At the beginning of April, we announced the commencement of the second Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge. What this means is we’re repeating the recipe from last year, pitting sister publications head-to-head, each represented by a car selected to best their respective tuning scene. If you missed last year’s shoot-out and don’t know how it works, we’ll be battling against machinery from Super Street, Import Tuner, Modified, Honda Tuning and 5.0 Mustang magazines – a more unpleasant group of nemeses would be hard to imagine.
Last year we pulled out the big guns, entering an Audi S4 that did extremely well in the disciplines it completed. The problem was, it suffered mechanical problems and wasn’t able to complete the full event (we still weren’t last though!).
For this year’s Challenge, we couldn’t decide whether to go small ’n light with a high-powered GTI, or over-the-top with a twin-turbo Lambo. In the end, our decision was based on the cars entered online at SyntecTopCarChallenge.com via our online readers’ rides pages.
Since we were committed to choosing a car provided by our readers, we waited anxiously to see what would be submitted, and one of the earliest entries was from Oscar Trevizo. He submitted his ’03 E46 BMW M3, a car we featured in et 4/09. Considering it’s spec, we felt it might have a fighting chance in the Castrol Syntec Top Car Challenge with its Asuka Designswidebody providing traction for the 450hp stage 1.5 Horsepower Freaks turbo conversion.
Although HPF has more powerful upgrades, we’re hoping this state of tune will actually help in various parts of the Challenge, such as emissions and endurance, etc. It also performed well on the road course at the recent M-Fest event (see et 8/10 for a full report), so fingers crossed…
You can follow the showdown both in eurotuner magazine and online at SyntecTopCarChallenge.com for the latest updates and videos. We’ll be uploading videos and info throughout the competition, so you can thoroughly research each car and make an informed decision for your vote.