Tabula Rasa: A Clean Slate

[jhd1124]

Tabula Rasa

Greetings,

Those of you who have been on these forums long enough might remember me from Camoria Automotive, a brand from what seems like eons ago. I posted my last car sometime back in 2016. That brand connected me to a great community of automotive enthusiasts, and I hope to do the same here.

However, I could not continue with the Camoria, it seemed exhausted. I have been building since I last posted, but with a new focus. A clean slate. With the introduction of UE4, the time felt even more appropriate to present what I have been working on.

In the upcoming post, I intend to introduce you to a new form of brand identity–consistent design themes, generation-long brand names, and a realistic approach to market trends. This automotive brand weaves in and out of automotive history as said automotive history interacts with world events.

History

Tabula Rasa’s history begins at the end of the First World War. Renee Collins, a Captain in the US Navy, returns to his rapidly industrializing hometown, Philadelphia. Seeing an opportunity to realize his dream of creating an automotive company, Collins used his sparse Navy salary to purchase the parts to construct a car. Using a heavily-modified version of the novel Cadillac V8. Applying that to a custom chassis with aluminum panels, the car was capable of speeds of upwards of 100mph.

From then until his death in 1976, Renee “Rasa” Collins dedicated his life to the principle of a quality car for a quality price. Quality means safety, performance, and style.

As we approach 2018, we here at Tabula Rasa are proud to introduce the Tabula Rasa SRC 100 Special, a track car for the road. Equipped with a turbo-charged V8, it surges to 0-60mph in 3.20 seconds.

I look forward to showing you more of what I’ve been working on.

-JHD1124
President Camoria Automotive 2014-2016
President Tabula Rasa 2016-

[jhd1124]

Establishing a Brand Identity

Above you see three Chevrolet Malibus— one from 2000, one from 2007, and one from 2017. Each has its own distinctive styling, size, market appeal, and overall shape.

What is the point of creating a brand if that brand is never conveyed?

Tabula Rasa seeks to change the way a driver approaches a brand. Each marque in our line has a rich heritage that keeps in touch with trends both historical and contemporary while maintaining a consistent sense of identity.

Below is a collection of some of our Heritage vehicles— a classification given to marques produced for more than 40 years.

Kingfisher: The Azure Bird of Prey. The full-size sedan of our Heritage collection boasts performance, style, safety, and comfort. Often accented by a bold, rounded-edge rectangle grille, its chrome or body-colored accents convey a luxurious or sporty feel.

The Kingfisher SRC 100 Special [pictured in the introductory post], celebrates one-hundred years in automotive history. The SRC 100 is equipped with a special, limited-production turbo-charged V8. The SRC brand, however, extends nearly as far back as the Kingfisher marque itself.

Below is our current base model offering of the Kingfisher:

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Tabula Rasa’s midsize offering from our Heritage collection is the Intrigue. Perhaps one of the most versatile marques, it is offered in an array of options, including wagon, convertible, sports coupe, and 5-door hatchback.

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The Sentinel is Tabula Rasa’s Heritage compact sedan and hatchback marque. The base model offers quality and competitive fuel mileage for a reasonable price. The Sentinel Plus guarantees comfort with improved interior fabrics and a more powerful engine.

The Sentinel X minivan series comes with an available AWD platform.

[Oskiinus]

Good to see you back! Camoria is indeed along time ago, but this seems as well thought as Camoria.

[DeusExMackia]

Very glad to see you haven’t left just yet, I loved your story telling in the old Camoria thread. Looking forward to this.

[squidhead]

I’ve barely had a glimpse at Camoria thread, I joined as the updates in that slowed down. Looking forward to see the story experience first hand as it develops.

[jhd1124]

1995 Tabula Rasa Intrigue Turbo

Introducing the 1995 Tabula Rasa Intrigue, a midsize offering for the family to family-premium market. Before I take you through the details of the car, it is important that some history is established—not only the history of the brand, but of how the brand is changed because of history.

1995 was one of the first years for the major dot-com boom, a time when innovations in computer technology were frequent and revolutionary. In the United States, where Tabula Rasa is located, one of the largest economic expansions in history was well underway. Despite this economic recovery, many people were still apprehensive about lavish spending because of the crash in the late 1980s. Therefore, smaller manufacturers like Tabula Rasa were able to thrive by offering affordable, dependable, and well-built automobiles to an enthusiastic Gen X market. The '95 Intrigue was one of the first in our line-up to specifically cater to these new needs.

Front Fascia

Seeing as this is my first car reveal, I wanted to talk about some of the common features seen between our Heritage models. As an automotive designer, I pride myself on the custom touches I add to each automobile. The headlights that you see are a custom configuration using a lot of bumper bars and indicators. Cars in the 1990s were very smooth, so the lines of the headlights flow with the natural curves of the car. In addition to this, the emblem in supported by two chrome strips which follow the angle of the headlights (which is parallel to the bottom of the grille). The grille is perhaps the most recognizable aspect of any TR cars. You will see if often.

Side Profile

As I said in the previous paragraph, the lighting design on TR cars respects the natural lines of the car. Here in the side profile you can see the fruits of that effort. The taillights, a design I’ve been working on for about 5 years, extend to the side belt-line of the car. Also along the belt-line are the gas cap and door handles. The base model features are wrapped in plastic while the sports trim mentioned in the advertisement are body-colored.

Rear Fascia

As previously mentioned, most Tabula Rasa vehicles showcase custom features including taillights, grilles, etc. In the case of the '95 Intrigue, even the reverse lights are custom feature. They extend from the license plate holder in the shape of a triangle, the motif shape of the car. The taillights are bolstered by a turn indicator as well as a louvered vent for style. Sportier models see the addition of a spoiler or wing as well as a protruding bumper.

