AEC #7 - Garcia's Next Top Model
Garcian Chamber of Automotive Ventures
November, 1979
Garcia is a small island nation, recently wracked by the hunger pangs of open warfare, who love all things automotive. They host an annual race where 1400cc cars compete for glory and the exclusive opportunity to sell product with the coveted “Race Leader” tax stamp; sales of the winning car are tax exempt for the next year!!!
Due to a lack of foreign interest, the Bgliq automotive company has had a stranglehold on the Garcian market. Basically, other than trucks, vans and heavy machinery, the country is awash with obnoxiously blue small cars; all powered by ubiquitous 1400cc capacity engines.
You, as a representative of a niche start-up company, are going to redress this disparity. You will identify a niche product, select a bogliq engine to power it, then build a car that scores in that category as high as possible as cheap as possible!
NOTE: This is not official Garcia lore. This is a continuation of my Generations II lore that has maintained a Garcia export program, because it was fun.
OK, now for the rules.
Step One: Choose a market
The available markets are as follows:
1 - A niche sports car. Focus on the Light Sport, Convertible Sport, or Budget Sport categories. Bogliq does service this market after 1977, but the car is (possibly) pricey and is also slow! Your car MUST be really good at handling and be fun to drive.
2 - A hardcore off-roader. Aim for Off-road and off-road utility. Bogliq has never serviced this market. Garcia has lovely mountain passes that are an off-roading dream, so the of-road drivers club would LOVE something that could hit the trails better than a jacked up Bogliq hatchback!
3 - Miscellaneous Niches. This is a catch-all category. Mainstream choices WILL be disqualified, so think locally. A MPV for shuttle bus companies? A ultra cool convertible cruiser? A supercar? (!!!). If you choose this category, the limit is your imagination and some engineering constraints, hahaha!
Step Two: Choose your weapon!
There are three engine options, two of which are constrained, the last is more open but riskier…
Option 1 - The Conventional 4 cylinder.
AEC7_Car_Delivery_-_Mule_Two.car (13.4 KB)
1.4L inline four, cast iron construction, 91RON fuel. You are being supplied this engine as a modified “Short Block”; you can vary the cam slider, fuel to air ratio, ignition timing, rev limiter and intake and exhaust options. This includes adding a turbo.
You CANNOT change the bore, stroke, compression ratio, piston type or conrod type or any quality sliders on the upper and lower engine since you’d have to open the whole engine and rebuild it to achieve this…
Option 2 - The Compact 4 cylinder.
AEC7_Car_Delivery_-_Mule_One.car (13.4 KB)
1.4L boxer four, cast iron construction, 91RON fuel. You are being supplied this engine as a modified “Short Block”; you can vary the cam slider, fuel to air ratio, ignition timing, rev limiter and intake and exhaust options. This includes adding a turbo.
You CANNOT change the bore, stroke, compression ratio, piston type or conrod type or any quality sliders on the upper and lower engine since you’d have to open the whole engine and rebuild it to achieve this…
Option 3 - The “Built not Bought” option.
AEC7_Car_Delivery_-_Mule_Three.car (13.4 KB)
1.4L inline four, cast iron construction, 91RON fuel. You will be financing the installation of new moulds at the local iron foundry (every country has these industries, right?) using the technical package of the venerable “C Series” engine, which powers about a third of the Garcian car fleet. You are free to adjust whatever you’d like on the engine variant tabs; just stay at, or below 1400cc…
Build your car
Some general rules…
- Car model year is to be set for 1980. Any bodies can be used, in theory, but any “meme bodies” will be banned and you’ll have to re-submit another car. If it looks like a 90’s car (like mid 90’s, not a late 80’s body that survives into the 90’s) then it’s banned. Lore reason, you don’t have a futuristic designer so you’re copying what’s kinda current, hahaha!
Banned Cars: 1980 Cappuccino Body, 1980 Nissan NX Body
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Catalytic converters mandatory, Garcia cares for the environment, 91RON preferred but 95RON can be used. I suggest using higher octane only for high performance cars, but it’s your choice.
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Gearbox choices are limited to 3, 4 and 5 speed manual and 3 speed automatic. No advanced autos, because Bogliq USA haven’t developed them yet!
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Since you’re limited to Bogliq spare parts (initially), Only progressive springs and gas mono-tube allowed. Swaybars are also limited to passive. No ABS. Advanced Safety only (year is free).
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NO monocoque chassis allowed! Ladder frame or spaceframe only, you’re a “cottage” start-up, not a major player (yet).
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Don’t be afraid to use a turbocharger, you can stick with the Bogliq SPFI which couples nicely with a super-snail, hahaha!
Judging
Judging will be as follows:
1 - The applicable market category desireability score will be calculated, using the DALLUHA preset: (Desireability * Affordability * Fuel Availability)
2 - The dollar value of the car will be divided by the modified desire rating to determine the dollars spent per desire level rating. Those who choose option 3 will incur a 10% increase in their base car price to reflect the extra stakeholders in the deal. The lowest dollar spend per desireability scoring project will be greenlit by the GCAV and that company will be the winner!
(OPTION): The winner can then opt to immortalise their creation with a Bogliq joint venture!
Timeframe
I would like to open the floor for rules discussion and allowing of any objections.
Then, at the latest, on the 12th of September the competition will open and cars can be submitted. I’ll allow 2 weeks for submissions then the books will close on the 26th of September. Please note: Until I post that the competition is closed, SEND IN YOUR ENTRY!!! Don’t hold off because of the date; just send it in and you’ll be included. If you have something ready and the post comes up, still submit!
Your submission will involve the following:
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A picture of your car, no fixtures neccessary, but it must look right. No weird morphs or poor wheel offsets allowed. Please keep your ride height appropriate, so don’t overdo the min-maxing!
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What target market you’re aiming for. Please be specific, only one market allowed, plus add this in the PM’s as well so I don’t miss it, hahaha!
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PM the car file to me with the following format: Model - AEC7-[Your Name], Trim - [Company Name]-[Car name], Engine - [Leave engine code the same], Variant - [Your Name].
Please make a clone of the supplied engine and modify that. Otherwise you’ll delete each other’s engines and Killrob will be sad because you didn’t use his cool (and convenient) engine cloning function!
Any entry in breach of any of these rules will either be asked to re-submit or will have their car altered to comply, but with no re-tuning (other than to get rid of oversteer, I will be harsh in the use of swaybar and it’ll be sub-optimal, hahaha!).
I reserve the right to alter rules after the tweaking phase if entries show any weird anomalies and any affected entries will be given plenty of time and leeway to re-submit.
In order to avoid claims of bias, DO NOT state your willingness to be included in my Generations II lore until after the judging process is over! It’s unlikely anyone will even want to take up the option, but if someone does… Wait until the end, hahaha!!!
EDIT: Added banned car list and clarified what can be changed on the Option 3 engine.
EDIT II: Added advanced auto clarification.
EDIT: Clarified engine choice flexibility rules, wondered if it’s still early enough to hand the round over to the second placed forum user from AEC#6!