As far as I’m aware you just downshift while being mindful of the revs to avoid compression braking! 
Here are the dudes at Roadkill using one…
youtube.com/watch?v=YUefSKCjP8w&index=2&list=PL12C0C916CECEA3BC
Oh wow, that’s just giving me ideas it is.
Well, that was a lot of entries for a single week. Thank you all for having so much interest. I had a very hard time figuring out which one I’d spring for in the end, because there was such a large range that played to different purposes and therefore different strengths. I did deliberately force everybody to pick a focus, which you all did in spades, and that’s why I now have the task of finding out which car achieves a personal balance between my needs and my desires, but tickles my fancy that little bit extra. Please keep in mind that while informed by the stats as they should be, the decisions in this challenge are ultimately personal and come from a whole bunch of factors and influences that no candidate may control or even know. Such is the way of selling cars to a public market.
Since it’s the first round, I’ll put as much effort into it as possible. I don’t expect there to be nearly as much detail in subsequent rounds, and if there is not, the rounds themselves can also be much shorter, like, 3-5 days. I’d like to give as many people a chance to create a challenge themselves.
The following can be considered an excerpt from Strop’s internal journal which highlights some of his thoughts and reactions when car shopping. We shall assume that he either went to a public dealership or was inspecting a car with a dealer privately in the case of cars that required special importing. Do note that this was written from a rather Australian point of view, so what we consider normal or unusual here will not at all match with the rest of the world markets.
Time to go car shopping. Australia’s economic outlook may look particularly bleak, but with our very risky labours starting to bear fruit, the mood at Gryphon Gear is optimistic. And so after a year of hobbling along in the rattling squeak box that is Putt Putt, I finally have enough money to pay for a car as well as the mortgage. My immediate thought was damn, Australia’s imports are really starting to diversify. I had to admit that I didn’t know quite a few of them because, well, GG is mostly concerned with the extreme pointy end of performance, like Pagani and Koenigsegg, or Inland, Jiorani, Axial, Venom AG and several others along the same lines. Yes, we have our eye on you.
But unfortunately, my budget is too low and my needs too diverse. I’ll just have to get myself a car for the real world, lol.
2014 Needle Production Cars Del Piero W-Edition
First off was literally the first dealership I came across, just to kick things off: Needle Production Cars. I was greeted by a salesperson who was trying to flog ageing stock but with the look of one who felt their task to be Sisyphean. In terms of the new car market, that’s the year before last at the very latest, and since it’s just ticked over into 2016, well, 2014 is old. On first acquaintance, the NPC Del Piero W-Edition… looked like a Volvo. Was I ready for a Volvo? But hey, the salesman said, you can totally fit three corpses in the back… did he just say corpses? What a creepster. Also, though I wasn’t exactly saying this while I was looking at a bloody hauler wagon, but I definitely was thinking maybe something a bit quicker and not just having some sporty aspirations like in the double-wishbone suspension.
On the plus side, this did mean you can totally take the car on camping trips and not have to bring a tent if you didn’t want to. And it’d definitely fit the portable shower. Spacious, comfy, reliable, and able to go a little off the beaten track, it ticked all those boxes. Technically, it was nearly a match for the 2015 Subaru Outback except for being thirstier (the price of being more powerful I guess, at least as the same level trim). It probably would have had the edge on the 2014 despite being RWD only. That’s when I realised where the tinge of resignation came from: better than its contemporary, surpassed by its successor, the upstarts usurping its place on the throne and consigning it to much higher odds of staying on the shelf, unless, of course, they had a massive runout. It was already unusual to see them keep the stock from the previous financial year… did they not have any updates coming out for the following year and got caught with their pants down by Subaru? I predict a clearance and a heavy discount come EOFY.
As we were leaving, E piped up: “I kind of liked the look of that one. It looks like a very Dad car.”
You could say that. But we were just getting started.
2015 Storm Spirit SE
http://www.automationgame.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=18416
With the imminent demise of the Australian branches of GM (Holden) and Ford (Ford), Holden and Ford both recognised the significant market share that was still to be had by importing US hero cars to Australia. For that same reason, a number of boga- Australians of the same cut were frantically salivating at the opportunity to get their hands on the likes of Challenger, Mustang, Camaro… in fact they’re not an infrequent sight around Melbourne, despite the whole ‘Luxury Car Tax’ business, which I won’t go into now. Storm Automotive is one of those US car makers that form a big part of the US resurgence, cresting a wave of improved engineering and build quality to progressively shake the old hoodoo and better yet, jump into the gaps left by the destruction of the Australian automotive manufacturing sector. While there are many things still very wrong with US car making, there are also many things going right, compared to several years ago, so I guess if you want to make America Great Again, you should look to those examples. And that’ll be the last I talk of politics in this internal monologue, I swear.
The Storm Spirit SE, well, it reminded me very much of the Dodge Charger SRT. There was nothing subtle about it. This time, E was struggling to keep a poker face but I knew inside, she would have been despairing because… See, we have this game called Douche Car. To play, it’s… admittedly a bit like those sexist jerks who like to heckle women by yelling numbers at them based on their ‘want to bang’ rating. Except this time we’re doing it at cars. And the score is the Douche Factor. That is to say, the higher the number, the more douchey you think the car is. And it’s highly subjective. For example, if you drive a 1991 Hyundai Excel, I score you a 0 because that just means you’re way too povo to afford anything decent, and that you don’t deserve to be called a douche for that. However, if you drive a 1991 Hyundai Excel with GT stripes, fake CF hood vinyl and ‘custom alloy’ rims which I know are fake and will shatter on the first pothole you encounter, well, that earns a solid 5 points. If you drive a Holden HSV or a Ford FPV, you score a minimum of 3 because bogaaaaaaaaaaan. And if you drive any high performance luxury vehicle in cabriolet/spyder edition, you score a 10. I knew a guy from school who was given a Gallardo Spyder for his birthday, and he was the ultimate douche, the kind of guy who lived off his dad’s wealth because he ‘didn’t feel like any kind of work suited him’. Know that I am judging you.
So that digression explains why I was looking for a car that might be sporty or a proper road rocket, but not look it (too much). Storm Automotive probably don’t do that too much, what with their shaker hood scoop and big fat square everything that just yells 'MURICA. It scored at least 6 douche points I reckon. Despite this, my curiosity was great and so I clambered in and took it for a spin.
My God, it was glorious. Pliant, predictable yet responsive, powerful. And the AWD was a pleasant surprise. I think this car shows really just how much work (some of) the US market has done to really improve on their quality and engineering nous, and I’m impressed. Bonus points for being one of the very few cars in the field not to have problems navigating the dealership driveway!!! This thing has been tuned for drivers by drivers, clearly, and moves with a grace that defies its high weight. I knew full well that E would probably dump my arse if I actually forked out for one (well, no, she wouldn’t, but she definitely wouldn’t want to be seen riding in it). And to be honest, while it wasn’t a bad looker, it wasn’t really to my aesthetic tastes either. But the sheer superiority of its engineering and the pleasure of driving it counted for a lot.
