It is the mid 90s but front engine, front wheel drive cars are not a common sight. Instead, all the major manufactures have decided to continue with front engine, rear wheel drive vehicles for larger cars or in our case; rear engine, rear wheel drive cars for smaller vehicles used in more urban environments. As such, this challenge will be to make a smaller car that will be a 90s interpretation of the rear engine city cars that were more common until the 60s.
CHALLENGE
The year is 1996, and within the current landscape of automotive marquees smaller, more nimble peopleâs cars are the bread and butter for manufactures. Some are needing to replace a long overdue model that is falling behind the competition, some are just needing to do a quick mid lifecycle refresh, and some are looking to enter this lucrative market to make a name for themselves.
This is where YOU come in. You have been tasked to lead the team to create the next generation of small runabouts to market to car buyers following a few requirements
RULES
Model and Family Years: open
Trim and Variant Years: 1996
Model and Family names: [AHC03 - (username)], Trim and Variant names are free
Wheelbase Limit: No longer than 2.54m 2.59m wheelbase rounded (~100 102 inches)
Front Engine layout is banned
Seating layout must have at least 5 full size seats
Up to 95 RON Unleaded Fuel, car must meet WES 8 emissions
Engine must have catalytic converter and one muffler minimum
No âraceâ parts (including Billet Aluminium blocks, and Race Crossply/Radial Tires)
Maximum Approximate Cost: 15,000$ (?)
Maximum Techpool: 35 Million
âLegacy Car Bodiesâ mod is banned, all other mods are allowed
ATS is allowed âwithin reasonâ (keep the cars looking like cars)
PRIORITIES
HIGHEST
Drivability: The general public comes in all skill levels of driver from excellent to⌠dangerous. Try to accommodate for the lowest common denominator.
Reliability: People will not really notice if something works, but will definitely let you know when something isnâtâŚ
Safety: The last thing you need is the reputation of your company to be negatively affected by some deaths. Even if it was their own faultâŚ
MODERATE
Fuel Economy/Service Costs: This is not something people are expected to pay much attention to, so the less it will take away from their hip pocket, the better.
Design: As much as these cars will be no better than humble white goods, some buyers will probably be swayed by how it looks, and how others will think they look in it.
LOWEST
Sportiness/Comfort: Basically donât have these be absolutely bottomed out. Whichever the car is aimed towards will be considered towards scoring
Performance: Youâll want it to keep up with traffic, and not make your customers regret buying the car when they end up being âall show and no goâ
TIE-BREAKERS
Everything Else: as needed. Will also include my own personal impressions and opinions on the cars, but this will be the last ditch effort.
INSPIRATION
Rear Engined Origins: Selection of cars that would have been competitors to previous models
All submissions will need to have an ad posted in this thread, as well as the .car file sent to me via DM on the discourse. There will be a rule deliberation period until 2026-03-15T13:59:00Z, then the submission period is until 2026-04-12T13:59:00Z.
I had intended to have a maximum of 35 Million for techpool, but I must have thought it but not added it to the ruleset. I shall add it now to the rules.
Iâve only made a couple of test mules to make sure the general idea was achievable, and have not attempted to test if WES 8 needs a cat. I can do more testing to see if it is possible to make an engine that reaches WES 8 without one and can change that rule if people are wanting a bit more freedom within that regard
I am not actively wanting a particular style, but the intention is for these cars to be more of a base model trim for the company, and as such to try to have as much âmass marketâ appeal in terms of selling as many units of the car as possible
I want to see what people can do within the allotted price cap for this car. Since every car should be priced at the same point, the cars should show off what will offer the most âbang for you buckâ available for this price point.
Within the wheelbase range, there are some body set variants that, despite supporting rear-engined configurations, have provision for a smaller +3 second row of seats, but not one comprised of 3 full-sized seats.
I already asked about body styles, this was the response:
I am not actively wanting a particular style, but the intention is for these cars to be more of a base model trim for the company, and as such to try to have as much âmass marketâ appeal in terms of selling as many units of the car as possible
I think the budget is really high to base model trims. My current mule fits ABS, 4-wheel disc brakes, variable hydraulic power steering, +5 quality standard interior with CD player, alloy wheels and has a 16 valve engine. With the priority for comfort or sportiness and rather generous budget, are we supposed to be aiming for a well-appointed version of a base model?
Disagree, wouldnât say it would be very comfortable but there should be enough space in the average hatch of that age to fit at least 4 adults. (2.40m Ice Cream hatchback, 4cm shorter WB than a Corsa B, 4cm longer than K11 Micra, 4cm shorter than Mk4 Fiesta)
My own car seats⌠4+1, like most other hatches. Going down to +3 seems unreasonable to me since its generally just a downside to have + seating at all, and it should be expected that a car in this class can seat at least 4 adults. Iâd rather at least 4 full-size seats being reasonable due to rear suspension geometry having to be different than a lot of B-segment hatchbacks of the time having more compact suspension allowing the rear bench to go backward, something that the Macpherson/DW sprung RR hatchbacks we have here cannot do.
Strut tower and wheel well are rather shallow. The rear bench is shaped around it, head level for me (1.78m) is about 5cm off from the headliner droop for the tailgate hinge.
Legroom for adults is rather modest but not a squeeze. For me, there is still enough room to move my legs around about 5-8cm without striking the seat.
Speaking of, the seat back is rather flexible which allows you to prop your knees in to the front seats without bumping the front passengerâs backs through the seatback, which gives another ~4cm of room.
Iâve run my friends around in this and they havenât much if at all complained about the legroom, though the middle rear passenger is usually grumpy. I wouldnât call it +3, though. Rather 2+1, which is something that would be lovely to see in game but we donât have that.
The test mules I made both were rear engined and could fit 3 full size rear seats on completely vanilla bodies. And I can do some more testing with the WES level and potentally removing the catalytic converter rules.
The budget I have was due to how I built the test mules, then leaving a bit of leeway to allow for a bit more freedom. The test mules I had with the way I generally make comp cars ended up around the 14000$ mark, so I thought 15000$ would be a reasonable amount to offer more flexibility for people to experiment with. It could be seen as a lower spec model with some extra options or a slightly higher spec with no options, but the intention was for these to be the ones that would be profitable through volume of cars sold over heavy markups.
However, all the rules are able to be changed if people are in agreement about how it should be changed.
I think the budget could be a smidge tighter (maybe 14k) for more entry level cars, but price can be a priority in the rules, so that thereâs incentive for users to keep their cars cheap and not quality spam up to the budget.
I am happy to lower it, maybe even down to 13,500$. Personally I donât think it necessary to have a priority for cost since for the segment I am intended these cars to be, I imagine that the value of the car is more about how much can be âsqueezed within the max valueâ over âoffering the same as other models but for much cheaperâ. Itâs those cars that are a little above â[insert country]'s cheapest new carâ, but not to the point where it starts getting into niche demographics, so you can afford to get some creature comforts.
how much hp are cars like this supposed to make? For bellow 15000$ anything else than inline 3 and boxer 4 is a no go. 6 cylinders too expensive in any config, Inline 4 doesnt fit or you have to make it so small it cant make even 60 hp without turbo or supercharger.
I can fit a B6 with DOHC, AlSi, standard interior and advanced safety into 12 grand. Itâs not great - I havenât used the quality sliders - but I can fit it and it makes north of 100 hp without a turbo.
What do you have your techpool set to? This was set to all sixes across the board. If yours is set to all zeroes, it wonât do well.
My test mules were usually making around 90ish hp, but the copout answer will be âenoughâ. No specific hp goal, but however much to make sure the car doesnât slow traffic down too much.
