CSR 94 - I bless the blizzards down in Antarctica
Important!
Read all the rules, requirements, and opening/closing dates! If you have questions or have found any weirdnesses, leave a comment! A lot of time has passed since the last CSR, and a lot of stuff has changed with the big updates (and many things could still break), that’s why I’m leaving several days until entries open (28/02 at 19:00 GMT -3)
The challenge is on the new game version (stable)
The intent with the budget and ET limits was to leave a good room for creativity and not constrain them much. I’ve made several test cars, but since the game has been rebalanced, if you feel they’re too low or high, say so.
Background
Buenos Aires, Argentina
February 2019
The economical situation in Argentina is far from good. Obviousness aside, this is especially bad for publicly funded research organizations in the country, which have seen extreme budget cuts in recent times. Such was the case with the Dirección Nacional del Antártico, the organization in charge of overseeing and coordinating the operation of Argentinian research bases in Antarctica. But recently, they got good news. After a lot of asking, they’ve managed to convince the national and provincial governments to give them some funding.
The take is… the budget is still very far from ideal. It certainly is not enough to buy a good number of specialist vehicles, like tracked vehicles, special quadricycles, snowmobiles or unimogs currently in use.
Not all is lost however. Using modified light trucks could work, being cheaper, and thus allowing more to be bought. Also, it would allow more of the personnel to drive it easily without specific training, and they can be used more liberally than the heavier vehicles. It’s not too crazy of an idea, as it has already been tested in some bases. The Air Force operates some Toyota Hilux pickups in Marambio Base, and the Army has a Ford Ranger at Esperanza Base.
The idea this time is to buy several vehicles for use in the same and more bases, and of course, they will receive necessary modifications to be able to operate in the harsh Antarctic conditions.
A meeting with people from the Army, the Air Force and the Instistuto Antártico Argentino will be held in Ushuaia soon. A number of vehicles will be pre-selected, and added to a short list. These will later be delivered to Antarctica and tested there, to ultimately pick one.
Tasks Required
The cars will be judged mostly by how able would they be to complete the tasks expected of them:
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Air Force (airbase operations): In this role, they aren’t expected to do much in the way of offroading save for dealing with snow and ice in winter, but will be used in a mostly utility role: moving personnel and loads, testing the runway prior to operations, patrolling, assisting in medical emergencies.
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Army (intra-base logistics): Utility mostly: ferrying personnel and distributing goods around, moving between installations in bad weather. Some bases would also require offroad capacity, as they’d need the vehicles to travel nearby to get supplies (for example, Esperanza base gets its drinking water from a nearby lagoon)
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Army and researchers (research expeditions, mantaining refuges): This role will require actual offroading capability. Antarctica is not a featureless icecap, there’s lot of difficult terrain, with snow and ice in winter, permafrost and rocks all year round, and mud and dirt in the summer. The expeditions won’t be far away from rescue, but it is expected that the cars can get to points of interest, carry the necessary gear, and not get stranded in the process.
Requirements
- Reply with an ad or proposal to this thread. This won’t be judged, no need to be a photoshop artist or anything. But at least present the car to people!
- Budget: $28000 @ 0% markup NOTE: This is not a target value, it’s a maximum! If you can get the job done with less, that’s better
- Trim year: 2019 or older
- Full seats for 2 people at least. If you use +2 or +3 I’d consider those as shittier, but foldable seats.
- Fuel: 98 RON (Super unleaded). No advantage for making it run on less
- Maximum engine loudness of 40
- Catalytic Converter required (any), but no emissions limit
- Maximum Engine ET: 150
- Maximum Trim ET: 150
- No positive brake quality
These ET are not a target value either, they’re maximums. No direct advantage for going under, but trying to get close to the limit might not be the only or best choice in every case.
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No minimum safety required
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Off road tires required, used as a stand-in for appropiate studded tires
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Advanced 2010s safety with 0 quality points, used as a stand-in for necessary modifications
Modifications:
- Block heater
- Heavy insulation of the cabin
- Insulated reinforced glass
- Extra heating
- 24V conversion
Judging Criteria
Styling
Well, they aren’t going to choose a car for being beautiful, but don’t be lazy with styling. Instead of making it a stylish car for city use, make it look the part: a well equipped, realistic off road utility vehicle that looks up to the task. A lazy 5 fixture wonder will certainly not be that. And it’ll be humans choosing these, they are going to be slightly biased by this (if two vehicles are otherwise practically the same, or if one looks an outright lazy thing cobbled in 10 seconds that does not look capable at all)
Ask yourself: Does this car look realistic? Does it look like a modern car of its type? Does it need other modifications for offroading or utility that I can make with cosmetic fixtures?
