CSR26 Reviews And Results, Part 2
After reviewing the first 10 cars that had been sent to me, it was obvious that building a hypercar capable of fulfilling all of my requirements was more difficult than it first seemed. But my task of reviewing the entries was not over by a long shot. So here are the reviews for the next 10 cars submitted in this round.
Unfortunately, I can’t track-test this car due to technical issues regarding the body it uses, so I have to rely on the screenshots and blurb found in the post regarding this entry. From the information I do have, however, it clearly shows some promise, with an aggressive front fascia and a rear end guaranteed to make others regret that they ever bothered trying to out-drag it in a straight line. And the Black Satin paintwork is actually an extremely dark maroon. However, the overall shape is poorly proportioned; the Aioi’s egg-shaped profile, while unique, seems at odds with the elegant nature of such a prestigious front-engined GT car as this one.
With an 8-liter V12 developing 980 bhp, the Aioi is definitely fast in a straight line; it can reach 223.1 mph and blast from 0 to 60 in just 2.5 seconds. Yet the drivability score of 63.4 is not much lower than the sportiness score of 66.9, which is quite remarkable. Although it has a HUD-based infotainment system, such advanced technology seems out of place in a car which has a mere premium interior. This pales into insignificance, though, when I discovered that the average reliability figure was 70.0 exactly – right on the minimum threshold, and most likely a symptom of insufficient cooling and/or an overly high redline. Sadly, and surprisingly, that problem, combined with the egg-shaped styling, is enough for me to reject this vehicle – no amount of affordability can make up for severe acute and/or chronic reliability issues. My dream car should not break down when I least expect it to, and the Aioi is certainly not that kind of car. It does not look enough like a real hypercar either.
As I walk to the Buffalo I am presented with yet another front-engined beast with lots of intakes and vents up front, and a huge rear wing that turns out to be too boxy and square for the car’s curvaceous shape. It’s not helped by the dull gray exterior color, which clashes with the overabundance of fixtures. But with carbon fiber panels over a glued aluminum bodyshell, it should be light enough to perform well. Using more vents than is necessary doesn’t always work, though, and it’s not the case here.
Casting aside my feelings about the styling, I peered under the hood and found a highly undersquare 9-liter normally aspirated V12 delivering 768 bhp on premium fuel. It only revs to 7500 rpm (just 400 revs after the power peak), and for good reason: the reinforced CNC-milled internals, robust as they are, would be severely stressed if the engine revved any higher. Nonetheless, this is still a highly reliable engine, and one which sounds menacing due to its immense capacity. However, although it has VVL, the cam profile is so mild that it actually compromises economy, chiefly by preventing the compression ratio from being increased. Why anyone would install this system only to configure it so conservatively that the engine is poorly optimized is beyond me.
The drivetrain configuration also leaves me somewhat confused. The Buffalo is all-wheel drive and has a 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox, but the extremely tall gearing and closely-spaced gears seem mismatched for this vehicle. Worse, the torque split is front-biased, with a 55/45 distribution front-to-back, whereas it should be the other way around; as it is, I complained of mild understeer and moderate wheelspin while I drove the Buffalo on the road. Even so, with 305-mm wide tires at each corner, I never had a shortage of grip, and the active anti-roll bars kept body roll to a minimum (although the standard fixed-rate springs compromise comfort slightly), although there would have been more if the wheel diameter was increased – 18-inch wheels seem inadequate and undersized in a car of this kind. At least the cast-iron disc brakes are up to the task of hauling this two-ton beast to a stop, but there is clearly too much unused engine cooling capacity, which limits this car’s top speed. And the premium infotainment system doesn’t quite match the Buffalo’s luxury interior.
Putting my reservations aside for a while, I decided to test the Buffalo. I found out that it could reach a top speed of 220 mph and sprint from 0 to 60 in just 2.8 seconds, as well as recording a lap time of 2:02.13 at the test track - all commensurate with the asking price of $171,300. But despite a fuel economy figure of 8.87 L/100 km, it still wasn’t enough to make me buy this car. It simply has too many unnecessary vents for my liking. That’s a shame, for I was expecting the Buffalo to be much more elegantly styled to match its potent powertrain.
I don’t know what to make of this metallic blue fastback. It looks like a vintage muscle car which had been modified for use in a Fast and Furious movie, and the overall look screams “boy racer”, which is definitely not what I want from a hypercar. And although it has full carbon-fiber construction, the solid rear axle is just too crude for the amount of power this car possesses, especially considering that it is rear-wheel drive.
