Tuner Challenge has come early this year but this time no-one said anything about it, nothing was discussed and the list of contender's is much smaller and I'm testing two identical cars. Well I say identical but they both been tuned differently and now we must go to fight club to see which is best.
Shogun Duetto
Let's kick off with the Shogun style Duetto.The engine in the Shogun Duetto has 200 horsepower through turbocharging with the power going through a strengthen manual gearbox to a custom limited slip differential. Though the tuner claims “a little bit of understeer” it all depends on where you are and what your doing. In the sweepers and medium to fast bends there is that little bit of understeer, mostly due to missing braking markers but in the isle of Capri or even a quick flick during the S-bend and this Duetto likes to play games in the woods. It seems to happen in slow motion, it's very easy to recover it although its more for fun rather then a quick lap time as you lose quite a bit of speed doing it.
GME Duetto.
Split personality, that's the term that came to mind I came out of this car. I've driven it a few times now across different tracks and territories and it shows me something different every time I drive it. The cars well composed but stronger on the tighter circuits while a little bit limp and resistant on the longer sweeping bends. The GME Duetto has more power at just about 240 horsepower that is transmitted through a custom made transmission and limited slip differential.
Comparison.
This is where the two cars will enter fight club and only one will emerge the winner. So which is best.
The first talking point is the transmission. Gun feelings and seat of the pants dyno's give me the idea that the GME tune is better on the acceleration front but rather then guts lets bring in some actual science. Coming back from the track we anaylise the data and find that the GME Duetto pretty much smashes the Shogun Duetto. Acceleration over a short distance like 0-100 and the quarter mile show that there isn't a lot of difference between the two cars but everywhere else the GME Duetto wins by one or two seconds.
Where not convinced that the transmission has a big effect on these numbers though. While we can see the benefits of the transmission on top speed (216 for the Shogun versus 239 out of GME), the GME Duetto does have some 40 horsepower up on the Shogun model.
Therefore the only place to really test the difference between the two Duetto's is on the race circuit and infact that complicates things even more. The GME box works very well on the shorter tight circuits but the Shoguns stock box is quite competent as is particularly on Deep Forest. Approaching the first corner the Shogun can be held in 3rd around the corner while the GME entry requires a bit of gearshifting to keep the engine on the boil. On balance though, the GME box wins out.
After driving the Shougun Duetto it's easy to underestimate the GME model. The GME feels numb but turns hard and can often be twitchy on the limit hence the term “split personality”. The Shogun model feels numb and is numb.
On really sharp roads like Capri however the cars feel different, The slower speeds means that the Shogun model comes out of it's shell a bit more and becomes a little more engaging. The Shogun model had a little more tail out action as did the GME Duetto but the GME flavor was just more controllable in this situation.
So we have an answer then. Intial comparisons showed that there was very little between the two cars there was very little between the two cars but in the end on balance the GME wins out being more consistent across different tracks and being the faster across them as well.
Duetto - Shogun Style
Comfort: 22
I always knew what I was going to get from this car...
Cornering Attitude: 20
.... even if it was understeer.
Power: 12
This is a comparison and comparatively, the GME has more power.
Improvement 8
Fine tune
Bonus Points – 0
Points 60
Points 60
GME Duetto.
Comfort 15
Split personality, in one session I was amazed and in the next I was off the track. It was a good car but requires quite a change in driving style.
Cornering Attitude: 25
but it was amazingly fast and had excellent front end grip.
Power: 15
This is a comparison and 200 versus 240, you could always win.
Improvement: 9
Driver Error? Maybe or maybe not but my only compaints where with consitancy.
Bonus Points -5
Fastest car.
Total 69
I sold my Alfa, unfortunately 
Seems like I will have to get one again.
Today's avatar is from the video "Fat Kid & TNT" (search YT for it, it's hilarious!!) I'd put the video up on here in the YT gallery but the first 20 seconds are of the little fatboy swearing. 
