ESC85 - Executive Sports Car 1985 - Build a BMW 535 Beater - Closes 22nd March

Pugehenis · 1 March 2020 07:47

ESC85 - Executive Sports Car 1985 - Build a BMW 535 Beater

StS_Saloon_-_1985_BMW_535i.car (53.7 KB)

(this is an accurate replica of a real 1985 BMW 535 replicating all the real world data about it I could find.)

You have been commissioned to design a prototype to compete with the 1985 Model year BMW 535 - you have been supplied with a 535 to help you benchmark your proposal.

The car should be close to or exceed the BMW in most regards, but most importantly - your boss wants this car to claim the crown of the best Midrange Executive Saloon to drive in the reviews and media to take the title of ‘ultimate driving machine’ for the coveted business and fleet buyer markets.

Ultimate straight-line performance is not the goal, as long as your vehicle is similar to the BMW in performance terms performance won’t be the primary consideration.

Also, consider in-gear performance as this will be tested more in Beam.

Your car needs to combine prestige with good on paper figures as well as a dynamic road-biased chassis.

Your car will be tested in the wet and the dry if your proposal is taken forward for interactivity, fluidity, refinement, and overall driving pleasure.

You have been given about 10% more budget than the BMW per vehicle to achieve your goal, coming in under budget and with less development time will, of course, help your proposal.

Your design should be as authentic 1980’s as possible and quality plus attention to detail is key. Take particular note to have a suitable arch gap rather than putting the largest wheels and tires possible.

Bear in mind your car should be a similar size to the BMW, a car that’s too small or too large could be penalized for that.

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Submitting your entry:

Submission via the submission channel on my discord: Cookies & Autos Channel or PM direct to me here

CLOSING DATE Midnight March 22nd (your time) - entries will be scooped the day after.

ENTRIES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED THAT DEVIATE FROM THE NAMING STRUCTURE OR WITHOUT THE TXT FILE

Save as this in the 4 available dialogue boxes in Automation - ESC85 - YOURUSERNAME - MARQUE NAME - MODEL NAME&NUMBER (if you have one)

You must submit your entry with a text (.txt) file which has a paragraph of text about the design philosophy of your Auto company and your car.

You will benefit from explaining your companies philosophy and its country of origin (for example Swedish - making it very safe, or german designed to be stable and perform well on the autobahn).

Pick a region your car is from and include this into your philosophy which should highlight at least one strength and one weakness.

I’ll use this text in the video and to judge your entry by how authentic it is to your own philosophy.

Examples (you don’t have to use these but are included for your reference):

Germany:
Good autobahn performance and quality
high tech
Higher Cost

Britain:
Excellent chassis dynamics across all speeds
Quiet
More prestige
Less Reliable

Swedish:
Good safety and overtaking power
Good interior space
Heavier and less aerodynamic

Italian:
Great Sound and chassis
More noisy and less comfortable
Smaller

Japanese:
Lighter and reliable
High revving engines
Less comfortable
Low on torque

France:
Very comfortable
Unusual technology
Balanced handling
Lower top speed

USA:
More powerful
Straight-line acceleration
Less sophisticated
Lower quality
Lower fuel consumption

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Other rules:

No Mod bodies

Styling Mods allowed but you must state with a text link to the mod you are using when entering in your text file

4 door sedan bodies or 5 door hatchback bodies only
4 or 5 Seats only
Budget $31,500 MAX
The model Year 1985 only
Medium Tyres Only
Comfort - 25 MIN - higher will be rewarded in judging
Ride height 200mm MIN
95 Ron Premium fuel or worse
No engine Stresses - everything in the green - (more reliable is better anyway)
Engine Service Costs - 380 MAX
Vehicle Service Costs - 1200 MAX
Muffler and Catalyst required
276bhp MAX hard limit (to sell in the japan market) - your car will probably have less power than this anyway
Minimum 130mph top speed in the test track window (For german sales - any less will put potential buyers off) - Ideally 136 or better to match the 535.

Wheelbase - 2.5m Minimum
Vehicle Reliability - 60 MIN (more reliable is better)
Loudness - 40 MAX or less (for recording)
Fuel Economy - 14 MPG US MINIMUM NATURALLY ASPIRATED 16MPG US TURBO (more is better - turbo cars often don’t achieve their stated economy in real life)
ABS - Required
14 inch minimum - 17 inch wheel maximum - 235 Front 255 rear MAX width - should look realistic size and profile with your car body.
Maximum quality = 5 plus or 5 minus max on each and every slider

Any Aero must be subtle and lie within the outline of the body - understated is better as this is an executive sports car and Huge wings may be penalized

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/// 1st round

Rules check, meme elimination and elimination of any entries that do not appear to be authentic 1980s

Points in Family Sport Premium and GT added together and scored
Drivability, sportiness, comfort, prestige, practicality fuel economy and reliability added up and added to your category scores

Your score will be multiplied by what percentage you come in under budget (i.e. if you use 95% of your budget, your scores will be multiplied by 1.05).

Styling - Scored out of 10, some of the weakest will be pruned (the number will depend on the number of entries).

/// 2nd Round (here on in will be videoed and put on youtube)

Automation Analysis

Your car will be reviewed and benchmarked against the 535 for any anomalies and given a score out of 10

The Weakest will be pruned

/// 3rd Round

Hiroshi Raceway Wet

/// Your car will be tested in the Wet to assess it’s chassis dynamics - any car that is fundamentally unstable in the wet will be eliminated

4th Round

Never-ending motorway - Autobahn Testing

5-60mph test through the gears
30-70mph through the gears
50-70 in top gear
Top speed recorded and high speed lane change stability test
Brake Test (100-0)

The in gear times will be added together and then measured top speed added on top plus a score out of 10 for high speed stability.

