**CAR OF THE WEEK! Friday 9/03/12**

krenkme

Mine will be called "Medusa" 👍

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So we going to make commandorando keep earning his pay and do something with our Greek terrors?

Here's a little something I found. Note the porn music.

XDesperado67

So we going to make commandorando keep earning his pay and do something with our Greek terrors?

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💡... . That would be completely up to him

@McClarenDesign shoot I thought we were going to get spare ribs there for a minute

I'll take the pig in a throw down!

XDesperado67

@McClarenDesign shoot I thought we were going to get spare ribs there for a minute

I'll take the pig in a throw down!

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Are you kidding me? That pig wasn't frightened in the slightest. Of coarse, that wasn't really a pig.

That was Fernando Alonso. Easy to confuse the two though.

Honestly awfull

"I was the original Stig." -Perry McCarthy​

Week 5: 1983 Nissan Silvia 240RS (S110) and 1985 Nissan 240RS Rally Car

When I pulled into the car park this morning, I was shocked to find out that we'd be testing the new car from The Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am. Upon closer inspection, however, I noticed the Nissan badge. You can hardly blame me. A quick google search will show just how closely the two cars are in terms of styling.

Okay, the Nissan is a bit boxy, but unlike the Black-Eyed car, this was actually produced. Furthermore, this particular model was produced specifically so the factory could go racing. Technically speaking, what we've been given this week is the Nissan equivalent to a Panda GTO. A black and white jewel easily modified for racing.

The i.am.auto.whatever.concept is a silly car from a silly man. If musicians were meant to make cars, we'd be testing the Toyota Thriller. Perhaps the gas crisis could've been avoided by the Pink Floyd Beetle. Oldsmobile, saved by Snoop Doggy Dogg.

Based on the lineage and history, I should be excited. I should be looking forward to looking sideways. I should be terrified at the thought of triple-digit speeds on surfaces that have the grip of cottage cheese. But if I'm honest, I can't get over how immensely ugly this car is. Clearly the Nissan styling department couldn't be bothered. They were handed the skeletal remains of a Mazda Cosmos and ordered to go rally racing, so who cares what the car looks like? Well, if I wanted a Ford Fairmont, I would've just bought one.

Or a shoebox. Seriously, I've seen better styling done by Japanese mothers, so there should be absolutely no excuse for this sort of thing.

According to Polyphony Digital via Translator-san:

Translator-san

The 240RS was Nissan's take on what a rally car should be. Based on the 240SX (Silvia in Japan), the rear-wheel-drive car was powered by the FJ24 engine. This 2.4-liter DOHC inline-4 cranked out 237 HP, thanks to custom crankshafts and a special block. The car's body featured Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) on the hood, trunk lid, and fenders, while every window except the front windshield was composed of polycarbonate.

These changes translated to a curb weight of a mere 970 kg. Nissan produced 200 road-going versions of the 240RS to meet FIA Group B standards, virtually all of them sold in Europe. In 1983, the Nissan Works team entered the 240RS in the Safari Rally, perhaps with hopes of taking four checkered flags in a row, like they did with the Violet Rally Car years before.

However, it was not to be, as all three factory 240RSs retired due to engine trouble. The only private entry took 4th. The reason behind Nissan's dismal showing could be that the Safari Rally was no longer an endurance rally in the traditional sense, but a European style sprint, with many of the competitors running purpose-built race models with a limited production of 20 units.

Nissan did develop a revised version of the 240RS, but by this time, Group B had already become a breeding ground for all-wheel-drive turbocharged race cars, and the 240RS was never able to showcase its talents.

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At the garage, we gave our intern simple instructions to retrieve the 240RS for our test. Just go, get the car, then come right back. Easy enough, right?

Wrong. Upon his return, he informed us that he wasn't sure which one to bring. Apparently, there were a couple to choose from, so he just grabbed the stock version. Intrigued, we sent him back into our automotive labyrinth to fetch the second car. How on earth did we end up with two cars?

