ARM Chapter 15: The Gilded One
Welcome back to Sauce or Loss with the @cake_ape gang. Texaslav, show us your old car.
Last ARM:
First ARM:
William Young is a 34-year-old investment banker who lives in Miami. He’s not a bad person or a psycho or anything, but he has to play by their rules - this means superficial displays of wealth and taste are necessary if he is to be taken seriously. Expensive clothing, oversized apartments the “location, location, location” of which make them as pricey as a mansion, stuff like that. And whatever you do, don’t get caught in a car that isn’t brand-spanking-new and with the largest badge around.
Now, Bill’s father, a small businessman from the countryside, passed recently. His older siblings - who were adults and involved in said business when Bill himself was young - got most of the old man’s assets. Bill got his father’s car, a well-worn yet diligently maintained Cadillac Eldorado. Question is, what on Earth is he supposed to do with it?
Ah yes, an early 1980s Cadillac. Wonderfully plush luxury, undeniable road presence, a weird front-drive system, and one of the worst engines of all time, the 135-horsepower HT4100 V8. Having driven it several times, our banker friend knows it to be far too sluggish, outdated and creaky to fit in with the sleek 7-series BMWs, smart Mercs and gorgeous modern CT6s of his colleagues.
Thing is, Bill does like it. He has fond memories of his father and the old, huge Cadillac occasionally ferrying him to school whenever his mother’s station wagon was unavailable for some reason. If only the car had an engine that impressed and an entertainment/climate system that wasn’t older than he is, it could have been fun. Hell, it might have even allowed him to become one of the few proud classic car owners in his social class that can pull it off and are thus promptly freed from having to buy new and trendy. And then it hit him:
Customization. Bill himself is not mechanically adept, but he knows that some people, given money and time, can turn any car into a stunning paragon of luxury and performance. Certainly they could turn the old, worn Eldorado into something greater, something worthy, something to free Bill from one of the social customs that he hates! It might be a seedy business, all this mechanical stuff, but maybe if he just reached out and offered a fat bag of cash to the right people, this could all work out. Let’s say… 62,000 dollars. Still way cheaper than a new E63.
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YOU ARE USING THIS BODY AS A BASE.
ARM15_-YOURNAMEHERE-_Cadillac_Eldorado.car|attachment (57.8 KB) -
Clone both the imported model and engine family before you start modding. Nowadays this can all be done with one button of the Car Designer tab in Automation - the one circled red in the photo below.
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Mods used in the base body are Dragon Badges: Jingoistic Junk, Aruna’s Wheel Pack 11, Text Pack: Script, and USA Numberplate Pack 4.27. If you are missing one of those mods, it’s fine: They are only used for the rims, badging and number plates. There is no penalty for not carrying them over to your final build.
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Set all dates (model year, trim year, engine family/variant year) to 2020.
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Maximum engine ET: 165.
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Maximum trim ET : 160.
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No V16s or race parts (race intake, race tubular exhaust, semi-slicks).
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No changing chassis type or chassis material
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At least 3-way catalytic converters are mandatory.
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At least Standard 00s safety is mandatory (This means no ‘none’, and no ‘Basic 00s/10s’): Bill is no safety nut, but he wants an airbag and some dignity.
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4 seats or more. If Bill is to keep this car for a long time, it must be wife and kids-compliant for when he gets there.
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Maximum engine loudness: 45.
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Maximum octane: 93 AKI/98 RON. Unleaded only.
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Full engine swaps cost $5000. Changing engine orientation is a full engine swap regardless of the engine, as is changing any Engine Family parameters apart from Family Year (mandatory 2020) or any of the things covered in the Head Swap section below. Yes, this means you’re stuck at -3 family quality if you wish to avoid this penalty.
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Head swaps cost $2000. If you keep the base engine and are only changing the Head and Valves and Head Material tabs in the Engine Family screen, you are doing a Head Swap.
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Suspension swaps cost $3000 for each end - so if you change the rear suspension to Multi-Link and the front to MacPherson Strut, you have made 2 suspension swaps and your car costs an extra $6,000.
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There is a rule for drivetrain swaps detailed in the next paragraph.
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There is a $5,000 dollar cost for all ‘substantial’ modifications of the body shape, seeing as how the car is a unibody. This includes making the car a full convertible using fixtures and negatape or choosing a different body type, but also taking some morphs too far. This is obviously subjective, so when in doubt send me a screenshot of your body shape to see if you incur the body modification cost. Think realistically: Is it harder to extend a bumper or wheel well, or to change the structural location of the A-pillar?
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Panel material swaps cost $3000.
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Maximum price (as shown in the Testing tab, Detail Stats section): $62,000
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You must post an ad with at least 1 picture of your car on this thread.
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Be reasonable with minmax; negative quality spam is a ticket to Bin City.
