Hyper car [Final scores]

[strop]

I note the reviews of the Buffalo and Salamander are not yet out!

[Lordred]

Possibly due to doing an extended review of those cars?

I think you were more then generous with the small blurbs for all of the other cars, nice tidy little summery of what they were and what you liked about them.

[strop]

Certainly given the criteria was desirability, eachand every car here was more than competent by game standards, so it makes sense to dole out praise all around.

[nialloftara]

Not sure what nialloftara used in his (he probably mentioned it but too lazy to go back and look and he is also fond of the mighty pushrod),

While I do enjoy the odd push rod or 16 now and then this is literally just a hopped up version of the production Buffalo same engine family and everything, and while I did try out the the old school approach during development I couldn't get 500hp and 23+ mpg from a 8 liter OHV without direct injection which typically I try to avoid that in my company cars or turbos which goes against the history of the Buffalo. So the powerplant is an 8 liter 32 valve dohc with variable timing and lift.


I am amazed I maintained second through the looks category you people had some nice looking cars, can't wait for the extended review, the short blurbs you provided the other cars are excellent, both informative and funny, you're going above and beyond for us on this contest zabhawkin.

[Sebesseg]

Congrats to Razyx for being for voted as the most liked design. I'll say I voted for it as my first choice, kinda reminded me of a ninja...of sorts, at least the front anyway lol. It seems I had a good amount of votes as people's second favorite, that's cool. Overall would definitely compete again.

@Zabhawkin: Excellent review blurb! I love it. Though I will say the active wing breaking is a feature, clearly. The car knows you want to go faster so it gets rid of pesky annoyances like wings so that you can go faster *nods*

[Zabhawkin]

I note the reviews of the Buffalo and Salamander are not yet out!

Yes I plan on doing longer reviews, I have an Idea how I want to do it but its not much more than that. I hope to have the last 2 done by the end of the weekend.

I felt the typical one line snark just wasn't fitting of these cars.

[Zabhawkin]

Most years its easy to decide which is the best car, but this year there were so many good cars to choose from. The top two were no exception, both are excellent cars, they also took two totally different approaches. While the Griffon Gear Salamander is literally a 1500 horse power fire breathing lizard doing its best to rip your face off. The Centauri Buffalo is a 900 horsepower fireball that just slaps you around but does so at half of the price. The Salamander goes faster accelerates harder and is better looking (big office poll) but the Buffalo can be driven for hours without overheating, or refueling every 30 minutes, and is quite frankly more comfortable and a dream to drive.

Centauri
Buffalo
This is an all aluminum body, front engine all wheel drive car. We were initially saddened by the fact that they had been making that body for 6 years, but the new engine and trim upgrades did not disappoint. The engine is an all aluminum naturally aspirated 8 liter V8 with 4 valves per cylinder. Yep no forced induction here. Each part of the rotating assembly is hand balanced and matched with the other components which consist of a billet steel crank, titanium connecting rods and lightweight forged pistons. The oil journals are also honed out to ensure proper oiling to all parts of the engine. The intake and exhaust runners are also hand smoothed and matched to the manifolds. Fuel is delivered by a multi-point fuel injection system with multi-hole injectors. The exhaust is routed through a matched race tubular header. The engine produces 460ft-lbs of torque at idle with a peak of 656 at 6700RPM. Power is sent to the wheels via a 6 speed manual and a geared limited slip differential, with a power split if 37/63. Shifts are exceptionally smooth and quick. The brakes are 6 piston carbon ceramic disks all the way around, which stops the Buffalo in 97 feet. Handmade leather seats 4 point harnesses and a full spread for the entertainment. The drivers assists were top notch as well. The steering was light and provided plenty of feedback. Centauri chose a very old-school approach to the Buffalo while paying attention to the little details that make this car what it is. The Buffalo was also the easiest to drive with only the Solo Cougar coming even close. For the price there is no comparison this car is one of the best, it is very well balanced in all facets it truly is a shame to call this car second best.

Gryphon Gear
Salamander
With an approach that was much less finesse and much more brute force Gryphon Gear built the Salamander which looks like it has the face of its namesake. The body and frame are built out of high quality carbon fiber and all of the fixtures are top quality. The design is bold and aggressive. The engine maintains the bold and aggressive approach with a 6.5 liter flatplane dual overhead cam 40 valve twin turbo charged V8. The engine is made out of magnesium with AlSi heads. Fuel is delivered by direct injection. The mixture is so rich that flames often erupt out of the exhaust. This all of course gives us a throttle response that borders on ESP. The engine produces 1132ft-lbs of torque at 6400, and 1516 horsepower at 7500 RPM. The Salamander sends its power through a sequential 7 speed transmission with a geared limited slip differential to the rear wheels. The brakes are 4 piston vented disks front and 2 piston vented disks in the rear. We experienced no fading what so ever with the brakes and were able to stop in an impressive 92 feet. The interior is hand stitched leather with a deluxe entertainment system. The drivers assists were actually better quality than the impressive Buffalo, which with the Salamander was necessary. The Salamander is by far the quicker and faster of the top two even though it was often a handful to keep it on the track at times even with the extremely well built stability system in the on position. The Salamander was a hoot to drive and would stick its tail out on the turns basically on command. We were able to even master a full drift with smoke and flames billowing out the back.

In the end we had to make a decision on which one was better. What made this so tough is that both cars are very exceptional and take completely different mind sets. What won us over to choosing the Salamander was the way it looked.

[07CobaltGirl]

*applauds*

Congratulations, both of you, and thanks for hosting the event, Zabhawkin!!

[strop]

Woah, there was so much activity that this thread fell off the first page of active threads bybtge time I got back. Thanks for the writeup! Bold, aggressive, and brute force was definitely the Gryphon Hear way of 2012.

By the way, the spelling of my company name varied a bit... But I note that Griffin Automotive is a completely different company run by royalstig, so it should perhaps be corrected to prevent confusion.