The year is now 1990, the Decarlis (see above) has been in production for almost two years. Issue is, shoddy quality standards at the factory are leading to a large number of build quality issues with the car, starting with wheels falling off the cars under power, “clutchsplosions”, to outright engine failures due to badly installed turbochargers to the carburetors. This is warranting the use of tow trucks nearly everywhere to simply remove them from the streets. (Not shitting on the car btw, it’s a well done piece of engineering.)
The government in their infinite wisdom has decided that, instead of actually attempting to fix the issue with the factory, they are instead demanding that a new factory be made, which produces public utility tow trucks (or SUV’s, or Wagons, even Vans, the rear will be chopped for a crane). Trucks, according to the government are classified differently than cars. Fortunately, every “car” on the road these days is a Decarlis, so hooking one up to a tow truck shouldn’t be too difficult, and being front wheel drive, they should have no issue with being towed, just pop them into neutral and there it goes.
The special government restrictions on trucks however, are that they all must still use carbs, or now mechanical injection as a result of the ECU ban still in place. These trucks aren’t planned to be used frequently, but they should still be reasonably fuel efficient. There is an arbitrary displacement maximum of 200cc per cylinder (so 1.2L V6 is as big as you can go). Turbos are optional on trucks (this year at least). The truck will be required to have a towing capacity of 2000 kg, 400 kg for the crane, at least 850 kg for the car itself and a good safety range to spare for any older steel bodied cars still out there (towing is a bit fucked, so I’ll add the load capacity to the towing capacity) with extra value placed on a higher towing cap. The engine should ideally reach 75 HP as well, with good low end power. These builds must be BoF (Ladder, or Light Truck Mono), and may use any variant of Steel, Partial Allu, or Fiberglass (fiberglass is discouraged with high manufacture cost) paneling. The trucks will also see some major offroad duty, so corrosion resistance is a plus, as well as decent safety standards, on par with Hetvesian legal standards. Pollution standards are starting to be enforced, so add a Cat.
State Geography/Who Are We, In Case You Forgot
This nation is large, mountainous, and at war (often times with itself and it’s people). As a result of the frequent mine collapses due to cutting mining regulations, Aluminium is currently a rarity reserved for the Air Force, however, due to your prior dealings, you are alloted a small amount of aluminum for this project as a ration.
Requirements
Engine must be able to attain 75 HP (I will accept Automation “round up” values on the chart instead of specifically 75 hp or more in the details view. Can’t be bothered to check them all.)
Peak torque must be achieved at, or below 3500 RPM
At minimum 2,000 kg of combined load/towing capacity
No more than 200cc per cylinder
Pickup, SUV, Van, or Wagon body
Model name must be AEC 2 (your username)
Trim, and Variant year must be '90 or earlier.
Noise level below 35.
Emissions should be less than 1.5k Automation Emission Units.
Scoring:
25% Reliability (heavy duty internals which are not stressed will receive a 5% boost per component, this should reflect against the complaints against “what pickup/tow truck has such a small engine”).
20% Cost to Manufacture (Assume each limited production flag adds 5k and no mass production flag adds 15k to the truck, since that wasn’t clear last time. Special (forged) engine internals will be 1.5k added to the final cost per use.)
20% Safety
10% Fuel Eco (With the usual 10% bonus for LQ gas.)
10% Drivability
10% Offroad
5% Environmental Resistance
Banned Items
Monocoque (Light Truck Mono, and Space Frame are okay)
Full Aluminum Panels
VVT/VVL
Non Regular, or LQ gas.
Leaded Fuel
Aluminum Blocks and Head
Tubular Headers
Electric Injection (Mechanical is fine this time)
Individual quality sliders above +3 or below -3
Total quality use must be net 0 for the engine and car (+1 top end, -1 exhaust for example).
Advanced Auto
ABS
Individual pistons must be less than or equal to 200cc
DOHC
If Mech Injection is used, TC, ESC, and Speed Limiter use is banned, as these are ECU controlled.
Adaptive Damper
Air/Hydro Springs
Semis/Firetrucks
I expect to be on vacation soon(ish) starting on the 19th of March, so I want to get this challenge off the ground, and hopefully wrapped up before that day comes up, else I won’t be able to actually conclude this one until after then.
Friendly reminder, this is an engineering only challenge. Feel free to design your car if you want. I won’t judge that.
Submissions are due by March 7th at 9 PM PST.
Here’s a timer to help you keep track.
no Firetruck or Semi-Truck, or anything like that please.