Re: Best in Class Engines [I4, 1982] [Entries Open]
VicVictory wrote:I'm suddenly getting this image of a card burning up and releasing smoke, while screaming like R2D2 when he's been shot...
Considering that I've been playing the classic X-Wing Starfighter (recently rebundled and repatched on Steam), and recently got my R2 unit fried in the midst of a hairy dogfight, this image is particularly vivid and therefore hilarious.
I myself thought about a way to do this and decided, I will not show you anything about the engine, so much as a brief for the car that the engine has been fit to!
Having well and truly shed their image as an also-ran muscle car wannabe maker from the UK by the late 70s, Armada wished to continue their visionary trend of More Powerful Than Reasonable sports cars for all kinds of (lower end) budgets. Struggling to keep their head above water after gambling heavily on developing multivalve OHC technology in smaller engines, Armada somehow persisted in their self-limiting attempt to balance carbs with boost for well over a decade.
By the early 80s, a new market was capturing mass appeal: the practical but sporty, compact but family-friendly Hot Hatch sector, popularised by the Golf GTi. This represented a big gap and therefore big opportunity for Armada, who were desperate to capitalise on their investment which sputtered slightly when the Armada Talon, with its 200hp 18v SOHC turbo i6, attained a cult following, but while ridiculously quick, its extreme hardcore driver status scared many customers off.
Enter the Armada Fore:
Every bit the hot hatch, with its FF drivetrain, perky turbo 1.6L i4, MacPherson front and torsion beam rear, seating 5 with a sizeable boot, but as it was designed to be a Golf beater (the Golf GTi Mk.1 engine eventually put out a fairly hefty 160hp), it had more power. This was a car that wouldn't burn a hole in your wallet, wouldn't chug an oil field dry, yet managed the 0-100km/h in under 8 seconds. Would it stack up and become one of Armada's mainstays? Only time would tell.