I’m quite happy to exceed in one category, my goal was not being too mediocre. But OMG what have some of you done… I’m very interested in those THIS IS SPARTA cars 
Okay, while I’m writing reviews, a bit of a multiquote post.
I’m going to interpret this as, the suspension is adjustable from somewhere in the car interface, but trying to do much to the car’s suspension outside of these specifications is much more difficult. As in, things one can achieve with mechanic tools in a home garage.
Or, as the reality happens to be, all power, right at the very top end of the rev range 
Not only that, but this is possibly the first time in a challenge where speed was in any way shape or form a factor that your car was very almost the fastest. Full comments will come in the review.
I named that ‘class’ so because not only did the power outputs in those car exceed the power outputs in the current iteration of Mephisto (note however that this version’s engine is unusually reliable and the torque curve is actually quite a lot more manageable than it was initially when I first designed the car), but they also nearly exceed my 500km/h-at-all-costs car, Mercury. I’m going to just put it out there that no car quite reached Mercury levels of complete and utter bonkers, but those were the two that came damn close. And, as you can see, they’re priced a lot less expensive than expected.
But more on this later.
Since the car was based on a touring car it was supposed to be fully adjustable suspension you would expect on a race car so you could adjust the shock collars to change the spring stiffness or adjust the length of the upper suspension link to change camber or adjust the steering link length to change front toe and so on.
The problem with this is that to interpret the car in the way you’ve intended would be to ignore most of I’ve written in the brief on this criteria if it were to play to your advantage. Alternatively, I could argue that as I loosely implied earlier, building in the ability to adjust the car’s suspension in this fashion takes away some enjoyment from the manual labour done on simpler parts that Kai (as a mechanic who likes to fiddle with his cars) would have done. But in case this argument doesn’t hold water (it doesn’t, really), the core issue is that I said that more tech points and higher engineering times meant less tinkering.
Huh, I’ve encountered a small technical issue which requires clarifying before I continue reviews. In the meantime, to keep things ticking, here’s the preamble:
Disclaimers: Abundant uncensored expletives ahead. Views expressed in the following fiction are of the characters and do not represent that of the author. Cast includes funny animal characters alongside humans, hence references to certain animal features and behaviours. I’m not fussed if you choose not to suspend disbelief and substitute humans instead, though it’ll lose some of its effect. For reference, Kai is human, Strop is a horse, Boden is a musk ox, Hannah is a shrew, Tesla a golden retriever, Aiden a vole, Ada an oryx, and Sam is another human. This section will be edited as required.
##Monday, February 20th, 2017
The embers of the Australian Summer were still flickering in the tail end of February, and the world racing season had yet to properly fire up. It was still a month before F1 invaded Melbourne once more, though F1 was hardly the most uncontroversial indicator of the climate of the racing world. Not when during a time when F1 seemed to be ever more disappearing up its own backside, your company is solely occupied with cars that go faster and harder while giving it the finger.
Nor was the declaration of Summer an uncontroversial one: it was an unusually cool period of cool periods in the Australian climate, and instead of the typically Mediterranean dry forty something degrees Celcius, it was a positively mild twenty four, with a slight breeze that barely rustled the tips of the long golden grass, shining in the early morning sun.
Pulling up in his obnoxiously flame painted Toyota Corolla “Toothless”, the first thing Kai Kristensen noticed was that there seemed to be a lot of new cars in the parking lot. This was not a particularly unusual sight, for thanks to recent windfalls GG was enjoying an expansion in both grounds and staff numbers in its commitment to grow into a legitimate automotive technological and manufacturing hub. There was the new R&D office, another small factory floor and the original warehouse was getting an eco airflow upgrade or whatever the hell they called it.
But the difference this time was that all the cars in the car park seemed brand new. All the paintwork had that flawless sheen, the tyres that sticky jet black that made his fingers and toes itch to get stuck in and see how quickly he could set them alight. But they weren’t his cars, and it would probably be a bit bad for his standing in the company if he were to jimmy the lock of that particularly classy looking vintage number in the corner and skive off for the day. All the other cars were probably electronically immobilised.
Putting those thoughts behind him, Kai squared his shoulders and headed for the front doors. Testing was still light, what with Stroppy McDumbButt still trying to work out how to marry a newly modular schema of drivetrain and chassis together so they could still churn out a new concept and model a year and be hip and cool. Maybe he should have taken Mephisto for a spin today, she’d been languishing in the garage a bit more than she should have and he was constantly feeling that twinge of guilt. But Stroppy had insisted that he had to come in today, because there was something very important. Maybe he would finally be able to see what Strop had been spending so long in the sims with Waxwell about. It was all a bit weird.
All the weirdness came to a head when he scanned himself through the doors and came face to face with entire GG staff contingent standing in several rows in the lobby, wearing party hats, engulfed in balloons, and brandishing party poppers.
“SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER!” they yelled, as he was deafened by a cacophony of pops and was covered in streamers.
“Uh. Sorry, must be the wrong office,” Kai weakly smiled, holding his hands up as he slowly backpedalled out the corridor. His smile froze when he backed up onto another wall. One that wasn’t there a few seconds ago. A suspiciously furry wall.
Two giant hands closed around Kai’s shoulders and lifted him, squirming, into the air. Kai twisted around to see the perennial poker oxen face of Boden. “Not wrong office at all kid.” Figured.
“Look, whatever I did, I’m sorry, and I didn’t do it!”
Kai’s words went unheeded as he was plonked back down before the crowd, still covered in streamers. From somewhere underneath the pile of balloons, emerged Hannah, looking surprisingly festive. Waddling towards Kai at speed, arms outstretched, Kai thought she was getting a runup to punt him in the crotch for his unfathomable offense, so naturally he let out an involuntary squeak when she hugged him instead.