2015 Boqliq Fox GT300
Disclosure: I’ve had prior dealings with Boqliq in a car making and tuning capacity before, when our team was commissioned by them to help figure out why they were winning so many wooden spoons in all things motorsport. Happily, they’ve improved considerably since, but part of the enduring charm of Boqliq is their steadfast adherence to their quirks, like sacrificing performance for character, and painting every single one of their cars powder blue. Considering they’re situated in a country whose citizens don’t know which nation they actually belong to on a daily basis, I can only tip my hat to that consistency.
The Fox GT300 is a little variation, because it’s a small sporty MR car in a field populated predominantly by passenger cars and utility vehicles. But this was the one they steered me towards, perhaps hoping that flight of fancy would persuade me over the other needs. Well, they do know me well…
The Fox proved that boxy could be cute, at least, to an extent. The car certainly did seem like an anachronism in a modern world, but that was all part of the Boqliq charm, and I could kind of feel a little crush forming. The sweet drivetrain delivered the thrills of the Lotus Elise for around half the price, and the whole drive was very involving (except for the fact the final gear seemed to be an overdrive gear so tall that it didn’t seem designed for Australian freeway speeds). It was like the MX-5, except this time with enough power, and in MR form. It scratched a deep itch, the yearning for an affordable sports car for the true enthusiast, which is a dying breed. And I know for a fact that this is very much what the owner of Boqliq would want to see in his cars, and he must be proud.
Of course, such pure thrills does come at the cost of nearly everything else. No way could I put much gear in here. I couldn’t take this car anywhere near a pebble without completely ruining the splitter, for sure. And it was already horrendously scraping unless I drove over speed bumps almost perpendicularly. And when I say it was like the MX-5, well, I first asked myself, did I need another car in the same niche as the MX-5?
…or was it time to let go of the MX-5, buy this one, and then get an old Outback for the real utility hauling? The temptation was strong, I can tell you that. Even more so when E said: “I really want one,” followed by, muttered under her breath, “I might bonk you on the head and keep it for myself.”
2016 Revera NS360 GTS
First impressions are important. The first impression of Revera was a blast of cool air in the midst of a baking hot day: a properly airconditioned, mostly glass showroom with a bunch of new shining gleaming cars in dusky metallics. It was a place of impeccable suits and not a speck of dust in sight, which, in the height of Australian summer, is a bloody marvel. The brochures on the table, all expounding the superlative virtues of their models, were all signed by Mr Hendrik Asdren himself. This place meant business.
The NS360 also meant business, with a body and visage that projected sharpness and poise. Beginning the drive, I could immediately imagine this to be the perfect city sedan, nimble yet exuding the class that Melburnians crave. On the open road, though, there was plenty on tap, and yet it wasn’t particularly thirsty. And the grip, good lord I piled it on in the corners and then some and the car kept going and going. There was just one thing I noticed: regardless of suspension settings, the ride always felt… a bit firm. I had the same issue with Peapod, but there, I knew it was because Honda like a little too much rebound in their setups. This was more like, the tyres were a bit louder, a bit thinner than usual.
That’s when it hit me. The tyres were low profile. Exactly how low? 35. “They’re run-flats,” the salesperson helpfully added.
Well, that’s what happens when you get imports, you also get funny configurations with parts you can’t replace particularly easily. In this case, there’s only one kind of tyre you can easily get locally in size 235/35R18, and those are Toyo Proxes T1Rs. Summer tyres. For the track. Not something you’d want to drive on a daily basis, rain or shine.
That was going to be a bit of a problem. Fortunately, the brakes and wheel wells were the right size that I could get 235/50R16s on them quite easily. I could always keep the Proxes for when I did want to hoon the car on the side, because god knows it was good for that as well as being a classy city cruiser. And it had presence.
“I’d give this a 9/10”, remarked E. “Except that its particular classiness is… kind of corporate. The kind of corporate that financial advisors and hedge fund managers would like. It’s the kind of car I’d see ______ drive.” I did a double take as she rattled off a few names of my former colleagues from the medical side. My Dog, she was right! I winced as I imagined being lumped as the same kind of driver as the, er, slimier of my former colleagues. Not that it diminished the overall appeal at all… it just meant I had to remember it was like buying a properly priced Audi, or a BMW. That’s the insight of a post-doctoral scientist for you.
2015 ABR Chameleon
Like I said, first impressions are important. The experience here could not be a starker contrast to the place I’d just been to. I guess the company name, Ambitious But Rubbish, should have tipped me off. My Spidey “dodgy ripoff car salesman” sense was tingling like crazy, but shopping for a deal means looking high and low, and the surest way to come out a winner is to do thorough market research.
My resolve swayed when I was confronted simultaneously by a brochure, which, in its misguided attempt to ‘Australianify’ itself, was printed entirely in gaudy green and yellow. And while I was trying to shake my dichromia induced headache, up sauntered the dodgy car salesman and immediately schmoozed his way into my personal space. Within two minutes, he was calling me “Stroppy”. Come on dude, if you get any closer you’re going to get grease on my shirt.
At any rate, I was here to buy a car, not have a toupee attempt to achieve symbiosis with my pectorals. So I turned my attention to the Chameleon. The front was… interesting. Not too bad, I guess. The rear however, goodness gracious, what was with the tail light array? That must have been hell to get past the regulators of just about any OECD country. Not to mention it gave me the serious heebie-jeebies. I think it was because it kind of looked like red glowing teeth in a mouth to complement the eyes that were the regular tail lights. The front, too, was no less zoomorphic. E thought it looked like a cat with whiskers. I was thinking more an axolotl.
The looks were one thing, but once I started driving it, I quickly realised the car was actually nothing like its brand namesake. It was clearly pitched a trim class lower than the NS 360, but the added simplicity meant lower costs and greater reliability. My main disappointment was the fundamental choice of suspension, leaving it a bit lacking in feel and more flatfooted in the corners than I would have liked. But that wasn’t a big quibble in the scheme of things. The bottom line here was that this was one of those bargain cars that was very nearly as good as the next level for far less. And it still had a handy 307bhp.
