Such insight
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Not yet - at least, not if I have anything to say about it. Here’s a test mule I cooked up to prove the viability of QFC41, and also to answer the question that’s been on my mind ever since I started work on it: “What would I have submitted for QFC41 if I’d been an entrant instead of the host?”
This would have been my most likely option - a 100bhp mid-engined sports coupe weighing just 750kg, powered by an all-alloy 1.6L DOHC 8v fuel-injected I4. It sits right on the $15k budget cap (no doubt due to generous use of quality points in key areas, such as the engine, though this is mainly for reliability), but I reckon our client would still have gotten a lot for his money if he’d picked it over the rest.
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That looks nicee, it also kinda reminds me of the Lotus Carlton
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1995 LVC LS25
Adapted from earlier versions for QFC44.
Unlike earlier versions, this one runs a 250bhp 2.5L flat-six - which I feel is just about right for this car’s size.
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1995 Wells Sidewinder Anniversary Edition and Sidewinder SS
The front marker light has major issues showing up on the red car in photo mode, I give up.
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Looks pretty
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The beautiful design reminds me of the VEMAC RD180 hardcore lightweight sports car
True. The LS25 pre-dates the Vemac by a full half-decade, though.
Thank-you
I decided to give the entire '95 mid-engined LVC range a once-over - it now has three distinct models: the entry-level LS25 (yellow, 275-bhp 2.5L flat-six), the mid-range LS35 (red, 400-bhp 3.5L flat-crank V8), and the LS60 (blue, 500-bhp 4.0L V12).
The LS25 now has an aluminum body (the original fiberglass-bodied version turned out to be too light), and the LS35 is now a completely separate model line, built on an entirely different body set (specifically, the '95 Outrun in MR configuration) and sandwiched between the LS25 and LS60.
If the LS25 is akin to a '90s interpretation of the Dino 206/246, six-cylinder engine and all, the LS35 is roughly equivalent to an F355/360, while the LS60 is more like an F50, but with more retro-futuristic styling reminiscent of sports prototypes of the '60s and '70s, with or without a roof.
As you go up the model range, the redlines increase from a stratospheric 8,500 in the LS25, to a near-orbital 9,000 in the LS35, and finally a frankly outrageous 10,000 in the LS60 (shown here in Spider form). Their specific outputs (in bhp/liter) are 110, 114.286, and 125, respectively.
The reason I made the LS35 into a separate model line is because I realized that there was a huge gap between the LS25 and LS60, and so I created something from scratch (except for the engine) to fill it.
Interior comparison
LS25 (sports interior, standard CD player): Lightweight Alcantara everywhere with carbon-fiber trim - this example has yellow accents to match its pearlescent yellow exterior.
LS35 (premium or sports interior, premium CD player): Genuine leather and metal trim abounds (although customers can specify wood or Alcantara), providing a blend of comfort and functionality - here, it’s a two-tone red and cream color scheme to complement the red exterior.
LS60 (sports interior, premium CD player optional): Even more bare carbon everywhere, accompanied with Alcantara that can be ordered in a contrasting color at customer request.
It’s taken me a while to get all three of them together, but it was definitely worth the time and effort.
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Probably the most beautiful 90s supercars i have ever seen. i would order the LS35 with the premium two-tone red and cream interior with alcantara.
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Sounds just about right to me! It’s a nice well-rounded supercar for its time, straddling the no-man’s-land between the light, compact sports car that is the LS25, and the money-no-object LS60, which is a true top-tier hypercar. As for the spec, all three are available in a very wide variety of exterior and interior colors and finishes, but these three colorways are among my personal favorites.
To give you an analogy, if LVC were Assoluto from Ridge Racer Vita, the LS25, LS35, and LS60 would be equivalent to the Promessa, Bisonte, and Fatalita, respectively. However, the LS60 is what the Fatalita’s closest competitor, the Soldat Raggio/Rauna, would have been had it existed in the 1990s and had more retro-inspired styling. Also, the LS35 is basically my take on a '90s interpretation of what the Raggio’s smaller sibling, the Meltfire, could have looked like. In any case, all three mid-engined LVCs have rounded, thalassic forms that would have fit right in with the design trends of the time.
Just for fun, I cloned the LS60 Spyder to create a fixed-roof Coupe variant, finished in bright gloss red with a red/black interior to honor what the LS25 looked like as originally submitted in QFC44:
As I’ve mentioned before, the Coupe, with its bubble-like glasshouse looks even more like a '90s interpretation of a '60s sports prototype than the Spider, but the latter, with its detachable soft top, is not that much heavier (by 9-10kg). And creating a Spider variant of the LS60 might encourage me to give the other two mid-engined LVCs the same treatment.
