Top Gear $100,000 Challenge Results

Thanks for all coming along to our Top Gear $100,000 Challenge. We had a great turn out and another great old skool Top Gear night!

The entrants had to pick a car that cost less than $100,000 from Southern San Andreas Super Auto’s and meet up at Del Perro Pier for a night of tests and challenges to find the best of the bunch.

Then we waited for Stappen…

Cars would be judged on value, style, performance, handling and much more as we crossed San Andreas for a mini-adventure. To start the night all of the cars were kept stock, straight from the dealership.

Drivers and Cars

Verstappen: Vapid Dominator ($35,000)

  • SkyDave: Cheval Fugutive ($24,000)
  • Trashbags: Benefactor Schwartzer ($80,000)
  • Paulie: Schyster Fusilade ($36,000)
  • DoubleG: Ubermacht Zion($60,000)
  • Challenger: Imponte Ruiner ($10,000)
  • JC: Bravado Buffalo S ($96,000)
  • Catman: Benefactor Schafter ($65,000)

Value Test

Points were at stake from the start, we took the price of each players car and divided it by 100 and then took that value away from a starting score of Zero. This has a big impact on things from the start. JC was already in last place with his $96,000 car giving him a handicap of 960 points whilst Challengers bargain bucket Ruiner put him straight in the lead with a minuscule 100 point handicap.

We were still waiting for Stappen…

Capacity Test

Next up was capacity, no point trying to roll deep if you can only take your passenger. Cars were awarded 100 points for each passenger that could be carried. This changed up the points a little, the Fugitive took the lead at this point, its four-player capacity meant 400 points and it snuck into the lead in front of the Ruiner… unless Stappen turned up in a Granger!

Things changed at the other end of the table too, the four seated Buffalo pushed the two-seater Schwartzer into last place.

Stappen arrived!

Style Award

The next points were based on the styling of the stock cars we had turned up in, after a quick line up and vote the Schwartzer easily took the win. We all know it drives like a pig but it looks like a swan and rightly picked up 200 points for being the best-looking car.

  1. Schwartzer (200)
  2. Buffalo (100)
  3. Zion (50)

Parking Challenge

In a crowded city like Los Santos you really need to be able to park quickly, it’s a real bonus when running a bank job. Off to the Marina, once there we ran a quick challenge involving exiting a parking space, drive like a twat, then a spot of parallel parking. Players were scored out of 200 with the time taken to complete the challenge knocked off their score. We had a great run from Challenger in the Ruiner and we thought DoubleG & Trashbags had provided the humor until JC took ‘binning it’ to a whole new level failing to even get in his car… twice. Top points to the Ruiner in this one.

  1. Ruiner: 162
  2. Fugitive: 147
  3. Dominator: 122
  4. Schwartzer: 64
  5. Fusilade: 48
  6. Zion: 1
  7. Buffalo: 0
  8. Schafter: 0

Street Racing

Time for some racing! This involved a long Impromptu Race up to the Palmer Power Station. Ony the first three places earned the points and you weren’t allowed to drive your own car. I can’t for life of me remember who won but I do know the cars which is the important thing.

  1. Buffalo (200)
  2. Fusilade (150)
  3. Fugitive (50)

Drag Racing

Straight-line acceleration was up for testing next, which was going to be tricky judging by the state of some of the cars. With 8 players we ran a mini Drag Race, Catman’s pink car would obviously have won if RuPaul, was in charge.

After we burnt a random NPC to death we began… The runts of the litter were knocked out in the first round leaving the Dominator v Fusilade and Zion v Buffalo in the semi-finals.

The Buffalo and Fusilade battled it out in the final after the Dominator and Zion went head to head in the third-place match.

  1. Buffalo (200)
  2. Fusilade(100)
  3. Dominator (50)

The Commute (AI Race)

Time for another race, this time within the rules of the road like the AI’s do). We did plan to do this in the city but due to R* and their stupid free roam activities Impromptu Races were not available. Again starting on foot and not using our own cars we raced up to the Quarry. Just as planned the train came into play, everyone but the Buffalo got stuck behind the level crossing leading to an easy victory.

This didn’t work quite as well as it would have done in the city with multiple routes but the points still stand.

  1. Dominator (200)
  2. Schafter (100)
  3. Buffalo (100)

Rally Challenge

Once at the quarry it was time to test the cars Off-Road capabilities. We took it in turns to run the Salad route around the quarry with the quickest time winning. The cars were in a bit of a state at this point, Doble G had to race in the Futo as his Zion had caught on fire, the Schwartzer had turned from Swan into the Elephant Duckling and the Dominator was stuck in some three-wheelin’ lowrider style.

The is a slight change of results here, on the night JC’s time consisted of a little ‘guestimation’ after I forgot to start the timer on his run. After a review from the stream footage, his time was upgraded from 1:07 to 1:00 minute dead, this pushed Dave’s excellent 1:03 run of the Fugitive into second place. The points started at 200 and dropped by 30 for each position.

  1. Buffalo: 1:00 (200)
  2. Fugitive: 1:03 (170)
  3. Fusilade: 1:05 (140)
  4. Zion: 1:06 (110)
  5. Ruiner: 1:07 (80)
  6. Schafter: 1:10 (50)
  7. Dominator: 1:25 (20)
  8. Schwartzer: 1:30 (0)

Repair Costs

Obviously, we need to take running costs into considering when picking the best car, so we rolled ouor challenge damaged wheels into Los Santos for repairs. The cost of the repairs was then taken away from the cars current score.

