FIRST ARM
LATEST ARM
WHAT IS ARM?
OK, it is autumn, mabon was a week ago and we’re on our way to samhain, so what could be better fitting now than a little spooky twist on ARM?
BACKGROUND
Valtteri Ojala, Sofia Kivistö and Ville Toivonen, all in their mid twenties, are together running the youtube channel “Paranormal Finland”. The contents of it is more or less what you could expect, they are visiting places around the country that is said to be haunted, or where other paranormal activities is said to be taking place, filming and investigating. Now, the channel may have its origins in Finland, but already from the start, they have tried to take an international approach with it, posting most of the material in English, and so on. By now, the channel is actually somewhat successful, even outside Finland.
Now, to be completely honest, going ghost hunting in a 1997 Toyota Carina is not only far from hip, they had also outgrown it by far with all the filming equipment and stuff that needs to go with them. Somehow, the idea emerged to get a cool, vintage hearse as a vehicle for their excursions, both for the sake of style and roominess, but they could not find the right one, and settled for the second best thing, an ambulance.
So, time to look at…
THE CAR
What they found was this 1970 Mercedes-Benz 230. On the positive side, it is structurally sound, most of the important stuff actually still works, and it seems to not be infected with too many lethal diseases after all. But on the negative side, well…it is tired to say the least after years of service, and the previous owner’s attempt to start on a “restoration” consisted mostly of putting in some mouldy plywood sheets in the back and sawzalling out the centre divider. Now, our crew aren’t exactly gearheads either, and they start to realize that it needs more than some rattlecans and little tree air freshners to get back to its former glory again, and Sofia’s uncle Teuvo that promised to help them with the ambulance, well… Long story short, but let’s just say that he got a little bit too drunk and didn’t manage to do much more than breaking the windshield.
In their last video they made a promise, that if they would get enough new subscribers before their next video comes out, they will send the ambulance to a professional to fix it up. If not, they will scrap it. And since we are here, you probably already know the outcome, and here is where your restomod company will take over.
(OOC info: this is not an exact representation of any existing ambulance body for the W114, they were done by a number of different coachbuilders, and I kind of mashed all of them together to be as easy as possible to build in Automation, also, it is a little bit shorter than the extended wheelbase chassis that Daimler-Benz sold to the coachbuilders, a far bit longer than the normal wheelbase cars, well, this is how it is to work with Automation bodies sometimes, so with that said, how about having fun instead of doing rivet counting?)
PRIORITIES
AESTHETICS: It is supposed to look cool on the screen, and to be fitting to the image of a crew running a paranormal channel. After all, this is why they settled for a vintage ambulance rather than just some normal, modern “white van” that would have been a lot more sensible.
PRESTIGE: They promised their viewers to have it done by professionals, something that seems to have been built by a 17 year old in a shed is not exactly what they want to show then.
COMFORT: It will be used for rather long trips sometimes. They need to be relaxed enough to start filming at the arrival.
FUEL ECONOMY: Not to mention that they want to be able to afford the long trips, too!
RELIABILITY: Cool or not, this is actually a tool for them to make it able to do their work, unnecessary breakdowns is less optimal.
PERFORMANCE: It needs to be able to catch up with the pace of modern traffic, and a little more than that would of course not hurt, either.
SERVICE COSTS: It would be a shame if the car had to be parked behind the wall again, just because serviceing requires exotic parts they can’t afford, right?
DRIVEABILITY: Eh. It is an old behemoth, but it still needs to be considered after all.
SAFETY: Chasing ghosts is more fun than becoming one.
PURCHASE PRICE: Not that important, they have a budget for this for channel (don’t ask me where they got all the money from, this is a fictive universe or something), with that said, a cheaper car with the same stats is of course no drawback, cheapening out just to save money is probably not worth it.
OFFROAD: It seems like paranormal activities more often than not is taking place outside the most well-paved roads. With that said, they aren’t looking for a rock crawler. Just good enough for normal use even outside the highways.
SPORTINESS: “Sports ambulance” is an oxymoron, just putting it as somewhat of a priority so it won’t be completely cheesed away.
AUTHENTICITY: They were looking for a cool old hearse or ambulance for their youtube channel. Ending up with a 1970 Mercedes-Benz 230 was more out of a coincidence than any love for the model in itself. Just go wild and crazy if you feel like it. However, they want the base vehicle somewhat recognizable.
