The Farm Truck Challenge (Stage 2 - Results!)

[strop]

At first I was like what? But I voted in favour of keeping the other entries! Then I looked above at what I said earlier. I'm getting forgetful...

[BlastersPewPew]

I am going to take a hiatus from the game (and my PC in general), this is/was my last challenge until roughly May since I wont be home from about a week from now till April 29th. Good luck guys and have fun!

[KLinardo]

Just a brief update: Tom and I are planning on finishing up our video work on Sunday with some editing to follow. Once I've finished my share of the recording I will begin to work on this stage of the challenge. When the Stage 1 video goes up, so too will the official spreadsheet from the first stage. Then I will hopefully start chipping away at this.

I will warn you, due to the truck update, my own personal business IRL, and the smaller nature of this stage, the reviews probably will not be as in depth as Stage 1.

[AirJordan]

Is it possible that you calculate scores for DQs as well? Ne reviews no pics no places just scores so we can see what would happen if... ?

[KLinardo]

Possibly. I have thought of that. It wouldn't be too difficult, I just have to import them. They would probably come through last in the interest of time. The scores would also be a little skewed since the ATT average and curve would be different.

[KLinardo]

Hey guys,

Just as an update: I hope to churn the events for this out by the end of this weekend. Life just got extremely busy, hectic, and I wasn't ready for any of it. That's no more your fault than mine, but I apologize for keeping you waiting on both the final 2 reviews of FTC and this challenge. So this challenge is not dead and I have the scores calculated, I just have to do some writing and this weekend freed itself up, albeit for an unfortunate personal reason.

Keep your eyes peeled for results: COMING SOON!

[KLinardo]

12th Place
Sillyworld, Conqueror S - 503.73 Points

Bringing up the rear of the sport truck field, we find the Conqueror S. Equipped with a 6L, over square, all-aluminum, MOHV V8 mated to a 6 speed manual, it produced a respectable 465 HP @ 6500 RPM and 421 Ft-Lbs @ 4400 RPM with a redline of 6800 RPM. These numbers were indeed respectable, but your standard truck with the big V8 option, like Ford or GM's 6.2L will yield similar numbers in a standard duty truck. The truck certainly felt like a proper truck though with body on frame construction that had a corrosion resistant body mounted to a steel frame. For suspension you had an odd marriage of double wishbones in the front and leaf springs in the rear. For $32890 you got a standard cab with standard interior, entertainment, and safety. It drove well, but it didn't impress at all. Its only accolade among the competition was a 3rd best reliability rating and it was the closest truck to the running average time around the ATT.

11th Place
Vri404, Titanus XR-4-2 - 524.48 Points

The Titanus XR-4-2 tried my patience quite a bit during testing. It was equipped with an all aluminum silicon, twin-turbo, over square, DOHC 5-valve V6. That 6 banger made 436 HP @ 7700 RPM and 302 Ft-Lbs @ 7400 with a redline of 8000 RPM. Here's the problem: it didn't break the 100 HP mark until ~2800 RPM and it weighed 5320.5 Lbs. You can't drag race anyone from a red light with turbos tuned to come alive at the top of the rev range. It was the second slowest at Tulsa. The power was so peaky and short lived that it was practically worthless. A more honest HP rating would be somewhere between two and three hundred because that's where you were going to spend most of your time. That being said, you would still have to wring the motor's neck to cruise at a respectable speed since the 3.5L V6 had nothing for you below 3000 RPM. 75 MPH with the shifter in 6th? That's over 4000 RPMs at cruise! Inside the truck has 2 standard seats with premium infotainment, all the driver assists, and advanced safety with above average quality. All this truck has going for it was that it was the most drivable and the 3rd safest. However, those stats don't matter to me when I'm getting left in the dust while waiting for my turbos to spool.

10th Place
Slax, Roadpack - 526.12 Points

Cracking the top-10, the Roadpack barely beat out the Titanus. This truck also utilized a V6, but Slax did it right. Perfectly square, with a cast block and aluminum heads that utilized a 4-valve DOHC set-up, this twin-turbo 4.7L V6 made 401 HP at the 6000 RPM redline, but it made 424 Ft-Lbs @ 2500 RPM and only lost ~70 Ft-Lbs on the way to the rev limiter in a slow and almost linear descent. This thing snapped your head back and then kept you pinned to one of the 5 standard seats in the crew cab all the way until you grabbed the next of your 6 gears in the manual transmission. I was stunned to see that this truck had all the driver assists except for traction control and launch control. With that much power and awful 205/75R20 Medium tires all the way around, the truck just didn't have much in the way of grip, even with AWD. It certainly showed its inability to turn at the ATT where it couldn't achieve 0.8g at the skid pad and returned the slowest lap that was almost a full 15 seconds behind the running average and over 32 seconds behind the fastest truck we tested. The Roadpack did earn bonus points in one category, but it lost more points than that from its terrible track time alone.