Also, the people in charge of choosing these will be serious, if they straight away think they’re being trolled, even if the vehicle might be up to the task otherwise, they’ll bin it. Don’t send a purple Thanos Car, even if modified according to the challenge.
About fuel
These cars are never going to be used at highway speeds, so don’t get fooled by mixed fuel consumption. Check fuel consumption at lower speeds in the details tab to get a more accurate idea for fuel consumption on the move.
However, hese cars are going to spend most of their time idling instead of moving. So how much fuel they consume on the move isn’t going to be as important as how much fuel they consume during idle. And how much is that? Well, use this calculator (save a copy to be able to change the values).
Logic behind the calculations
If an engine makes x kW of power at idle, then it makes x kWh of work during one hour. That work divided by thermal efficiency is the amount of energy in fuel that needs to be burnt in an hour. And then, if you divide that by the energy density of gasoline (taken as 9.50kWh/L), you get the liters spent. Of course, the engine isn’t running unthrottled, so this is multiplied by 20% to give a highish estimate, considering throttling, throttle restriction, extra accessories powered, etc.
All that being said, fuel consumption of either kind will not be as important as the actual performance of the vehicle, unless it is too high that range is severely restricted or it has to be refueled too often, or if two vehicles perform too similarly and this is used to choose. So don’t cripple your car just to have insanely low fuel consumption, there’s a point where going lower isn’t that much of a difference.
Very important:
- Ruggedness, resistance to mother nature and to use
- Good traction, for operating all year round in ice and snow for winter
- Offroad, for expeditions. Consider the options you choose aside from the raw offroad score
- Utility, mostly for in-base use. Doesn’t need to be a heavy hauler either, there are specialized vehicles for that, but ensure it has a good enough capability for a vehicle of its class for carrying supplies and some equipment.
- Appropiate gearing, engine and suspension: don’t give it unusably tall gearing. Don’t give it a high-strung race car engine and/or one that turbolags badly. Give it a suspension that allows it to operate offroad and carry some load.
Important
- Reliability and service costs: These won’t be too far from a workshop, but the less logistics and money they require the better. Also, they shouldn’t get stranded due to breaking down, or have to wait for some fancy new part to be delivered from the continent often.
- Driveability: The raw driveability value is of course going to be low compared to a road going car, but don’t make it unnescessarily hard to drive. No one wants to have to wrestle an unruly car in these conditions
- Practicality: Some practicality, for carrying personnel and smaller objects around the bases.
- Fuel consumption while idling: no one wants to have to refuel these all the time. Plus a small saving in fuel would be nice.
- Seating: if it’s a pickup, it doesn’t strictly need to be double cab. They can get away from transporting people in the bed within the bases, or to expeditions in summer. Of course, this will leave less room for cargo, and will make it impossible during bad weather or for expeditions in winter.
Little Importance
- Comfort: They don’t expect luxury, and the trips won’t be very long… but don’t make them sit in a plastic chair taped to the interior. The driver has to be comfortable enough to not make driving harder, the passengers can maybe get away with a little less. If going with a single cab pickup, consider that this will be impacted, and will make it impossible to transport more than one passenger during bad weather.
- Fuel consumption at low speeds travel: but don’t make it so high that it cripples range.
- Size: What is considered a normal sized truck in Argentina is something the size of a Hilux (~3.1m wheelbase) or a Ranger (~3,2m wheelbase), see pics above. So something that size would be the “baseline”. But, of course, they’ll consider something larger or smaller, if it performs well enough. And don’t be fooled by the pics either, it doesn’t have to be a pickup. A SUV could work, having some advantages and some disadvantages over a pickup.
Final notes on these:
Judging will not be based merely on the raw automation stats, I’ll also look at the parts and choices. Say you somehow get high offroad score with an open diff? Hmm I doubt it. Turbolaggy engine straight out of an 80s race car? Probably not good either. Etc.
And it doesn’t have to be a pickup truck! Those are just the examples I have. It could probably be a SUV too, or maybe maybe even something else, if you modify it accordingly and works well enough. As long as it’s a production car modified according to the rules, tasks and criteria above, fine.
Submissions
These are subject to change, should any issues arise with the update. Also, leaving a good time window to compensate for this, and for the changes to balance.
Open: 28/02 at 19:00 GMT -3
Deadline: 07/03 at 19:00 GMT -3
(Click on the links for a countdown to know what time it is in your timezone)
Send your entry via private message with this naming scheme:
Model and Engine: CSR 94 - Username
Trim and variant: Free (brand, model, trim/variant, etc.)
General CSR Rules
Previous CSR: CSR 93 - Securing the company car