2015 Daiki Ayase Sport
http://www.automationgame.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=18427
“Nope.” Was the first thing E said. I could see why. The visage of this car was decidedly aggressive, unsubtle, leaving little to the imagination as to the car’s intentions. It looked like a Holden touring wagon with anger management issues. Then there was the tagline: A Wagon For Parents Who Want a Sports Car But Can’t Buy One. Yeah, okay, I get that, except I’m also not one of those people. Then again, when building a car, all that means is that it’s not actually pitched directly at me, but the whole idea of this market research was to see if I could be swayed otherwise, right? I mean, I already seriously considered buying a car that would put a serious strain on my relationship, it was that good 
Driving the thing, I immediately noticed a triumvirate of distinguishing features that marked it as a modern wagon. One: it was FWD. Okay, definitely not typical of this kind of car, at least in this sector, in Australia. But considering the history of why Subaru make AWD cars… to mangle history a little, it’s because they found FF better in the snow, and wanted to see if they could combine the best of both worlds, so to speak. I would have to put my ocker preconceptions on hold, given just how long the otherwise very well regarded Ford Mondeo was dragged down by its anaemic, blundering wagon counterpart. Something happily fixed for the most part by the 2015 version. That’d be the kind of car I would use as a benchmark here.
Back to the distinguishing things. Two: it was a turbo. Okay, that’s not actually unusual, I suppose, given that this is the trend that has taken over Europe and is spreading through the US and pretty much over the world. But this turbo was one that you’d never guess was there during anything resembling normal city driving. It wasn’t an eco turbo in the slightest, it was one of those beasts that spooled up at… wait for it… over 4k then suddenly POWAAAAAAAAH. A fair amount of it too, it’d blow the Mondeo away but good, that’s for sure. Which brings me to three: the redline of 9500rpm. A very un-car motor like angry hornets’ rasping it made when I gave it the beans. Suddenly the 4k spool threshold made a whole lot more sense: in fast mode, that still gave it a very decent powerband in context. Yes, the powerplant was downsized (in fact one of the smallest among the cars tested), but this was the kind of drivetrain of the future, no doubt. The downside of all that was that all the fancy snail bits did translate to a fair bit more projected servicing costs.
Afterwards, I realised one thing: the tagline on the Daiki Ayase Sport was right on the money. It really was a sports wagon for parents who needed to take their three kids to football and didn’t have the budget or the time for another car in the garage. And if you did want to go fast, it was more than capable of providing very un-family wagon-like thrills at a decent clip. It was just that this trim really went to town to get its 302hp out, leaving it a little more thirsty at the pump and on the wallet. I might not be a parent, so I might not be constrained so much in my priorities, but I could always load a ton of gear in place of the kids for the time being.
2015 HP Craftworks HPC Series 6 Wagon Sport Package
In slate grey, the narrowed visage and slitty tail lights punctuating the hulking frame of a large family wagon was an imposing, almost sinister sight.
“It looks like a friendly grandpa,” was E’s comment.
That was not quite what I was thinking, I have to say. Well, I suppose looking specifically at the angulation of the headlights, it kind of had a slightly droopy look. Intort them a little, however…
One of the first things I thought to do after hearing the spiel was to pop the hood. Sure enough, in all its ridiculous glory, was a 6L V8. It look like it’d been shoehorned in there from a race car but god knows what ratified code takes 6L engines anymore. This was more a point of celebration of bigger is better, lairy burnout drag races (from all four wheels, I might add). It definitely put out the most power out of anything I was considering to buy on the budget. The cabin too was sumptuously appointed, entombing one in luxury materials. Entombing? Shit, that creep from earlier must be rubbing off on me. It was probably time to see what this bus could do. Which, apparently, was something the test drivers had studiously avoided.
“You might want to hold on,” I warned E, before putting the hoof down.
This thing is blazes fast in a straight line. The engine just picks up and up with a guttural roar, muted by all the cabin insulation, until all too soon it was banging off the rev limiter. Well, I guess they didn’t want the customer to end up back at the shop asking for an engine rebuild after the first thousand kays, but it just felt like the engine still had so much more to give! Nonetheless, the double clutch sequential banged through the gears while I blew past the quarter mile in twelve seconds with a grin.
That grin faded somewhat when I tried to take corners. Well, I guess a bus is still a bus, even if it has active sport mode suspension. The somewhat pedestrian tyre dimensions had it constantly fighting for lateral grip and struggling to stop just that bit more. The lack of electronic stability control also perplexed me, given that kind of feature in a wagon of this level of appointment would be expected to come standard. All that I achieved when I hustled it was going really fast on the straights, then having to really coax the damn thing into slowing down to take the corner, which would make for a, well, less than optimal experience should one try one of those narrow, twisty mountain passes. Which are a personal favourite. The object lesson of the day was: no matter how much you try to shore up the dynamics with suspension trickery, if your tyres aren’t the right size, you still won’t make up for a lack of contact patch.
2016 Smooth Edwin Executive
Time for a change of pace, I figured, as I looked upon a cube. A literal cube. It was the furthest thing from my mind when I set out to buy a car, not because I dislike cubes, of course, but because this particular shape lends itself to one thing.
On cue, E exclaimed: “I’m going to convert this into a bear head and toot at you while you’re at work!”
I don’t know where she gets her ideas sometimes, but that one’s been a recurring joke for about the last two years. At least, I think she’s joking.
The salesperson did have a point though: sometimes the best things come from the place you least expect. And there are clear advantages of the cuboid shape: it’s roomy like nothing else inside, it is by far the most versatile space in our modern modular lifestyle where one can reasonably expect all the structures one might navigate internally to be reasonably squarish. Driving the thing was every bit as pleasant and easy as claimed, too, except for the expectation that a car of this spec would actually have gone with an automatic. Well, that’s what one might have thought, had it not been an FR with a fair bit more power than one might expect from its competitors, such as the Nissan… Cube. And that was part of what made it even better: it didn’t burn much extra at the pump but was plenty zippy enough to dart around the city and shoot ahead from the lights and nab that one parking spot. It was probably the best urban car of the lot.
Of course this did come at the expense of pretty much all sporting aspirations. This was not the kind of vehicle one would actually take to a track day. True, it did have some hustle, but it was like buying a Toyota Camry: sure, you could hustle it pretty hard, but in the end would you really take one of those to a track day? Maybe if I was bringing the car with me to Germany and I happened to be in the area for Touristenfahrten…
More pressing an issue for both E and I were the tail lights. I’m not sure why the designer decided to put a bit of flair the way they did there, but, well, I thought they looked like really tacky approximation of Chinese dragons. E thought they were half swastikas. Either way, it wasn’t a good look. That being said, if I wanted to indulge my super Asian side, this would be the kind of car that would attract the customers who liked the utility of the Cube and its equivalents, but were put off by its lack of any performance whatsoever. As long as you were also the kind of buyer who liked vanity plates with as many 8s as you could cram onto it*.