Speaking of power, under the hood is a 7.5-liter, normally-aspirated, overhead-valve V8 capable of cranking out 658 horsepower at 7200 rpm on super unleaded. However, the forged internals suffer some stress near the 7800-rpm redline, and the aggressive cam profile hurts economy as much as the 14.2:1 AFR. At least it sounds angry and deep, which is totally unlike anything I have tested so far. In fact, it’s almost too loud, since the exhaust system has only one muffler (and a reverse-flow unit, no less), which makes the Blue Jay’s appeal as a daily driver somewhat questionable.
Even though the Blue Jay has a six-speed manual gearbox, the very tall gearing ensures that it barely makes it to 60 mph in less than four seconds. It’s made even worse by the automatically locking rear differential, which leads to unpleasant handling characteristics. When you’re in control of a car as potent as this, an electronic LSD is almost mandatory for safely transmitting all that power to the road. And the narrow tires (235mm up front and 265mm at the rear) are also inadequate when faced with the task of coping with so much torque.
At least there is no brake fade, but inside and underneath, I found further evidence of penny-pinching. Hypercars need flat floors or downforce undertrays to improve speed and stability, respectively; the Blue Jay GTZ’s semi-clad undertray may make maintenance easier, but creates more drag and thereby reduces speed. And although it has a luxury interior, both it and the premium infotainment system are only of average quality. The cheap, simple suspension hurts the VMW’s cause even further by reducing comfort to the point that it is barely acceptable. And to add insult to injury, it only managed a 2:05.94 at the test track. In short, at $105,500, this feels more like a poorly-engineered restomod than a hypercar, and definitely not the vehicle that I want to buy with my hard-earned cash.
Compared to the other entries I’ve sampled so far, this thing is tiny, and thanks to carbon-fiber construction all around, very light, at just over 1.1 metric tons. Its styling is generally minimalist and the deep purple paint suits the car’s curvaceous shape, although the boxy active rear wing and dated wheel design both clash with this aesthetic style. But immediately I am skeptical about how such a small car can even be considered as a true hypercar, and I only needed to lift the engine cover to know why.
Unusually for a supercar, this car is powered by a 2.1-liter turbocharged straight four developing 422 bhp at 7800 rpm on premium unleaded. However, not only does it not sound like a supercar, it’s also poorly tuned, with high fuel consumption (a by-product of excessive boost, exacerbated by the combination a 13.5:1 AFR and an oversized turbo compressor) and slow throttle response. The power band is also very narrow, since the turbo doesn’t even start to spool up until 4000 rpm, and only blows hardest beyond 5000 rpm. Combined with the 7800-rpm redline, this leaves the car with a very small operating window; extending the rev limiter by another 500 rpm would have yielded more power at the top end, but it would barely improve the car’s drivability.
While the 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox isn’t geared too short or long, and the gear spacing is just about right, the hard-compound, economy-focused tires are a gross mismatch with this car’s sporting aspirations, whereas high-performance summer tires would have been much more appropriate. Worse, I experienced significant brake fade, although that was an inevitable symptom of the absence of brake cooling and not a result of having inadequate braking hardware. The interior and infotainment are both premium items for sure, but since both were of merely average quality, I wasn’t too keen on driving it.
After some hesitation, I finally did so, albeit begrudgingly, and I soon discovered that the comfort-oriented active suspension was at odds with this car’s positioning as a lightweight sports car. It still handled decently, though, despite inappropriate tires, but did no better than 2:09.88 at the test track, and took 3.8 seconds to go from 0 to 60, slower than anything else thus far except for the Blue Jay. Not even the low cost ($92700 with markups) and excellent fuel economy (8.41L/100km) could save this car from being dismissed for actually being too cheap.
This is the second small, big-winged, purple, curvaceous car I tested today, although unlike the Jager, this is front-engined and AWD. It looks menacing, for sure, but on the other hand it’s not the prettiest car around; the rectangular headlights and vents, along with the thick carbon-fiber wheels and angular rear wing, don’t seem to fit the car’s diminutive profile very well. Again, I am left to ponder in disbelief as to how any company could turn a small, lightweight coupe into a supercar or even a hypercar. But would this be another example of a manufacturer trying to make bricks without straw by turning a light sports car (and one with carbon-fiber panels and chassis) into a hypercar? I had to take a closer look at its mechanicals to find out.
