A3

Hyundai may have never been a brand synonymous with producing the driver's car. Their models are often used as some sort of punchline to illustrate what we gearheads don't want in our cars. There have been some contenders throughout the years to ward off the bad jokes, but the quirky, asymmetrical Veloster that followed the Genesis earns the most credit for injecting new energy into Hyundai's image. Its release had us all thinking that the real spirited driving experience finally made its way to the well-known manufacturer.

While the Genesis Coupe might be a piece of Hyundai History now, the Veloster still delivers the

We all have that one friend that just can't seem to make up their mind. Indecision isn't just a bad habit for them, it's a way of life. At any minute you're a shrug or an "I don't care" away from utter frustration. I have to level with you folks, I am that person. Which makes it less weird to say that I can identify with the C6. Not so much to sleek body lines and unbridled athleticism, definitely neither of those. It's more so the fact that Chevy nor I can seem to make a lasting decision on anything.

Where deciding on a place to eat might be an example of my struggle with indecision, Chevy's dilemma comes more in the cooling department for their flagship sports car. If you take a look back at our last

It's often an overlooked fact in the automotive world that every engine out there is affected by the by-product of its own combustion process, but it's true. It doesn't matter the size or the type of induction. Combustion gasses will still sneak past the piston rings, and those contaminated gasses will infiltrate the intake tract. The naturally aspirated V6 is an endangered species these days, and given the age of some of these VQ37 engines, the future for these power plants is starting to look bleak.

If you revisit the early stages of our project, however, you'll see that we've already been hard at work to save the VQs from themselves. Pushing that high of a compression for so long can put a

In this day and age, if you're an enthusiast in search of a naturally aspirated, performance-oriented 6-cylinder, you're almost out of luck. The last 8 years have been the age of forced induction with the 4-cylinder turbo layout edging the V6 closer toward extinction. Unless you have the money to spend on a Porsche, there just aren't many options out there anymore for the fun 6-cylinder.

There is one manufacturer, though, who can deliver the "Fizz" (as James May would put it) without the fuss of a turbo or supercharger. That would be Nissan. I'm sure that most people would have visions of the dime-a-dozen Rogue or Sentra that dominates the roads these days. Anyone who knows anything about their Nissan and Infiniti is quite aware of the company's heritage. From the long-nosed Datsun coupes to the drifter's dream that was the 240SX"and let's not forget the 10+ generations of the Skyline/GT-R"Nissan has proved it's been around the block a few times.

It goes without saying that the intercooling system is an integral part of any turbocharged vehicle. What's the sense of trying to cram more air into the cylinders if it can't be compressed that easily. In fact, that almost defeats the entire point of having a turbo installed on your engine. For those of you who have a craving to crank up the heat on your hot-Honda by lowering your intake temps, we already devised a solution for you. However, much like how your CTR transports you from A to B, your chilled charged air still requires a delivery method.

Until we can somehow devise a pipe-less intercooler system, ensuring that

When it comes to shopping for an upgraded intercooler, the first thing any of us look for is the temperature drop figure. For our new design, that information has still yet to come. For now, we'll focus on the next most interesting specification, which, naturally, is the size of the core. In the case of our new core, that number is 1003mm³. That might just look like a number, but compared to the stock unit, it's a 169% increase in size. One-hundred and sixty nine percent. Crushed it.

How does the number compare, though? What does a 169% increase in size look like in relation to the FK8? Well, lucky for you, the difference in size is quite notable, as it should be when we're more than doubling the size of the stock unit. The stock unit appears as if it fills that entire lower

When we're talking about cooling the charged air in any forced induction vehicle, the intercooler always steals the show. To be fair, it is doing a majority of the work. No matter if you're still running a stock unit or if there's an all-aluminum core seated in the front of your car, it's the star. However, the intercooler would be nothing without the back-up band, the intercooler piping. Putting in all the effort to cool off the charged air would be useless without a method to transfer it to the intake. If the stock intercooler unit had some shortcomings, the piping was bound to end up with some flaws, too.

The safe passage for your charged air is currently left up to the combination of plastic and rubber construction that makes up the factory piping. It might seem that we're

The car is like an ecosystem. All the components under the hood of your Type R depend on each other to create the lovely symbiotic relationship resulting in speed. When one component falls behind in comparison to the others, the ecosystem as a whole lags. Our goal, as stated where we last left off, was to strengthen all the weak points and keep that turbocharged, aero-dripping, torque-vectoring machine carving corners and exceeding the expectations of FWD vehicles.

Extreme heat exposes a subtle weakness in your Type R. The excess heat will rob your CTR of its full potential on the track and the street, especially when we're talking about the intercooling system. Not only is the hotter air much harder to compress for effective forced induction, it can become a detriment to the

The weeks surrounding the new year are always a time for both reflection and a look ahead. If we look back on how Honda did in 2017, one could say that they made a splash. The previous year was the release of their spiced-up models, such as the Sport Hatch, aka the pseudo-Si, and the real Si as well. How could we forget the hatchback to rule them all, the Type R? Not only did Honda's ramped up hatchback rival the likes of the seasoned veterans of this field, specifically the AWD Focus RS, but it also took the crown for FWD cars at the revered Nürburgring. Even with these accolades, the CTR is still a mass-produced car. This means that it's inherently going to have some drawbacks due to budgets and production deadlines. We're spending 2018 to strengthen the chinks in the Type R's armor.