INTERIOR STYLING: Just some bonus points. I have provided an interior somewhat close to stock, you are free to completely throw it out and make a new one, modify the existing one, or leave it as it is, since I know that not everyone likes to make them. To put it like this, since I see this mostly as bonus points, an interior that looks terrible will never score worse than the original, so no need to fear doing an attempt. A good looking interior, however, may earn you a small bonus. Chassis can be hidden if that makes interior making easier!
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): $48,000
- No V16s or race parts (race intake, race tubular exhaust, semi-slicks).
- This car was made with no TP, 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.
- This challenge is held in the open beta version of the game.
- You’re of course allowed to ask an unlimited number of questions regarding the challenge in itself and its rules etc. - but also, you’re allowed to ask (privately, via DM) the crew three personal questions about preferences that might affect how you want to build your car. Just keep in mind that you’re asking three people and that their opinions MAY clash sometimes…
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.
- Unleaded premium fuel
- The car should still appear street legal and have all the major equipment needed for that. Now, I am really not going to school myself in finnish car modification laws, I just want to have it somewhat believable looking. If you, for example, make the headlights red just because it looks spooky, you’re heading straight to the bin.
- They are 3 people in the crew. You need to upgrade to at least 3 full seats. Now, if you want to do this by replacing the front seats by a bench, or add a second seat row, is up to you.
- You are NOT allowed to touch the weight slider, it is where it is for the sake of compensation, since this vehicle is still just a regular wagon in the eyes of Automation, and still is way too light.
- The “Viewtube” sticker and “Paranormal Finland” text needs to be present and visible. You are allowed to scale it, change text font, change text colour, placement etc. - but they want people be able to take notice about the channel.
- Emissions in itself would not be taken into account, but a 3-way cat of any variety should be added to please some polar bear loving followers, or something. Not much of a reason not to do it in 2023 I guess.
- There was a question about if manual or automatic gearbox is a thing that will be judged. No. It is purely a matter of stats, if an auto gives you better stats, use an auto, if a manual gives you better stats, use a manual, the actual choice of gearbox will not be looked upon.
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
- Engine position is allowed in moderation. Pure silliness like making the engine poke out of the grille is not, though.
- Everything else is banned, since there was no objections…
BODY MODIFICATIONS
- The following morphs can be touched freely: Rearbumperlower, R_Fender, R_FenderLip, R_Quarter, R_Quarter lip, R_QuarterDetail, R_FenderDetail.
- The following morphs can’t be touched at all: Any morph with “pillar” in its name.
- Other morphs will put it in the “heavy modifications” penalty category.
- Body swaps not allowed.
EXTENSIVE MODIFICATIONS, RULES AND PENALTIES
- Chassis type can not be changed
- Chassis material can not be changed
- Panel material swap will give a $2000 penalty
- Changing engine orientation will give a $5000 penalty
- Suspension type swap will give a $1500 penalty per axle
- A complete engine swap will give a $2500 penalty. (Engine size may be increased within the limits of the possible capacity of the original block.
- Only a cylinder head change will give a $1000 penalty.
- Patch/3D/Morphs that radically is altering the looks of the car will give a $5000 penalty (if you’re unsure, just ask)
- Changing from RWD to FWD/AWD/4x4 will give a $4000 penalty.
SUBMISSIONS:
We are indeed in the weirdest possible situation for starting challenges now, so this is important to solve with as little struggle as possible.
SUBMISSIONS START: 3rd of October 2023, 5 PM CEST (Rules delib until that)
SUBMISSIONS CLOSE: 3rd of November 2023, 5 PM CET (Yes, this is unusually long, for multiple reasons. I want everyone to have time to swap to the beta, I know how unstable betas can be in their early periods, so the time might also be needed to sort out some bugs, and to learn what Ellisbury has to offer.
Due to the questionable stability of the game state ATM, RESUBS ARE ALLOWED.
In case a stats changing update drops during the last 7 days of this challenge, DEADLINE WILL BE POSTPONED BY A WEEK.
FILE:
ARM27_-YOURNAMEHERE-PLEASECLONE-_Mercedes_230_Ambulance.car|attachment (95.7 KB)
(Yes, it uses mods, but since the game nowadays tells you which ones to download, I don’t see that as a problem.)
Phew. This was a lot, and I am fresh to Ellisbury, so if I have missed something important, please tell me. I feel that the rules delib period is even more important now than ever, and I hope I haven’t done anything more stupid than usual now…
Still plenty of time, but maybe worth looking into what you want to do at least. 
