The Car Shopping Round (Round 64): Tears in Heaven

koolkei · 7 January 2017 15:19

wait. 7h?

fuck guess im going alone

4LGE · 7 January 2017 16:06

A letter arrived from somewhere in the Alsace-region, written in not quite correct French. After the obligatory formal yadda yadda, some technical documents and photographs are appended:

Looking at the technical drawings, one can note that the engine is mounted transversely, and that the front wheels are driven. MacPherson struts on the front, semi trailing arms mounted under the rear bench in a way that boot space isn’t much comprised.
It also states that the slightly slanted hood and the bulging roof are designed to improve aerodynamics, and also to make it appear more sleek. It’s good enough for an estimated fuel economy of about 7l/100km, thanks to an adaptive pair of economic carburettors and the 12 valve GranDuchy engine. On a side note, it was suggested that using fuel injection could improve fuel economy by about 3%.
The rest of the setup is kept relatively frugal as long as it is sufficient for not only French families. Drum brakes are sufficient for the rear, progressive springs provide optimal ride comfort and the setup can even handle tyres that are not made by Michelin! An area that hasn’t been skimped on was the safety. Advanced safety.
The document then goes on to ramble how many baguettes they could fit in the boot, and how much the interior can resist wine spills.

Rk38 · 7 January 2017 16:09

RKX-05M

From the design studio that brought you Komodo Namar Rk38 Edition. We now bring you an all-new prototype based on the cutting edge style of modern design of the era!

This one of kind prototype vehicle to fulfil the design requirements of S.A.C.A.M. with a chic sports car inspired fastback design, this compact car is sure to excite and delight the buying public if approved by your company.

This modern compact saloon is designed from the ground up with a global audience in mind while still keeping some classical French elements we are sure your companies will enjoy. Truly a world car presented in a beautiful timeless F̶r̶e̶n̶c̶h̶ ̶B̶e̶i̶g̶e̶…Sunburnt Orange colour. Definitely NOT Brown…or Beige.

Leonardo9613 · 7 January 2017 16:36

I’m no doctor, but I think you have colourblindness.

CadillacDave · 7 January 2017 16:56

Yeah it looks more orange

conan · 7 January 2017 17:32

So the car was finally ready. After long nights trying to fit Granduchy engine into the car. Along with a few tweaks to things such as the anti-roll bars (or removal of such device), wheels and tyres, and other stuff. The FF268-F, or the Coin as it was recently christened, was ready to be ship over to France. The car is fitted with a disguised grille and a badge proclaiming the car as “Kowai Kool”. Which was a popular Japanese sub-compact of the time.

“So how does it drive?” Harold asked test driver for the day, Dave, who has been driving the Coin around the test track.
“I must say this engine perfectly matches the car. How many horsepower is it?”
“70 I believe. Not bad for a 2v right?”
“It’s fucking slow as expected. Which is not a bad thing considering how the car handles. It’s like a fucking trolley full of bloody logs. The tyres are really terrible, man. You sure it’s a radial and not bias ply?”
“It is the Gomma Milan Radial, but it’s not the typical one you get on Conans.” Harold kick a tyre on the Coin “I believe it’s call the Milan Rollio or something. Gomma sent some for testing purposes, apparently it reduce fuel economy by having superior rolling resistance, this was the only car that they would fit.”
“And why is it so terrible? And why can’t we have the same Milan CIN7 165SR13 that you knobs usually use?”
“There’s still a lot of meat left in them.”
“But it feels like there’s absolutely no tread, in the wet it’s even more horrid.”
“Do you have any good thing to say about the car?”

Dave stop to consider. And then reply.

“It’s very comfortable. If you had told me the French designed it I would’ve believe you. This car rides like it’s a magic bloody carpet. The ride is so sublime you’d be forgiven to think it’s a Hydropneumatic design. It isn’t right?”
“We thought about it, but we scrapped that idea because it would be too advanced. You know the reason the ride is so good because of the tyres you derided right? If it was the Milan CIN7 it wouldn’t be this good. Not with the SR13 profile.”
“Can you actually go into shops and get replacement for this stupid Roller or whatever the hell it’s call tyres?”
“Nope.”
“Right.”
“The car is going straight to S.A.C.A.M. I do not believe we will working on this car anymore. Even if they decided to buy it they’ll be the one tweaking into production, not us. It’s out of our hand now Dave.” Harold said.
“Does that mean I can go?”
“We’re done for today.” Harold replied, and then look at his wristwatch “Beside, it’s time for a pint. You wanna come?”
“Sure.”

lordvader1 · 7 January 2017 19:16

i stand for… it wont last very long

F17Francesco · 7 January 2017 19:53

Wrong, “I” means: I hope this works

NormanVauxhall · 7 January 2017 23:59

Entry closed

Rk38 · 8 January 2017 01:20

@Leonardo9613 and @CadillacDave You’re right it’s actually Sunburnt Orange. Not brownish beige.