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Interiors are highly recommended, but it doesn’t need to be the most detailed thing in the world. Exterior is still the lion’s share of your styling grade.
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You get 3 questions to Bill in terms of his likes and preferences; don’t be vague unless you want to receive an equally vague answer. You also get as many org questions (such as “Does this incur the body modification cost” or “Uhh, so how do RWD swaps work again?”) as you need.
As seen in the above ruleset, some major design elements need extra money to be replaced. What this actually does is reduce your maximum listed price. For example, you swapped your panels to aluminum, cut the roof off and put in your own bespoke V12 monster - so instead of $62,000, your maximum price is (62000-(3000+5000+5000)=$49,000. Choose your swaps wisely.
The Eldorado is a longitudinal-mount front-drive car based on the GM E platform, and its rear end does not have built-in RWD capability. So if you want RWD or AWD for any reason, there is an associated cost. All RWD/AWD count as a ‘rear suspension swap’, even if you keep the double wishbone suspension, so they cost $3000 plus a $2000 drivetrain charge, so $5000 in total. However, if you do RWD with a solid axle, you are discounted $3000 because GM rear driven axles are cheap and easy to find and bolt on - so your overall cost is $2000. I understand that this might get confusing, so below is a table which can help you figure out which cost applies to you. If you still have a question, feel free to ask me via DM.
There are very specific restrictions on ATS this round to prevent visual cheese; I have chosen to list them by category.
Engine Position is allowed and unless it serves an aesthetic purpose on the exterior it will be totally ignored.
Wheels are banned, but you may edit Tyre Tread Width, Tyre Wall Curve and Tyre Tread Curve. BEWARE: If you make the tire look much wider or much narrower than normal, I will not look kindly upon it. Slight discrepancies are totally fine. Just don’t act silly
Suspension is limited to -5 to +5 on each end; Plus, the sum of Front and Rear Ride Height must be zero (If you have +3 front you must have -3 rear, etc).
Body advanced trim settings are limited. Body Z offset is limited to 3 either way (-3 to +3), Firewall Position and Chassis Tunnel Size are allowed; everything else (meaning wheelbase offsets, track width) is banned.
Bill’s plan of having a ‘cool classic car’ won’t work unless it is actually an impressive, prestigious piece of motoring. His soulless upperclass friends have to respect it, so prestige is top of the list.
You can’t show a car off if it’s not a beauty - or a brute with tons of presence. Whatever you think is most appropriate. Point is, ugly misshapen designs need not apply.
Comfort is the focus of any good luxury car. Don’t let Bill’s new old Cadillac be the exception.
While Bill does not necessarily need a fire-breathing monster, speed and alacrity means style points - and, I mean, most luxury cars nowadays are fast.
Now, Bill can take care of himself, but he is used to tech-heavy luxury sedans that practically drive themselves. An uncontrollable mess is not what Bill is looking for.
Bill has always hated having to ferry his cars to be serviced because some minor thing has gone bad. The less he has to do this with his new ‘classic’ daily driver, the better.
Some decent driver protection is necessary. Bill doesn’t want to die in his prime because some idiot on the road swerved the wrong way.
This is a Cadillac. While it needs to be modernized to up the prestige, it still has to be a Cadillac for Bill’s ‘classic car’ excuse to work.
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Most of my judging will go along the lines of the above priorities, but I would like to stress that the end result should be cohesive. If your entry doesn’t make sense, I reserve the right to penalize it. On the other hand, you can get away with a lot of silliness as long as it all comes together well. If you think you have a really good “special” or “unusual” idea, do go for it.
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All results are final and no amount of salt will change that - so please avoid being disrespectful even if you are unhappy with your result.
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MAKE SURE YOU’VE CLONED THE MODEL AND TRIM PROPERLY.
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Set Car Model and Engine Family names to “ARM15 - [Your Forum Username Here]”
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Post the ad for your restomod proposal in this thread. Remember: There must be at least one picture of your car in there; but while it won’t affect judging, I would love to see more photos and a bit of lore, too.
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Send me a direct message in this forum with your .car file attached. Discord DMs/mentions will be ignored.
*In case of a
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Submissions open on Tuesday - May 24, 2022, 12:01 AM CDT (UTC -5)
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Submissions close on Sunday - June 5, 2022, 11:59 PM CDT (UTC -5)
The period from the time this is posted until submissions open is a period of rules deliberation. Please give me any suggestions you might have in terms of rules refinement and clarification.
- 05/21/22: Changed max price to $62,000, nerfed Max Engine and Trim ET to 165 and 160 respectively
- 05/24/22: Added ATS guidance, opened round
- 05/25/22: Changed/Loosened ATS guidance due to popular demand. No submissions yet so no resubs needed.