After the disappointment of the previous car, this feels more like it. The engine is an undersquare 3.9-liter normally aspirated 60-valve V12 with a 10,000-rpm redline. However, such a high RPM limit places considerable strain on the engine’s internals, thereby reducing reliability somewhat. Nevertheless, with just over 500 horsepower on tap, it is a very potent engine, and one which not only requires premium fuel but has a very linear power delivery. All very well, but unfortunately this engine has race-spec exhaust headers, which are not only noisier than long tubular headers, but are impossible to mass-produce, and hence difficult to source a replacement for in case of failure.
Even taking that into account, this car falls short in other areas as well. The open rear diff and six-speed dual-clutch gearbox are woefully under-equipped for the sheer amount of power this car has; an electronic LSD and extra gear ratio would have made it far easier and more fun to drive. With 235mm wide tires at each corner, there is also clearly not enough rubber on the road for such a light, powerful car. In addition, there is some brake fade from the carbon-ceramic brakes, although this could be fixed by adding some brake cooling airflow. And while it has a hand-made interior with a luxury infotainment suite, they are of average quality, and add too much weight to a lightweight sports car such as this one. At least the suspension, which incorporates progressive springs and active anti-roll bars, provides a high level of comfort, but with body roll greater than 5 degrees, hard cornering feels more unnerving in this car than anything else so far.
After driving it on the road, I was wondering if there really was no point in turning a small and light sports car into a supercar or even a hypercar, so I tested it on the Automation Test Track in an attempt to (dis)prove this. During the test, I managed a top speed of 204.16 mph, a 0-60 time of 2.8 seconds, and a lap time of 2:02.71. Ultimately, though, I had to reject this car because, once again, despite the low post-markup price of $105,800 and fuel consumption of 10.44 L/100 km, it felt too much like an overpowered lightweight sports car for my tastes. Frustration was now starting to creep in…
I had sampled 15 cars so far, but much to my disappointment, many of them fell short in one way or another to the point that I had to cut them from my shortlist. Perhaps the next car will change that. The Nickel MJ600 is an elegant front-engined, rear-drive grand tourer with pushrod-actuated rear suspension, a glued aluminum monocoque and carbon-fiber bodywork. It looks stunning from any angle, especially in the deep turquoise blue favored by Shromet. However, I also wanted to know if the driving experience could live up to the looks. I had to look under the hood before that could happen though.
The Nickel is powered by an undersquare, 6.1 liter, 32-valve twin-turbo cross-plane V8, but unusually it is a single overhead cam design, although it still makes 755 bhp on super unleaded. A DOHC version of this engine would be even more powerful still (as well as being more economical), and not much more expensive considering my vast budget. Also, the first cam profile on this engine is as mild as it can get; by increasing the first cam profile, I could have traded some fuel economy for extra midrange torque. Speaking of which, there is certainly plenty of it, since the turbos spool up nice and early at just past 3000 rpm. But this engine redlines at just 7000 rpm, which is earlier than anything else I’ve tested previously, and the standard intake is too restrictive for this application. In addition, the throttle response is slower than expected for a supercar, but that was the least of my worries after I listened to its exhaust note, which really stirred my soul despite the twin turbos.
Inside, I was greeted with a hand-made interior with an infotainment system of the highest possible quality. I also discovered a gated manual shifter for the seven-speed gearbox – a definite nod to days gone by. However, the gearing is so tall, and the individual gears so widely spaced, that seventh gear feels more like an overdrive gear, although this is less of a concern in a GT car such as this one. A bigger concern are the tires; the ones at the front, being a mere 245 millimeters wide, don’t provide enough front-end grip, leading to considerable understeer at the limit. The 20-inch five-spoke carbon-fiber rims certainly look the part, though, while the brakes (420mm across front and rear, with 4-piston calipers up front and 1-piston calipers at the back) easily resist fade, despite comfort-oriented pads.
On the road, I found the Nickel to be very smooth and relaxing to drive, thanks to its comfort-oriented active suspension, but given that I was looking for a supercar, the understeer and weight left me searching for something more exciting than this. More worryingly, it has plenty of cooling capacity, but not enough of it was used, leading to overheating issues after a while. In other words, the engine was under-cooled even though it shouldn’t have been, thus explaining the low reliability figure of just over 67 – well below my minimum requirement of 70.