[size=85]*I’m allowed to say this, I have the appropriate ethnicity and background 
[/size]
2016 Shromet Radiant Limited
http://www.automationgame.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=18446
Shromet has a good reputation for making practical passenger vehicles for some decades. Emphasis on practical. In my mind, whenever they played the sporting market, they always played it to the side of being versatile, value for money, where other outfits like Armada or, to go one more obscure, Matteo Miglia, might be a bit on the riskier, quirkier side. To score a Limited edition, piqued my curiosity to no small degree.
Appearances can be deceiving. The first thing one noticed about this car was that one didn’t notice it. E approved of its anonymity immediately, and it certainly did match my internal criteria for not looking like it could eat the track. On the other hand, that was a standard of, say, Civics in 2011 (of which the front end greatly resembled). These days all the hot hatches were sexing up and having all kinds of superfluous touches, some of which looked kind of nice. Hyundai and Kia in particular were amping up the jazz factor, what with sculpted lines and vents and fake aerodynamics… and I wasn’t so sure that I was so keen on driving a car that looked old when it was new. Well, not old as in retro. But old as in ‘last season’. Fashion is fickle.
I did a bit of a doubletake when I went to inspect the rear passenger space. Were those suicide doors? They were! Well, that certainly mixed things up a little. That, and the fact this car barely scraped a pass on the ANCAP safety rating for side impact did have me a little concerned about whether the B pillar was secure enough to hold the door and it wasn’t going to suddenly pop open at the most crucial time. I have to say, I was also surprised by this, because it was a departure from the usual standards of Shromet… perhaps giving me a hint as to why this was a limited edition. And they certainly must have been wanting to save weight for something, namely going fast.
The forward acceleration of this car did made me giggle, as promised. It must have had some tricks up its sleeve to be able to beat an AMG 45 off the line, especially on the el-cheapo econo shitbox tyres the dealer tried to foist on me. I then discovered that the front wheels had a different width to the rears, which was a bit perplexing to say in the least. Upon closer examination, I realised this was necessitated by the geometry of the Macpherson struts on the front, which was an annoyance. The chain’s only as strong as the weakest link, and in this case, if the weakest link is the suspension, that’s going to limit turn-in. No wonder I couldn’t corner quite as hard as I hoped.
Overall, the car left me with mixed feelings dynamically. It was no slouch, the very normal powerplant being cleverly tuned to give true hot hatch performance at a whopping 9k rpm. It also had class leading fuel economy which scored bonus points with E. It also was better with ground clearance and the ability to go off the beaten track than most, and it had the versatility of a hatch to boot. But fundamental compromises in its engineering led it to lack some important things in the handling, not unlike some of the other cars I had tested today. Compared to my previous ride this car was certainly compelling. Compared to the rest of today’s competition, well, of course that remained to be seen.
2016 Solo Wolf SSM
This time around, the lesson was more about appreciating something from multiple angles. From the front, the Solo Wolf SSM looked like a 2014 Holden Commodore which is, well… not my kind of look. From the back, however, it adopted an entirely different character, more like, say, almost Aston or Jaguar… or even Tesla Model S. The front was unsubtle and slabbish. The rear… was all curve and class. It left me feeling very confused, and it had exactly the same effect on E.
As far as larger sedans go, this car ticked the right spots for what I would consider the average punter. It was safe. It was comfortable enough (albeit maybe a tad on the dated side). It was reliable enough. But it had a few very unusual quirks that had me scratching my head.
The first thing was the brochure said it developed a whopping 400hp. Within the city, I knew I was never going to see any of that, but getting around the city felt frankly a bit anaemic, like I was back in the Peapod. I discovered why when I decided to put the boot into it up the on-ramp: like the Daiki Ayase, the turbo spooled at 4krpm… except this time the cutoff was 6krpm. Not much of a power band. But it was enough for limp-wristed Dr Jekyll to turn into murderous Mr Hyde and all of a sudden I was rocketing well past the speed limit and on my way to a license suspension. My next surprise came when I decided to try the twisting scenic roads at speed, and discovered a few extra lurches in the transition… the diff was an auto locker! Well, that explained the extra grip in a straight line (also thanks to the launch control), but the on-off-on-off activation at set locking thresholds really made attacking sequential corners under throttle an unnerving experience, mitigated thankfully by the TC and ESC. If not for that, it was actually pretty good in the corners. Surprisingly good, given it was running on pretty narrow wheels.
If anything, in this car, I would have preferred a powerplant that could rev a bit higher, and the powerband to be more useable.* It might lose some top end output for it, but in terms of real world use, the benefits would be great.
[size=85]*I was actually so curious about why this car was tuned the way it was that I fiddled with it. I fairly quickly realised just how the early choices had influenced the direction such that the choices made here were in fact optimised. I’ve made a new trim with a number of changes that allow for what I’ve suggested, which results in some slightly improved core stats and track time, if you’re interested.[/size]
2015 GSI Danube RS36
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1693/24404965036_0603fbed63_o.jpg
I always imagined Grey Skies Industries as this mysterious coroporation that did a bit of everything. It frequently popped up when you least expected it and grabbed this and that accolade for best this or that, but despite its excellent track record, I wasn’t really sure just how expansive the shadowy manufacturer was. But what I could be sure of, was that they knew what they were doing.
What I had in front of me in the form of the Danube was essentially a really hot, upsized version of a Ford Focus RS of the future, at least, that’s what I immediately thought, with its electric blue and sloped, somewhat aggressive but minimalistic front end. It immediately intimidated E (I knew it would). When the brochure also included a graph of the power curve, I knew I’d be in for a wild ride.
This was straight up the quickest car to the hundred and one of the quickest past the quarter mile. It was the sweetest high performance turbo I’d seen in a car of this budget, spooling early at barely past crawling-in-city-peak-hour mode to suddenly unload a ludicrous 521Nm of torque, only starting to peter off closer to its redline of 7500. And yet, somehow, the acceleration really petered off very rapidly after highway speeds, leaving me scratching my head as to where the extra power was being sucked up. I later found that a ridiculous proportion of the air flow was being redirected onto the brakes to keep them absolutely fade-free under all conditions. In addition, the undertray was technically fully clad, but was in fact doing its darnedest to behave like a downforce undertray. As a result, this was one of the only cars that didn’t have balance or locking issues when I turned the ABS off and did a brake test, and was just as good in high speed corners as it was low, which was very very good. Was it worth it? A good question, to be sure, what with the extra fuel consumption it no doubt incurred and the severe drop off in acceleration past 100. At lower speeds though, it was a delightfully raucous, savage, engaging drive with traditional manual, and had oodles of grip to spare right to the very limit. I just needed to be sure that I was on my A-game whenever I started the engine.
