Thanks for the comments on the sL200 good to see it compares well against @DeusExMackia’s Tauga. Hey, it’s still a 3 litre if I round it to the nearest one. 
Great to see the variety of entries the competition and interesting reviews by Luke. You’ve done an excellent job with the write up especially considering the timeframe. I still don’t know who’s going to win but I’ll be very curious to see who takes the crown!
Quick build to see what I can achieve with a sedan body. Uses the same 954hp V12 in the Custom. $199.5K
I forgot that big dollops of boost would also cost comfort. No wonder I wasn’t getting those kinds of figures! Not that I had time to enter.
Wait, I can’t read, that’s a turbo 6.2L. well, good job on tuning it for economy! (Truth be told I’m on phone and can’t make out all the numbers 
)
What’s the Running Cost on that beast?
So, I promised a couple runners up a mention, and someone who had the guts to do something completely different than anyone else.
These will be in character as well. Note that there’s only one half of the phone conversations, as I’m not going to risk going against someone’s company lore.
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Luke looked at the two sports compacts set off to the side as the room was being cleared of cars, as well as the Shromet Gemini, which Luke had instructed to be sent back last. He’d made a couple phone calls to the companies, but one was rather important and expensive.
Honorable Mention: @DoctorNarfy
Luke first called the guys over at Shromet.
“This is Luke Light, from Storm Automotive. Sadly, no, the Gemini didn’t win this one. No, I’m calling to thank you for being completely and totally bold, or crazy, enough to put a rear-engine hypercar into a luxury competition, with a comfortable interior. And also to thank you for putting in a six speed manual gearbox. It was a lot of fun to drive, it just couldn’t hold enough cargo or people to be practical enough. I’ll cover sending the car back to you, it’s about the least I can do.”
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Runner Up: @Rk38
Luke’s second phone call was to the Sachiuri Division of Maesima.
“This is Luke Light, from Storm Automotive. Yes, I’m calling about the sL200. No, sadly, it was outclassed, but… I’m giving you guys second-runner-up for having the best price in the competition. Despite facing off against cars up to 5 times more expensive, your sL200 held up well. It proved to be a fun and capable machine, and you can tell people I said that. Improvements I’d make to the car? Well, I’d stop calling the 2.9 liter engine a 3 liter, personally, but other than that, anything I could suggest would ruin the car’s target market. No, don’t worry, I’ll cover the cost of shipping. Least I can do. Oh, and I owe you a set of tires. The ones that are on there are just completely trashed.”
=======================================================================
Runner Up: @DeusExMackia
Luke’s last phone call was to Erin Motor Company.
“This is Luke Light, from Storm Automotive. Ah, you were expecting the call, I see. No, the Erin Tauga didn’t win, but, hear me out, I have a proposition that benefits us both. I’ve trashed the rear tires on the car you sent me, and it’d cost quite a bit to ship it back. I had a bit of money saved aside in case someone broke the $200,000 budget and built something with four doors that could kick the crap out of Gryphon Gear. It’s separate from the money I had set aside to buy the winning car, so, what I’m offering is to buy the Erin Tauga X 3.3 you’ve sent for evaluation and testing. Yes, outright. Yes, I’m bloody serious. It was the most fun I’ve had with a sports-compact, to be honest, that’s why I’m looking to buy it. Yes, I’m aware that it’s $55,560, I’m comfortable spending that. You were up against cars nearly four times more expensive, and yet held your own, so you can be proud about that. If you check your account balance, you should find the money is already there. I can multi-task when I need to. I intend to enjoy the car, right after I put some new tires on it.”
Now faced with just three cars, the GSI Warlock, the Diamond Quartz Storm, and the Bogliq Ambassador, Luke had to make his hardest decision yet.
“Three good cars. I’m down to the three best cars.”
Luke was pacing around his office, running everything through his multiple processors another time, and then another, and another, hoping some simulation somewhere he could run would change the result from a deadlock to a victory.
