"A vintage rarity. Dubious driving characteristics. But quite fast and efficient with the right driver behind the wheel. - Description in Drive to survive"
The Cayuse 550 is one of the many drivable Vehicles in Teardown. It's first appearance is on Villa Gordon.
As seen at Villa Gordon
Design[]
The Cayuse 550 looks to be a combination of multiple muscle car designs from the 60's and 70's. The front end looks akin to that of a second-generation Plymouth Barracuda, with large inset headlights and a two-part grille right above a large chrome bumper. Under said bumper hang a pair of small foglights. The car body itself looks to be based strongly on that of a second-generation Dodge Charger, with a narrow windshield, a fastback profile and a black fuel cap on the same location as on the real Charger. However, the fastback of the car is more pronounced and the mirrors are larger.
The car has small rims wrapped in thick tires. The rear of the car also borrows from the second-generation Dodge Charger, being squared off with a chrome fascia that houses wide tail and reversing lights, separated by what looks like a badge or presumably a keyhole(for access into the trunk). Small indicators appear of the side of the car near the back. Strangely, the front end is missing fender indicators. It has one exhaust pipe(it is not visible, but this can be determined from the fact that all the exhaust gases come from a singular spot, on the left). The seats inside the car are brown and made of flammable materials. The car is painted in a desaturated green color supplemented by a few bits of chrome trim.
Performance[]
The Cayuse 550 is a classic muscle car. Great at going in straight lines, great at sliding everywhere and great at looking cool. Its tires are barely able to grip the road, its huge engine takes every opportunity it has to spin the wheels and its brakes aren't good at braking. However, it accelerates decently fast, handles nicely and has an abundance of ground clearance. You could also just disregard all of the issues mentioned and say that the tires are the only real problem. And you would be right, as a bulk of the Cayuse's problems stem from its huge engine constantly overpowering the woefully inadequate tires...
But are they really so bad? In terms of performance yes, but in terms of handling they can work in the car's favor; it's very easy to drift. Throttle it a little while turning and you'll start sliding, and thanks to RWD the car automatically starts turning in that direction. This will lead to you spinning out if the car is not corrected. Thankfully, it's very easy to correct the Cayuse - a small turn in the opposite direction sets the car straight immediately. But let the car do it's thing on full throttle, slightly correct it during a turn to avoid spinning out and you will have initiated a drift. That's what makes driving the Cayuse fun, even if it isn't exactly "practical", and giving the car better tires would remove that fun. So maybe it's a good thing that the tires are bad, besides the disadvantage of creating a smokescreen with the amount of wheelspin the car produces at launch.
What else is the car good at though? Well, not much. It's great at going fast(its top speed could be higher). It's also quite good at offroading, having a lot of ground clearance and relatively soft suspension, but yet again the tires' lack of grip hurt the car in this aspect. And finally it performs great in a front-end collision. The roof could be a little stronger...
Overall, the Cayuse is a great car. It's fun to drive and handles well. Just don't crash it.
Trivia[]
- The "550" in the Cayuse's name may be referring to the displacement of it's engine in cubic inches. It was presumably built somewhere in the 60's to 70's, and cars from this era commonly had their engine's displacement alongside the name. This was done to differentiate the different models of the car, and it also suggests that the Cayuse featured in-game is a high-performance variant.
- The Cayuse weighs somewhere around 2600 lbs(1179 kg).
Gallery[]