Seconds later we were rewarded with with a 1985 240RS Rally Car. The real deal, none of this Omologata silliness. Better yet, we'd been asked by our Valium-sedated Producer to test both cars and form a comparison. Our only limit was sticking to paved roads.

How hard can that be?

Performance as Purchased: April 14, 2011, White (what do you think?)
Displacement: 2,340 cc
Max. Power: 232 hp @ 7,500 rpm
Max. Torque: 170 ft-lbs. @ 6,000 rpm
Drivetrain: FR
Length: 4,300 mm Height: 1,310 mm Weight: 970 kg
Tires: Sports (Hard)
Performance Points: 433
Mileage: 45,809.9 mi.

Before we move on to the test, both our car and our driver both needed serious work. Our car has had over 45,000 miles of torture, and our driver recently completed his court-ordered drug rehabilitation program, so both needed proper sorting before we could begin. While I had been sent to the local pharmacy for a home testing kit, our crew went to work restoring the car to showroom quality. With a new engine, and a fresh body, we unearthed 12 hp, and 7 Performance Points, for a grand total of 244 hp, and 440 PP. The added horsepower is welcome for a car so light, and the additional Performance Points will help us understand how ant farts fit in to Einstein's Theory of Relativity. And all this for only 57,500 Credits.

Bargain.

By the time we'd finished, nightfall had set in. With our tight production schedule, there would be little time to drive both cars if our testing didn't go exactly as planned. We tested our driver, and our little tell-tale kit assured us that our test driver was still on the proverbial wagon, however when we got to the track, he managed to pick up a case of the sniffles. No matter, as he quickly climbed on board and shot down the track.

Once again, completely useless.

Without word, he set off in such a hurry that we hadn't a chance to properly calibrate our testing equipment. Another run would be needed, and with our test driver speeding to infinity and beyond, precious time was running out. Thankfully, we were able to prevent him from taking another lap before we were ready. When we finally were ready, we measured a quarter-mile time of 0:14.405, and a 0-60 mph of 0:06.040. Thankfully, this run was done completely without incident. When our driver returned, we found traces of a white powdery substance all over the dashboard.

Maybe he was just doing physics calculations with chalk.
For those keeping score at home, other notable data includes: 0-1 mi.: 0:36.481, 0-100 mph: 0:13.193, Max. G-Force: 0.62G, Top Speed: 125.9 mph

Next up was the Rally Car. I'll spare you the description, but suffice it to say that it's the same car we've been talking about with a bunch of stickers and headlamps. And a stronger bumper, in case of animals. Or people.

Performance as Purchased: April 18, 2011, White (and red, with stickers)
Displacement: 2,340 cc
Max. Power: 235 hp @ 7,500 rpm
Max. Torque: 179 ft-lbs. @ 6,000 rpm
Drivetrain: FR
Length: 4,300 mm Height: 1,310 mm Weight: 970 kg
Tires: Sports (Medium)
Performance Points: 453
Mileage: 4,063.3 mi.

Compared with the stock model, the only difference seems to be the improved exhaust, fully adjustable suspension, a racing transmission, better tires, and lower mileage. Clearly this one hasn't been abused as much, but then again who knows what sort of abuse that was. Or how long it's been sitting unattended. For the sake of a proper comparison, we performed the same restoration as with the stock model. With the same changes, we acquired 13 extra ponies (248 hp) and 8 Performance Points (461). Total cost for this Einstein/Ant Fart experiment: 600,000 Credits.

Tiger Woods made a commercial where he misses a hole-in-one drive because he failed to include the calculation of the earth's rotation. He got paid to do that, and probably did all that filming in one day.

For our day's work, we've managed to spend a grand total of 657,500 Credits, and we've yet to gain any knowledge of whether or not a car's cornering abilities, at the absolute knife edge of adhesion, can be affected by the fart of a single ant.

Compared with Tiger, I still maintain we've got the better job. Mostly because we've got two great cars to drive, and mostly because we aren't being beaten out of them by an ex-wife.

Back at the track with the Silvia Christ Superstar, we've found our driver with an increasing sense of the sniffles, and a decreasing amount of time. And he's twitching. With all systems in place... and apparently a clinically-demented driver behind the wheel.. we send him off to report a 0-60 mph time of 0:05.140, and a quarter-mile trot of 0:13.708.

