Gavril Barstow

I am looking foward to see what they cook up for any of the vintage American remasters. There's so much vintage racing content they could get; I really need to taper my expectations because I'm hoping for far more than we realistically would see

 

Yeah realistically we're jumping the gun again, but whatever it is, will be a heck of a lot of fun

 

I thought I should throw in some suggestions to keep this thread from dying because the Barstow lacks content. It's not as bad as vehicles likt the T Series, 200BX, and Moonhawk but still bad.
1. Some sort of premium trim level with a vinyl top , fancy overhead console and other luxury appointments. Could be like the SE trims on the Challenger or they could go full on Mustang Grande.
2. More options for wheel covers especially ones that cover the whole wheel.
3. More performance dress up parts (decals, hood scoops,front spoilers, etc). As the performance variants lack visual differences.
4. More parts to differentiate the model years. Usually the grilles are different depending on the model year with most real life equivalents.

 

I think some Base, Roadsport and Marshal trims can exist, with the interior trim varying.

1. The Base versions can have vinyl seats with black trim for the dashboard, the center console and the doors plus a more basic vinyl steering wheel, not the wooden one we have now.
2. The Roadsport versions can have cloth seats with textured aluminum trim (like that of the Bluebuck with the Sport Gauge Cluster and the Center Console) for the same interior places plus the smaller Sport Steering Wheel and the Sport Manual Shifter.
3. The Marshal versions can have leather seats with the existing wood trim we already know of plus the existing Wooden Steering Wheel.
4. As an extra, body colored trim for the aforementioned interior places can also be available and it would look nice too.

The Marshal versions can also have a vinyl padded roof and the Barstow in general can also have a Convertible body. Its lines would wear a soft top very comfortably.
The Lancehead, Tracksport, Kingsnake and Nightsnake versions are great as they are (with the only adaptation needed being that to the Roadsport aluminum interior trim and the inclusion of the Sport Steering Wheel and the Sport Manual Shifter) and they must be kept in the lineup. And, in the style of the Bastion Battlehawk and Battlehawk Redtail versions, some special Lancehead, Tracksport and Kingsnake/Nightsnake badging could be great for signifying these versions.

 

Would suit a convertible too

 

Also, is it just me, or they seemed to have changed the 5-speed manual's shifter in the new update?
It used to be a ball knob, but now it looks more like a Hurst shifter.

 

Yeah, they added the shifter from the Bluebuck 423 Roadsport and Custom variants!

 

As far as some "pop culture" style configs go, I think it'd be really great to see a Barstow inspired by Helge Meyer's Ghost Camaro. That would be a cool pairing with the FATT and a generally great tribute to that story.

 

Why does everyone say that this is a mustang/charger? It’s almost all Torino

 

And '64-65 Barracuda too, with the exception of the large rear glass of that car.

edit: Actually, the Barracuda model year I should've mentioned is the '67 one, it's got way simpler and finer lines than the '64-'65-'66 ones and the side window shape, as well as the profile line of the rear slope of the roof, is almost identical to the Barstow.

 

The Barstow reminds me of an AMC Rebel Machine

 

True…

 

Well, it do is strongly shaped like a 66-67 Charger in my opinion.

 

Ehh. I still think it’s more of a Torino

 

Opinions, eh!

 

While all of this is plausible, it would have definitely been built to compete with a Camaro/Mustang of the age, as the wheelbase is only an inch and a half off of their 108-inch wheelbase and the weight is roughly the same. My only real gripe with it is that it really does just appear kind of bloated, the design makes it look really big compared to a Mustang or a Camaro of the era. This is potentially where the looking like bigger cars part is coming from.

 

Yes, even Gabe himself, when he created the car, said that it's roughly the same size and weight as a '71 Mustang.
Tbh, to me it seems quite light on its feet, especially with the narrow body-coloured steel wheels. I don't see anything wrong or extraneous with it. It certainly is a big car but it looks smaller from some angles.

 

I have a feeling this car will get some big changed to the body lines when its remaster comes. Between the remasters and the proportion tweaks in 0.14 and 0.16 most of the older vehicles have had at least some changes, but I'm not sure the Barstow ever has. It still has the awkward proportions from the pre-0.14 vehicles, which doesn't do it any favors when next to what the team has been putting out lately

 

To add to this, I get the impression that someone on the team really likes this car, because it shows up constantly in missions and the secret career mode as a rival/target car and sometimes as a proposed car as well. The thumbnail for "Street Tour" at Italy also seems to show some sort of custom variant that doesn't match any of the existing configs in terms of cosmetic parts, and isn't actually in the opponent rotation for that mission.

(For those keeping track, the Bastion, 200BX, I-series, LeGran, to some degree Sunburst, and now with the career mode, Covet all have a similar tendency to show up constantly and everywhere in dev-made content, along with the VM501 Pessima, especially the V6 Sport non-GTz.)

 

I really, really like how well the Lancehead version of this car drives, but mostly, I'm amazed at how little it takes for the Barstow 423 to go from a tire-squealing mess of a car to being able to compete with 854s and the GTZ Pessimas.

The only major differences between the 423 RoadSport and the Lancehead are the tires, wheels, and rear suspension. Granted, going from leaf springs to 4-link coils is a pretty big jump (and AFAIK, factory rear suspension swaps weren't much of a thing for cars of this era outside of really special versions, similar to the TrackSport).

It's got just enough grip to not be wheelspinning all over the place, while having enough torque to go sideways when you want it to. It's also got enough ground clearance and tire grip to do some rallying, and it works nice for cruising, too. The only major issue with it is how expensive it is ($65,000 for a "new" one), and it runs outta gears rather quickly, too. But other than that, it's wonderful, IMO.

Yes, the TrackSport is faster (and very nice to drive, as well), but it's practically a race car. The Kingsnake and Nightsnake are a bit too lairy for my tastes - especially the latter. The Lancehead just strikes a really nice medium between these and the RoadSports.

And guess what? It is. It's 4.9 m long, 1.92 m wide, and has a wheelbase of 2.8 m. (Which is a bit more than the '71 Mustang's 4.88 m, 1.88 m, and 2.77 m, respectively.) It also weighs a bit more than a '71 Mustang, although I don't know if it drives like one - the '71 Mustang was a unibody, while this has a front subframe. I think it's also a bit taller - the body without wheels measures out to 1.2 m tall, while the '71 Mustang with wheels is 1.273 m tall.

Yep, the Barstow's never gotten any changes to its proportions, which make it look a bit taller and shorter than it actually is. It's certainly a lot boxier from the front and sides than many of the other muscle/pony cars of the era, like the '71 Mustang it's so close to dimension-wise. But it's really round at the back, whereas the '71 Mustang (and quite a lot of other cars like it) had quite boxy rears.

But I'm not necessarily calling its current styling unrealistic for the era - the '66 Charger and '69 Torino both are very boxy fastbacks, too. However, the Torino is 20 cm longer than the Barstow, the Charger is almost 30 cm longer than the Barstow, and both have wheelbases more than 15 cm longer, too. The Barstow is only a hair thinner than the Charger, while being 3 cm wider than the Torino.

So, the Barstow's basically a "small" muscle car designed to look like a much bigger one.