slick tires instead of sport ones. The best-handling entry, the Hossfman Alsophis Z, was not one of them.
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Just 6 of you greedy rascals finished ans sent in your entries prior to the original deadline. Yāall need to get more comfortable with weeklongs, on God!
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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TBH I would have sent in at the original deadline if it had been kept, that was how close to finishing I was.
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Yes, as it says in the ad, that is exactly what it is supposed to be, a retrostyled early 70s Fenja.
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Oh nice, I was expecting the reliability to bite me once I saw where everyone else was at. Which I guess, it kind of did, just not enough.
Thanks for hosting, Iām fresh out of ideas for challenge hosting currently so Iāll pass it on to @vero94773
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happy with 2nd for a rushjob, unfortunately i donāt really have a good idea for the next round & iām in the middle of judging for another challenge, so iām gonna hand it off to @Kanye_West and @chiefzach2018
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If nobody else wants to host, I would be up for it
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Neither of us is available to host. @karhgath itās yours
Unfortunately I do not have time this week to run a QFC. @bang6111 down to you.
Wait shit really? I didnāt expect that.
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I had a few ideas around so Iām going to try use one of them for qfc although I havenāt really hosted before
guys new qfc check it out!!!
(icl im too tired i will check tomorrow if i did write everything correctly)
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