And more powder. By the time we arrived at the finish, our driver was gone, and the sound of police sirens appeared to be getting closer.

For those keeping score at home, other notable data includes: 0-1 mi: 0:34.094, 0-100 mph: 0:12.103, Max. G-Force: 0.76G, Top Speed: 149.6 mph

Hours later, the authorities had our sacked driver in custody, and had cleared both cars to continue. That left the driving up to me. Quickly, we found a local circuit comprised of sections of interstate. Our special stage, Route 5, would host the Silvias.

Keep it off the wall.

Five laps in, that's all I could think of. Keep the damn thing off the wall. With over 600,000 Credits already spent, I'm sure the last thing our accountants want to see is yet another receipt for body work. Eight laps in, and Route 5 speaks to me. The 240 speaks to me too, only this far into the test, it's no longer filled with expletives and hateful wishes. When all is said and done, I'd managed a 1:41.028 around our impromptu circuit. More time could be made up on the coarse, but not in the deadline of our production. Short of a time machine, or daylight savings, we'd be cutting it close.

Producer

You are aware that we lose an hour today, right?

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(Expletive)

Quickly, we set out in the Rally Car. Although we couldn't enjoy the dirt, we were allowed to test the car at full throttle and without restraint. Instantly, all the small changes became apparent. This car turns much easier than the road car. It's power is more apparent and immediate. Within a few laps, I had already driven a 1:37.393. Easily 4 seconds faster than the road car, and thankfully, everything worked. I had more lights than a Hollywood premier.

In 1983, Nintendo's Famicom went on sale, Ronald Reagan said we could use something called GPS, and there was general mass hysteria everywhere else. Nissan introduced the S110, and although it is a bit ugly, once you're behind the wheel you do feel it's Rally prestige. With a few modifications, it is feasible to build your own Group B car, although the amount of money needed to do so is probably equal to what our former driver spends on his habit.

But over time, with a change here, and a tweak there, it's possible. The differences between the two show an evolution of development, and it's easy to see why Nissan's engineers were so confident of success. This car is fast, stable, and little adjustments usually produced positive results, and these results could easily be replicated in the road car. True Omologata.

The curse of the car is its styling, but this can be overlooked due to the era that produced it. After the oil crisis, few knew how to make cars under the new regulations. The Japanese were able to capitalize on the weaknesses of other markets, and cars like this show exactly why. Back then, every car was its own form of ugly. This wasn't any different.

Sadly, this styling is attempting a comeback. The i.am.auto.thingy is technically as retro as the Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger. In its effort to stand out, it fits in... just in the wrong place. 1983 was fine... back then.

We've moved on. And perhaps that's the greatest flaw of this car. Since before it was produced, it simply hasn't been able to keep up.
For those keeping score at home, other notable data includes: 0.0% chance of an ant fart effecting a car's cornering capabilities





Week 1: 2001 Alfa Romeo Spider 3.0i V6 24V
Week 2: 1966 Alfa Romeo Spider 1600 Duetto
Week 3: 2000 Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT-APEX (S. Shigeno Ver.)
Week 4: 2007 Audi TT Coupe 3.2 Quattro

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You have done it again. Bravo!

Milldrum

You have done it again. Bravo!

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Thank you. I try.

The Outlaw Rants
So like I said before I wanted to see how fast I could get "Pandora's Box" using Sports Soft tires at 500PP on the Nürburgring GP/D Seasonal challenge. Best lap at this point is a 1:38.8xx with a race time of just over 5 minutes. Car is hitting 145mph on the front straight. Still a bit surprised by how quickly the car turns in and trying to get rid of excess oversteer that's mainly due to its quick response to the slightest input. Think if I can ever get it reacting how I want should be able to get high 1:37s and sub 5 minute races. Overall a very fun car to drive that's pushing ole Harvey Wallbanger's driving abilities to their limits.

Anyways thought you might like a few photos of "Pandora's Box" in action.👍👍




Should get a tune posted in the next few days.