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Rear View
Unfortunately blurry side view
The Koumori Brionac, one of the first cars I ever made in Automation, after I reimagined it from an mid-2000s entry level “sports” car to a mid 90s super.
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2005 SVP Ravager
This is what my entry for CSR162 would’ve been if the client, Tim Richards, wanted something more track-focused akin to CSR74 (which I hosted); alas, his preference for a more road-focused offering scuppered that plan:
Built on an all-aluminum body/chassis and powered by a mid-mounted 430-bhp 4.0L normally-aspirated V10 that can rev to 8000 rpm, this track-ready supercar-lite (if such a term existed back then) weighs only 1195kg - enough for a 3.7-second 0-60 mph time and a 210-mph top speed, thanks to a race-inspired aero kit (lip/diffuser with undertray and spoiler) and a close-ratio 6-speed manual gearbox allied to a helical LSD.
Staggered high-performance tires wrapped around 18-inch (or 19-inch forged) alloy wheels help put all that power down, with large vented disc brakes providing fade-free stopping power, and 4-wheel dual-wishbone suspension tuned for a balanced blend of sportiness and comfort yields immense amounts of grip, with or without optional adjustable dampers.
The combination of a mid-mounted V10 and a lime-green exterior were a deliberate choice that reminds me of the CSR74 winner. With a nose reminiscent of the contemporary Ford GT, and an overall shape reminiscent of a shrunken supercar (in a good way!), it resembles a smaller version of something that would’ve been entered in QFC39.
Interior
Inside, customers have a choice of a plush premium interior with high-quality leather or (as shown here) a lighter sports interior trimmed in lightweight fabric, with a premium sound system and sat-nav as the standard in-car entertainment suite.
Customers have a wide variety of exterior and interior colors and finishes to choose from, allowing them to really express their tastes.
It’s a tight squeeze inside, owing to the Ravager’s small size (4.05m long/1.8m wide on a 2.45m wheelbase), but if you can fit inside it, you won’t be disappointed!
Whatever the spec, the Ravager delivers a visceral experience seldom found in most (but thankfully not all) cars from 20 years later.
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Makes me happy that even though I am not involved in the automation community much anymore, a bit of my legacy continues in the form of this thread. So pleased to see it still going.
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The 2024 Amolina Culebre, the companies first foray into the supercar market in almost 30 years. Please ignore the lack of wing mirrors, I forgot them.
Front view
Rear view
The first Amolina in almost 50 years to not be powered by an Amolina designed and built engine, the Culebre instead gets its power from a 5.1 litre V10 created by taking 2 2.4 litre inline 5’s from a cancelled entry level sports car by Koumori, boring them up to 2.55 and then connecting them with a custom built crankshaft. The resulting V10 hits 533 horsepower at 6800 RPM and drops a grand total of 16 horses on the way to its 8500 RPM redline. This gets the all wheel drive Culebre from 0-60 in just 3.3 seconds and keeps it going all the way to a top speed of 229 miles per hour - not bad for a car with an MSRP of just 45000.
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2005 KMA K36
The SVP Ravager’s natural mid-engined rival, packing a 400-bhp 3.6-liter naturally aspirated V8 into an all-aluminum body and chassis weighing just 1.2 tons.
Both are available exclusively with 6-speed manual transmissions and have a helical LSD as standard, but the K36 is, for some reason, even more exciting to drive, despite a 30-bhp deficit. Its performance is generally similar to the Ravager’s, though.
This is my first attempt at a serious build based on any of the '09 Mako body sets, and it turned out quite well in the end.
Interior
The inside of the K36 is pared-back, but still with enough mod-cons for daily use - in keeping with its lightweight ethos.
Ravager vs. K36
Here are the Ravager and K36 battling it out on the road, showing the world that these pocket-sized supercars do indeed have full-sized performance figures, with a properly lightweight driving experience.
In short, the Ravager and K36 showed me that lighter, smaller, and more affordable junior supercars with enough performance to keep up with offerings from the next class up can be just as exciting as their more expensive brethren:
That would make for a refreshing antidote to today’s pointless obsession with insane power, price, and mass figures:
OK, so the Ravager and K36 have at least 400 horsepower between them, but they hailed from a time when many of their contemporaries had around 100 horsepower more, and also tended to weigh more (by 100-200kg or so), which made them seem overpowered and overweight in comparison to these two, so the article’s point is still valid in this context.
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