NormanVauxhall · 8 January 2017 08:37

#THE S.A.C.A.M. ROUNDUP

###@Conan FRE Coin

DESIGN
The design was good, with an interesting rear fascia and a semi premium looks of the front fascia. Unfortunately the car, yes it has only 4 doors but it is not technically a saloon. The design is a 2 box, not a 3 box. Not what we were looking for.

TECHNOLOGY
Very baked potato simplicity under the chassis, with McPherson on the front and Torsion Beam at the rear and a front transverse GranDuchy engine with 2 valves for cylinder and a sporty 2 barrell carburetor. Smelling some sporty aspiration we take a look to the wheelsize, but everything was oka…
“Wait! Those are ventilated disks?”
“Yes…”
“Call the Racing Dept. They may learn something.”
The interiors were on spot for our requirements as long as the entertainment system, maybe the 8 track was a bit too much, but we will see.

ROADTEST
The handling is predictable, the ride is really comfortable for the interior packaging, the performance is fine enough to don’t feel slow and it has a nice response to the throttle that throw a pinch of sportiness into the mix, thanks also to the 5 speed manual gearbox with overdrive. A perfect solution.
The engine revs a bit over our safety threshold and it is a bit thirsty.

CONCLUSION
8700 breakeven costs x 78.9 production time. A solid chassis, an ideal interior trim package but some strange choices that we can’t afford to put into production. It is a shame, the car had real potential for the world market but the 2 box design it is not perceived as we want from the market.
At least it deserve a spot into our Museum.

###@Ornate Gazelle 75

DESIGN
The design was a bit unusual. Luckily it was well harmonized between the front and rear but it doesn’t looks like a sedan. A sedan must have 3 box design and this is a 2 box.
This is not what we requested.

TECHNOLOGY
Once we popped up the front bonnet we understood why they put 135/90 R14 on the front and 195/65 R14 on the rear. No engine was found there.
We looked at each other, embarrassed. Then we moved to the rear door and we opened it. The engine was there, sitting in the middle of a lot of unused space, showing long tubular exhaust headers and mechanical fuel injection. There was a collective sigh of frustration. We unmounted the engine and sent it to the Racing Dept to take a look at it. For the car? It could have a reserved a spot in the museum thanks to its interesting interior design… if only it had a 3 box design. We called the scrapyard lorry.

###@Der_Bayer BAM Bavaria 417

DESIGN
Very well designed front fascia and good looking rear fascia, but the rear one is too different from the curvy style of the front and broke the balance. Fault of the rearlights.

TECHNOLOGY
A good chioces under the chassis about suspensions (McPh + TorsionBar) and FF layout with transverse mounted engine (a sigh of relief come out from us once a GranDuchy was found under the front bonnet), but the lack of galvanizing was a down side.
We opened the doors and the interior was well designed, very well. Too much. Some production engineer complained about the costs we have to sustain to sell this kind of refinement, not speaking about reliability: all this bits can broke down. Yes, we are french but we want to go global. Also the alloy wheel are not ideal for the market range.

ROADTEST
We tested the car on our private track and it was very easy to drive, predictable and stable. No sign of underpower, but a bit too boring thanks to the 4 speed automatic speedbox with overdrive. Confortable and very well made, but a bit of a downer for the markets outside the USA. The fuel consumption was spot on.
We were expecting overheating of the rear drum brakes but no sign of brake fade was found. Yes, we know… german engineering, but why twin-tube dampers?

CONCLUSION
9400 breakeven costs x 84.8 production time. A solid chassis, but expensive interior that have reliability drawbacks. Some perfect choices and some less on spot (premium interiors, no galvanizing, alloy wheels and automatic gearbox).
A borderline contender for the next generation of SACAM Salgàr.

###@Sillyducky Scheisse

DESIGN
We pretended not to know the name’s meaning, anyway. The design was careful with a decent sense of “world car”. Harmonized and clean. Almost interesting with a pinch of simple elegance. The only flaw was the back a bit too short if you want to put some luggage in it, but we will check its capacity later on.

