International Gran Turismo Rally - The Grand Tour 79
Important clarification
The terms GT, Gran Turismo, Touring, and so forth are often ambiguous. For this competition, we’re looking for production Gran Turismo cars - they could be slightly customized, basic livery or some rally equipment, but these are not offroaders, these are not track or competition cars - these are Gran Turismo luxury performance cars made for long distance driving. While they are not dedicated offroaders for sure, not all long journeys are in perfect conditions.
Introduction and Setting
April 1979. After a decade of fast paced car development and the advent of the turbocharger, the car industry is not the same it was before. Rich industrialists, racing drivers, enthusiasts and collectors have assembled and organized the first International Touring Rally.
This Grand Tour will have each participant bring his own Gran Turismo car and attempt to make it to each checkpoints in time, accompanied by a mechanic.These are not professional drivers and this is not strictly a race, but an event where the drivers showcase their cars and enjoy the journey. Each car needs to bring supplies and all spare parts needed, but can resupply on the way at the cost of losing time.
The starting point in Highport and the rally will cover the whole continent from the west coast to the east coast, going through scenic coastal highways, busy inland secondary roads, gruelling hillclimbs and mountain passes, unpaved segments and quick sprints. The destination is Basara in Dalluhan desert.
This is not the first such Rally event, but this signals an era of prosperity between each countries, but at the same time mourning the death of the high petrol era - with rising fuel cost and the advent or turbos, these classic Gran Turismo beauties might run their last event.
About the Challenge
This is a flavour event trying to find the best Gran Turismo (referred as GT from now on) car of the 70s. A GT car should be luxurious, sporty, easily drivable and highly enjoyable. This is a fine line between all parts of the equation - it must not behave like a Gasmean boat nor a track car, it must be responsive but not treacherous - it must simply be a joy to drive over long distances.
In the form of a classic rally, it is not a race per se but an event where rich owners will drive their GT car with a mechanic as their copilot in a series of stages over the whole automation continent. The stages are there to add some basic strategy but mostly flavour to the event. This is NOT a BRC-type event.
The winner will be the best overall GT car, not the fastest one.
Since this is not a simulation, I will have the final results very early after submissions closes - however, each stages will have a flavour post establishing a point ranking for each (“winners”), the current global ranking and flavour information about the possible final position of each cars. You’ll have to be patient to know the final winner.
As explained below, each stages will bring the majority of points (56). The final judging will bring the inspection of each cars and their drivers for the remaining score (44 points). Each of the two special stages will bring the possibility of bonuses. Each participants can unfortunately break down along the way and miss checkpoints, which can bring up stage penalties. To crown the best GT car of the era, it will have to pass these tests with flying colors. This is not a race, and the first one at the finish line might not be the ultimate winner.
Map and Stages
Stage 1 : Highport to Oakridge - Scenic - 854 km (Day 1)
Maximum RON: 98
Conditions:
- Not very technical
- Highways (asphalted, normal maintenance)
- Winding coastal and scenic roads
- Low mountain pass
- No major roadworks and deviations
- Comfortable temperature
Special Stage 1 : Automation Test Track (Day 2)
The top 5 ATT track time get a global scoring bonus.
Stage 2 : Oakridge to Tannenstein - Scenic - 1025 km (Day 3)
Maximum RON: 98
Conditions:
- Slightly technical
- Highways (asphalted, normal maintenance)
- Secondary roads (gravel, dirt)
- Winding inland scenic roads
- Small mountain climb
- Some major roadworks and deviations
- Comfortable temperature
Stage 3 : Tannenstein to Zeilwies - Mountain Climb - 814 km (Day 4)
Maximum RON: 91 (Leaded banned)
Conditions:
- Very technical
- Hill climb on asphalt, snow and ice
- Cold temperature, changing conditions
Rest Day (Day 5)
Even the best needs to rest.
Stage 4 : Zeilwies to Calides - Scenic, Overnight - 1438 km (Day 6-7)
Maximum RON: 91 (Leaded banned)
Conditions:
- Not very technical
- Highways (asphalted, pristine maintenance)
- Winding coastal scenic roads
- Some minor roadworks and deviations
- Overnight driving and long journey
- Slightly cold temperature, very windy
Stage 5 : Calides to Lenagrad - Sprint - 340 km (Day 8)
Maximum RON: 91 (Leaded banned)
Conditions:
- Sprint
- Slightly technical
- Highways (asphalted, pristine maintenance)
- Winding coastal scenic roads
- No major roadworks and deviations
- Comfortable temperature
Stage 6 : Lenagrad to Krongrad - Offroad Wilderness - 687 km (Day 9)
Maximum RON: 98
Conditions:
- Technical
- Highways (asphalted, low maintenance)
- Secondary roads (gravel, dirt)
- Some completely offroad sections
- Slightly hot temperatures
Stage 7 : Krongrad to Basara - Sprint - 233 km (Day 10)
Maximum RON: 98
Conditions:
- Slightly Technical
- Highways (asphalted, average maintenance)
- No major roadworks or deviations
- Very hot temperature
Special Stage 2 : Salt Flats Drag (Day 10)
Top 5 best 1 km drag times will get a global scoring bonus.
