RIP. Mine was on the same body, I won’t have time to tool up a new car. Good luck to all the entrants!
1998 Swanson 437SPm
The new 400-series introduced in late 97’ was a radical departure from the previous generation, paving the way for a whole new lineup to be introduced the following years. Available as a 2-door coupe and 4-door sedan.
Top engine is still the 3.7 boxer six, updated with silicate alloy head and block andd VVL. 330 healthy horses reined through LSD and a choice of 5-speed manual or automatic gearbox. Turbo, 6-speed, and AWD postponed.
The interior is more standard 90s Swanson fare, with expected features including a decent CD system, air condition, electric windows/mirrors, leather/cloth sport seats. An onboard computer provides exciting information like outside temperature, fuel economy and the meaning of life.
SP trim is set apart from the more usual Premium trim by a new take on the traditional two-tone livery, a slightly stiffer suspension and 18" magnesium Blade wheels.
Was gonna go for one of the banned bodies, hence the somewhat anachronistic design, at least it’s technically not a coupe
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1998 Mara Kavaler AMM 4.6
Once the Mk2 Kavaler was finally released in 1995 after a protracted development peroid, Mara’s performance division AMM set out to develop a special high-end version, based on the 4.0 V8 sedan model (whose V8 essentially was two Progress I4 engine blocks bolted together).
The 4.6m long Mk2 Kavaler was Mara’s first large car in the era after the fall of the Closed Curtain.
AMM bored and stroked the engine to the maximum feasible 4.6 litres for the engine block and managed to extract 300 hp from it. Wheels, brakes and suspension were upgraded (including AMM’s first forays into electronically controlled suspension components) alongside an externally sourced 5-speed computer-controlled automatic gearbox, and the already somewhat premium interior got a makeover as well.
Apart from a small rear spoiler and the dual exhausts, only AMM’s signature yellow paint job identified the Mk2 Kavaler AMM as the high-performance model
The outcome was Mara’s most expensive model to-date, about twice as expensive and more than three times as powerful as the base Kavaler model with the 2.3l 4-cylinder engine.
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submissions for the 1998 Sports Sedan Challenge are now closed! The first race will begin in 1 hour from now
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Race 1 is now over! If you missed it, you can re-watch the VOD here: 1998 Sports Sedan Challenge - Race 1/3 - YouTube
Since sports sedans have to be fast and since we had way more entries than I had expected, myself as well as my mods and live viewers agreed at the start of the stream to eliminate the 5 slowest cars from the competition. That means that, unfortunately, Kwaliteit Potato is out despite the fact that he would otherwise be in 2nd place overall due to excellent stats in Automation and great visual design.
Here are the current standings after race 1 including the bonus points for the Automation stats, styling and the points for race 1. Cars in red have been eliminated.
The next race will be at Hirochi Medium Circuit and it will take place next Saturday, 18th December, at 6pm CEST. Hope to see you there
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Imkare is at 1st due higher comfort and driverabitiy than mine. I’m impressed it. But Imkare first race score 5 and mine 9. Next race on Hirochi Medium Circuit which i guess that will same but final race, East Coast Street Course. This likely good for mine car becuse that is mostly handle. So I maybe catch up to Imkare. or not? I’m forward next race.
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8 points of advantage is not a big reserve against your fast car, so I belive that it should catch up quickly.
I hope it won’t be too fast tho.
Good luck in next races😁
Good job to imkaer as always, I expected no less from the man that regularly tops the Autobeam Championship charts.
However, I feel that Tom’s decision to eliminate the slowest cars is seems quite arbitrary and out of the blue as nothing about elimination were mentioned in the rules. I’ll admit, I’m a little salty about all this but you might want to announce any rule changes in advance on the forum post next time, since changing the rules without notice and doing so after the submission period had closed is quite the dick move and not everyone would take it lightly.
Regardless, thank you Tom for hosting and good luck to the remaining participants.
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Thanks for the feedback. It was admittedly a pretty last minute decision that split the mod team. We’ll try to do better in future, these things shouldn’t be put in last minute. I believe the reasoning is Tom feared the stream time would be too long around hirochi with so many cars, but again something that should have been accounted for beforehand.
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Ouch, looks like going with manual transmission was a big mistake. 
I was salty at myself last race for being eliminated, BUT…
it was for me being horrible at math and not calculating shit properly 
… and it was implied.
I feel like maybe it was said on discord(?)…maybe not…I can’t remember.
Not trying to speak for Tom but im almost sure the last thing he wants to be is an asshole.
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iirc he always does elimination
The elimination was a new, temporary thing for last round; it hasn’t been the norm.
I think using eliminations to control an overflow of entrants is a great idea overall, and could probably be adopted long term. But it probably would’ve made more sense to eliminate the 5 lowest scoring cars instead of the slowest, considering how some of the slowest cars were still very competitive overall (4 of the eliminations placed higher than the fastest car). Yes this isn’t the final score, but it feels odd to eliminate cars that are still competitive and keep a load of cars that (unfortunately) aren’t.
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Exactly this, it does feel a bit odd that I’m eliminated despite being basically halfway up the scoreboard. No salt because fair enough, but it would’ve been nice to know eliminations were a possibility beforehand, if I knew there would be eliminations I would’ve made the engine less lore friendly/realistic for Australian stuff at the time and made it a bit stronker.
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I agree with that. Eliminating the 5 slowest cars would incentivize people to make cars solely for performance in beam and with less emphasis automation stats (and realism if it’s relevant, though that doesn’t seem to be the case for this competition)
And yes, it does feel really odd that the slowest cars get eliminated instead of the lowest scoring cars. A good sports sedan isn’t all about being fast after all, since the performance also has to be balanced with other factors like comfort and usability. The Infiniti Q45, for example, was a much faster and better-handling car than the Lexus LS400 but Toyota sells far more LS400s than Nissan would ever hope to achieve with the Q45. But in the end, it’s up to the host what he wants as long as he informs us of it from the get-go.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I shall inject copium directly into my veins and seethe over my elimination
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Well…
I think you had one of the best scoring cars design wise…
I seen that coming from a mile away.
Peace.
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