Despite this, the car continued to run faultlessly on the road, and managed a best time of 2:07.06 at the test track. However, its 0-60 time of 4.1 seconds is slower than I’d expected from a supercar, although its top speed of 223 mph certainly isn’t. Overall, even without cooling issues, at $174,500 the Nickel feels too much like a grand tourer rather than an actual supercar, and just isn’t thrilling enough for my tastes; the subpar reliability turned out to be the last nail in the coffin. I was now wondering if I really was better off buying a used supercar, but I didn’t want to do that just yet, and so I reluctantly moved on to the next car in the lineup.
This is quite a different car from the others I’ve tested; it’s a deep purple, rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive coupe with great proportions and an intimidating front fascia. Somehow, it reminds me of a classic 911, especially since it has a big whale-tail spoiler at the rear. However, the overall body shape is very dated indeed, and out of step with my expectation that my dream car should look fresh for years to come. Its body and chassis are both made from carbon fiber, although both of these are of average quality, as are the fixtures. Even so, at just 1162.5 kilograms, this car is a very light one indeed. So I went in expecting this to be a stellar performer – only to be brought back to earth by a whole host of avoidable engineering blunders.
Before we get to those, though, let’s talk about the engine. Like the Bambino, this vehicle is powered by a twin-turbo 24-valve V6 (although this one displaces just 3.0 liters) delivering 535 bhp, but sadly, the power delivery is far too lethargic for a supercar. The turbos don’t start spooling up until 4000 rpm, and it takes another 2000 rpm for them to deliver full boost. I later discover that the turbine and compressor are too large to provide the fast-acting thrust I’m used to with modern turbocharged engines. However, this is a reliable engine, and one that not only requires premium fuel but can rev to 9000 rpm with ease.
With a six-speed manual gearbox this car should be great to drive, but the severe turbo lag means that it most definitely isn’t. It’s made even worse by the hard economy tires, which don’t have enough grip for a supercar application. Also, the rear brakes are larger and have more calipers than the front brakes, compromising stability under braking. Inside, I can’t find enough evidence of quality to convince myself to buy this car; most incongruously, the basic infotainment system does not belong in the otherwise premium interior. Moreover, the active suspension, while supposedly configured for sportiness, is actually tuned for understeer, with considerable body roll.
All those factors made the road drive somewhat unpleasant, but I still had the nerve to set a lap time at the test track. The DAC-RTG set a lap time of 2:07.6 and reached a top speed of 201.74 mph. It could also reach 60 mph in just 3.1 seconds, but as a rear-engined car, its weight distribution was the worst out of all the cars I’d tested so far, at 26.5/73.5 front-to-rear, causing some unpleasant handling characteristics. Overall, at just $92,250, this vehicle doesn’t feel enough like a real supercar for me to even consider buying it.
This is yet another mid-engined supercar, and one whose large size gives it plenty of presence, although the front fascia reminds me too much of an angry wombat for my liking. There isn’t much wrong with the rest of the car’s styling, though, especially the huge active rear wing, and pure white complements the car’s styling very well. However, the TwoFourtyFive uses all-aluminum construction, and this partly explains the two-ton curb weight. With so much heft, I expected plenty of power to compensate for the excess mass…
…and oh boy, this car certainly does, with well over 1000 bhp, but instead of a V8 or V12 in the engine bay, I found a 5-liter twin-turbo V6, and an overbuilt one at that, with quality sliders either fully or nearly maxed out across the board. However, the V6 is way too big for a six-cylinder engine, and not the smoothest one either, although it only requires premium unleaded. It also suffers from an alarmingly large amount of turbo lag, and so I ended up dreading the impending road test.
The TwoFourtyFive is all-wheel-drive, with a 20/80 torque split front to rear, and its 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox has closely-spaced gears that aren’t too tall or short for this application. With enormous tires and brakes, I expected this car not to have much trouble turning or stopping, and it certainly didn’t, despite the comfort-oriented setup for the active suspension. I did, however, find the turbo lag severe enough to make the JHW much less exploitable than I wanted it to be, and not even the high-quality luxury interior and infotainment system could distract me enough to make me forget about the poorly optimized engine.
That said, with so much power, the JHW reached a top speed of 245 mph and, from a standing start, made it to 60 mph in just 2.7 seconds. It also set a lap time of 1:59.16 at the test track. But at $161,100, the TwoFourtyFive feels too much like a pure speed machine for me to consider it, especially with all that turbo lag. The fact that almost all the quality went into the engine makes it even less appealing to me; if those quality points had been spread out evenly across every aspect of the car, instead of being allocated mostly to its engine, this pearlescent white wedge would have made a stronger case for itself.