The Weakest will be eliminated

5th Round (Approximately 10 entries depending on quality)

Italian Island Tour Drive

Long Drive and review of each car - the cars will be primarily assessed as a ‘driving machine’ and no lap time will be taken although overall performance and speed will be taken into account in the scoring.

6th Round Winner declared for

Automation Scoring Winner
Autobahn Winner
Italian Test Drive Winner
Notable Mentions (interesting and innovative designs)
Best German, British, French, USA, Italian and Japanese entry
Best FWD
Best RWD
Best AWD/4WD
Best Styling
Overall Winner, 2nd place and 3rd place overall

The aim is to sweep all the prizes you qualify for.

GOOD LUCK!

Also cars will be tested in Beam with fanatec wheel and pedals so tune your car for wheel driving if you can.

That-S-cop · 1 March 2020 07:54

This seems… like a task… for the host

I'd be happy to join...

With an Australian [Classification US] car

but I think you are putting a little too much on your end of the plate.

Pugehenis · 1 March 2020 07:56

Thanks - I’ve done a couple of challenges before so I know it’ll be a fair bit of work - I’ll just be ruthless and prune the less strong entries earlier on to counter that if I get a lot - please do join!

Fletchyboy100 · 1 March 2020 08:23

My specialty, 80s saloon cars, time to get building!

Kyuu77 · 1 March 2020 11:22

A significant thing about JDM cars is how comfortable the seats are tho.

Also the Japanese limit is 276hp (280PS)

GetWrekt01 · 1 March 2020 11:52

I mean, I hope these terms are flexible terms because… yeah

cough ~~gentlemen’s agreement~~ cough

Kyuu77 · 1 March 2020 12:05

…which they officially limited themselves to.

Kyuu77 · 1 March 2020 12:16

KGB Lynx ABS Edition

Following the advent of ABS, KGB is chasing technology with fervour to keep our customers on the cutting edge.

Cheaper, faster, more reliable, more economical; not even Germany’s finest can keep up with the Lynx now…

Fayeding_Spray · 1 March 2020 12:38

It was more a suggestion. Many Japanese performance cars “Had” “276hp”

Usually they had more but never reported the fact they did. I think it was the 6th or 7th gen Evo that had upwards of 300hp but every piece of japanese advertising said 276.

It truly was a suggestion once the late 80s and the 90s came around.

Pugehenis · 1 March 2020 13:55

If you wanted to have more power you could always deliberately underrate your car (like be able to carry a lot more boost) so a simple remap and boost increase would release more power… that would be pretty interesting as an entry.

Pugehenis · 1 March 2020 13:56

I’ve changed that - I think it’s more or less impossible to get that much power under these rules anyway…

abg7 · 1 March 2020 15:44

It should be 95 RON premium unleaded - the lowest such kind of unleaded petrol available in Europe. Also:

I take that to mean no knocking, valve float or stressed internals (from RPM or torque loads). As for this:

Does this apply to the whole car or to each individual slider?

Last but not least, I think you have forgotten to include engine and trim PU/ET limits.

Anyway, the cars we expect to see in this challenge will be very reminiscent of something a drug lord would drive through Miami back in '85.

Pugehenis · 1 March 2020 20:02

95 RON premium - you are correct - thank you - I’ll amend that.

Engine Stress - Correct, obviously if you had those things it would wreck your reliability scores anyway

Quality - each individual slider

Arn38fr · 1 March 2020 20:21

Does this car have to met american market regulations ? Thats is to say side marker lights et big bumpers like in the video.

Pugehenis · 2 March 2020 06:56

Hiya - no it isn’t a rule - but if you did that and pointed it out in your text file with your car - that would most definitely be a plus when judging - this competition is about combing authenticity with a really well polished build both in beam and automation.

Arn38fr · 2 March 2020 10:30

This challenge is a job for Lacam Ornon next generation.

1977 Lacam Ornon III

donutsnail · 2 March 2020 22:41

So, just to be clear, the regional rules aren’t hard rules, are they? I think that those are pretty subjective, and I would hate to have a car be penalized in judging if someone built:

an American car that isn’t “lower quality”
an Italian or Japanese car that isn’t “less comfortable”
a Swedish car that isn’t overweight
etc.

Just want to know how this part would be judged, as these subjective limitations could be stifling.

Pugehenis · 3 March 2020 06:37

Hello,

No the regions aren’t hard rules - they are examples.

Your car will be judged by your own philosophy. The Caveat being some degree of realism so if you justify a German car as having a lower top speed, that wouldn’t be realistic as they have the autobahn - or a Swedish car having lower safety, that also wouldn’t be particularly realistic.

You are free to set your own philosophy but if it’s realistic and insightful - that will be rewarded.

My advice - include as much information as you can or want to - and it will all be taken into account in the judging and featured in any video showcase of your car.

nialloftara · 3 March 2020 12:11

1985 Centauri Raider GTZ
The American sedan designed to beat those European imports.

More info cause why not.

The GTZ trim is the top level package, featuring a touring style suspension setup, larger wheels and 235 width tires, with more aggressive rubber. Under the hood a special High Output version of the tried and true Centauri 4 liter V6 making over 180hp and 220lbft of torque through a true dual exhaust system gives this sedan a healthy power boost over it’s lesser stable mates. The GTZ package also nets you 4 wheel disk brakes, and inside the front and rear bench seats are replaced with premium velour upholstered bucket seats up front, and a pair of sculptured cushioned seats with a integrated center armrest to help bolster rear passengers. Also exclusive to the GTZ is the optional 5 speed manual transmission, which when equipped comes with a limited slip differential to help control all that torque through the front wheels.