ARM 20 - A DUTCHMAN IN NEW YORK
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What is ARM?
THE CLIENT
Volvo! Simon Warner, a 28 year old computer programmer from New York has an irrational love for the Swedish brand. Not only is his daily driver the rare CrossCountry version of the S60, he also has two classics, or at least future ones, in his collection. A 1979 242 GT, and a 1995 850 T5 wagon. Or, now he might actually have three…
Yes, Volvo got cold feet and never released the 480 (or another 400 series model for that matter) on the american market. Hence, getting one was a matter of importing one from Europe, and the cost of that in the end…well…he doesn’t really want to talk about it.
One of the reasons? The 480 is kind of a disappointment.
Yes. They love it on Turbobricks. They love it in the Radwood group on FB. But fact is, this car ain’t that fun after all. Yes, it is a curious oddball looking thing, but 95 hp in a hot hatch was a bit tragic already in 1987. It doesn’t really live up to its looks at all. Also, the car is getting kind of tired and he starts to understand why the Dutch Volvos have a worse reputation in Europe than the Swedish ones have.
Some people says that it would be a pity to cut up the 480 due to its rarity. But Simon is starting to see it in another way. He already have three “rare” Volvos in original condition. And all three of them were actually good cars for their era, while the 480 is a bit more mediocre. Besides, the rarity of the 480 mainly is relevant for the US market. In Europe, they still do exist. So, he is pretty sure at the moment. He wants to do something special with this little hatchback, but since fabrication and customizing aren’t really areas he is skilled at (he is not a bad mechanic though), he has decided that is a job better left for the professionals, instead of letting his rare import become a sheetmetal jigsaw puzzle he never will get back into shape again.
Are you the professional with the skills to make this the car of his dreams?
RULES (preliminary)
- 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.
- Set all dates (model year, trim year, engine family/variant year) to 2020. It is highly recommended to exit the game and reopen it after cloning it and before updating the dates.
- Maximum price (as shown in the Testing tab, Detail Stats section): $45,000
- Maximum ET 145 (Trim and Engine)
- No V16s or race parts (race intake, race tubular exhaust, semi-slicks).
- This car was made in the pre-techpool era, and there (at 0) it should stay. It is 2020 anyway and everything is already unlocked. No positive TP allowed.
- You must post an ad with at least 1 picture of your car on this thread.
- Quality sliders should not be set above +4 or below -2.
- Interiors aren’t mandatory but encouraged (see priorities for further info)
CAR REQUIREMENTS
- The general rule of ARM is to not make a car worse. Now, a very marginal drop in one single stat if it really bumps up the others will not instabin the car, so this is a very soft rule indeed, but still, try to avoid it at all costs.
- 3 way cat (any kind) and at least one muffler is required.
- Unleaded fuel, regular or premium
- The car should still appear street legal and have all the major equipment needed for that (Of course, small details will not bin your car, but if you decide that “haha taillights bad”, or similar, it will)
ADVANCED TRIM SETTINGS
- Chassis tunnel size and firewall position can be changed freely.
- Tyre thread width, tyre wall curve and tyre thread curve allowed in moderation (OK for adjustments, not to make the tyres look like something they are not, if you’re unsure, ask, this has worked in earlier challenges so it should probably do it now too)
- A (+/-3) ride height adjustment is allowed
- Everything else is banned (Preliminarily, open for discussion)
BODY MODIFICATIONS
- A-Pillar, B-Pillar, C-Pillar, sill and overhang morphs should stay untouched. Other morphs allowed.
(Exception for convertible body: https://discourse.automationgame.com/t/arm-automation-restomod-chapter-20-a-dutchman-in-new-york-open/45214/15) - The only body variant change allowed is to the van or convertible version, since the other versions of this body is just too far off from a 480. Since the van conversion could be made just from welding the side windows shut, it will not occur any penalty. The convertible version (that somehow resembles the 480 convertible concept) will get the penalty for extensive body mods. See below and link above.
- Using 3D/Patch/morphs (the legal ones) to make the car look like something it is not, like for example convertible (not recommended since we have a convertible body available) or pickup, is allowed, however, but will incur the same price penalty as other extensive body mods. See link above for special rules regarding convertible conversions.