“The GSI Warlock is the best track performer, highest prestige, best safety, and most comfortable. It has the highest price. It is in the middle with drivability, sportiness, economy, practicality, and reliability.”
A few more steps, a turn, and a few more steps.
“The Diamond Quartz Storm is the most drivable, the sportiest, and has the highest economy. It is in the middle with comfort, prestige and safety, as well as cost and track time. However, it has the lowest practicality, and it’s the least reliable car of the three, as well as the least prestigious.”
A few more steps, a turn, and a few more steps.
“The Bogliq Ambassador is the least expensive, has the highest practicality, and the best reliability. It’s in the middle with how prestigious it is. And it’s the least drivable, sporty, comfortable, safe, and it barely passed the fuel economy test.”
He took a few more steps, then sat down and looked at the charts again.
“The Warlock uses a Sequential Double-Clutch seven speed transmission, powers all four wheels, and has an electric differential. The Quartz uses a Sequential Double-Clutch seven speed transmission, powers the rear wheels, and has an electric differential. The Ambassador uses an Automatic seven speed transmission, powers the rear wheels, and has an electric differential.”
He picked up a different set of charts, placed them on top, and looked at them.
“All of them use a V12, with Dual Overhead Cams, four valves per cylinder, and VVL. What differs is displacement and aspiration. The GSI uses a 6.0 liter engine, with twin turbochargers. The Diamond uses a 5.0 liter engine, naturally aspirated. The Bogliq uses a 6.6 liter engine, with twin turbochargers. The GSI throws down 805 horsepower. The Diamond throws around 681 horsepower. The Bogliq throws around 893 horsepower.”
Luke set down the charts and headed to the elevator.
“I know what I need to do. I need to look at the cars up-close and personal. The stats, while there’s definitive winners and losers, are only how they got here. I have to see which car I’d want to drive the most. Which car is the one I feel most comfortable with.”
He took the ride down from the 37th floor, stepping out as the elevator stopped at the parking garage, a garage that, once not so very long ago contained over 3 million dollars worth of super-high-performance cars of various shapes, sizes, and styles.
Where once had been 23 cars, only four remained. One was the Erin Tauga X 3.3, voted by Luke to be the most fun Sports Compact he’d ever driven, and bought with his spare savings, the money he had in case someone went over $200,000 but had offered what he’d written down as “Gryphon Gear with four doors and four seats.”
The other three were the cars he was trying to decide between.
“Crunching the numbers for their estimated running costs… The GSI Warlock takes $8,017 per year to keep maintained, insured, and fueled. The Diamond Quartz Storm takes $6,983 per year to keep maintained, insured, and fueled. The Bogliq Ambassador takes $7,122 per year to keep maintained, insured, and fueled.”
He looked at the three cars, then at the numbers on the spreadsheet in his data banks.
“Sadly, that puts the Warlock out. Most expensive to buy, and most expensive to keep running. Sorry, but that’s the breaks of it.”
With the Warlock down, Luke had to make a decision between the futuristic Diamond Quartz Storm, and the Bogliq Ambassador’s more classic design.
“The problem I have, honestly, is that parts break. Even my own. I’ve stripped servos, I’ve snapped my radio antenna twice, and I’ve suffered a major hydraulic leak that was a mess to fix. The Bogliq is simple. Everything in the interior, from the seats, to the radio, to the safety equipment, is standard grade stuff. The active suspension is standard grade stuff. But the Bogliq runs around on these carbon fiber wheels with these super expensive tires on it. Meanwhile, the Diamond Quartz Storm runs around on magnesium wheels with expensive tires on it, but everything in this car is above-standard-grade. Nothing in here has been built with the intent of replacing it. The Diamond takes a 22” by 255mm tire, all four corners, and the Bogliq takes a 21” by 255mm tire, all four corners. Fortunately, for this temporary exercise, I have alloy rims in those sizes, and common off-the-shelf sports tires for both. I’ll see how much a difference the tires make to the car by changing the tires on the car.”