9th Place
thecarlover, Solo Brute SM 4x4 SM - 532.00 Points

The Solo Brute certainly gave off the raw and awesome appearance of a sport truck. The styling as well as the race red paint drew you in. However, what kept you around was the 900 HP this puppy boasted. Yup, 900 HP. Ala NASCAR Truck Series anyone? Well, not quite. You see, in order to achieve so much power out of a naturally aspirated engine, the pistons needed to displace a whopping 10.2L in a flatplane V8 format. It was over square with an immense 4.724" bore and 4.441" stroke. The block was aluminum silicon and the heads were a 5-valve DOHC setup made of aluminum silicon. Needless to say, that violates NASCAR specs. The horsepower was linear all the way to the 5800 RPM redline where the power peaked. In addition, there was 828 Ft-Lbs @ 5200 RPM that stayed constant until the redline. Not to mention, you were making 500 Ft-Lbs AT IDLE! This thing came with 4WD mated to a 6 speed, double-clutch, sequential transmission, which was an odd pairing indeed. That match hurtled you to 60 in 5.2 seconds and got you up to 178.8 MPH before the wind stopped acceleration. Here's the kicker, 900 HP was available for under $40,000! Just don't add fuel costs to that since it managed a combined 8.5 US MPG. In the end, the truck didn't do anything special in any of the categories as tested. It ran the first above average track time, in no doubt thanks to the power, but it was standard everywhere else, including at Tulsa.

8th Place
Sebesseg, Sampson Club HSE - 542.61 Points

Can I just say that I liked the green Sampson better. This thing was yellow and I mean yellow, like pull me over yellow. And that may be quite the concern considering this thing makes more HP/L than the 900 HP monster we were just talking about. A slightly over square all cast-iron 4.8L V8 from the original Sampson had been tuned to produce a nice 600 HP @ 8200 RPM and 418 Ft-Lbs @ 7000 RPM with a 8500 RPM redline. The torque curve was pretty flat and the power just kept constantly increasing as this V8 screamed all the way up to that amazingly high redline. The only problem was that the pistons, connecting rods, and crankshaft really started to give as you approached the 8500 RPM mark. Be sure not to downshift too early or hold that gear too long with the 6 speed manual or you will throw a rod farther than you'd care to find out. Aside from the questionable reliability, we loved the motor. Problem was, that was all we loved. The brakes were immense and housed in 25" rims (Seriously? How am I going to find tires for that?), but they still showed the slightest bit of fade. The truck was a basic 4-seater and managed to use standard safety. It was truly a strip model truck with an engine tuned to the limits of everyday reliability. It was the least comfortable thing we tested, even though it still cost $44700. However, for that discomfort, you ran a pretty fast lap at the track that was almost 10 seconds quicker than the average and simultaneously received all possible bonus points. It was a good showing, but it lacked in too many areas to really pull in the points.

7th Place
Carskick, Skarlet Sport - 558.32 Points

Holy mother of grilles and vents, Batman! This thing looked a little like Swiss Cheese and the power plant choice would explain why. In 7th place we had our first big block V8 with two turbos slapped on for added measure. The 6.5L under square, all-aluminum, MOHV V8 made 510 HP @ 5800 RPM and 618 Ft-Lbs @ 2700 RPM with a redline of 6200 RPM. I thought these numbers were rather pedestrian for the displacement and use of two turbos. I thought that the use of a longer stroke here limited the sporty potential of the motor. This truck scored somewhat low everywhere except for reliability and utility where it was the 3rd highest among the competition and in safety where it tallied the highest score. The interior consisted of all standard equipment and advanced safety with the full onslaught of driver assists, except for launch control. It punched below its weight both at Tulsa and at the ATT coming in 5 seconds slower than average at the latter. This truck had raw grunt power, the kind I would like to see in a heavy duty truck, but it didn't translate to quick times on the track. For that, it landed mid-pack.

6th Place
HighOctaneLove, Bogliq Haulage Holeshot - 559.79 Points

I'm not sure that the folks at Boliq got the memo on this truck. When it showed up I thought that they only put bigger rims on it. And by bigger, I mean 21" rims. On the older style body, it just didn't look right. Not to mention the tires were 185/40R21s which was a joke. This was supposed to be a sports truck and these were practically eco tires. I looked under the hood and really thought about calling HighOctaneLove to ask what kind of joke he thought this was. I had just laid eyes on the same engine, I mean like the exact same engine that was in the standard truck. From what I could tell was that the rev limiter was a little higher and a couple of smaller top end bits had been tweaked. HP had been increased by ~10 to 302 @ 6500 RPM and the torque stayed where it had been at 290 Ft-Lbs @ 3700 RPM with a beautiful parabolic curve from idle to the 7200 RPM redline. 302 HP and 290 Ft-Lbs don't win races though. This truck earned all the bonus points, but it was 6 seconds slower than the average at ATT and it ran the second slowest time at Tulsa with a sad 14.34 seconds. So how did it end up 6th? Well it was one of the most reliable, it was the 2nd most durable in the elements, and it boasted the one of the highest utility scores and fuel economy with 17.2 US MPG. It was easy to drive too, but that's because it was tame in comparison to the competition, not because of design. The truck did better than most of the trucks in some important categories, but for $42040 you didn't get any sport to go with it.