TECHNOLOGY
We popped up the bonnet and again embarrassed stares runs amongst us. Nothing here, again. We moved to the back and open the rear bonnet. A shiny full aluminium 2.0 liter inline 4 was sitting there.
“It is one of ours? I can’t recognize it.”
“Nope. It isn’t one of ours.”
“Sigh. Ask the scrapyard lorry if it have space for another car along the Gazelle.”
We sighed and moved on to the next prototype asking why they didn’t read the memo. It wasn’t that long at the end.

###@lordvader1 Brulant

DESIGN
We were pleased by the futuristic design of the car, with a strong front fascia, a simpler rear fascia and robust side reinforced by the rim design. A well balanced volumes of the 3 boxes of the body.

TECHNOLOGY
Since all the surprises we had with the previous prototype, we decide to aim for the engine and popped up the bonnet. Once again the disappointment was visible on our faces.
“That rocker cover… is…”
“Are you really looking at the rocker cover? Look at that!”
“The turbo? Our F1 motorist will definitely want to take a look at this. About that valve cover…”
“Oh shut up! What’s the problem with that?”
“Let me open that… up… hold this screw… ah! See! Not a GranDuchy. This is a DAOHC.”
“I’ll call the scrapyard and ask for another lorry.”
“I’ll move on to the next in the meanwhile.”

###@titleguy1 Cakkera

DESIGN
The front fascia is instresting, maybe too thin; the rear fascia is properly well designed and harmonized. We don’t care about the color, but the car looks smaller than it is. I hope there will be enough space for five people inside.

TECHNOLOGY
We were betting on which bonnet the engine was laying under. Luckily we found it under the front one. But we had a couple of unexpected surprises: rear wheel drive and a not galvanized chassis. The latter was not very finnick to correct, the former is more of a trouble.
The exhaust pipe seems capable to handle a sporty amount of 130 horsepower, and looking at the beefy 175 tires we are expecting a car behaviour far away from the semi budget family car.
We opened the doors and sat inside. The rear seats are a bit uncomfortable (the tranny tunnel steal space for the passenger in the middle), but everything is well refined, except for the power steering, the 8 track player, the radio, the safety package… okay, everything is bad refines, except for the seats and the dashboard.

ROADTEST
We immediately discovered that no 130 horsepower are laying under the bonnet, a more common 70-ish. So the big exhaust? It is there to spoil the car acustic. The car behaviour in the corner is a middle ground between sportiness and predictability and our expert driver told us the tires were too wide for the car, penalizing the car drivability. It is easy, but not too much on the limit, even with indipendent suspension all around.
The engine revs over our safety limit, easy to fix, but the fuel consumption were a bit on the “too much” side. A bit of bottom out, a bit of brake fade (with no lock up in the front, to easy lock up on the rear), no progressive spring but a well spaced gearbox, 5 speed manual with overdrive.

CONCLUSION
8200 breakeven costs x 75.9 production time. A good chassis, if this was a bigger car. An close to ideal interior trim package but seems to have too many tiny flaws here and there spoiling the final result. It is cheap and fast to build, but the final quality it is not enough to hit the market properly.
At least it will not go to the scrapyard. Museum spot reserved.

###@TheUltimateD00M Project Ocean

DESIGN
A perfectly sized 3 box 4 door saloon, with an interesting front fascia design completed with a… “bare” rear fascia (if you compare it with the front, unfortunately). Seems promising anyway.

TECHNOLOGY
We popped up the front bonnet with our fingers crossed and a GranDuchy engine was there. Only it was longitudinal. Another rear wheel drive. We are not against this solution, but it must be really good to win; looking at the not galvanized chassis, double wishbone suspension all around, tubular exhaust and mechanical injection doesn’t seems to be a great start.
The interior was well above our expectation, and it had also a fully cladded undertray; but… all this fancy bits and they didn’t put some progressive springs to increase the comfort nor a power steering? The rear suspensions were stealing a bit of space in the trunk.
They also put rear disks and vented front disk. Probably the fax didn’t arrived properly.

ROADTEST
Our driver enjoyed the sporty feel of the car, with 5 speed manual gearbox with no overdrive. No sign of underpower, but the rear tire were too thick. Even with all that technology in the braking system they weren’t able to remove completely the fading and the car was bottoming out, ruining the undertray. The roll was a bit excessive, just like the fuel consumption.

CONCLUSION
9900 breakeven costs x 78.2 production time. The chassis was more suitable to a sports car than a semi budget world car family saloon. A lot of choices were unfitting for the market we were aiming for (like: cladding, suspensions, lack of power steering, no overdrive, expensive mechanical injection, tubular exhaust headers).
A curiosity for our Museum.

###@Madrias Storm Veritas

DESIGN
Very interesting rear light cluster but the front fascia seems a poshy england retro styled car (Allegro Vanden Plas anyone?). The side vents are a bit too ambitious. The car size is spot on like the volumes of the 3 box design.