A few minutes later, Luke had the tires switched over (I did, in fact, make new trims for this, just so I wouldn’t ruin the actual winning car).
“Both cars suffer in about the same ways. Drivability, sportiness, comfort, prestige, and economy all drop. Practicality and Reliability don’t change. Safety improves. While the Bogliq teeters dangerously close to the 20 MPG mark, it survived this. Which means, as the two cars, with their factory tires were 4.17 seconds apart on the track, they’ll both do the track again with these ‘new’ tires on them.” He called for a car hauler to bring both cars to the track, so he wouldn’t have to make multiple trips.
An hour later, Luke returned with both cars on the car hauler, and some information in hand.
“After running the cars another lap, the two are 4.94 seconds apart with crappier tires. The Bogliq has dropped from 2:09.66 to 2:12.04. The Diamond dropped from 2:05.49 to 2:07.10. But, track day isn’t everything. Otherwise, that practicality test I did earlier wouldn’t have mattered.”
Luke walked over to the far side of the parking garage, then called out, “Bring in the truck!”
A large truck was quickly brought in, along with a forklift, and two rather large pallets were unloaded.
“These are not all that heavy, but what they are is 1 centimeter cubes of lightweight plastic. I’m going to fill the cargo space as full as I can with these. It’ll take a little time, but as I can’t decide, the winner will be the car I can fit the most cubes into.”
It took quite a while for Luke to fill the trunk space of both cars with cubes, insisting that he do this himself as he could keep track better. After flipping the units from cubic centimeters to milliliters, he then did the math to get a smaller, more manageable number for each car.
“The Diamond Quartz Storm can fit 812 liters of cargo. The Bogliq Ambassador can fit 1,043 liters of cargo. Thereby, by ruling of the Trial by Cubes, the Bogliq Ambassador has won.”
Third Place: @oppositelock The GSI Warlock fought hard to get here. Be proud of it. What lost it in the end was the high price both to get in and to keep in the car. Honestly, if I wanted to change anything about this car, I’d have wanted some reverse/turn signals out back, and some fog lamps up front, and maybe a glossier red, but I’m not sure what it would have taken to drag the price down on that running costs.
Second Place: @thecarlover That was freaking hard to do, you know. If you’d have put the wheel skirts on the Diamond Quartz Storm, you’d have had it. The added stats wouldn’t have been much, but it would’ve tipped the looks department and avoided most of this.
First Place, and the honor of holding the next round goes to: @HighOctaneLove For producing a bold and brilliant design that had my attention the whole time. Maybe Luke can send the car in for a retro-fit of some signal lights?
Oh my days… What is the world coming too…
Bogliq actualling WINNING Something…
That sums up my facial expression as I read this…
Nope, still shocked, I just WON the CSR!?!?!?!
WOOHOO!!! 
OK, @strop, can you please PM me the various deadlines I need to meet for the next round?
Now I have to think of something interesting that will be worthy of the CSR!!! 
I think those are some very fair comments. Thanks for the feedback, and thanks also for the mini-comparison between the two cars. I’m sure it’s a mutually beneficial thing @Rk38 ;). And, going off topic a little, it sets up this massive sports compact battle that @Deskyx is hosting well. Sadly Maesima didn’t get in in time, but I did reduce the cost for a little on the Tauga X for that competition so that it now sits just below the £50k mark.
I’d also like to echo these words too:
The sL200 has a lot of similar equipment to the Tauga for a much lower price; that immediatley makes it competitive, and it’s certainly an achievement to cram things like e-Diffs and sequential gearboxs AND a luxury interior into a car for under £40k. Sachiuri have done very well in my opinion with this car, and it’s certainly a great competitor to the Tauga 
Anyway, back on topic![quote=“Madrias, post:3396, topic:6447”]
what I’m offering is to buy the Erin Tauga X 3.3 you’ve sent for evaluation and testing.
[/quote]
I think that’s a deal I can accept 
MASSIVE congratulations to @HighOctaneLove on finally winning CSR, the mighty Bogliq blue shines brighter today than it has ever done before!
