This is the official deadline people!!! So don’t worry about the CSR, focus on having fun, safe and merry Christmas’s all 'round and I’ll announce the winner along with the reviews before new year’s eve… I have a lot of cars to review and I want to do a good job, 
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If we send in our cars ASAP, that means there’s a higher chance reviews will land on our plates on time, right? 
but that because minivan.
my hot hatch is best hot hatch because minivan.
Znopresk join the party. 
Can we see their car? 
Sure!
Of course is the 1.7 SuperSport trim MY 1996
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We’re all doooooooooooooomed
I’m back again for CSR 29 and a car that takes the rules to the limits, an estate with 2 engine choices that matches the rules and their own trims to go with them: The L120- a base model trim with a 1.2l i3 producing 90bhp, L160- a base model trim with a 1.6l i4 producing 142bhp, both get over 30mpg UK and both can seat 5 in comfort (think Golf or A3 estate). They feature Picasso’s two piece opposing grille design and the boot catch is lifted by turning the logo (think Golf or 1-Series estate) Prices start from $14,400 for the L120 and $14,950 for the L160
Some pictures
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Fox News, is that you?
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I can’t win in CSR
Huh?
#The Renolt 5
that’s right, 10k revs
(also, it did a 1:34.600)
Costs 13k exactly. All the hotness you need in a hatch.
(also why does Automation think it’s a coupe? Pretty sure the 5 was a hatch…)
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when is the deadline?
The 29th
thanks 
Damn you for stealing my idea Now i have to come up with something else…
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Earlier I projected that this round would be perfect to pitch the seminal iteration of Armada’s staple hatch series, the Fore Gen. II. So here’s to building the lore.
#Sometime in 1993…
Aiming to reverse their perennial money woes from generations of quirky and questionable sacrifices in the name of pursuing supreme engine tech, no sooner had Armada sought to jump onto the newly popular Hot Hatch bandwagon than they were developing a follow-up. The first Fore of the mid eighties was the last of their cars to be carburetted, a decision spurred by their insistence on whacking a turbo on the GTi variant, which, naturally, caused reliability issues (even though the resulting power output was giggle inducing).
However, the Gen. II had to be much more than shits and giggles. It had to be something that the hatch was becoming: a broadly appealing practical car for all levels. So for the first time they actually listened to the market, and, what’s more, cut the servicing costs and complexity down by ditching the turbo.
The first iteration of the Gen. IIs appeared thus:
As submitted to Leo’s Sell On Monday Win On Sunday challenge
As hoped, the GTi variant was the standout, garnering significant critical acclaim i.e. it finished a close second in its section of the challenge, though this success was not quite reflected in the competition Rallye’s results, not quite having enough power to battle for touring trophy podiums. And the Birdie, well, as a halfassed eco shitbox that was created purely to look cheap next to the GTi, nobody was surprised that it didn’t exactly sell well.
And therein lay the problem. No car company that wishes to stay in business should produce a car purely to sell poorly. And with the advanced VVTL system shared across all platforms, it wasn’t really possible to make the Birdie cheap or simple enough to suit the ultra budget city market anyway. So Armada quickly dispensed with that idea, and decided to focus on the reasons why people would buy Armada in the first place: performance spice in your budget cars.
Cue new trims, some with turbos, others with various other tricks to give them the edge, and a new advertising campaign with examples like this:
As seen in niall’s… I can’t remember the name of the contest, also, it was never completed
Note the naming of the Birdie GTi… implying hot hatch but on an even tighter budget. Aside from eventually spawning so many interrelated trim naming systems Armada’s schema would start looking like BMW, this was supposed to attract buyers who wanted the performance but not the price tag, which basically meant they were happy to have that bit of va-va voom if they didn’t mind their car falling apart extra fast…
Which brings us to the other major issue with Armada’s reputation: their cars lacked reliability and in an increasingly competitive market, this may have proven to be a decisive nail in their coffin. They needed a better way to cut the price but improve the performance while making things more reliable.
Cue taking a look across the continent to why the likes of the MX-5 NB and the Civic Si were grabbing so much attention and selling like hotcakes. They needed to evolve from an impassioned Ferrari philosophy of: if the engine’s good nothing else matters (including unintentional explosions), to more of a disciplined Japanese engineer ‘balance is everything’. They realised that they didn’t need to sacrifice build quality for the price tag, so much as stay simple, stay focused. More power wasn’t the be-all and end-all of the matter. Less is more, and so on and so forth.
The result of this revelation, spawned in 1996 in time for the mid-generation refresh, was the start of a new, enduring subseries of Armada car called the Superlite.
The Superlite was designed for people who liked driving for driving, where the interior not a tool to help you tolerate your journey with heated seats and a CD player, but rather to hold you in place as you carved corners. Flexibility was the new order of the day, offering two seats or four, a cassette player or even stripping this out. The steel bonnet and several of the panels were replaced with aluminium panels, heralding the start of Armada’s move towards aluminium. But probably the biggest challenge that Armada faced with this model, was in their bid to give the car as sporting an experience as possible, their altering the chassis to accommodate fully independent suspension. With the consequent alteration of the engine bay layout, a new powerplant had to be built: more compact, higher revving, more efficient, and above all else, punchy and responsive.
Where Birdie was the slapping together of parts from the refuse bin, the Superlite was the union of the best bang-for-buck equipment tweaked into a package of maximal fun. The 1.4L i4 was tuned to 135hp at 8krpm, coupled to a close-ratio 6 speed manual with short throw kit and a viscous LSD. Low profile 225 series sports tyres on alloy wheels came standard. The brake rotors were slotted, and the shocks upgraded.
All this came together to produce a stiletto blade of a car: sharp, but finely balanced, it could be driven by the absolute beginner, but could also be driven hard by the enthusiast.
It had oodles of grip and fantastic low-end hustle, perfect for throwing around on a dime, and the best part was, due to the less is more philosophy, it retained a low price tag and thus incredible value for money. The Automation market certainly agreed:
This was the kind of success that Armada needed to ensure the sustainability of its focus on sporting practical cars: a car that would prove to be legendary for its standout competence, as opposed to eccentricity.
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Welp, I’m fucked.
M-AWD, 252 hp, 4.7 seconds.
I’d put Pure Alu instead of Partial but the car was expensive enough at 14,700
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