When I was tapped on the shoulder to choose the Car Of The Week, I needed to satisfy my 3 criterias.

1. The car needed to be different from most other cars.
2. It needed at least a 2 litre engine.
3. I like 'em ugly.

So I decided that this piece of modern art would be the car I chose. So now what should I do? First thing is a beautiful photo with the car in it.

Special Stage Route X by Milldrum, on Flickr

Mission accomplished I believe. Then I needed to do something about that paint. I had a can of Jag Purple laying around and....

Toscana (Tarmac) by Milldrum, on Flickr

Still an ugly car. So what if I drove it at night in the rain?

Special Stage Route 7 by Milldrum, on Flickr

Still makes me want to buy a blow torch and make some scrap metal. I shouldn't complain, the car was awesome to drive. I had not even changed the tyres and was having a blast. But people everywhere were looking at me in a funny way. I decided to add some PP and some Matte Dark Green paint. I took it all the way to 519PP. The only thing I did was to keep the sports exhaust.

But then something amazing happened. I was casually drifting around T-scuba and my eyes started to play tricks on me. I found a car modelled by the same people that built mine. They were twins when I compaired them all around the car. How could they be allowed to commit these crimes again?

Tsukuba Circuit by Milldrum, on Flickr

I couldn't handle it anymore. I loved to drive that car. But it was getting too ugly even for me. I took a quick trip to the OCD and found the brother of this ugly duckling. This one looked like it was on steroids, but they seemed to be roughly the same animal. But it seemed to click more with my ego. The people didn't see me as a lunatic anymore now that my car had a livery. Now I was a classic rally enthusiast. So I turned on all the lights and went for a drive.

Toscana_1 by Milldrum, on Flickr

....and drive, and drive.

Toscana by Milldrum, on Flickr

So thanks to me for picking this horrible looking car. Thanks for helping me discover just how shallow I am. Thanks to me for trying the brother of the ugliest car in my garage. Thanks to PD for allowing this all to be possible.

You certainly picked one ugly car. The GNX photo was a good comparison.

I was really looking forward to this car. I really love the look of it to begin with - hell, it is indeed ugly, but in that engaging and weirdly attractive way that you can't really stop yourself staring at. Think of it as a Mars bar (or some Hersheys whatever that people in the US have) - See one and your mouth waters in anticipation, despite it looking small and brown and essentially like a turd. But your brain knows it's not a turd, it's a bar of sweet chocolate and you want a bite. That is how I feel about this car.

I sprayed mine matte grey in an effort to make it look like it was in primer, because it does look like someone made a half-arsed job of the bodykit in that way over enthusiastic 17 year-olds bolt on cereal boxes and chicken wire to make their cars look street modded, but never quite finish it. But it turns out the matte paint rather suited the great slab-sided one and a set of rally-slag white BBS wheels actually made you think twice before hiding the camera.

I thought about sticking a wing on it, but each and every one of the wings look terrible on this terrible looking thing and there is only so much ugly a weak stomached man like me can take. I also noticed that this car reaches premium ugly (the zenith of minging) at the wheel shop. It seems to be on stilts, like they forgot to cut out the indents in the body that wheels usually sit within (criminal baring in mind the size of those, um, arches doesn't do them justice - wheel-bridges?).

For looks alone, it needs to be dropped on some trick suspension onto its button, but I have read too many comments on here scaring me off modifying it in any way so I will avoid for now.

I am nowhere near ready to write a review on how this thing handles, but it's 1980's video nasty looks just demanded I wrote something down. I will drive it, but my attempts to get into the thing have thus far been thwarted by the fact my safety blindfold is making it difficult to find the door handle...

Ha! Post the pics!

I am still an extreme noob and have not figured it out yet. I don't really know how to get the pics from the PS3 to my laptop. And I am pretty rubbish at taking photos...

But I will try!

Turismo.M.G!

I am still an extreme noob and have not figured it out yet. I don't really know how to get the pics from the PS3 to my laptop. And I am pretty rubbish at taking photos...