You built the best balanced car. Even I didn’t know who was going to win until the spreadsheet had all the values in it, and even that didn’t solve the problem entirely.
Of the three cars, you had the fewest arbitrary points before looks were considered, but other things balanced it out.
Running costs killed the Warlock, as being the most expensive twice stopped it dead. That left a battle between your Bogliq Ambassador and thecarlover’s Diamond Quartz Storm. By all rights, the Diamond was a more balanced car, but what it came down to is your practicality and reliability.
Honestly, I was surprised through this whole ordeal.
First, I was expecting to go to bed one night and wake up with 50 cars in my inbox, and be totally swamped. But… They trickled in at a mostly-manageable pace.
Second, I learned just how freaking hard it is to spot cars that had a hiccup in their stats, and had to send out many “Hey, sorry, your car actually didn’t pass tech” messages. In fact, I spotted one after the fact, after I’d done all the reviews and was cutting down the list of cars.
To @nialloftara, my apologies for the fact that I didn’t see your car was 2016 and not 2017. I feel like crap for being in that much of a rush in the dying hours of the deadline that I didn’t spot that.
Third, I’ll admit, I never noticed how much I missed having my cars to tinker with when I had an entire folder full of cars that I can’t touch.
And fourth, I was surprised by the fact that so many people tried so many different strategies to win this. We had huge 4-door luxury cars, small 2 door sport coupes, an SUV, a hypercar, a hot hatch, it was insane.
So, fun facts.
23 cars entered the challenge.
Total cost of all the cars, if all cars had been purchased: $3,166,030
Highest Drivability: Mott Works Aqueos (78.3)
Lowest Drivability: JHW Sol Invictus (45.5)
Highest Sportiness: Pearlite Storm Custom (83.7)
Lowest Sportiness: Letto Motors Alpha (28.8)
Highest Comfort: Pearlite Storm Custom (94.7)
Lowest Comfort: Erin Tauga X 3.3 (39.4)
Highest Prestige: Pearlite Storm Custom (102.1)
Lowest Prestige: Letto Motors Alpha (31.8)
Highest Safety: DAC-666 (96.8)
Lowest Safety: Letto Motors Alpha (46.6)
Highest Fuel Efficiency: Tied @ 38.9 MPG
Highest Practicality: DAC-666 (84.0)
Lowest Practicality: Smooth Astala Vi (0.0)
Highest Reliability: Bogliq Ambassador (86.0)
Lowest Reliability: Rennen Genova (67.6)
12 V12 engines
4 Crossplane V8 engines
2 Flatplane V8 engines
3 V6 engines
1 I4 engine
92.1 MB of screenshots taken.
Honestly, in the end, I had fun. It was a huge roller-coaster ride, I had cars I wanted to win, cars that I really felt bad when they got eliminated by rules I put in place before I even opened for submissions. I enjoyed seeing the wild-cards, the cars I knew couldn’t make it into the finale because they just weren’t going to be competitive enough.
Actually, to be fair, the Sachiuri sL200 has a premium interior, not luxury. Still, it seemed like the right move: The differences between the Tauga and the sL200 were… Well, they fit in the same market, but one’s the up-scale “I want a sports compact, but it has to be comfortable for day to day stuff, too” (the sL200) and the other is the serious track-ready drift-car in street clothing.
As for comparing the two cars, I felt it was the honest thing to do with the two wildcards. They really couldn’t compete with cars four to five times their price range, but if this had been a challenge made for sports-compacts and not hyper-luxury cars, I have a feeling they’d have both struggled into the top five.
@Madrias you are one hell of a round host! Great effort, great read!
As for my car I was afraid of that 0 practicality. I noticed it only at the end of the build but was too in love with whole package to change the body. Yes some stats were compromised by the “old body” but I was willing to take the risk 
about 150k$, well I could pump up all the q.sliders to max but it did not seem worthy.
Once again CSR shows it could be named Automation Showcase. @HighOctaneLove well deserved win (khm…I know what colour my next submitted car will be ;)) congats!