2016 Dragotec Move
Not to be confused with the Daihatsu Move, for sure:
Continuing in the vein of zoomorphic cars, this one reminded me of, well, a dragon. Like, say, Toothless when he’s annoyed. E thought that was cute, except of course when Toothless is annoyed, he’s liable to blow a bolt of fire in your face. And considering this was one of the two cars I saw this week that had a ludicrous V12 in it, I thought that was rather fitting for character.
This was hands down the craziest drivetrain I saw crammed into a 30k car. Coupled with a tail-happy AWD, it reall knew how to, uh, move. I was almost sweating as I worked with the manual gearbox, just from not wanting to ruin such a marvellous bit of kit, but once I was more familiar with it, I realised just how capable and user-friendly the whole thing was. Being quite on par with my previous drive as well, I was pleased with its practicality and above average economy. It was a good deal on many fronts and left me shaking my head and wondering just how this car existed, let alone worked so well. Then again, once again with the disclosure, one of the projects that GG embarked upon a couple of years ago was a joint privateer effort in endurance racing. Dragotec gave us the engines, we built the chassis to spec. Suffice to say we completely cleaned up, winning all the divisions and a handy prize purse, in no small part due to the extreme thoroughness the Dragotec engineers exercised when considering the approach to each class. It must have been with that characteristic thoroughness that the decision was made here that a V12 would work, and boy does it work.
2016 Colossal-E Primal
http://www.automationgame.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=18510
Somehow, I found myself looking at another massive family sport wagon. I don’t know how I managed it, but it may have been something to do with the boundless enthusiasm of the salesperson, whose rapid-fire pleasantries resembled a raccoon on crack. I had to stifle a wince at the ‘pretending to have your shit together after you lost your job and spent the last of your money on a NES’ remark, I mean, I don’t know where it came from, but that one coincidentally hit just a little close to home.
But happily that certain incident was long in the past and things were looking very up. So I decided why the hell not, I’d give it a look.
First things first, it looked like a mix between a Ford Falcon wagon and an excessively large Mazda6 estate. Subtlety was definitely not its strong suit. Furthermore, I was not sure why one would go half and half on the suspension: if using Macpherson on the front, why use low loading capacity double wishbones on the rear? I would have thought a semi-trailing arm or something would have played more consistently to its strengths. Especially considering that this was pretty much a rolling fortress of a wagon, definitely the most comfy, and the safest. I could get sideswiped by a freight train and still been fine, okay, maybe that was a bit exaggerated. And it had plenty of power in an ingenious i6 turbo setup that delivered fairly steady torque all the way up to the redline. So off the line, it was a fast bus. Not nearly as fast as the mad Series 6, but hey, it also did a hell of a lot better at the pump. Not so much in the corners, though. And I actually think in this case having active sport suspension wasn’t particularly useful, because a bus is a bus is a bus and I’m not sure how compelled I would be to drop the ride and go hooning around the track in this bus. The uneven tyre sizes were just another problem to go with that, too, especially considering they were also low-ish profile, and I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to get those supplied easily. If the same engine had gone, say, into a mid-sized sedan or even an MR budget sports car, boy, I think it would have been good for some versatile fun.
2016 Fuentes Motors Csx Sport
http://www.automationgame.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=18513
You know those moments where your breath catches in your throat because you’ve been stunned by something? In this case, the moment because a car was so striking, so sculpted, it was like a supermodel slapped you in the face? The cars from Fuentes are well known for having this kind of effect, and this one was no exception.
The Csx Sport was in every way the quintessential hot hatch industry standard… at least, if it had arrived a few years ago, like the Citroën DS3. Now it was more like the upper level sporty trim before the GTi level cars, which have moved onto the more superlative 300-350hp ranges which, 3 years ago, would have been crazy talk if not for use of increasingly advanced geared LSDs. At 241hp, this Csx Sport would have been a welcome upgrade from the previous 140ish my Civic VTi-S put out, but somehow lags behind its contemporary competitors. But even if it seemed to lack under the bonnet, it had plenty of punchy attitude. Once I got my breath back, I realised I was a little iffy about the big hood bump. E was iffy about the splitter, though she did compliment the lovely highlight of the lower grille (“I would have given this a 9.5/10!”). Of all the cars that we’d seen this week, I think this one would have been the one that appeared the most 2016.
I quickly discovered that for a sort-of-hot hatch, this was the kind of car that fit the metropolitan zeitgeist of Melbourne perfectly. Melbourne, the city of far too many Mini Cooper Ses, Fiat 500s, and of course, Alfa Romeos. I would have simultaneously turned heads and blended seamlessly into the scene of Lygon St, of Little Collins Lane, and then been perfectly capable of revving through the curves of the Dandenong Ranges, or gone strawberry picking in Mornington, all without the wankery of the Alfa “it’s not a car, it’s an Alfa”. I like calling my cars cars, and while this one had perhaps a little bit more sporting pretension than it should (after all, it was still a turbo 4 banger with the Macpherson Torsion beam combo), it was still unmistakably a car for the modern urbanite: comfortable, nimble, frugal, versatile. It certainly didn’t compromise on itself, but was that yearning feeling I had in my chest for the car, or that it had a dynamically stronger setup after all?
2015 Centauri Spectre GTZ
http://www.automationgame.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=18537
Centauri is a brand I’m well familiar with, also not least because CPV has sent us more than one prototype motor to tinker with. I also know full well that CPV is capable of ludicrous extremes of madness on the level of GG. But for the most part, throughout the decades, they’ve made solid decently priced American cars like Americans should. With some clever forward thinking, I fully expected them to mount a campaign on the Australian market and bring the fight to the surging Koreans. Needless to say I had some pretty high hopes for this car.
The technical discussion with the salesperson raised a few eyebrows. Well, two. Mine. It seems that Centauri did go the way Ford and Holden had been eyeing for the better part of this decade and gone FF. FF in a mid sized sedan. That’s not really unusual at all, of course, considering that’s what every Japanese maker has been doing for yonks and then some, but when you’re talking a 4L V6 with a late surge in torque for those brave enough to find it, that’s 402bhp. Front wheels. Now that’s pretty crazy.
The nice part about it all was that you really definitely couldn’t tell from looking or sitting in the car. For all intents and purposes, it was a standard sedan with a (nice) six speaker stereo and fancy LCD screen. It felt solid and dependable. It was dynamically facile and responsive, with no fuss. Even as a FF sedan, it was surprisingly fast and held the corners surprisingly well. In fact, it was pretty much on pace with the NS 360. The wider rubber was part of that, to be sure, but this was nowhere near the 35 profile of the NS 360. Flicking through the car manual, I noticed the crucial difference: an E-diff.
Fancy!
