Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 7: CSR33 Results

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 7: CSR33 Results

So far, CSR33 has been an absolute roller-coaster ride, not just for me, but for all of the 43 users who submitted a car in this round. And having explained my entry in detail, I will now recap the results of this latest round. There were a few surprises in the first round of eliminations, but on the other hand, there were also plenty of obvious choices to consider for the next round of cuts. Here, I will begin by discussing the many reasons for not making the first cut, before moving on to the subsequent stages of elimination.

When the host for CSR33 announced that this round would involve building entry-level executive cars with a touch of elegance and comfort, he really meant it. As such, cars that did not even look right overall would be immediately rejected. Considering that junior executive cars have to be larger than small C-segment cars and smaller than mid-range luxury cars, anything that was too small or large would definitely not make the cut either. Cars that primarily suffered from either or both of these aesthetic drawbacks included the Cordia Aspero, Petoskey Keeweenaw, Minerva Midnight, Evgenis Typhon, JHW Aeterna, LHE Astonish, DSD Chrome, FOA Senate and Gnoo Cityscape. One other car did not have its user name attached to its zip file, but this did not matter one bit; it was just too anonymously styled to be considered. In fact, quite a lot of cars that were submitted simply did not have the sort of styling required to make the right impression in the executive car market, with the Pragata Kana also among the worst offenders.

Even a good-looking car would be of no use if its engineering was either half-baked or excessively complicated, though, and this sadly proved to be the downfall of some of the other competitors. The Boony Continental was the worst offender: with a separate chassis, solid rear axle and anemic 1.2-liter triple, its third-world image and mechanicals was totally at odds with the target market. On the other hand, the Versal Delante, with its semi-active sway bars, was immediately disqualified for supposedly exceeding the trim engineering time limits, and would have been discarded anyway for excessive fuel consumption. And the Shromet Toldedo was just too big, heavy and old-fashioned, with insufficient power to boot. Another car, called simply the Argon, was also overweight, and in addition to being aesthetically challenged, suffered from unacceptably high fuel consumption. Surprisingly, the Beta Osmosis and BAM Bavaria 628, among a few other cars, also failed to make the cut for using semi-active sway bars and adaptive dampers (a rare combination in 1998, and one not used at all in contemporary junior executive cars), although for various reasons besides this, none of them would have won anyway

And just to ram the point home, anything with too little standard equipment would be unlikely to make the first cut. My entry, the Kramer K3 2.5, was guilty of this, but then again, so were quite a few other cars, such as the Galt Vice, Bogliq Kitten Ralleye, Hodan 445 and Valiant RZA. In short, anything that felt too downmarket to look at and/or drive would simply cut no ice with the hypothetical customer in this scenario. Could it get any more difficult for the entrants?

As it turned out, it did. Insufficient performance and/or economy was a definite reason for rejecting a particular vehicle, and once again, this led to some obvious cuts (and a few less obvious ones). The Caravel, Maesima NV-997, Scarab Nova, DMV Downdraft and Penistone Seventy-Five all failed to meet benchmarks in either category, and each one (except for the Maesima) had ridiculous company or trim names to boot. And yet, among the many failed attempts to produce a legitimate contender, there were still 10 cars that made the first cut. All that remained was to rank them, from worst to first...

The GSI Paradigm was the first of the top ten cars to be axed; its styling was decent enough in isolation, but too bland for most executives. Meanwhile, the Sei Executive, Erin Tauga, and Smooth Jabardo were all rejected for being too advanced (and hence time-consuming and difficult to engineer in real life), while the Griffa Sirion turned out to be too expensive. Next to fall were the thoroughly average Rennen Angeles and CM Regina, leaving just the podium finishers. The Iurlaro Caterina, despite not being as fast or economical as its rivals, snagged third place on account of its excellent drivability and comfort; on the other hand, the AM260, despite not having as much standard equipment, finished in second place, thanks to its combination of power and grip that its AWD system and turbocharged straight-six conferred.

The top three cars of CSR33, from top to bottom: Iurlaro Caterina, AM260 and Seishido Eccelsa

And so to the winner, the Seishido Eccelsa. The host most definitely wasn't fooled by its mediocre performance and simple front-drive chassis (strut front, semi-trailing arm rear - in fact none of the top 5 cars used a multilink rear for practicality and cost reasons), and applauded its excellent comfort and drivability, which were just what the hypothetical customer needed. Understated, elegant styling (especially in the metallic purple of the test example submitted) only sweetened the deal, especially when the chassis was tuned for all-around capability with a decent mix of sportiness and comfort. So, after one full week each for entrants to submit their vehicles and the host to review them, the biggest round in CSR history finally comes to an end.