“Happy Birthday kiddo” she gushed. The penny dropped for Kai.
“But my birthday was last week.”
If he hadn’t the lightning reflexes of a race driver, he would have missed Hannah’s split second look of confusion and consternation all mixed into one and only seen her usual take charge face. “Rubbish,” she declared, though it was unclear exactly what she was rubbishing. “Well, we could only get everything together for today anyway.”
“What’s ev-” Kai started, but at this point Stroppy McDumbButt sprang out of the balloon pile. “Happy Birthday Crash!” he gushed, except he wasn’t able to reach Kai because Hannah’s butt was in the way, so he settled for an awkward bro punch on the shoulder. “Boop.”
“But my bi-”
“Uh uh uh,” Strop cut him off. “No time for figuring out which day it is, we have a busy day ahead of us!”
“Right.” Kai self-consciously picked at his sleeve, glancing at the several dozen people still standing around grinning like idiots as if waiting for something else to happen. “I know, so, you know, maybe I could go and, you know?” He jerked his head towards the changing rooms. Strop looked at him blankly. Then he burst out laughing in his trademark whinney.
“OH, RIGHT. Yes. Of course. You thought you were doing regular testing, because I told you… yes, right.” He stopped laughing and smacked a fist into a palm, then broke into a brisk stride back towards the main doors. “No no no, we’ve got something much better in mind for today. To the parking lot!”
The parking lot looked a lot more crowded with several dozen people standing in it, milling around, talking amongst themselves, but always with that air of expectation, throwing glances at Kai every now and then. It was making Kai really itchy.
Finally, a sharp wolf whistling cut through the hubbub and everybody turned to look at a table set up at the far end of the lot. “Right youse lot,” Hannah barked through a megaphone. “As we all know today we are celebrating Kai’s birthday. One, two, three!”
In addition to the itch, Kai’s ears started burning as close to a hundred people all started singing him a Happy Birthday, all out of key. Mercifully, the attempt to segue to For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow fizzed.
“Now for the real business of today. All of you know that Crash here has been testing and racing and more importantly winning for us for the last four plus years. But not once have we celebrated his birthday. This is clearly a wrong we must right, so today will be all about our dear driver Kai!”
As embarrassed as he had ever been in his life, Kai opened his mouth to protest but was drowned out by a cheer in unison.
“And what better way to celebrate than for a full day of doing what Kai does best, driving cars!”
Another cheer. Kai opened his mouth again, not to protest, but to say, “Wait, what?”
“This is how it’s gonna work. You may have heard that Kai kind of needs a new car.”
“No, I don’t!” Kai called out, but nobody heard.
“This is because he has a Mephisto in his garage, but it’s so hard to use as a daily driver that he has been forced to use a shitty Corolla which has driven him so mad in desperation he painted flame decals on it. In fact, there it is, over there!”
Kai had enough. While everybody was having a giggle at his expense, he marched up to the table and took a swipe at the megaphone, but Hannah saw him coming and dodged.
“Don’t knock Toothless, the flames are awesome!” he blustered at Hannah. Strop intercepted him with an outstretched hand.
“Nobody’s questioning the awesomeness of the flames bro. But what if you could have another car to replace one of yours? Something more epic than Toothless. Something more liveable than Mephisto. Both.”
Still leaning on Strop’s hand, Kai’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“See all those shiny new cars? We had them sent in. For you to test. And if you want, one of them could become yours.”
“I… get to test… all the cars? And keep one?” The gears were grinding in Kai’s head.
“It’s our birthday gift to you,” Hannah confirmed.
“I… and it’s not stealing if I take one, right?”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. Now are you going to start testing the cars or not?”
Kai stood stunned. Slowly, a giddy grin spread over his face. It seemed like today was indeed a good day to come to work.
14 Likes
It’s relatively broad for 1818 Horsepower in a turbo engine. There’s a good 2000 RPM in the power band and plenty of gears to keep it there. Besides, it’s not like you don’t have ~400 HP to play with before the turbos spool.
I also acknowledge that you’re getting this much out of a 5.2L block, which makes for specific output in excesof 350bhp/liter. Which is insane.
So too is the fuel consumption, but hey, we’ll get to that
No comment…
it’s not the lack of power before the spool, but the 1200bhp jump when they do 
It’s kind of manageable. I could have made more power, but I was trying to not have a rediculous peak. When you’re throwing around stupid amounts of power, there’s only so much one can do.
i suppose so, but still, getting hit up the backside by a Veyron would be painful
Painful, awesome, exhilarating - all possible answers. I’m hoping Kai is into that kind of thing.
1 Like
oh, dear me.
I just made a tune of the RPG Eagle I submitted with over 1,000hp from a twin turbo 7.0L V8. Not only that, with a 100% markup in 2017, I am still scoring 120 desirability in Gasmea Muscle Premium
What hath I loosed unto the world…
(full specification will appear in company thread in due time)
Another hellcat?
Personally I’m still waiting for when Dodge finally cuts loose and gives the world the Hellcat it (doesn’t) need
You mean the RAM Hellcat because its coming apparently.
As if we really needed hellcats? XD
Ah the Muse and it’s broad power band… In all fairness it does have almost 4000rpm to work with 
That just gave me an awesome idea! I just need a suitable 2010s muscular sedan body and the big forced-introduction revamp to use superchargers!
A competitor to the Hellcat, and the first fully mass-produced car from RPG! For this competitor I need a name…
###The HellHawk!
(ok so I would be copying the hellcat formula, but RPG would do it better, faster, stronger!)
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i’m tempted to make something called ‘Desmodus’ now
it’s a vampire bat.