EDIT: it’s especially nice to see we still get new winners of csr. great competition
At last @HighOctaneLove wins a round outright with the best all-rounder of the bunch! The onus is now on him to deliver a round worthy of this contest. His car has me thinking: What if I gave a four-door, four-seat luxury car the same engine as my entry? At any rate, I would also have used some sort of bright blue for the exterior color in that case.
One last small gift before I shut up and let HighOctaneLove take the throne.
While it’s not the real thing, that’s because I work in Open Office. What you see there is the spreadsheet after I’d filled it out completely, tested a few oddball ideas, and started eliminating cars.
The cars highlighted in pale yellow at the start, if you follow their lines, all have markups applied. The three cars in gray at the bottom are not truly part of the competition, more curiosities, although it shows how devastating Phale’s car could have been if he’d used his engine in a four-door car.
Scary to think about, isn’t it?
I should say the Sports Touring isn’t the highest performance model we offer, as that felt the sports sedan trim sacrificed too much comfort over the sports premium trim. 
Thanks to @Madrias for hosting it was a great round and really loved the full breakdown at the end! Congrats to @HighOctaneLove I knew Bogliq would do it sooner or later!
wew so many things i want to say
1 is, 3 days O_O, i and @rk38 wrote like half of that in almost 2 weeks…
2 are, yeah that open diffs? LOL that wasn’t a choice, i literally forgot and skipped that.
but i wouldn’t win no matter how if i used the body i did
3. AN ACTUAL COMPLIMENT ABOUT AESTHETIC DESIGN!!! i’ve always been shit at making cars look good, but once in a while, i guess i do fart out some good looking cars huh? thx
4 thx for hosting this round
5 congrats to @HighOctaneLove now to wait for your challenge 
6 i actually have a car that’s 8 yo that could actually compete with the SL200 and Tauga
i will take not last. i kinda knew i may have gone a bit far with the power, but at least i wasn’t the thirstiest
Yeah… I thought it would but I couldn’t get it any better. 
But it was encouraging that you liked it.
And HUGE congrats to @HighOctaneLove for winning. 
i dont know how my rear end, endded up with semi trailing arm but okay i will accept it
Honestly, you made it to the second round of cuts.
And if you’d have aimed to use all of your fuel budget for Premium instead of cropping to Regular, you could have gotten the economy up, I’m sure.
Trust me, that power was appealing, the fast lap time could have pulled it if you could’ve beaten the mileage score. The Sol Invictus fell only because of the gas mileage. By the Spreadsheet, it passed Prestige and Practicality. If you could have squeezed 4.2 MPG more out of the engine, you’d have undercut the Bogliq on price and lapped the track faster. With a $7387 yearly running cost, but the lowest price, it would have been… Even more difficult to decide.
Hey, you tried, that’s what matters. I mean, sure, if the gas mileage didn’t kill it, the price would have gotten the better of it later on, but I liked the look of it.
If you changed driveline types a few times while trying to decide where to put the engine, that could have done it. If nothing else, the higher load capacity over Double Wishbone probably helped boost your practicality. And, if it wasn’t for the rear wing being taller than the roof, it probably would have gone further. Track time would probably have dinged it a little, price would have helped, not sure how it would have finished after that.
Great stuff! HOL I probably don’t need to PM you the dates but as a rough guide try to get some rules by tomorrow, then have the entries close on the 21st, and the reviews done by the 24th. You may specify a closing date different, if that suits you better. And of course congratulations, that was one of the most entertaining reactions I’ve seen yet.
GG on four wheels was an idea I was playing with, but it wouldn’t have even made the first round of cuts. With a sport, not handcrafted interior, a very simple stereo in favour of advanced torque vector system and a safety rating barely above 40 all for the purposes of slaying on the track, Luke would have wondered why bother submitting a GT race car to a GT Premium round
And besides, I already have a sub 7 minute 4-seater prototype. It’s just in the form of a FWD hyper Hatch