TECHNOLOGY
The engine was fitted under the front bonnet, but was… sigh… turbocharged and mounted longitudinally. There was an fully cladded undertray too and hydropneumatic suspensions.
“Okay, don’t jump to conclusion. Open the door and let’s take a look to the inte…”
“What is this? A luxury car?”
“Sigh… call the scrapyard…”
“Wait! It is road legal, right?”
“Yes, well… I guess so why?”
“Maybe I’ll take drive it to the scrapyard.”
“Yeah, and in the meanwhile you’re becoming the legal owner of the car.”
“Ehm… it is a problem?”
“Nah, go on.”

###@Fayeding_Spray Andias 100 Special

DESIGN
“I… I don’t… what…”
“Are you sure it belongs to our department?”
“Seems so.”
“What do you want to do with it?”
“I have no clue, it is…”
“Hello there. I’ve finished to load the cars for the scrapyard. Please sign me the delivery note and I’m done.”
“Oh, wait… there is… another one, right here.”

###@DracoAutomations iom dx16

DESIGN
A too wedgy front with a honest front fascia and a reasonable rear fascia. The 3 box design is unbalanced on the rear: too big compared to the rest of the car.

TECHNOLOGY
GranDuchy engine? Check, but mounted longitudinally with rear wheel drive: can work out if the rear seats are not to crammed and the transmission tunnel don’t annoy the passenger in the middle seat. Reasonable set of fully indipendent suspensions (McPh+SmTr). Unreasonable the lack of galvanizing, but we can sort it out.
We opened the doors and the interior was spot on, maybe the 8 track was a bit too much, but not a problem. This time the progressive springs are here, but not the monotube dampers. Twin-tube… we wonder why.

ROADTEST
The cars behave nicely with a safe understeer and predictable tyre limit. We slammed the brakes and the front disk never blocked the tyre, but the rear did, a bit too easily.
There was a pinch of bottoming out and the ride is enough comfortable and not boring to drive.
The engine runs safe under the stress limits, but the lack of an overdrive gear didn’t help with the fuel consumption. A bit too high, over 10 km with one liter.
A pity that the car don’t have a power steering.

CONCLUSION
7800 breakeven costs x 71.3 production time. A fairly good chassis. Cheap and quick to build, with a final results that is not perfect, but good enough to be evaluated. It has some flaws in its design like in some technical choices, but maybe it will worth an evaluation from the production department. A possible contender for the next generation of SACAM Salgàr.

###@gridghost Scarab Nouveau

DESIGN
A sleek but elegant front fascia coped with a simpler rear fascia. The 3 volume balance is really good and the lateral black fascia is good looking too, giving a sprint flavour to the mix.
A bit exaggerated exhaust looks anyway.
“Is that a Bogliq blue?”
“Looks like. But it isn’t a Bogliq.”
“Phew…”

TECHNOLOGY
“Pull the lever for the bonnet.”
“Yes. Let me open the driver door… uh, light… anyway… ouch, it looks too much fancy inside here, it will cost a lot to do.”
“Cut the talking, pull the lever”
“Okay, here.”
“Oh, the bonnet is really light… is it aluminium?”
“Yes, also the door. And… oh, god. Is that a turbo? Double wishbone? No galvanizing…”
“Sigh… well, call the test driver. Probably he can have some fun with it.”

ROADTEST
The test was fun, until the crash. No injury for the driver, but the car was ready for the last ride to the scrapyard, on a lorry.

###@TR8R Ovlov Esq

DESIGN
Intresting front fascia, a bit captivating. Not bad! But when we moved on the side…
“KILL IT WITH FIRE! KILL IT WITH FIRE!”
Now is sitting outside the warehouse, waiting for the scrapyard lorry… in fire.

###@Pyrlix SACAM RAM 1600

DESIGN
A serious looking front fascia, almost “hard-nosed” a simply but fairly elegant rear fascia with a good balanced three box design. Unusual choice for the “closet style” door opening.

TECHNOLOGY
Under the bonnet there was a transverse mounted GranDuchy 1.6 liter version. Alarming was the choice for a 4 barrel carburator and the not galvanized steel chassis. The interior are spot on with our expectation with a maybe a touch of extra technology on the entertainment system. Disappointing the use of double wishbone in the back, the load capacity is reduced by the bulge requested to house the suspensions.
The rear seats were enough comfortable, thanks to the lack of a transmission tunnel, and the brakes (front solid disk and rear drum) were spot on. Maybe the rear drums seems a bit too small and the rear tires a bit too wide. 175 on the back and 155 on the front. Unusual.

