A Life lesson learnt at the cost of the car, and on occasion, of the life of the driver in GG’s case 
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The Storm Duke is somewhat an example of that. I think I left that in the “Everybody’s a Reviewer” thread, but no one’s thought to review a 1980’s AWD 750+ horsepower twin-turbocharged station wagon.
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I think it’s time to go back and look at that thread.
when I get home
Also holy crap that power cutoff, so basically no more than 293.6bhp allowed. I was pushing 279, so didn’t have a lot of room there!
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wha-wha-wha???
just 1 click killed my car…
also was mag block really an exotic material then?
In a way it still kind of is now. Manufacturing process for mag is still specialised due to its flammability, so pretty much the only major manufacturer (AFAIK) that uses it a lot is BMW, especially in 2012.
I mean other companies have flirted with magnesium block but they tended to combust… I mean the first thing that comes up if one googles “magnesium block” is either a) actual combustible aids b) reports of Mg engines catching fire.
Exactly. The only reason Storm dabbles in magnesium is because Luke’s comfortable working with the stuff, and even he doesn’t take it lightly. Specialty engines may end up with it, but for the most part, Luke sticks to aluminum alloys.
but much of it that’s older VW mag-block engines. like wouldn’t modern metallurgy make an alloy that would make it more resistant to igniting?
OK, so if I had instead capped the output at around 280 SAE bhp and used color-coded front air intakes, then the Shrike might have been cut in the next round at least instead of this one. For the sake of company lore, it would have left more room for a faster, more expensive car higher up the AVD range.
I do know there’s a paper from like 2008 proclaiming the arrival of this alloy, yes. Somebody who’s more familiar with this should probably say something, but again AFAIK that mitigates the risk of the engine igniting during use, but still doesn’t address the fact that generating the alloy and working with it is still complicated (and very temperature sensitive).
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i’ve been googling for a bit now. other than the engine block. magnesium is a pretty common material to use on other car parts. like some part of a door, in a diff, i believe i’ve also read that some chevy trucks have magnesium firewall.
and the other thing is. well, magnesium block obviously uses other alloy for the cylinder sleeves. and it’s
just as easy to produce as alumunium if not easier. and like, most alu blocks contain some amount of magnesium to make it even lighter.
from wiki
Although magnesium is about twice as expensive as aluminium, its
hot-chamber die-casting process is easier, more economical, and 40% to
50% faster than cold-chamber process required for aluminium
Non-combustible magnesium alloys :
Adding 2% of calcium by weight to magnesium alloy AM60 results in the non-combustible magnesium alloy AMCa602.
The higher oxidation reactivity of calcium causes a coat of calcium
oxide to form before magnesium ignites. The ignition temperature of the
alloy is elevated by 200–300 K. An oxygen-free atmosphere is not
necessary for machining operations.
more update:
yup modern magnesium alloy are less of a fire hazard of course. but what i mean is big block of magnesium are not a fire hazard. but powder, or molten magnesiums are. which means. you need a prolonged amount of extreme heat to first make either melt down, or vaporize, which is the big fire hazard.
http://www.magnesium.com/w3/data-bank/index.php?mgw=222
Magnesium is an excellent conductor of heat, and, as a practical matter,
the entire piece must be brought to a temperature near the melting
point before ignition will occur. Normally, this will not occur unless
the solid magnesium piece is surrounded by a general conflagration from
other sources.
Care must be exercised with magnesium when it is:
· in a molten state;
· in a finely divided form, such as chips, granules, or powder;
· involved in a general conflagration.
Part IV - Waiter!?! There’s a fly in my soup!
This section is for cars that fulfilled the brief correctly so far. Some of the cars knocked out are actually superior to these cars but had to go sooner. These cars are technically correct yet have flaws which knock them out of the running.
86 Kitcar by @DracoAutomations: 4:56.75
Interesting concept and one that every Hachiroku fan would love to see; bring back the AE86! Truth be told, I was expecting more than one replica and I’m glad to see that the Automation community didn’t let me down…
But the reality of a replica is that it never quite lives up to the magic of the original and the Kitcar is no different in this regard. The Kitcar is too slow down the mountain, too heavy on the juice and too expensive (related too it’s peers) to be competitive against newer competitors and it’d probably be slaughtered by a heavily tuned original AE86. Rose glasses aside, the Kitcar has no viable chance of being selected for production but two thumbs up from me, as I personally LOVE the AE86, 
Verdict: Just like with vegemite, stay away from AE86 2.0!!! 
Aureax by @JohnWaldock: 4:54.02
I thought I’d seen everything up 'til now but when I checked this car out fully, I was stunned and shocked! And, no, it wasn’t because it was using Lucas electrics… An iron engine! Not just a block but an entire engine! Toyota hasn’t built an engine like that since the early 80’s! That would be fine if it conferred some cost or efficiency benefit but the Aureax is neither cheap or as efficient as others in this competition. The car being at least 10 sec slower than the front runners was the final nail in the coffin. Nice car, kinda what I was looking for but was outclassed by it’s competitors at the end of the day.
Verdict: An AlSi engine would have Hyundai clamouring at your door to build this car! 
Not-Toyota by @Leonardo9613: 4:43.63
The Not-Toyota is a sad tale of what could have been… The car’s brakes fade, the suspension bottoms out and the car isn’t great on fuel. The car is quick, yes, but other entrants were quicker and cheaper to build. Even worse, there has been no attempt to make a nice design with ugly foglamps dominating the front and “meh” the overarching theme at the rear. A missed opportunity which could have won if the designer had tried his best.