My only gripe was feeling 7 speed manuals in general are finnicky, though seventh was situated quite well up and far away, reserved as a super overdrive gear. As with a number of other cars that had a similar transmission, I realised that seventh was so tall that with our puny 110km/h speed limits, there would be zero benefit over cruising in sixth, which was also an overdrive gear. Maybe if I was on the Autobahn. Or running late for work driving back from Mouth Hotham and needing to cover 120km in one hour. Peapod was very content to sip 5L/100km while averaging 160km/h, and in that kind of context, the seventh gear made a bit more sense.
Overall, for 29920 and relatively low onroad costs, this sedan felt very much to me to be the near future of cars without jumping onto the hybrid bandwagon. Frugal, punchy but controllable, with space for 4 and a decent boot to match. It was very strong on paper, and with sensible, balanced decision making to accomodate all that extra donk, an all around great experience. E was quick to concur.
2016 Kirk Flauta
E burst into a fit of giggles when we walked into the showroom and saw the Kirk Flauta.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“It looks like the aliens from Toy Story. You know, the ones that worship the claaaaaawwwww.”
I took another look. Oh yeah, I could see the resemblance now.
This was one of the most curious cars of the expedition for one particular reason. All around, it was a very sporty hot hatch with efficient V6 power and FR attitude. It had all the standard trimmings one would expect and cornered like a beast, though that was largely due to the fact it was also using some really sporty tyre setup that also had staggered widths, leaving me anticipating a huge hike in tyre bills if I wanted to really do what I felt like doing in this car, seeing as when it was pushed, it was properly fast. Especially because with the width and the wheel wells being the way they were, unless I also wanted to fork out to change the offset of the axle, I was going to have to go to considerable length to find the right tyres. I was also slightly bemused by the persistence of the automatic locker. With the driving aids off, the brakes were just a tad rear happy, and perhaps the balance would have been better if they’d gone with one piston instead of two. The ride was perhaps a little (okay, a lot) on the harsh side (as in, damper stiffness that transmits every single bump in the road direct to your spine), and more akin to something I’d expect in a dedicated sports car. Hell, I think the dampers were even stiffer than on a GG model. All I can say is thank god for mitigating that somewhat with the active sport suspension. But I digress.
The main curiosity of this car was the transmission. When I started driving it, it was a 4 gate manual with 7 forward speeds. The salesperson encouraged me to give switching modes a shot. I was like, switching modes? Apparently this is possibly the only production car ever to offer the purity of a hydraulic clutch manual, combined with an electronic system that could optionally disengage the shifter and control the clutch electronically, as if it were a sequential, or even automatic! It was like something out of a science fiction movie, that is, if when selecting modes the center panel opened up and replaced one shifter with the other. But alas, it did not do that, and that’s where I got confused. What if I got the mode wrong and tried to shift the car like a sequential when I was in manual mode? I’d probably grind a few teeth. Also, with all the extra moving parts required, the sequential mode required quite a bit of computer brain work and so the shifting took a considerable while… something akin to the flappy paddles on Peapod, which you could press, yes, but the car had to think for a good half second whether it would deign to give you the desired gear (more often than not, it didn’t). 40ms Ferrari shifting with autoblip it sure wasn’t.
The concept of multimode shifting is a really interesting one to me, and particularly relevant to my situation, because I often find situations when I’m driving an automatic wishing it was manual… and vice-versa. Not to mention that I might not be the only one driving the car, and different people have different preferences over what they wanted to drive. But to cram H pattern manual with sequential with automatic… I felt like there were too many apples in the bucket. I was spoilt for choice and it was confusing. Maybe sequential w/ automatic would work. Or a manual up-down with an automatic, I’d see the interface working on that one too. But combining the purity of a H-pattern manual with anything else, in my books…
2015 Rado Hatch-7 GTS
http://www.automationgame.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=18625
When trims are updated, they’re usually facelifted. And the run of a generation of a model usually goes for, I don’t know, maybe ten years or so tops, a bit more if it’s really successful (like Mazda3 successful). This Rado looked like it had stayed pretty much the same for its entire 18 year run, plus it was getting discontinued after this year’s last ditch effort to flog the dead horse, meaning what on earth was going to happen to the warranty and subsequent servicing? My Dog, what was that smell??? Air freshener futilely trying to cover up… I don’t know what. E’s nose was visibly wrinkling and the signs weren’t looking good.
Still, this was one time where the horse’s mouth had to have a good thorough inspection, and it was a comparative bargain at 23160, with the cheapest on-road costs, so we gave it a go.
To its great credit, this thing did have a fair bit of go for a minivan from the 90s. I’m not sure I’d really call it a hatch, because it otherwise felt more like a minivan to me! But of course, when you pay 80% of the price, you’ll probably get about 80% of everything else. It was dull. It felt cheap. The tyres were wider at the front than they were at the rear, for reasons I’ll never quite understand. It shrieked and juddered horribly in the corners. Its chief advantage was that this was something I could throw around the dirt and through a stream and not feel bad about it, because with the cheapness came a certain ruggedness. It also had, for once, the appropriate suspension to load it to the brim with gear. Didn’t I think earlier that if I was going to trade in the NA and get the Fox GT300, then I’d need to get something cheap and all-purpose…? Well, that was a thought.
But we’d have to do something about the smell first.
2016 Ozo
This car was unfortunately recently orphaned, the company that made it no longer officially in existence and scattered to the winds. So I’m not sure where it came from, or what will happen to its production as a whole. But I can tell you that it wasn’t in a showroom that I inspected it.
I was told that design was the priority, and it showed. It had a strong presence, with intricate styling cues. If anything, I felt the front fog light arrangement was trying perhaps a little too hard, but you can’t know what trying enough is unless you go that little extra, right? Besides, there was a certain charm in the peculiar quirks, like the DS3’s shark-fin B pillar, the 2004 Megane’s rear hatch, or the Hyundai Veloster in general. And E did nod in approval, which was saying something.
When I fired up the engine, I knew I had a real vocalist under the hood. I had my suspicions as to where the V12 came from, so unlike the last time, I was not completely blindsided. This one seemed to have been detuned quite a bit, though, to a relatively tame 267hp and a redline of 8000rpm, though the torque curve was a thing of beauty. Powering all four steel wheels, cushioned by hydropneumatic suspension (a unique choice in this market), this was shaping up to be more an offroader hatch, albeit one with double wishbone suspension and a fully underclad tray. This was also the only car to use solid disc brakes instead of vented, which I suppose also pointed towards it not being one of those cars you were expected to drive hard on a track. Not saying that I didn’t try, but I found it pretty hard going, because the suspension leveled everything out to a tee, but it was like floating on a cushion and I could never quite tell what the wheels were doing, or how it was communicating with the body. This, plus the facts the rear brakes were far too powerful, had me quickly concluding that it was unwise to ever turn off the stability and traction control.
