Picking a new car is a hard choice. On the one hand, you want your car to be economical. On the other hand, you want your car to be sporty. On the third hand, you want your car to be absolutely bonkers. Is it really possible for any car to be all of these things at once?
Well, I don't know. But it can definitely be
some of these things at once. So I'll tell you what I've done: I've combed through all the cars coming out this year - and a couple from last year - and come up with a list of three cars that I think might just fit the bill. All three of these are about $8150 MSRP*, with polymer bodies, four seats, a tape deck, power steering, five-speed manual gearboxes driving the rear wheels through a viscous LSD, and enough horses under the hood to make those rear wheels
burn between the traffic lights ... and each one of them offers a little something more as well. So lets get started.
* Using the Consumer Price Index, US$12 000 in 2010 is the equivalent of US$8155 in 1994.
- GSI Dingo.png (138.09 KiB) Viewed 5151 times
The Dingo sport hatch from Grey-Skies Industries doesn't really look like much on the outside. It's quiet. It's unassuming. It's
reliable. It's
comfortable. And with a quoted combined city/highway rating of 30 mpg (7.8 lt/100 km) using regular unleaded, I'd forgive you for thinking this was nothing but an ecobox.
Well, wake up, because what you have here is a taut, responsive little beast that'll keep you grinning all day, every day - and that fuel economy just means you can spend more time driving it. 136 bhp isn't that much out of a two-liter MPFI sixteen-valve DOHC inline-four, and the VVT adds more economy than speed, but the aluminium block and head keeps the weight down, and on the stock 195/50 tires front and rear it'll do zero to sixty in 7.4 seconds and the standing quarter mile in 15.54. Understeer is almost nonexistent and the suspension, simple as it is (struts in the front, semi-trailing arm in the rear), is perfectly tuned to keep the wheels planted 100% of the time with a minimum of bounce.
It's not the cheapest car on the market and it's not the greatest to drive - it's just the cheapest car you'll find
that's great to drive.
"Well, sure", I hear you say. "But what if I don't
want to be cheap?"
Well, given the magazine you're reading, I'd say that boat already sailed. But I know what you mean. And I know what you're asking for. And I think a little company by the name of Matteo Miglia has set out to give you the answer.
- MM Excelsior RC.png (177.76 KiB) Viewed 5151 times
The Matteo Miglia Excelsior Rossa Corsa. Just look at it. Just look.
No, seriously,
only look. That shiny red body is made out of the cheapest plastic this side of a soda bottle, and if you lean on the wrong spot, it knocks the lead out of the headlight and you'll be spending the next hour trying to find it under the hood to plug it back in again. Ask me how I know.
That aside (and the cheap-feeling interior aside), this car is a looker and the looks don't lie. Four-wheel double-wishbone suspension with 225/40 fronts and 235/35 rears gives this baby handling to envy, four-wheel discs
with ABS help it stop on a dime, and the truly delightful 2429cc SPFI SOHC V6 under the hood is fitted with VVL cams to keep things quiet down low and raucous once you take it past 4500 RPM up towards the redline at 7800. And when you do mat the throttle, the 214 bhp under the hood will push you from zero to sixty in 6.3 seconds and through the standing quarter mile in 14.46.
It runs on premium, not standard, unleaded gas, and you'll struggle to maintain the listed 20 mpg (11.7 lt/100 km), but you'll be getting a
lot of performance for your gas money.
"Wow", I hear you say. "Wild."
Nope.
"What?"
This is the tame one.
"What do you mean, this is the
tame one?"
I said you might want economy, you might want sportiness, or you might want absolute bonkertude. We've only looked at two cars so far.
"...oh no."
Oh, yes. Gird your loins and put in your earplugs, because I am about to open Door Number Three.
- Storm Automotive Savage TT.png (180.15 KiB) Viewed 5151 times
I saw this car - Storm Automotive's Savage TT - and I said, "is this a golf cart? Is this one of those baggage-handling trucks from the airport? What
is this?"
Well, I can tell you one thing right away: if you take this car on any golf course in the world, you will be arrested immediately. You will be arrested before you make it up the driveway. Because that TT stands for "Tire Torcher", and with 245 bhp driving
105-mm wide tires so thin you'll think they're painted on the rims, this car is the legal definition of
lunacy. Take the three liters of MPFI SOHC V6 under the hood rev to 7400 RPM, spitting exhaust through a muffler that's basically nothing but an empty pipe, and you won't even hear the sirens as you peel out on the highway at 90 mph in third gear.
Sure, the cramped interior with its bench seats is pretty depressing (although the trunk is quite capacious), and sure, the brakes fade like hell if you spend any amount of time pushing the limits, and sure, it handles ... well, like it's got 105/40 tires on all four corners. And sure, all that wheelspin costs it on the drag strip - we're taking 8.2 seconds to sixty and 15.78 in the quarter mile at
best. But this flying brick will hit almost the same speed as the Excelsior RC with none of the class, and thanks to its own VVT system, it gets
more power and the same listed mileage on
regular unleaded as the Excelsior does on premium. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad thing, but somehow it works, and if you ask me, that's what makes it beautiful.
"..."
I know, I know. You're not convinced.
"...I just want a fun car that won't kill me."
How pedestrian of you. But fine - I understand.
Of all the cars I have tested, I can say without hesitation that the Matteo Miglia Excelsior RC is the most fun to drive. It is one of the finest budget sports cars I've seen - and if that was the only thing that mattered, it would be the car I chose.
But in the end, economy
does matter. However thrilling a car is, you still have to pay for gas, and the
GSI Dingo, with its excellent fuel economy combined with excellent performance, is simply the better deal. If all you were doing with the car was autocross, the Excelsior would have it, but the Dingo is more comfortable, more practical, more reliable, and - most importantly -
cheaper ... and it is still a hell of a lot of fun. That would be my final recommendation.
3. $1562.24: Storm Automotive Savage TT - $12 000, $2211/yr, Four-Door FR Sedan, 3.0L SOHC MPFI V6. "It's not the size of the car that matters ... it's the size of the engine."
2. $2381.14: Matteo Miglia Excelsior RC - $12 000, $2409/yr, Two-Door FR Coupe, 2.4L SOHC SPFI V6. "So grippy, the doorframes are padded in case you turn too sharply."
1. $2454.24: GSI Dingo - $12 000, $1529/yr, Two-Door FR Hatch, 2.0L DOHC MPFI I4. "How do you make excellence so boring?"
Congratulations again to Madrias, strop, and oppositelock for their excellent entries, and thank you all for participating!
Sun Nov 22, 2015 1:31 am 
I figured that while it would have been quite fun to max out the burnout stakes, that would eventually count towards barely 10% of the total score at the cost of at least another 20-30%... meaning the challenge was actually quite different to what it seemed.