Judging and Closing Ceremony (Day 11)
Time to celebrate! May the best GT car wins.
Total Distance - Approximately 5400 km (not a scientific approximation)
Minimum Requirements
Not following these will result in an instabin.
Engine Variant Year: 1968 to 1979. (relaxed it to allow more lore entries)
Car Trim Year: 1968 to 1979. (relaxed it to allow more lore entries)
Car Body Year: 1960 and newer.
Trim Type: No restriction. Anything Gran Turismo-like - typically coupe and convertible, with two or 4 full seats. Will go toward final scoring (so a SUV might not be a good choice here).
Engine: No V16. Turbos are prohibited but racing part are allowed (watch for service costs/price).
Displacement: Maximum 5.0 liters (5000 cc), aspirated engines only.
Fuel: See scoring section below. The two realistic choices are 85/91 RON - available everywhere or 92/98 RON which is rare in Archana, but banned in Hetvesia and Fruinia.
Stress: No engine stress allowed.
Catalytic Converter: Not mandatory.
Loudness: Maximum 45, at least one muffler. You want to hear that engine but not be drowning in it.
Drivetrain: RWD only. GT cars are typically front engine RWD but if you can make these criteria work with another engine placement configuration, you’re more than welcome. They are not usually easier or better to drive.
Lockers: Manual and Auto Lockers are prohibited.
Tyre Type: Slicks are prohibited. See “About Tyres” section in “Scoring & Criterias”. Recommendations (this won’t get you binned): Radial are recommended but not mandatory. Recommended realistic sidewall is 70+ and rims around 15 inches, but some GT had much lower profiles.
Aero: No wings allowed. Spoilers and lips are not recommended but not banned (not the most realistic for GT cars), but effective front and rear downforce must be below 0 kg in any case (as seen in Testing/Test Track tab).
Seats: At least 2 full seats (Not +2), minimum 2 full seats per row (no empty rows - not a track car).
PLEASE AVOID THESE MODELS
These models generates positive downforce. If you have a build already ongoing for it, please contact me.
Practicality: Minimum 25. Needs to be slightly practical, not a pure sports car.
Cargo Space: Minimum 225L. You need to bring supplies, luggages and spares. This is to exclude some LM and supercars.
Safety: Minimum 40. Drivers needs to feel and actually be safe.
Env. Resistance: Minimum 35. You will go through harsh terrain and needs to have a minimum of resistance.
Ride Height: Minimum 8 inch / 200 mm. Speed bumps and city driving will be common, plus some offroading. You need enough clearance to get through it.
Quality Sliders: Maximum +8, minimum -4.
Price (Approximate Cost): Maximum 80K. You gain nothing by doing a 40K car here, except bragging rights, but maxing it might not be the best strategy either. Yes, the Jarama for example was about 123,000 in 2012 automation money, but luxury brands have a markup not included in the approx. cost.
Engine ET/PU: Hard 250 cap for both. Sanity limit. You most likely will not get near that score.
Car ET/PU: Hard 200 cap for both. Sanity limit. You most likely will not get near that score.
The cars are does not have to be 100% stock production cars, some could have small coachwork or livery done, or have some basic Rally accessories but these are not Datsun 270Z Rally cars and they are not track cars, prototypes or sports cars either.
Realism is important, but not critical - see below in the “Scoring” section.
Scoring & Criterias
There are 3 parts to the final score - Judging Criterias, Stage Scoring, and Modifiers. There are no simulation involved, it is still 100% criteria based, with some randomness/modifiers.
Stage Scoring (56 points)
Each stage will bring up to 8 points to your total score. They will be tallied each day.
Each stage will have different criterias weight, but you will NOT know the exact weight or priority for each stage. Information is given above in the “Map and Stages” section. You will have to evaluate how you want to tackle them.
There are only 3 criterias that are important for each stages (in no particular order):
Drivability - This is a very important factor for all scenic roads, great weather conditions, and very long or overnight driving.
Sportiness - This is important for very technical stages, winding roads, mountain climb, sprints.
Offroad - This is important for offroad stages, but also bad road or weather condition. Nearly all stages have at least a small offroad-relevant portion, with two offroad centric stages.
Drivability, Sportiness and Offroad accounts (together) for 70% of the total score. Each stage will put emphasis on them differently.