Stats

The Turbo model is powered by a RasaTec 300 series I4 equipped with a turbo charger.

As always, feedback is always encouraged!

[DeusExMackia]

Engine looks pretty decent, I reckon the comfort could be higher for such a car.

Styling wise, rear needs some more details, and I’d drop the black outline on all the lights, makes the design look messy.

[abg7]

Also, the front fascia is way too futuristic for '95 and would be more appropriate for the late 00s/early 10s. And the rear would be quite bland without the horizontal chrome strip along the middle.

[jhd1124]

Hi guys! Thanks for your feedback, it’s been useful in my future designs! I’ve been away from my computer for a little while but I hope you will enjoy my newest offering:

Tabula Rasa Advancer

As the housing market began to spiral downward and the unemployment rate skyrocketed upward, smaller automobile manufacturers like Tabula Rasa saw an opportunity to offer reasonably priced alternatives to the American Big Three SUVs. Perhaps the most important goal for Tabula Rasa’s newest generation of its Advancer model was that of fuel efficiency, the belief being that people should not have to sacrifice their love of the SUV in order to afford gas. Tabula Rasa’s 2007 Advancer combines style, fuel efficiency, and power at a modest price— a car truly fit to handle the rough road ahead.

Front Fascia

Symmetry played a big role in how the front of the car was designed. The headlights flower from the top corner of the grille, matching the angle of the hood line. The outer-section of the headlights match up with the lower fog lamps, completing an aggressive yet stylish angle downward from the headlights. The front itself is crimped in a lot of specific places, a style you can start to see emerging on some cars in the late 2000s (think Cadillac). There is a little bit of plastic on this model— on the fog lights and on the mirror— but the more sporty/luxury model, the SRC, has body colored features.

Side Profile

There is not much of note on the side of the car, though it should be pointed out that the headlights and door handles align in a line going upwards along the belt-line of the car.

Rear Fascia

When I saw this body offered, I loved the curvy rear quarter panels. I also liked how much space there was between the rear window and the edge of the car. I wanted to incorporate my appreciation of both into the taillight design. The result is a bold look that accentuates and respects the natural shape of the car, as aspect of automotive design I believe is key to a good car.

Engine and Stats

The Advancer is powered by a 3.0L Turbo charged V6 producing 321 hp and 259 lb-ft torque.

[squidhead]

@jhd1124

The result is a bold look that accentuates and respects the natural shape of the car,

Actually the result is any volvo estate or suv rear from the past 15 years or do

[jhd1124]

Haha yeah there’s a bit of Volvo in the back there. Although personally, I think Volvo is always just shy of getting the look of it right. The taillights on the mid 2000s xc90, for example, are really flat and bend at a severe angle at the bottom. I feel like the Cayenne body used for the Advancer is a little more organic in its shape, so I wanted to explore how the vertical-style taillights would work there. I like to start my cars based around what I notice on real cars and what I would do to improve them. My grille is a modified version of the new Lincoln grille, one which I think is really striking. I wanted to try applying that in different, more angular settings, which is what you get in the Advancer above.

[jhd1124]

Introducing the 2019 Tabula Rasa Mya SRC

Only a few years ago, our innovation department stumbled upon a daunting reality in our home city of Philadelphia—namely the difficulty of commuting into a congested city like Philadelphia and the even greater struggle of finding adequate parking. Clearly the need for small, fuel-efficient personal city transport was in need. Yet can we as gear heads let our inevitable downsizing get in the way of spirited driving? While other automakers have offered sporty subcompacts to the market before, few have been able to combine fuel efficiency with sports car-like performance quite as well as the 2019 Tabula Rasa Mya SRC.

Front Fascia

One of the things I like to do when designing a car on Automation is to stretch the cars moving parts to its extremes in either directions to see what near personalities the fascias take on. In the instance of this body, when the center of the front fascia was sucked inward, it revealed this very chiseled body shape. As a result there are two pillar-shaped columns stretching down from the hood to the bottom of the car. The headlights on the Mya track that shape going downward. The headlights combined with the grille give the car a look that is sporty without having to resort to angry headlights. On the Mya CE, the base model, the lip on the bottom is removed and the foglight casing is changed as well.

Side Profile

The side of the car is kept fairly simple. There isn’t much space to work with so I did not want to overcrowd it, a bit of a habit of mine sometimes. What I will point out is that the headlights are lined up with the beltline of the car, sort of completing the flowing line from the beginning to the end of the car. The SRC model comes with an appearance packaged which includes the wheels you see here, the front lip as well as the spoiler.

Rear Fascia

I wanted to complement the angular but not overly-aggressive styling found in the front on the rear of the car as well. So, I designed the taillights as a sort of curved triangle shape, pointing outwards. The chrome strip leading to the emblem lines up with the turn signal housing in the taillight. The reverse lights are a custom design made to look like the angle design found on a lot of my cars (you can see it on the taillights of my 90s Intrigue). The SRC model receives duel exhausts.

The 2018 Mya SRC is powered by a 1.9L Turbo-charged Inline 4 engine produced just a bit over 163 hp. For the basis of this write-up, I will be comparing my car to the Fiat 500 Abarth, the Mya’s nearest real-world competitor. The Mya produces more horsepower, has a quicker 0-60 time, has a better average fuel economy, and has six gears in comparison to the Abarth’s five. I will concede that the Mya has only 2 seats in comparison to the Abarth’s four, but the car performs in general much better than its nearest competitor.