Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 41: Back on Track... Again
After CSR73 had concluded, I found myself in the enviable position of hosting CSR74 because none of the five users who finished ahead of me back then wanted to be the next host. Since the last two rounds had an off-road theme and were set in bygone eras (1959 for CSR72, 1986 for CSR73) I decided that the next round should be about trackday cars, and set in the recent past - 2005 to be exact. This decision was not made lightly, but it proved to be worthwhile, given that I had done some actual testing beforehand by making some examples of track-ready sports cars. Only when I decided that the premise behind CSR74 was viable did I actually launch the round.
The backstory behind CSR74 was simple. I played the role of a trackday enthusiast who had just sold his beloved MX-5 to a like-minded enthusiast after several years and wanted to step up to something faster. This seemed like an easy task given the liberal budget of $30,000, but it proved to be anything but, since the judging criteria included a flying lap time at Laguna Seca Raceway, as well as a challenge factor, in an echo of CSR25. This number would be obtained by dividing a car's sportiness value by its drivability value, where a higher value means that the car will be more challenging to drive around the track. However, I would accept a car with high challenge factor if it was fast enough around the track. On the other hand, a low challenge factor will be more easily justifiable for cars with slower lap times.
During the submission period, I was deluged with lots of entries from enthusiastic Automationeers. However, it took me some time to find a car that really nailed the brief. A more worrying concern was that many of the cars I received were ineligible for some reason; however, I was quick to explicitly state exactly why they were ineligible via a PM (private message), and offered to accept revised versions of these entries which complied with all the rules.
When all was said and done, I had received 36 entries. Normally this would present an immense logistical challenge, but I went to the trouble of typing a draft of a review for each individual entry while submissions were still open, saving myself some effort later in the process. However, just before the deadline, I realized that one of the entries I had received came from a user whose copy was pirated, and for integrity's sake, I decided to ignore it. At any rate, I pledged to deliver all the reviews and the final results no more than 72 hours after the deadline.
For this round, I chose to deliver the reviews in the form of short remarks for each car, followed by a verdict and whether or not it would go through to the next round. I would also state each entry's lap time and challenge factor. And so I started work on all of the reviews for the 35 valid entries - a time-consuming task, but a surprisingly enjoyable one nonetheless. I was eventually left with a shortlist of 13 entries after the reviews were complete, before turning my attention to what the top five entries would be.
After further deliberation, I decided that anything which was either off the pace compared to its nearest rivals, or had a challenge factor outside what I deemed to be an acceptable range (0.8 to 1.3, to be exact), would no longer be in contention. This left just five cars for me to choose from: the Righello, Grand Motors Spite, Bowen Danio 510R, Caliban Type SC TO and CVM SC32.
Interestingly, the shortlist I made for this round was dominated by naturally aspirated, rear-wheel-drive cars, and in fact this configuration was the only one used by all five finalists. The reason was simple: back in 2005, I realized that the combination of a normally aspirated engine and a RWD drivetrain provided the purest form of driving thrills available on the market. To this day I still believe that NA RWD performance cars, while less common now than they were then, are as alluring as ever for that specific reason.
And so my third attempt at hosting a round of CSR ended successfully. The round immediately after this one would be a change of pace, and proved to be just as engaging - but that's for another post. In the meantime, I'll leave you with one more screenshot of the Danio.
During the submission period, I was deluged with lots of entries from enthusiastic Automationeers. However, it took me some time to find a car that really nailed the brief. A more worrying concern was that many of the cars I received were ineligible for some reason; however, I was quick to explicitly state exactly why they were ineligible via a PM (private message), and offered to accept revised versions of these entries which complied with all the rules.
When all was said and done, I had received 36 entries. Normally this would present an immense logistical challenge, but I went to the trouble of typing a draft of a review for each individual entry while submissions were still open, saving myself some effort later in the process. However, just before the deadline, I realized that one of the entries I had received came from a user whose copy was pirated, and for integrity's sake, I decided to ignore it. At any rate, I pledged to deliver all the reviews and the final results no more than 72 hours after the deadline.
For this round, I chose to deliver the reviews in the form of short remarks for each car, followed by a verdict and whether or not it would go through to the next round. I would also state each entry's lap time and challenge factor. And so I started work on all of the reviews for the 35 valid entries - a time-consuming task, but a surprisingly enjoyable one nonetheless. I was eventually left with a shortlist of 13 entries after the reviews were complete, before turning my attention to what the top five entries would be.
After further deliberation, I decided that anything which was either off the pace compared to its nearest rivals, or had a challenge factor outside what I deemed to be an acceptable range (0.8 to 1.3, to be exact), would no longer be in contention. This left just five cars for me to choose from: the Righello, Grand Motors Spite, Bowen Danio 510R, Caliban Type SC TO and CVM SC32.
Above, from top: Bowen Danio 510R, Caliban Type SC TO, Righello, Grand Motors Spite and CVM SC32
I kicked off the final phase of judging by placing the SC32 in fifth, having found it to be too challenging to drive compared with the other finalists. The Spite was the next to go; its live rear axle may have made it easier to maintain, but limited its abilities on track. The Righello, meanwhile, took third place for being the fastest of the three front-engined cars in the top five.
That left just two cars, and of those, the Caliban claimed a honorable second place for being easier to drive than the other finalists, and making the most of its supposedly underpowered engine. Ultimately, though, its lack of speed held it back, allowing the Bowen Danio 510R to take the win. Given that the Danio was the fastest of the top five entries without being too difficult to master, this should not have come as a surprise.
Interestingly, the shortlist I made for this round was dominated by naturally aspirated, rear-wheel-drive cars, and in fact this configuration was the only one used by all five finalists. The reason was simple: back in 2005, I realized that the combination of a normally aspirated engine and a RWD drivetrain provided the purest form of driving thrills available on the market. To this day I still believe that NA RWD performance cars, while less common now than they were then, are as alluring as ever for that specific reason.
And so my third attempt at hosting a round of CSR ended successfully. The round immediately after this one would be a change of pace, and proved to be just as engaging - but that's for another post. In the meantime, I'll leave you with one more screenshot of the Danio.
A fitting end to CSR74 - the winning entry (the Bowen Danio 510R) did everything right in my view, whereas everything else fell short (either by a little, or a lot) in at least one of the judging criteria.
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