THE GREEN HELL
A tricky, winding stretch of road, that every so often holds a race.
Plenty of other people have spent hours describing how magnificent the track is, so this will be kept short.
Premise
The 2020 running of the VLN 24 Hours Nürburgring approaches, and your team has a car ready. It should be safe enough not to kill your driver, on pace for it's class, and catch the eye of the spectators throughout the gargantuan circuit.
This competition will be judged through the eyes of an automotive journalist who is documenting what the teams have brought to this event. They will be walking from garage to garage, and taking snapshots of on-track action. Therefore, design and good choices are important, not top speed, pace, or min-maxing. There will be honorable mentions for fastest testing time, highest lateral G load, etc, but I reserve the right to be fairly subjective.
RP in this event is completely optional, but feel free to do as much as you want.
You can enter a car into any of the many classes that run the circuit. The two main categories are the SP class and the CUP class.
SP (Special) is by far the largest on circuit, and is comprised of many race modified cars including FIA GT4 (SP10), GT3 (SP9), and the SPX category for anything else far more racey, like a GT2, DTM or TransAm car. However, don't feel limited to the FIA classes! Many teams run race prepped BMWs, Audis, and other sports cars modified in shop.
CUP is exactly what it sounds like, a category made up of all different kinds of cup vehicles, from Porsche Cup cars, to Renault Clios, that kind of thing. CUP is also where you'll find the popular TCR category, which has grown quickly in the past few years.
A less common class is the V (Production Car) category, for vehicles close in performance to their road going counterparts. The only allowed modifications are basic safety equipment, track tires, and suspension tuning. Engines are run completely stock.
I almost entirely forgot about the H (Historic) class. This is where older cars such as old Porsches, Mantas, E30 BMWs, and other 1990s DTM cars are placed. For this competition, please keep everything more modern than 1970. From Wikipedia, the largest category (and only category for the 2019 race) was H2, for "pre-2008 production cars and purpose-built racecars with an engine capacity between 2000 and 6249cc." So let's stick with that.
Rules
Rules are going to be fairly loose, but there are going to be a few basic ones to prevent people from going too wild. If you start thinking too much about it, just think about what would make sense for the class you're aiming for. I will link several class regulations below with the example images.
Body Style: 1970-2020
No trucks, vans, SUVs, MPVs. Estates welcome.
Topless vehicles must make some attempt at a visible roll bar.
Unleaded Fuel
Max Loudness: 70
Max Horsepower: 650 BHP
Minimum Engine Reliability: 50
No Automatic or Advanced Automatic transmissions.
Mandatory Radial Semi-Slicks
Max Tire Size (Front and Rear): 325mm
Drum Brakes are insta-bin. C'mon y'all.
No Active Aero
Single Seat, Sport Interior, No Entertainment
Minimum Safety: 40
Standard suspensions only.
No active dampers.
Up to Semi-Active roll bar.
Minimum Trim Reliability: 50
Quality Slider: +5/-5
Max Cost: 175,000
Importance
Car has a realistic and eye catching livery.
Car makes sense for its class.
Car has a unique, detailed design.
Car is in a less frequently chosen class. (Relative to other entries)
Car has engineering choices that tell a story.
Car runs for long periods for lots of photos. (Reliability+Fuel Economy)
Car is competitive or on pace for its class.
Car is the least expensive for its class.
Car is the fastest in its class.
Car corners the hardest in its class.
Submission Format
One submission per person. Collaborations welcome.
Send all entries to me through the forums.
Model: VLN [Class] [Forum Name]
Trim: [Car Name]
Engine Family: VLN [Class] [Forum Name]
Engine Variant: [Engine Name]
Like so:
VLN SP9 Simmer22 - Halcón Ghost, VLN SP9 Simmer22 - 4V8 Quadvalve
Submissions Open July 20th.
Submissions Close July 31st.
Examples
SP (Special)
SP3
SP6 (Lead car)
SP9 (FIA GT3)
SP10 (FIA GT4)
SPX (FIA GT2, DTM, etc.)
SPX is the sportiest your car should look. No actual LMP cars run in VLN.
This is currently a kind of draft until submissions open. This will be my first challenge I’ll ever have hosted, so let me know if I should include anything else, or if I can help clarify anything.
Ricardo Dalisay - Former SEA Formula 4 Champion
Alexander Potemkin - Former Russia Formula 1600 Driver
Dennis May - Former Champion in Britcar
Takeji Matsudo - Super Formula Champion 2018 & 2019
Laurent Alens - 3rd Place Formula Regional European Championship 2019