@nerd - Sofa 7400-TT
I never expected a third-world supercar to appear in the lineup, yet here it is, and it’s not only bright orange, but very curvaceous. However, the styling seems too bland for a supercar, with soft-edged, generic lines all around. It also has an unusual combination of body and chassis materials. Fiberglass panels on an AHS steel monocoque and a strut-sprung rear end, combined with zero quality on the bodywork and fixtures, leave me feeling that this coupe is built to a price, which is exactly what a supercar should not feel like in any way.
The 7.4-liter, 32-valve twin-turbo, single-overhead-cam also feels like it was built and designed on a tight budget. It lacks variable valve timing, and does not have VVL either. On top of that, it shuns direct injection for multi-port injection, which reduces both economy and performance. Moreover, this engine is not as reliable as some others, and throttle response is very lethargic, since it has just two throttle bodies instead of one for each cylinder. On the other hand, there’s plenty of torque on tap from 2900 rpm, and the power peak of 605 bhp is spread out over 900 rpm – specifically, from 5400 rpm all the way to the 6300-rpm redline.
The rest of the car simply stinks of awfulness. A five-speed manual gearbox with comically long gearing and a viscous LSD certainly aren’t the right choice for this car, and nor are the 17-inch steel rims. Moreover, the solid disc brakes are too weak for something obviously meant to be a supercar, with excessive fade. Worst of all, though, there is not only no positive quality at all, but also negative quality on the drivetrain, brakes, interior, and infotainment. In fact, the interior had more in common with a used subcompact than a brand-new supercar, with only basic infotainment features. Combined with the suspension being tuned for considerable oversteer, this meant that I could not even bring myself to drive the unfortunately named Sofa on the road or the track. It wasn’t just the worst supercar I had ever tested, it was the worst car, period.
After the Sofa debacle, I stood speechless and boiling with anger, quietly asking myself: Why have too few manufacturers delivered a car worthy of inclusion in my shortlist? It was then that I started to believe that a new supercar or hypercar just wasn’t the right kind of car for me, and that I would have to search the used market instead. But I was determined not to resort to scraping the very bottom of the barrel by doing so, and after some hesitation, I moved on to the next car in the lineup.
This is a futuristic-looking car for sure, and one that looks really good in its lustrous metallic bluish violet. From nose to tail, the whole design is so on point, in fact, that I almost could not resist the temptation to take pictures of the Elysios from every key angle. Kimura claims that the Elysios inspired by Grand Prix racing, and as such it features full carbon-fiber construction and pushrod-actuated suspension front and rear. But I was now even less sure than ever that the driving experience would live up to the looks after a string of disappointments, and in an attempt to reassure myself, I peered inside the engine bay.
Immediately I found another reason why Kimura touts the Elysios as being F1-inspired. The engine is a small one, at just 3.0 liters, but it turned out to be a 40-valve flat-crank twin-turbo V8 pumping out 600 horsepower to the rear wheels. The cam profile was as aggressive as possible, and the turbos were quite large, thus giving the engine a Jekyll and Hyde feel – docile below 6000 rpm, but thereafter very aggressive all the way to the 10,500-rpm redline, the highest figure thus far. The ferocious engine note throughout the rev range was just a bonus. It wasn’t the most reliable engine, though, but it was still robust enough for my needs.
The gearing profile was very unusual, with very closely-spaced yet extremely tall gears; however, by reminding myself that such bizarre gearing would make the Kimura feel more like an F1 car, I was able to quickly turn my attention to the wheels and tires. The latter measured 245mm and 325mm wide at the front and rear respectively – more than adequate for a supercar. With carbon-ceramic brakes at each corner, the Elysios stopped on a dime, and there was no trace of fade. Moreover, the active suspension was obviously tuned for sportiness, ensuring a highly exciting driving experience.
Everything it did on the test track – 0-60 in 2.6 seconds, a top speed of 224 mph and a best lap time of 2:00.78 was impressive, though not class-leading. However, the spiky power delivery makes it less suitable as a daily driver than I wanted, forcing me to give this car a pass - just. It’s a shame, considering that the Elysios has a high-quality sports interior with a luxury infotainment system, which most definitely befits a hypercar such as this one. Still, despite seemingly endless frustration, I was determined to test the last few cars in this highly diverse field.
And I probably overlooked the lack of the titanium conrods or considered them too expensive, as when I later redesigned the engine I was surprised that they are not there. My bad.
And you criticise things that a normal buyer should have no idea about - AFR, carbon fiber vs aluminium, pad type and so on. It seems awkward and unrealistic.