Examples: one stage could be 60% Drivability, 30% Sportiness, 10% Offroad. All entries will be ranked according to those and given a score from 0 to 8. Another stage could be: 40% offroad, 30% drivability, 30% sportiness. For this one, the scoring ranks will be different than the previous stage. All stages scoring will then be totaled together (up to 56 total points).
Judging Criterias (44 points)
This step is only revealed at the end of the race, but is worth a total of 44 points. A panel of experts and journalists will review the cars at the start and follow along the events. They have keen eyes and good ears. At the end of the Rally, all cars will be inspected and reviewed one last time, and drivers will be evaluated as well.
The final score will only be revealed at the end, but hints will be given in each daily brief.
(Stage Scoring of Drivability, Sportiness and Offroad)
Comfort - Driver will have to endure your car for many long days on the road, with many obstacles. Judges will see along the way which cars did cut corners there.
Aesthetics - This excludes interior (see below). How great looking and cool looking it is, and how GT it looks and feel. This will need to wow the judges - this will be a community poll.
Prestige - Obviously, this is an important judging criteria for a GT car.
Fuel Econ - Yes, constantly stopping to refuel over long distances in such an event is not enjoyable and you could miss checkpoints.
Enjoyment - This one is going to be highly subjective because there is no exact recipe. There are many stats that plays a role in this, and the engine plays a big part (smoothness, throttle, usable power, turbo spool, …), but the type of car as well, weight/distribution, handling, steering, gearing, the design choices, the general GT-ness of the car. This is not a race car, it must not feel like a track car. Also, no, it is NOT simple drivability here - You want to hear your motor, you want it sporty, but not just sporty. It is a fine line, and will depend on the competition.
Service Cost - Not the most important scoring, but still important - these cars will go through inhospitable environments and open roads, this indicates how difficult it is to service and keep running smoothly. (Reliability is really about more about actually breaking down)
Authenticity & Creativity - Interior of the car is scored here as well, but is only part of the whole equation. For classic era GT cars, some authenticity is important but not critical - the variety was still large enough. Big pushrod V8 GT cars were not uncommon (Jensen, DeTomaso and Opel comes to mind), but we are talking Gasmea, Hetvesia, Frunia, Archana and Dalluha here, so who really knows? You won’t find a ton of point here, but if you have a good story supporting your choices you can score well here even with a uncommon selection of components. So, either go authentic European classic GT cars, or be creative and tell a story.
Modifiers
There are two major modifiers to each stage scoring, and two global Special Stage modifiers. Note that modifiers can, for a stage or globally, get someone below 0 or above the max.
Reliability (Engine and Car) - Up to -2 per stage.
Each stage, a random check (number from 21 to 100) will determine if you break down during the course of the stage, delaying you and needing repairs. The roll is compared against your reliability - if it is above your score, you will breakdown. One check will be made against the car Reliability and one against the engine reliability, for each stage. Each failure give a -1 penalty to your stage score.
Octane (RON) - Up to -2 per stage.
Not all octane grades are available everywhere. You can bring extra fuel for regions that does not meet your octane requirement, but this is risky and non-optimal. Each stages have a MAX RON rating. If you require higher RON for a stage, you will get -2 score in that stage.
Special Stages - Up to +5 globally for each special stage.
The two special stages are very simple challenges, one is the lap time around the ATT and the other is the 1 mile time of the car. We rank each cars in terms of time and the top ones getsa bonus to their total (1st = +5, 5th = +1). If we get less than 10 entries, only top 3 will count (+3,+2,+1). You can decide not to tune for this and trying to achieve good time here is beneficial but often at the detriment of pure stats.
About Tyres
Changing tyres between stages is realistic. However, to reduce micro management, I have decided to not allow tyre changes. Each team would have to bring two extra tyres in the car, which is a bit much. This means the tyres you choose is important and must cover offroad stages and normal ones. You have to decide your strategy here. Slicks are prohibited, but you can gamble with sports.
About the cars
The GT cars entered in this competition can be production cars, tuned or customized, might have small coachwork done, livery and such. These are not track cars and prototypes however, nor rally specs. Gran Turismo cars are elegant and the aesthetics criteria is high, so going full coachwork + livery might be somewhat risky or might reward you with extra creativity.
Here are some inspirations.
Submission & Naming Convention
Car model: 70GT - FORUM USERNAME
Car trim: Brand and model of car
Engine family: 70GT - FORUM USERNAME
Engine variant: Engine name
Please submit to me only via this forum PM.
PS: I am using latest stable version.
Deadlines
Rule Changes/Start of submission: March 16th 23:59 (11:59 PM) EDT
End of submissions: March 31st 23:59 (11:59 PM) EDT
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