ROADTEST
The car is comfortable, very drivable, really predictable in the corners and the tyre compound ‒ along with the fat rear tyre ‒ gives it a remarkable amount of grip. Even with only 60 horsepower, the car is not too slow, with a bit of “brio” here and there even with the automatic 4 gearbox without overdrive. As expected we had a noticeable brake fade.
The fuel consumption is less than 9 liter for 100 kilometers: a good result with that gearbox. We had some trouble with the 4 barrel carburetor. The reliability is not very high, probably too many pieces for such a tiny engine, but the throttle responsiveness was very good. Maybe too much for a family saloon?

CONCLUSION
8200 breakeven costs x 77.5 production time. A chassis a bit too sporty, bit expensive engine fuel delivery system that have reliability drawbacks. Some perfect choices too, but some other less reasonable (uneven tyres, lack of galvanization). Sure it is not very expensive to build, nor time consuming.
A borderline contender for the next generation of SACAM Salgàr.

###@Microwave Project Chevron

DESIGN
“Who parked here this 60’s sedan? It should go to the museum, for sure.”
“Ehm, sir… this is the Project Chevron. A new prototype.”
“Ahahaha, nice one. Now, seriously. Move it to the museum.”
“But, sir…”
“MU-SE-UM”
“Yes, sir.”

ROADTEST
“It isn’t that bad, but it locks up the brake really quickly. If it only had a more modern design. What a pity.”

###@Leonardo9613 Omelette du Fromage

DESIGN
A bit old looking 3 box design ‒ very well balanced ‒ with a classic front well design fascia and a bit “heavy” rear fascia.

TECHNOLOGY
Under the front bonnet there was a GranDuchy engine, a 1.6 linter, very similar to the one used into the RAM 1600, but on this prototype they had the decency to put a single barrel carburetor. The “undecency” was to put it longitudinally: not a big problem if the car is made properly. Galvanized chassis and front McPherson are a good start, but once we check the rear boot, the infamous bulge of the double wishbone suspension makes us sigh.
The interior was as we were expecting, but the lacks of the radio was a bit disappointing. The rear seats were good, but the transmission tunnel was annoying the passenger seated in the middle.
A perfectly sized tyres, 145 front and rear but the dual piston ventilated disks aren’t fitted even on our sports coupe. We are not going to mount them on a semi-budget family saloon.
“Why people hate gas monotubes?”

ROADTEST
The Omelette… the car was very drivable, with a predictable and safe cornering behaviour. The 5 speed manual gearbox was spot on, with an overdrive gear, and the 60 horsepower were enough to don’t feel any “slowness”. Our driver was sure that the AFR wasn’t really lean, because the throttle response was nice for a single barrel carburator, adding some sportiness flavour to the mix.
The rear brakes still suffer from some fade, and slamming the brakes all four wheels can lock up.
The car comfort is enough, the exhaust barely hearable from inside the car, but the fuel consumption was a bit high, over 10 liter for 100 km. Maybe with a different carburator… an eco carb…

CONCLUSION
7500 breakeven costs x 76.5 production time. The chassis a bit too sporty oriented, the engine is reliable with the downside of being a bit too thirsty. The design is a bit old but still usable. Some perfect choices too and but some a bit off (rear wheel drive, no radio, no monotube dampers, vented two piston disk on a 145mm tyre). Sure it is very cheap to build and fast to assemble.
A possible contender for the next generation of SACAM Salgàr.

###@Zabhawkin FF76

“What is that?”
“Sir, it’s a contender for the Salgàr.”
“The new Salgàr is already in production. What is going on here? I think they are on late”
“The fax resolution must have played a trick. Maybe they read 1976 instead of 75.”
“Well, too late. Send it back. The scrapyard is not accepting prototypes anymore.”

###@JohnWaldock JHW Orbis

DESIGN
“It is a two box… or a three box?”
“It’s a car crash. Someone have rear ended the car earlier on.”

TECHNOLOGY
“Hydropneumatic suspension, tubular exhaust header, fuel injection, and… look at those tiny tiny front disks. I’m not going to take this for a ride, or I’ll have another crash.”
“Don’t need to drive it. It doesn’t have five seats. Sigh.”
“Book another lorry. I’m sure this is not the last one that will go there.”

###@abg7 WDM Xelom Turbo

DESIGN
Another slightly old looking 3 box design. A contemporary simple and reliable front fascia design, and a bit heavy rear fascia. Reminds us the Omelette du Fromage.