But I will try!

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use a usb stick drive to transfer photos. at least thats how i do it.

Turismo.M.G!

I am still an extreme noob and have not figured it out yet. I don't really know how to get the pics from the PS3 to my laptop. And I am pretty rubbish at taking photos...

But I will try!

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As long as your PS3 has internet connectivity then go into your photos on the XMB and select upload. It will give you the option to either upload to picasa a free photo host using a Google/gmail account or Facebook. You can then transfer them easily to any other photo hosting service you want. (I use photobucket because its easy to copy the links for here and doesn't use my main gmail account.)

As for the cars styling look at the 80s Skylines and a few other cars of that time. The boxy look was in. Car designers tend to be a pack of lemmings with limited imaginations, while the marketing people have even less personality and sense of style, so they all pretty much just copy what the quotes in thing is. If you do get a new look its either because someone snuck one by the accounting department by saying their testing an entry to a new market like Ford did with the original Mustang, or because it was some top executive with serious corporate power's pet project that got shoved down the corporate throat. Unfortunately the bean counters hate both situations and will do everything possible to kill such cars as fast as possible.

McClarenDesign

You certainly picked one ugly car. The GNX photo was a good comparison.

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But the GNX is gorgeous, the 240 RS.... Err not so much.

comandorando87

use a usb stick drive to transfer photos. at least thats how i do it.

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Same, and I use photobucket to host.

Check out the photomode forum for tips on taking pics.

Mac K

But the GNX is gorgeous, the 240 RS.... Err not so much.

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Oh come on, it's the same car!

Well, despite the opinions of others, I like the looks of this car, it is very 80s but that's OK. It looks purposeful and aggressive, similar to the Starion from the same era.

Gave mine an oil change and a coat of Coral Blue paint and went for a spin at the Nurburgring.


It is a bit rear happy and will slide you off the track if you're too eager on the stock Sports Hard tyres, but I took it quite easy and got round in 8:56.167.

Looking at the replay the colour is horrible and was a mistake, so I take it back to the paint shop and go for something a bit brighter, an authentic Nissan Yellow Pearl.

This looks much better and I go for another drive round Suzuka. Lap in 2:36.619, and it was pretty enjoyable with the tyres squealing quite a bit.


All in all another good choice for COTW as I probably wouldn't have got round to this car, even despite my collecting everything up to 1990!

Went for another spin the 240RS at Toscana dirt track, and it was great, seems suited to a bit of rallying, which makes sense as it's based on the proper rally version.

Some more photos...






Pleased with this last one!

I've been away from my ps3 so I haven't had time to post my pics and tune of the Car of the week. I will have it by Friday, but for now all I can say about the car is it is very interesting and a great pick 👍

1.) Her beauty was so amazing that any man that gazed apon her were stricken and turned to stone.

2.) Her beauty was so amazing that the Goddess Athena transformed Medusa's beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone

That is why this car is....





Found in the Used Car Dealership

(I forgot to write it down)bhp
500pp
xxx ft. lb. @xxxx RPM of torque
weight xxxxKg

parts

Auto
Engine Overhaul
Paint - Midnight Purple II
weight Reduction
stage 3
Window
Engine
Stage 3
ECU
Intake
Manifold
Racing Filter
Exhaust
Stock
Manifold
Catalytic
Turbo
High RPM
Gears
Custom
Drivetrain
Twin Plate
Semi-Racing
Driveshaft
LSD
Suspention
Custom
Tires
Sport Soft (S3)

ABS = 1
everything else off

Tune

Weight Adjustment - 97 @ 50
LSD- 9/12/9

GearingIn this order please
Top Speed - 124
Final - 3.090
1st - 3.310
2nd - 2.450
3rd - 1.845
4th - 1.465
5th - 1.216

Ride Hight - Front: -20 Rear: 0
Spring Rate- Front: 6.9 Rear: 8.0
Extention- Front: 7 Rear: 7
Compression- Front: 4 Rear: 4
Anti-roll Bars- Front: 5 Rear: 5
Camber- Front: 1.8 Rear: 2.3
Toe Angle- Front: -0.18 Rear: 0.10
Brakes- Front: 9 Rear: 6


TUNER NOTES - Is she a beauty or a beast, that is for you to choose. Either way, she'll turn you to stone.