That is to say, this was more the kind of hatch that you’d either cruise around or take offroad, but also happens to be able to go pretty fast. Overall, it was a very strong performer when it came to the practical and comfort side of things, but as for performance, I couldn’t help but feel I had been a little misled.
2016 Xenon S
Wow, where did this one come from!? I knew nothing about the company that made this car, only that it burst onto the scene like an unexpected kick to the face (and I’ve eaten my fair share of those, let me tell you). On paper, it seemed bloody marvellous. In the flesh, well, E’s first comment was: “It looks like a cat named Whiskas”.
Oh shit, why didn’t I see that before??? Hahahahaha that’s hilarious.
The feline resemblance extended underneath the surface, the car moving with a sprightly spring in its step, that developed into a lightning dash at the drop of a hat. The active wing was constantly on the lookout, allowing me to brake harder, turn faster, and yielded physics defying agility. Yet settle down into a cruise and the V8 that was barely shoehorned into the bay went from a full throated yowling to a benign purr. Being of GG, I for one, am very partial to building small displacement V8s. There’s a certain purity to it, and having one that is well tuned to match a car’s needs is just a delight. Especially one that gives this much performance without translating to more at the pump. The sheer willingness and ability of this thing without any shred of compromise or price hike just had me gaping and, for not the first time this trip, asking myself HOW!?
If there was one gripe I ever had with this car, it would be that the brake pads were pretty much race grade. They clamped down hard and fast, which made for a very visceral experience… but in city driving I had to be pretty ginger with the stop pedal.
Make no mistake, this car is amazing. The company that makes it is clearly a force to be reckoned with and I, along with many others I am sure, was caught completely off-guard.
[size=150]General comments[/size]
It was very difficult to pick a short list of entries, much less three winners, much less the eventual winner. At the time of my writing this, I still haven’t decided. This points to the fact that in general, most of the cars were actually very solidly put together and not half-assed. I suppose I can give some general tips about how to slightly enhance your stats, when it comes to making cars that have to perform well over a very broad range of functions:
[ul]]The mufflers section is going to be replaced soon and for good reason. Currently the only cost effective way to muffle and potentially find a bit of extra torque is to double baffle. Reverse flow and straight throughs are both HEAVY and expensive and… don’t achieve a lot more than you can do with double baffles. Thank niall for that particular insight./:m]
]If you’re going to use double wishbone or multilink or pushrod on the rear, do your very best to get sporty suspension on the front, otherwise you’ll be wasting the rear with inferior load capacity and your steering wheels won’t achieve good turn-in, limiting your handling./:m]
]Conversely if you’re going to use Macpherson on the front, consider using something with a bit more load capacity on the rear./:m]
]The ideal power band is one in which the maximum power is achieved shortly before the redline. You can tell where this is because the Performance Index peaks at a certain redline. Of course, it’s not always possible to do this due to reliability constraints, especially if you’re running undersquare. Sometimes not running quite as much power is acceptable if you get a better curve, especially if you’re using a late spooling turbo, because it’s pretty hard to drive a car which goes from boost to having to spool up again./:m]
]Brake balance is tricky. Fade causes considerable penalty to driveability. But of equal importance is the braking power in relation to tyre friction, but also the ratio of F:R braking power relative to the ratio of F:R tyre friction. You’ll have to balance all three to get the best results./:m]
]Auto lockers look good for your stats on paper (faster straight line acceleration, better track times), but in reality you… don’t put them in regular passenger cars. They generally make for very sudden transitions in driving characteristics which makes for an unpleasant ride (read the tooltip for the full explanation)./:m][/ul]
With that said, here’s a quick rundown of the basic stats of the cars in a single table. Note that the colour scales were arbitrarily defined by me mainly to graphically determine spread as well as standouts.
The next post will be the post of the actual results!
Before I move onto the top three, I will present the rest of the shortlist, the entries that I was tossing up just as much to win it as the rest, but ultimately couldn’t fit in the top 3 because the field was just so good. These are, of course, purely a matter of personal preference. For this reason the super large wagons and large sedans were at a significant disadvantage, but hey, I did tell you at the start I was very happy with the utility of my medium sized hatch!
Could Have Had My Money If:
Strom Spirit SE- Didn’t look so obviously like a muscle hero car.
Revera NS360 GTS- Had 50 profile tyres, though this was not as serious an issue as it could have been. In a very unfair twist, it just happened to have the wrong kind of good looks, though I still seriously had the hots for it (if guiltily).
ABR Chameleon- Didn’t have that weird row of tail lights at the bottom, and was perhaps a little more stylistic.
Shromet Radiant Limited- Had slightly better safety, and had double-wishbone suspension with presumably better handling and a faster track time as a result
GSI Danube RS36- Didn’t have quite as much drag due to brake venting, causing significant penalty to fuel economy. Also I wasn’t a fan of the tail lights.
Csx Sport- lost the bonnet bulge, and was just that little bit faster around the track (probably needed more powaaaaa to keep up with this field). Double wishbones all around would probably also have helped.
Kirk Flauta- didn’t have the tyre issue, which was actually a fair bit more serious than the NS360’s, because there was no way to fit appropriately sized tyres without having to adjust the brakes or the axle. Also I was not convinced about the tail light placement on this one (gee I’m fussy aren’t I!)
Third Place:
HighOctaneLove- Boqliq Fox GT300
The only competitor to pick up on my dare to submit an MR sports car. It’s not quite as quick as the others, and it’s nowhere near as practical. But it is what it is and tickles that fanciful desire to throw utility and needs out the window. I would probably take it to the company garage and retune the suspension, as I was able to actually quite easily knock about 7 seconds off the time without changing anything fundamental, which would have made it one of the fastest cars, impressive for its relative deficit in power. That just speaks of its dynamic potential. As I said, this was the car that had a special place in my heart.
Equal Second Place:
Dragawn- Dragotec Move, and rapidbacon- Xenon S
I know, you’re probably wondering why I’m giving two second places. That’s because it’s virtually impossible to separate these two super hot hatches. They traded blow for blow: similar power outputs, similarly nuts engines, AWD, one had manual, the other had better drivability. One was more reliable, but used a bit more petrol. The other was a bit comfier. They both had the same format, and versatility of the hatch. Both had very similar performance on the track. Both had quirky animal faces in their styling. They were both different, yet similar at the same time. And both were monstrously strong contenders that had me wondering how they managed to cram so much car into the budget. Would you do any differently?