TECHNOLOGY
Under the bonnet there was a turbocharged-fuel-injected version of the 1.7 liter GranDuchy engine mounted longitudinally. Cope this with an all-around double wishbone suspension, allow wheels and ventilated disk on the front and rear. We sigh soundly.
“This is going to be too expensive for a semi budget family saloon.”
“Put it aside to the other one headed to the museum.”
“Wait!”
“You have already ‘scrapped’ a car. What now?”
“Send it to the styling department. Maybe we can use this base for a concept coupe based on—”
“MU-SE-UM”
“Yes, sir.”

###@AirJordan Smooth Virago

DESIGN
One of the best looking rear fascia and an unusual, but good looking, front fascia. A proper good job. The body is well proportioned with a modern three box design.

TECHNOLOGY
“Finally a front transverse GranDuchy engine with single barrel eco carburators.”
“There. A turbo… and it’s not galvanized.”
“Sigh… I wonder why they hate the galvanizing. Are all of them italians? Well, let’s take a seat, shall we?”
“Yes… Oh, wow. This is going to cost us quite a lot. Look at this leather inserts.”
“To the museum, right?”
“Are you a mind reader now?”
“No. We still have space in the museum?”
“I’ll give them a call.”

###@thecarlover SDS-1645

DESIGN
Very good looking front fascia and a very well crafted and designed rear fascia. A bit heavy looking but very well crafted. The 3 box volumes are perfectly balanced. All that chrome going to be obsolete soon, but now looks great.

TECHNOLOGY
We popped up the bonnet and take a look into the engine bay.
“Well, double wishbone on the front is not a big problem, on the rear…”
“The rear wheels have semi trailing, so we are fine.”
“So, longitudinal GranDuchy engine, no turbo. We are fine here too.”
“Sir, this is not our engine.”
“It isn’t?”
“Check the code.”
“Oh, damn it.”
“It is very similar, but the stroke is lower. I call the scrapyard.”
“Aah… no. It deserve a spot into our museum. I mean, look at it! And… swap the engine before bring it there, okay?”

###@thegermanbeamer lulu

DESIGN
A quite modern and unusual front fascia coped with an another unsual but good looking rear fascia. A bit heavy 3 style boxes and a car too big for a mid sized sedan.

TECHNOLOGY
In the engine bay we spotted a 3 valves per cylinder GranDuchy engine with a single standard carburator mounted transversely with McPherson suspension and without galvanization. The use of torsion beam in the rear allow to use the luggage space as its best.
Front vented disk on the front are probably a bit too much, like the semi cladded undertray, but the rear drum are spot on with the expectations.
The interior of the car are, again, too much for what we were expecting, with some leather insert and real wood finishing. Also the 8 track is a bit too much.
On a positive note, there were even tyres on front and rear. On a negative hydropneumatic suspension were fitted.

ROADTEST
As we worried, the car felt too slow and boring to drive. 69 horsepower of the 1.7 liter weren’t enough to move the car properly, the automatic 4 speed with a bit of overdrive is not helping and the engine revs cut too early: a correct choice to save the internals, so the cam setting is to blame.
The car behave properly into the corner, with a predictable grip loss and limited roll angle.
The brakes work properly without any sign of brake fade, but pushing too hard can block all the 4 wheels.
The fuel consumption is unacceptable with more than 12 liters for 100 kilometers.

CONCLUSION
10600 breakeven costs x 82.7 production time. A chassis is very spot on, it only lack the galvanizing, but the car is too big, too heavy, too luxurious and too unrealiable.
If we didn’t developed the executive saloon “Orchard” last year, this car along with an inline 6 would be a perfect candidate. But now it will be a perfect exposition for the museum.

###@Denta Project Artha

DESIGN
A simply but solid and adequate front fascia and an uneven and simple rear fascia. Probably a black stripe between the taillights would it balance everything. The three box body is good, but a bit too massive on the rear and in the C pillar.

TECHNOLOGY
Once we opened the bonnet, we were again staring a GranDuchy engine mounted longitudinally in between double wishbone suspension. It is galvanized too, a reasonable start, but having the same suspension type in the rear wasn’t the wisest choice. Like the turbocharger, the mechanical fuel injection, the vented disks, the premium interiors, the alloy wheel…
“Museum?”
“They have finished the space.”
“The scrapyard?”
“I’ll give them a call.”

###@Rk38 RKX-05M

DESIGN
On the front we have an interesting and unusual fascia, a bit old looking for a 1975 design. While on the rear there is a more modern and very well designed rear fascia.
On the side, by the way…
“It is a three box?”
“I don’t think so.”
“It is more of a lift back”
“Even if it is a three box, the boot access is very limited and there isn’t enough space for luggage.”
“What a pity. At least can we try to squeeze it into the musem? Along with that FRE Coin?”
“You can try.”

