The 2009 Three Desert Race

In 2009 the first season of “The Three Desert race” started, an open doors endurance race with combined distance of 9111 kilometres and limited amount of fuel. Drivers from across all countries gathered to participate with a vast range of cars, but only one could be the winner.
The idea is simple, a 3 stage race across Arabian, Arctic and Sahara desert with limited total fuel given. The focus here is put on reliability, low fuel use and off-road capability.

The Rules:
Year of production: 2006-2009
Not limited production/no mass production
3 seats minimum
Any standard safety
Offroad skidtray required
Hard long life tires required
Minimum 27 Offroad value
Price of 20k or less
Naturally Aspirated engine
Must run on 86 AKI
Maximum quality of +/-2
Can’t exceed 720 litres used when driving at stable 110km/h (Data according to automation fuel usage)

Bonus criteria
Cars that meet these limitations will be rated more generously:

Not a coupe/sedan/hatchback
4x4 Drive
5 seater
Has power steering
Doesn’t use race intake
Doesn’t use 5 Valves DOHC

Scoring:
The scoring system involves a lot of wibbly wobbly looking at the numbers and going “hmmm… that looks good but that other car does it better”. What’s taken into consideration the most is fuel use, reliability, off-road rating and price. What is not taken into consideration is prestige and safety (As long as it’s not 0, the drivers are not suicidal). After your car was scored my opinion will be sent to you and you will have 1 week for revisions.
There will be honourable mentions for best looking cars, obviously, but the looks themselves will not impact the rating (just don’t send a body with no fixtures at all).

Technical information
Cars must be made in stable branch (Open beta cars are accepted, but their stats will be calculated with stable version of game)
Any mods working with stable version of the game are allowed, but must be listed in the car description (Mostly so I can download them and won’t end up with missing fixtures)

How to submit
Export the car in automation and send it inside a .zip file along with a .txt containing information about it (Manufacturer, model name, year, short description and any mods if used) to this link https://www.dropbox.com/request/c0k8fZskVDywZvTZCDHc
(Obviously you don’t have to put your actual name even though that’s what dropbox suggests)
You are allowed 3 uploads, this includes revisions after your car was initially scored.
Please use your nickname on the forums in the zip file name.

The deadline for initial submissions is 25th of May 23:00 UTC+1, the deadline for revisions is 1st of June 23:00

I dont an 86, I have an 80 or 91. Should I use 80?

Change your measurements to AKI. You’re using RON at the moment.

Thanks

Is comfort considered at all?

Any reason for the ban on turbos?

Edit: where do you actually see the economy at 120km/h? The game indicates 110km/h cruise.

More edit: if 27 offroad is minimum, it’s pretty easy to go several times over. Any diminishing returns?

It might be due to the fact that each crew consists of three people: a driver, a navigator and probably an engineer.

Oh this actually picked up, nice

For you questions. Comfort is semi considered but it will impact the final judgement very little, so feel free to sacrifice it in name of other stats

Turbo is banned because I honestly just dislike it especially when it comes to fuel efficiency, they can lower fuel use way too much making main point of this challenge really easy to achieve.

I will check the car’s fuel usage at 120km/h in Beam, this is why the week for corrections is given.

And finally, offroad is really important considering this race is taking place across 2 sand deserts and 1 snow desert, the 27 is just absolute minimum to make the car considered capable.

How do I find out the fuel usage at a certain speed inside Automation? Or is it not possible?

After your car is done go to the testing tab and check detail stats → fuel economy

1 Like

It shows 110 km/h at 12.1 liters, okay honestly I came back to Automation after a long time and I honestly don’t know what the eff that means xD Is it alright?

The car must be able to drive about 12.7 kilometres on each litre of fuel, although Beam.NG fuel economy calculations seem to be a bit more lenient than automation, I would say this is way too much, the car needs to reach under 8 litres/100 km at 110km/h to have a chance of reaching less than 720 litres over 9111 km trail

okay got it.
One more thing, (sorry if I’m being annoying)
image
This means 16.3L per kilometer right?

:face_with_raised_eyebrow:
That can’t be 16.3L per kilometre simply from the fact that’s basically impossible, I honestly have no idea how to read that

I’mma wait out with the submissions and see what others upload to see if I’m going in the correct direction lol

that’s probably 16.3L / 100kms.

If you go into your settings, you will be able to see what the units are :slight_smile:

right you are lol. I found it out 5 mins after posting my last comment. Now I’ve got a car that goes fast but eats twice as much fuel than the required consumption rate. Gotta rebuild it all over again

Don’t focus too much on speed, I assume 220km/h top speed to be the baseline and about 8 seconds 0 to 100. It’s a endurance race, not speed lap

1 Like

In the announcement from the organisation, we are revealing the support car assigned to each team.
Behold, the RCA Behemoth!


The teams will soon find it in their garage and are highly encouraged to apply their own team liveries to give it a personal touch. (Note: Removal of sponsor stickers might be met with fines)
We would also like to inform that the drivers will be provided with a free pair of jeans and 6 pack of energy drinks as part of our sponsorship deal

2 Likes

Mine goes 232 if tuned specifically for acceleration which, in this case, is 5.82 seconds to 100 km/h. But I’m off by 1.2 liters of extra gasoline per 100 km. Guess I need to say bye bye to those extra horses

How much of the judging will be done based on Automation and how much based on BeamNG?

Because I did a quick test and it seems the fuel economy and performance translation from Automation is something of a gamble. For you BeamNG was more lenient with regard to efficiency, I got 40% extra fuel consumption going from Automation to Beam. It could be something to do with engine design or aerodynamics.