EXTENSIVE MODIFICATIONS, RULES AND PENALTIES
- Chassis type can not be changed
- Chassis material can not be changed
- Panel material swap will give a $1000 penalty
- Changing engine orientation will give a $2500 penalty
- Suspension type swap will give a $1000 penalty per axle
- A complete engine swap will give a $2500 penalty
- Only a cylinder head change will give a $1000 penalty (because the Renault F engine was after all available as a DOHC 16V too, so it seems realistic)
- Patch/3D/Morphs that radically is altering the looks of the car will give a $2500 penalty (if you’re unsure, just ask)
- Changing from FWD to RWD/AWD/4x4 will give a $3500 penalty. However, it will also give a $500 discount on engine orientation change.
PRIORITIES
EXTERIOR DESIGN
This should almost be a no-brainer. Who wants an enthusiast car that has looks that makes you want to put a paper bag over your head to not be ashamed when driving it?
SPORTINESS
See, here is the elephant in the room. The 480 pretended to be sporty but it never was. Simon really wants the car to be worthy of the image it was trying to show off.
VALUE
Using up the whole budget? Sure, but it better has to be worth it then. Getting the car to the US was expensive enough and the rational side of him says that he has already burned too much money on this dutch crackerbox…
PERFORMANCE
Since it is more fun driving a slow car fast than a fast car slow, the sportiness stat will matter more than actual performance. Yet, it will be taken into consideration since the 480 was underpowered for what it was already as new.
RELIABILITY
The 480 wasn’t stellar here compared to the Swedish Volvos, getting a small improvement would not be too bad after all.
FUEL ECONOMY
This is not going to be a daily driver, but fuel prices are on the rise even in the US after all. Being able to drive it as often as possible wouldn’t be too bad.
DRIVEABILITY
He wanted a sportier car. Not one that achieves its sportiness at the expense of trying to kill him all the time.
COMFORT
It is not a daily but he should be able to drive it without killing his back. Trailer queens aren’t his thing.
SAFETY
Do not un-Volvo the Volvo.
SERVICE COSTS
While he accepts that they will probably be a bit worse than stock, he still won’t accept if your engineering includes gold plated parts requiring special tools and disassembling the whole car to get to them.
AUTHENTICITY
ARM feels a bit off from the real world sometimes. And maybe creativity trumps dry realism here, but still…it is something worth having in mind before you decide to go too left-field.
Hint: If you can point out where the actual components are sourced from, and/or justify your engineering decisions, it might help in case the car is very much tinkered with.
INTERIOR DESIGN
An interior is not required. A shitty interior will not be a disadvantage compared to no interior at all, a good interior might get a small bonus.
MISC STUFF WORTH MENTIONING
- Yes, the car uses mods. Honestly, since the game tells you which mods to download, I don’t see it as a problem anymore.
- Unfortunately, I run Automation on a potato system. Try to keep that in mind before you’re overdetailing a car. I will judge the overall look rather than how impressive your detailwork is. I have tried to load some cars with extreme file sizes and it only results in a bugsplat. Try to keep file sizes down, I will try to take time to test-load cars before judging, so you will at least not get a bin without a chance to fix it.
- This is my first time running ARM and I think that it was a quite advanced thing to set up, I am not sure the ruleset is good so if you find any flaws, I’ll just be thankful for your input.
SUBMISSIONS
Submission start: 25th of februari 2023, 6 PM CET (rules deliberation until that)
Submission deadline: 18th of march 2023, 6 PM CET
Set Car Model and Engine Family names to “ARM20 - [Your Forum Username Here]”
Send in the .car file via DM in the forums.
Also, you’re allowed to ask Simon three personal questions via DM. Vague questions might get vague answers so ask them wisely, no second chance here.
FILE
ARM20_-YOURNAMEHERE-PLEASECLONE-_Volvo_480_ES.car|attachment (35.6 KB)
Keep in mind that I am new at hosting this so I take all your input into consideration, now I have heard argumentation from both sides regarding this question so I will probably not implement that rule…yet. I may do but I’ll leave some space for further input still.
I looked twice, saw no convertible and now, boom, it was there.