###@F17Francesco 202i

DESIGN
Simple front fascia with a peculiar style coped with a simple round style rear light. A more square-ish design would be more appropriate, but this is a small problem; like the terrible color. Another thing is a small problem: the body size. It is small, too small.

TECHNOLOGY
The GranDuchy engine is mounted under the front bonnet, with rear coil spring live axle, an interesting choice that—
“Stop looking at it. It is too small to be the next Salgàr. Let’s move on”
“It is not that bad.”
“It is not what we requested. Stop looking at it or you’ll become colorblind. Come on, call the scrapyard.”
“Yes, sir.”

###@HighOctaneLove Salgar II Prototype

DESIGN
A modern well balanced 3 box design, with a simple and modern front fascia, coped with spot on rear fascia. A clean design that can pass the test of time, not exciting, but enough solid and serious.

TECHNOLOGY
“Here we go again. Leather interior, a high quality sound system with a 8 track player, double wishbone front and rear, rear wheel drive,vented disk, fully cladded undertray, long tubular exhaust and mechanical injection… how designers think a mid-low class family with 2 two kids can afford a car like this?”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say ‘There is more room in the scrapyard?’ at your phone.”

###@4LGE VC2 Version Sacam

DESIGN
A carefully crafted front fascia, a bit too black for our taste, coped with an almost perfectly crafted rear design fascia and taillights. We were almost speechless. A modern and well balanced 3 box design with a couples of curious bulges on the roof and on the front bonnet.

TECHNOLOGY
The engine it’s a classic GranDuchy 1.7 F engine, with Forged internal. Expensive, but the extra compression coped with the dual eco barrell carburator makes us hope for a low fuel consumption. It is mounted transversely under the front bonnet with McPherson in the front and semi trailing arms in the rear. The chassis is fully galvanized.
The interior are spot on with a bit of extra, like a 8 track cassette player. No sign of ventilated disks, of hydropneumatic suspensions. There is a semi cladded undertray, but it is not a big fault.
Finally something that looks reasonable, like progressive springs and monotube dampers and the 155 hard tyres front and rear on steel rims.

ROADTEST
The car has a good drivability and there is no sign of underpower. The 5 speed manual gearbox with overdrive is good and the behaviour in the corner is really predictable with a safe amount of understeer before the car lose the grip completely.
The brakes are too sensible. It is easy to lock up the brakes but no sign of fade were felt during the test. The car has also a bit of sporty feel in the corner (less in the acceleration due the long gears) for a family car but the fuel consumption it is really good, with just a bit more of 7 liters for 100 kilometers.

CONCLUSION
8600 breakeven costs x 80.8 production time. A good chassis, coped with a little bit expensive engine model (fully forged with 3 valves for each cylinder and double eco barrel carburetor). A very good design and several perfect choices makes it with only some minor fault (semi clad undertray, too strong brakes, and bit too long gears ratio).
A good contender for the next generation of SACAM Salgàr.

###@szafirowy01 Project 238

DESIGN
A well balanced four door three box design, with a very simple front fascia and a spot on rear fascia.

TECHNOLOGY
“Another fully cladded, mechanical injected, turbocharged, vented rear disk expensive sport sedan that try to sell as semi budget.”
“At least this one doesn’t have double wishbone on front and rear. And it is front wheel drive.”
“Not enough to save it. Make a last call to the scrapyard and let’s move on. There are five cars that must be evaluated for the future of S.A.C.A.M.”
“Yes, sir.”

##CONCLUSION
A lot of people don’t know how to read.
I’ve asked for a semi-budget family sedan, and people was throwing in judgement turbocharged premium cars with a lot of expensive bits everywhere.
If you take a look to a real semi-budget family sedan of the 1975 you’ll find: no undertray, front solid disk and rear drums, caruburators, manual gearbox, radio and standard or basic interior.
Only because the radio didn’t gave any exta comfort NOBODY choose it, but I was looking for it.

The 5 finalists are the only sensible cars I’ve received.
Later today, the winner.

Anyway, thanks everybody for partecipating to this very hard round (I’m a harsh judge!) and investing your time in this CSR 30 round. I was genuinely surprised by some car design. Congratulations to everybody and sorry for the broken english.

Madrias · 8 January 2017 09:15

I’ll admit, I missed the ‘semi-budget’ part and ended up making a luxury car out of it.