Verdict: ??? I seriously don’t know what to think ???
Tare RAX by @4LGE: 4:40.04
This is going to hurt. I really like this entry; it’s stylish, fits the brief well and it’s competently tuned so it’s fast too… But, and I hate to do this, it’s too loud! At over 50Db its a loy louder than the top three and… That’s it. I’m sorry 4LGE, I had to draw the line somewhere and you were juuust under the height requirement for the top three (hint: I had to find a tie-breaker). This car is really good and I hate to give bad news to good people… Basically you were slightly more expensive, slightly slower and slightly too euro to enter the top 3!
Verdict: An honourable mention that was forced to take the blue pill! 
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@koolkei actually, your glued aluminum chassis probably hurt production capability much more than the magnesium block 
My bad, I didn’t see that despite checking multiple times!
Phale is right; glued aluminium would explain your stats and it’s not good for mass production so, D’oh! Better luck next time 
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true. and price would be also my downfall.
as i finished my car pretty early and thought that $19k was generously cheap.
until i saw the competitor posts… no. it wasn’t cheap. i certainly won’t be winning price wise
but then again. we’re all guessing just how much enthusiast car is built per period of time?
it’s certainly is being mass produced, but not as mass produced as a corolla or a civic is it?
also, my car weighs about the same as the real 86. which says something about my choices 
#####but i just end up curious about that magnesium block engines anyway.
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After reading the next round of cuts I was shocked to find out that @4LGE’s entry had not been cut earlier despite its glued aluminum chassis, which restricts any car using it to limited rather than full production. I am quite sure it would have been more likely to make the next round of cuts if it had been given dual reverse-flow mufflers.
As was evident in his entry post, Leo loves Toyotas for their everyman averageness (or, in another word, mediocrity). He does not respect them for their sporting prowess, and I guess that explains everything about the entry: the car built was what he thought Toyota was in the habit of building and not what Toyota ought to be building.
We’re down to four entries now, right?
EDIT: [quote=“abg7, post:3667, topic:6447”]
if it had been given dual reverse-flow mufflers.
[/quote]
That’s way overkill. The current exhaust system is kind of broken in that there’s not much advantage in giving dual reverse mufflers over dual baffled. They’re expensive and heavy where the baffled mufflers are cheap and light and if you up the tech a bit, they somehow provide helpful flow regulation that increases midrange torque at minimal expense of horsepower (and if you are encountering a lot of top end flow restriction and you want the last few HP, just use bypass valves, it’s not like you like your neighbours if you’re revving it to 9k on the driveway anyway 
).
IIRC the exhaust system will be revamped down the track, to a slider which basically says: softer and more restricted versus sportier and less restricted.
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That’s interesting to change it to sliders but makes sense. Do you know if they plan to do the same for interiors? Since it’s a similar issue and sliders would do the same things more or less.
Now to get back on topic I think unless we have any hidden entries you’re right we might be down to the final four entries. HOL is doing a great job with all these reviews so far I’m eager to see where it this all ends up.
Part V - The final Countdown!!!
This is it. The crunch. Three cars, one winner. But who will it be? Read on and all shall be revealed!!! Mwahahahahaaa!!!
GTC Concept II by @Rk38: 4:46.49
This car is great. Fits the brief perfectly. It is styled well, tuned well and smart decisions were made at every step.
AE88 by @strop: 4:38.89
Strop. Says it all really. The AE88 is a car that does it all well, and at a higher level than Rk38’s entry. But the styling is awesome! Strop has fixed the Hachiroku’s designs lack of cohesion with the rest of Toyota’s range and, IMO, the result is fantastic!!! One word: Brilliant!!!
2000GT by @EnryGT5: 4:36.48
Nicely executed styling coated in a handsome shade of blue. As per strop, this car does everything well and improves upon Rk38’s effort. I’m speechless at the quality of this car!
The verdict
Two more stats are required to seperate the three front runners, as I’m not looking for sheer speed but value for money. The first metric chosen was fuel economy. Why? Because everyone cares about how much fuel they burn and this is a clear case of less is more…
GTC-C2: 5.5L/100Km
AE88: 5.9L/100Km
2000GT: 5.7L/100Km
Ah, I hear you say, economy sux ballsack and I wanna go fast! Well here’s the savvy on the 0-100Km/h stats…
GTC-C2: 5.3 sec
AE88: 5.0 sec
2000GT: 5.1 sec
Well, it’s still too close to call and eagle-eyed readers would have seen that the Haruna Downhill was won by the 2000GT so we’re going to use price to seperate the top three and crown a winner. I haven’t harshly judged value for money up to now because I set a too high budget but the build cost is literally what split the three apart for me! So, the prices for the three contenders are…
GTC-C2: $15900 each
AE88: $16000 each
2000GT: $14600 each
So, because the 2000GT is quicker than the GTC-Concept II and is cheaper than the AE88 while being faster down the downhill than both, I declare…
The 2000GT is the winner!
Congratulations EnryGT5 on a hard fought win and Toyota will be sending around their lawyers shortly to sign the contracts! 
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well… clearly. practically is worth an ant’s shit…
all the finalist have <10 practicality??
edit:
sorry if that sounds negative. i’m a litle salty about something irl
As was I! I’ve been at it non-stop from 10AM and I double checked every entry… Turns out I’m human after all!
I hope he drives a RL Hachiroku one day; they’re genuinely entertaining![quote=“koolkei, post:3671, topic:6447”]
well… clearly. practically is worth an ant’s shit…
[/quote]
It’s an artifact of the bodies used. RL those cars’d have plenty of room for stuff! 