Slippery like a snake (or her hair) she can be a handfull, just don't look at her and you'll be fine. Good luck.





Thanks for the great pick... lets see whats next

The Outlaw Motorsports Garage tunes
Nissan, Silvia 240RS (S110) '83, "Pandora's Box"
So it was week 5 of Turismo.M.G!'s Car of the Week and Milldrum picked this squared off blast from the past. Now the Wallbanger found himself intrigued by this box much like the Mythical Greek woman Pandora. Unfortunately like her box this one also contained evils. In the cars case it was a much to short gearbox that inuced massive wheelspin while limiting top speed and chronic oversteer. While dealing with those two issues ole Harvey decided to freshen it up by trimming a little weight and giving it a boost in power. Now even quicker with a much improved gearbox and the worst of the oversteer tamed its now ready to impart evil on its opponents and not the driver. Overall a very fun car to drive that's pushing ole Harvey Wallbanger's driving abilities to their limits.



Source and Parts list:
Buy from: Used Car Dealership
Paintjob: Grand Prix Maroon (paint by Nissan)
Wheels: Enkei RP03 (painted Air Blue Pearl Metallic by Nissan)
Aerodynamic Kit: None
Weight Reduction: Stage 3
Window Weight Reduction: Yes
Carbon Hood: No
Chassis reinforcement: No
ECU Tuning: Yes
Engine Tuning: No
Intake Manifold: Stock
Air Filter: Racing
Exhaust Manifold: Stock
Catalytic Converter: Sports
Exhaust: Titanium Racing
Turbo Kit: High RPM Range
Transmission: Fully Customizable
Clutch: Twin-Plate
Flywheel: Semi-Racing
LSD: Adjustable
Drive Shaft: Carbon
Suspension: Fully Customizable Kit
Tires: Sports Soft

The Tune
Aerodynamics: -
Ballast: 39kg at +50
Power Limiter: 100%
Transmission - process as follows;
1) Set to default
2) Set Final Gear to 6.000
3) Set Top Speed to 112mph
4) Set gears as follows;
1st=2.840,
2nd=2.110,
3rd=1.610,
4th=1.280,
5th=0.990
5) Set Final gear to 4.200
Should display an indicated top speed of 157mph in upper right corner.
LSD Rear Initial 16, Acceleration 24, Braking 8
Suspension
Camber Angle Front 1.4, Rear 1.0
Toe Angle Front 0.00, Rear 0.00
Ride Height Front -25, Rear -25
Spring Rate Front 14.6, Rear 11.6
Dampers (Extension) Front 1, Rear 3
Dampers (Compression) Front 5, Rear 5
Anti-Roll Bars Front 6, Rear 6
Brakes Front 5, Rear 7

The car has 500PP, weighs 902Kg with a 57/43 front/rear weight distribution, has 373HP and produces 245ft-lb torque@7,600rpm with a 9,100rpm redline.

Note: Decent to drive with an automatic transmission but should see definite improvement with a manual transmission.

Note 2: Car was tuned for the 500PP Seasonal Challenge race at the Nürburgring GP/D track. Adjust final gear to set your top speed for faster or slower tracks. (Those using a manual transmission may need to raise the indicated top speed very slightly at the GP/D track)

Enjoy the ride and as Harvey Wallbanger always says...
Drive hard and have fun!

Reviews and/or additional photos

Yippee, it's Friday! What are we going to get next?

krenkme

Yippee, it's Friday! What are we going to get next?

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Alpine A310!

XDesperado67

Alpine A310!

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No. Just…no. We've just been there, I have no intention in getting back into that black coffin.

Onboy123

No. Just…no. We've just been there, I have no intention in getting back into that black coffin.

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Amen

McClarenDesign

Amen

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They weren't too bad actually. The 450PP Alalalalpines, but then that was in the first few moments before the chassis gave way to its rusty internals.