5th Place
Strop, Raid - 565.86 Points

This truck is absolutely menacing. From its color, to its stance, to its sound as the turbos spool. This thing screams I will end you and your tiny sports car in what may as well be the Terminator's voice translated into the sounds of a 4.7L twin-turbo V8. The all-aluminum, over square, 4-valve DOHC motor made an impressive 630 HP @ 7400 RPM and 613 Ft-Lbs @ 2900 RPM with a redline of 7900 RPM. All of this power was transferred to all 4 wheels equally with a 6 speed manual AWD transmission. The rubber met the road through 315/40R20 front and 335/40R20 rear Sport Compound tires. 0-60? 3.7 seconds. Tulsa Time? 12.34 seconds. ATT Time? 1:16.45 which was on par with some of the fastest trucks and 6 seconds faster than the average, but still not the fastest time recorded. This was done with a corrosion resistant steel body mounted to a steel chassis with MacPherson Struts up front and coil springs in the rear. This truck managed to bring home bonus points in one category as well. It was the 3rd most reliable and sporty. However, its sub par safety, comfort, drivability, and enviornmental resistance robbed this truck of being one of the top finishers in the challenge, even though it came home in the Top-5.

4th Place
TheTom, AMW Buffalo Sport - 570.80 Points

If we gave out a prize for consistency, AMW would win it since it won 4th place in both stages of FTC. The engine was the same 5.7L under square, all-aluminum silicon, MOHV V8 from the last stage. This motor made 340 HP @ 5600 RPM and 367 Ft-Lbs @ 2400 RPM with a redline of 6000 RPM. With such modest numbers, the motor was supremely reliable and would provide plenty of power for plenty of miles. The truck itself was very similar to the Stage 1 entry. It even earned bonus points in two categories. All standard interior, standard entertainment, standard safety, and 6 seats filled the cab. The transmission was a 6 speed single clutch sequential transmission with 4WD. On the track, some corrections had been made. I bemoaned the original's 0-60 time. This version came in with a much more respectable 6.8 seconds. The Tulsa time was the slowest we tested at 15.38 seconds. On ATT the truck returned a time 14 seconds slower than the running average which quite frankly cost the truck a silver medal overall. This truck scored all of its points for being the most reliable, having the highest environmental resistance, being the most practical, having the highest utility, being one of the most drivable, the least expensive, and the best offroad. However, even with all of those "best-of" stats to add to the Buffalo Sport's accolades, the fact that it was the least sporty truck in a sport truck competition left it looking up, just outside the podium once again.

Podium Finishers Coming Soon!

[strop]

LOL Puffster's 1400+hp truck is a podium finisher. That's what you get for being an outlier: you either do brilliantly well, or spectacularly badly.

[Vri404]

My original truck was a better sport truck than my sport truck. It was just too expensive.

[Sillyworld]

Damn, I knew I was going to be in the bottom, but not the last. My truck has decent figures (power-torque, powerband) and scored average in track times, yet, it was defeated by even slower and less powerful machines

My original truck was a better sport truck than my sport truck. It was just too expensive.

You can't drag race anyone from a red light with turbos tuned to come alive at the top of the rev range. It was the second slowest at Tulsa. The power was so peaky and short lived that it was practically worthless.

I've been looking at your work vri, and one word of advice, turbos with huge lag and small powerband are almost never a good option, it doesn't matter how much power you can squish out of them. That is, unless you are restricted by displacement or engine bay size.

But, you can ditch the advice of a guy who apparently can't build a sports truck.

[Vri404]

I like turbos that kill your face.

That's not a good thing.

[koolkei]

from absolutely pathetic to podium finish


but i really didn't expect it finishing so high, since, well, you know
8th place was it? only because i made the mistake of going with a single cabin
(because i've only seen a double cabin truck irl maybe twice in my lifetime? it's just rare here)

[KLinardo]

LOL Puffster's 1400+hp truck is a podium finisher. That's what you get for being an outlier: you either do brilliantly well, or spectacularly badly.

Um.... Puffster's entry didn't pass inspection.

[strop]

Oh, phew. That makes a lot more sense. I was worried I didn't go enough Full Strop on the damn thing

[Madrias]

Wait, where the hell is mine, cause I know I did NOT top three this challenge.