  1. Buffalo: -322
  2. Fusilade: -328
  3. Fugitive: -408
  4. Ruiner: -418
  5. Dominator: -503
  6. Schafter: -521
  7. Schwartzer: 550*
  8. Zion: 550*

The Schwartzer and the Zion both had 550 points removed since they were so weak they couldn’t even make it across the map.

Pimp My Ride

Before we hit the race track and while we were in LSC we Pimped Our Rides! This time the Judges were Mrs Chubb (the Essex Style Sward 200pts), Bing (the Spotty Teenager ‘impressed by a big spoiler’ Award 100pts) and the Drivers (People’s Choice Award 50pts). No surprises in the winners…

  1. Essex Style Award: Schwartzer (200)
  2. Spotty Teenager Award: Ruiner (100)
  3. People’s Choice Award: Zion (50)

With the free roam testing done and dusted it was time to move onto the race track to finalise the results. Before we get there though, this is how the points stood at this point.

  1. Fugitive: 119
  2. Ruiner: -26
  3. Fusilade: -50
  4. Buffalo S: -132
  5. Dominator : -261
  6. Zion: -489
  7. Schafter : -621
  8. Schwartzer: -686

Dave’s Fugitive was the only car not in negative figures at this point with Challenger’s Ruiner not too far behind. The Schafter & Schwartzer are doing their best to prove that ‘German Engineering’ is just Latin for ‘Overpriced Shite’. The cheapest cars have managed to hang on to their lead thanks to the price handicaps but now we are hitting the race track things could change rapidly.

The Racing

We took the cars to the track next as that is what really counts, 4 tracks each with their own unique style and everyone driving their own car thanks to Transform Checkpoints.

Top Gear Test Track

Racing non-contact we were looking for the fastest lap here, all the drivers had 3 laps in which to post their best time.

  1. Fusilade: 0:50.717 (200)
  2. Dominator: 0:51.108 (170)
  3. Zion: 0:51.173 (140)
  4. Schafter: 0:51.219 (110)
  5. Buffalo: 0:51.243 (80)
  6. Schwartzer: 0:51.780 (50)
  7. Ruiner: 0:54.085 (20)
  8. Fugitive: 0:54.269 (0)

Zancudo River Run

This long Rallycross track is a great test for any car, dirt, road, track and a sexy water splash too.

  1. Dominator (200)
  2. Zion (170)
  3. Buffalo (140)
  4. Fusilade (110)
  5. Ruiner (80)
  6. Schwartzer (50)
  7. Schafter (20)
  8. Fugitive (0)

Xero City

This track weaves in and out of the streets of Los Santos for some great racing.

  1. Fusilade (200)
  2. Zion (170)
  3. Buffalo (140)
  4. Dominator (110)
  5. Schafter (80)
  6. Ruiner (50)
  7. Fugitive (20)
  8. Schwartzer (0)

Mt. Panorama

What better way to finish than on a Real Life Track, this great recreation of Bathurst was the perfect finish to the night with Sports, Sedans, Coupes and Muscle cars all excelling in different areas on this track.

  1. Buffalo (200)
  2. Zion (170)
  3. Schafter (140)
  4. Fusilade (110)
  5. Dominator (80)
  6. Schwartzer (50)
  7. Ruiner (20)
  8. Fugitive (0)

Final Results

The winner is… The Schyster Fusilade. Congratulations to Paulie for picking the winning car, a night to remember and maybe eclipse the memory of the GOAT at long last.

It was a close-run thing in the end with the usual ifs, buts and maybes…

If Dave hadn’t completely blown a 145 point lead during the racing stage the Fugitive may have been crowned King!

If JC had picked the standard Buffalo instead of the Buffalo S he would have got an extra 300 points for what is practically the same car.

If whoever raced the Dominator early in the night hadn’t completely wrecked it then it may have won the drag racing and rally challenges to get the win.

If there were a few more races the Zion would have been able to jump to the top of the table.

If the Ruiner had shown some of ‘supposed’ racing pedigree then Challenger may have been top of the pile.

If the Schafter wasn’t painted pink and driven by a Cat then who knows how high it could have climbed?

If the Schwartzer was free then maybe… nah, it didn’t stand a chance from the start.

Awards

Apart from the obvious Best Car Award there are a few others on the menu too…

Stig Award

This goes to DoubleG for racking up 265 points during the racing making him top dog.

Clarkson Award

This goes to JC, picking the most powerful car but falling foul to it being overpriced as he was suckered in by that extra letter S.

May Award

The May award goes to Challenger for doing ‘it properly’ but still failing… A great car, great price, perfect parking run, a good rally time but the Ruiner was just Captain Slow when it came to the races!

Hammond Award

We all love a crash, there weren’t that many tonight but the best was Trashbags falling off the ledge on his rally run for all to see

Munson Award

This is a new award, inspired by the film King Pin…To have the world in the palm of your hand and then blow it. Only Dave could pick up this one for throwing away his 145 point lead in spectacular style!

And on that Bombshell its goodnight!