Denta · 8 January 2017 09:19

other than the cheap mentality that i missed, i cant even figure how you can have at least 85 HP with only NA eco carburator? i feel like 70-ish HP feel too weak even for family car

strop · 8 January 2017 09:46

I haven’t read the reviews yet, so let’s see how well this comment matches up with the reviews.

Early on in this round I did try to put together a car. The first and last problem I encountered was the power. Indeed, it was hard to even get much more than 60bhp when building to, er, NormanVauxhall budget spec (which I know very well!)

In short I felt that the Automation demographic metric was not a bad surrogate for choice here as their budget point for “family” was fairly low compared to what a lot of people are accustomed to building here. With the unusual engine choices, however, drivability would easily be compromised through lack of performance, and that to me seemed to be the major challenge. However the build and servicing costs of mechanical injection and turbo were invariably prohibitively high compared to single barrel carb, which is all that would have been required here otherwise.

Not having enough time to solve this problem in a sensible fashion I was unable to submit a car, but that would have been my chief consideration.

lordvader1 · 8 January 2017 09:46

i should have used rear engined design.
endanger you and your whole family at once

ramthecowy · 8 January 2017 09:47

Mate, how many family cars do you see nowadays with those levels of power? Kia Rio, Picanto, Dacia Sandero, Ford Fiesta, etc etc? We’re still not that far past 80hp in a family car.

conan · 8 January 2017 10:07

The fax arrived in the morning. Rory and Harold decided to bring the news straight to the chairman of Conan Cars PLC at the time, Conan Derr the Fifth (1915-1986), who reign the company from 1957 to his death in 1986. The guy was famous for his exploits in motor racing and bringing Conan cars onto racetracks, with successes and not.

“Sir, the French have replied, they don’t want our car.” Rory was the one breaking the news to Conan.
“Which car?” Conan look suitably confused.
“The FF268-F.” Rory replied.
“But I know about that already. Fucking arseholes the French. We OWN them and yet they refuse our creation, they don’t know a good car if it ran over their baguette factory…”
“But sir” Harold stopped raging Conan “We didn’t mean our FRE department, we meant S.A.C.A.M. We sent the same car to them for evaluation”
“Oh…” Conan stopped, looking a bit embarrassed “And why did they rejected that thing?”
“They said it’s not what they were looking for. They wanted a 3-box design and ours is not.” Harold said.
“Does that even matter?”
“Apparently it does, sir.” Rory said.
“Whatever, just put the thing into production ourselves. We can do that right? The car is basically finished. I spent shedload of money for that pile of crap and I’m not letting it go to waste. The C23 Forward model is 2 years away. Why don’t we put the FF268-F as a new stopgap Conan? Let’s call it the Cheesebox or whatever and be done with.” Conan stopped, open a cabinet, he brought out a bottle of whiskey “Gosh, I need a drink.”
“Sir, do you think it would fit our brand image?”
“Yes! Fit it with our S4 3V motor, it’s the better motor anyway. And put some proper tyres on it. Job done. Sell it to those mums and dads who don’t give much shit about cars.”

And with that. The FF268-F was reworked into the Conan C31 “Cheesebox”. And went on production as a companion model for the then current C43 “Wedge” and the upcoming C23 “Forward”. In the end the car was a bit different from the prototype, having normal 14 inch tyres, 1.6 S4 3V 80hp engine, and different suspension tuning. The car was not a huge success, and was in production for only 5 years, it was at least profitable. In 1980 the C43 “Wedge” and the C31 “Cheesebox” was merged into one, as the C44 “Euro”. And the direct replacement for the C31 wasn’t available until much later.

The original FF268-F prototype is still at the S.A.C.A.M. Museum. But later development cars were all scrapped.

Denta · 8 January 2017 10:11

IMO those are budget family car that even far from budget premium family car, you can argue that 1970’s budget car have more less power than my prefrence. yes i know Datsun GO with only 60HP even with 7 seater but i wouldn’t call it premium car even for the top trim variant. this is probably just me with my hate toward fake branding to most budget car produced in here. just say im not really sensible when it come to call market for this case

JohnWaldock · 8 January 2017 11:16

dammit, i thought i had 5 seats!!!

welp, 31 awaits

Leonardo9613 · 8 January 2017 11:33

He never mentioned budget premium. Knowing NormanVauxhall I knew the cars we should be looking for would be the Fiat 124, the final year of which was 1975, and therefore its successor, the 131, and whatever the French were doing, cars like the Renault 12 Or Peugeot 304.

Even then his ideas of sensible are different to mine here, because I wouldn’t put a radio on my car in a mid range trim in 1975, and it could be RWD, as several of the cars mentioned above were.