Winner:
nialloftara- Centauri Spectre GTZ
This was the other car that had me scratching my head wondering how. I did not expect an FF to be such a strong performer, nor did I expect a car with that kind of engine to be so reliable. Nor did I expect an E-diff on a car retailing for under 30k. Nor did I expect something with 400bhp on tap to have such good economy figures. It’s worth adding that the engineering decisions to keep it simple where they could (like the interior trim) helped their cause greatly, and meant they had room to give that extra in the areas that I took the most notice. It’s unfortunate that I’d have to attach a rack or a towbar if I wanted to make it the camper too (especially difficult if it’s FF), as I can’t just fold the rear seats down and toss the bikes and tent in the back, but it can definitely still fit a suitcase or three. As for the looks, it may not be the most striking of the bunch, but as a daily driver it serves me well, lying dormant until I decide I absolutely have to go faster.
With the order decided, E also gave her approval, I signed on the dotted line, and I now drive a Centauri Spectre GTZ.
Congrats niall, you’re on a bit of a hot streak. It’s up to you to now determine the challenge. You don’t have to go into nearly as much detail, and I strongly suggest shorter rounds, because writing this for 19 entries really took it out of me. If you wish to pass up the opportunity, then it falls to either Dragawn, or rapidbacon. And if neither of them can do it, then it’s up to HighOctaneLove!
Thanks once again for your entries.
1 Like
Strop, guys like you make this little community great. Top notch!
Congrats to winner, after reading all the reviews I did not expect GTZ to take it.
Really a bunch of awesome cars and ideas 
oh boy now that thought about it.
my car is just a flop… so many wrong choices…
i might have been drunk on something when i made it 
also. congrats to Nialoftara for winning this one. i’m looking up for your challenge next
Congrats to all, especially the winners.
Good job (as always) on the challenge strop!
Now, i will make a revised version of mine and name it “strop edition” 
Such an awesome read. Thanks for taking the effort strop.
Congrats to Nialoftara , 400 HP Frontwheel-Drive won, i can’t believe it
Fuel economy and the green hell laptime (for a 400HP FF ) were indeed impressive tho.
Good job! I didn’t expect a review of all the contenders.
And congrats to the winners.
Although maybe entering a car literally designed in the 90s was not such a good idea.
Excellent reviews Strop.
Congratulations Nialoftara awesome car.
I’ll get some history and lore up ASAP.
Wow, okay wasn’t expecting to win that, thank you Strop for that utterly unexpected and in depth review of all entries, you’ve set a very high bar to start this off! Congradulations to everyone else those were some damn fine cars I was up against. I will attempt to remain humble despite knowing that the founder of GG drives a Centauri.
Due to my work and home schedules I am kinda forced to make this a 1 week round as well, I just do not have much time to judge and review cars before next weekend. (Especially as I’m just starting to work on my own challenge.) That said I am still game to run it!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it.
The year is 2007, I am a working parent, we are well off if not exactly well to do. The time has come to retire one of our cars, the kids are too big and it is a bit on the older side, we are shopping for a new car, it will be our first fresh from the showroom floor! But given our family size and the multitude of activities we will be needing the car for we are looking at minivans, but the new wave of CUV’s and wagons are also tempting, although a premium mid sized sedan with a lot of storage space might also work but it would have to be really good.
Ideally we are looking for a brand new car, a model year 2007, but we might be tempted by a slightly older one, but not too old.
We are primarily concerned about safety, utility, practicality, reliability, drivability and comfort.
It must seat at least 5, though more is better.
It must use regular fuel.
Prices should be around $35,000, we are already splurging a bit because we want a safe and fun car for the kids so it should not be much higher than that.
Round closes midnight of January 31st EST
Congratulations Nial! And all of the cars were a great read Strop! Loved it all. Sure all were strong contenders. Can’t wait till the next round, really satisfied with second spot.
Edit: oh, question: are we supposed to build “extra profit” margin into that 35k?
That was a good challenge! Congratulations, Niall!
Yeah, I know, I forgot to make the car not look too bold. Still, at least it provided a good driving experience.
So, onto making a 2007 vehicle… Not a problem.
Congratulations, Nial, Dragawn, rapidbacon and HighOctaneLove! Apparently, my meaning of “a tame looking car” can equal “an aggressive car” for some reasons. Raising the quality of the fuel tab seems to be an efficient way to increase the reliability of the engine, at least from what I did with my entry.
Also, thanks for making good reviews for all the cars, Strop!
That’s exactly correct Urbanliner, the fuel injectors give the best returns on reliability under modern circumstances. Unless you’re making an extremely top end engine, then you’ll need to pay attention to the valvetrain.
A 2007 CUV huh? That’ll be different for me. I don’t even have a company that makes that kind of thing, except possibly…
Congrats to all the winners! This was a fun challenge, and strop, I would be interested in that modified trim you made. I’m always looking for ways to improve my cars.
Love the Reviews there. I’m not at all dissatisfied with my performance, and congratulations to the winners.
I actually already have a family car in 07, and it sells for a lot less than 35 Grand. I’m wondering if it would be worth it to sell it at a way cheaper price or try to improve it for more money…
I’m having to switch production time between two different challenge cars right now, so I’m getting nearly the full experience.
Honestly disappointed with my performance given I wasn’t even an honorable mention, but I’m still learning and know what to improve next time.
Congrats to the winners.
Cheers - Racer13
I agree. After reading all the entries (Max kudo’s Strop, they’re all entertaining without being unduly harsh or too flattering, 
) I would have been tempted to buy Nialloftara’s entry as well! 
So looking forward to next round; this competition concept is so much fun!!! 
As a final summary to the previous round, before gearing up for the next round, I think the trick to balancing all those things was actually all in considering the weight of your vital components. More weight = needs more grip and power = more expensive in general unless you cut corners. It also implies that you’re using either a bigger engine, better interior, larger platform or a combination of all of those things. Therefore, any budget challenge which doesn’t strongly favour comfort or utility over everything else (think Man With a Van, or Farm Truck), you should automatically think ‘what is an appropriate size without being too small?’
The weight of the engine is absolutely instrumental to determining the dynamic characteristics of your car. Where niall was very clever was that the sedan is a bit longer so doesn’t carry as bad a F:R weight imbalance as, say, the hatch, but at the same time having more weight over the front wheels meant more driving traction. That, and the fact the rest of the tuning was subtly geared to accommodate this was why it was so fast around the track. Because it stuck to standard interior instead of premium like so many of the others, it also turned out to be a good 100kg lighter than the average, including the hatchbacks, which were all around 1600kg. Which is a lot for a hatch, that’s more what I’d expect from a medium-large sedan or a CUV.
Making a 6L V8 is hilarious and gives you huge power but had a lot of compromises: very low redline, huge slab of block in the front that made the car difficult to tune dynamically, and it was by far and away the worst at the pump. In everyday real world markets, the importance of the concept of right-sizing cannot be overstated.