Left: Rosanda AragaLimoSpecial. Right: DMCW Al_Sultan (Supremacy 12)
As measured by the ADPR, the Rosanda is a little bit safer than the DCMW… But not by much. It’s 95 points versus 91. The issue is, the Rosanda attains its safety through brute force, having fewer features but doing them with extreme refinement - and cost. The DCMW introduces features which likely won’t be standard until the 80s, and does them competently rather than spending massive sums on them. It’s close to a dead heat there, but the different approaches have their impacts elsewhere.
Next, to emissions. The DCMW boasts truly amazing numbers for HC and NOx, but is let down by its CO numbers, running at just WES 5 levels. The rich fuel mixture, low compression and cast block hurt it. The Rosanda does worse on HC and NOx, but has just one third of the CO, allowing it to pass WES9 (in 1976!). It’s a pretty decent win for the Rosanda here.
As for fuel, both cars are running E10 pump gas, which is easily available all around Araga by 76. The Rosanda runs an 83L tank and can travel 525 km on it while the wider, heavier DCMW runs a 93L tank but can only travel 410 km on it. Another win for the Rosanda, thanks to its leaner naturally aspirated engine being more economical than the rich turbo unit from DCMW.
Of course, that turbo does have its benefits. Putting an extra layer in between the explosions and the open air makes the DCMW whisper quiet, especially given that it seldom needs to put in actual effort with how much extra power it runs, with just 11.8 loudness. I don’t think I’ve ever seen quieter. In real world terms, the slushbox in the Rosanda would make it more prone to sudden noise changes, while the stick shift in the DCMW is more controllable.
The DCMW makes it to 100 in 4.8 seconds and corners better than many other cars on the road. The Rosanda takes 8.8 seconds and has worse cornering performance than any car submitted this round. It’s an absolute slug by comparison. Top speeds are a bit closer, with both cars hampered by gears - the Rosanda is gear limited and could go faster if the transmission allowed it, while the DCMW can’t quite accelerate from the shifting point for 4th gear to the power peak (making 5th overdrive only). The DCMW is not quite the fastest accelerating car on the market, not quite the best handling car on the market, but it beats a lot of common cars - which is really appreciated.
Comfort is a case where the game gives it to the Rosanda, but I am going to give it to the DCMW. The Rosanda is benefited heavily by the automatic, which makes sense when one focuses on driver comfort and aims to include distracted, impaired or otherwise subpar drivers… But the presidential limo is driven by careful professionals putting their full focus into things and free of any substances or fatigue. The manual shouldn’t have as large an impact on comfort as it does in this specific case. You did both understand the assignment and reach pretty similar comfort values, both going for the obvious choice of +15 Handmade interiors, which is good to see.
I said I didn’t want just a regular Rosanda from the dealership, and Rosanda did indeed deliver on that, at least to an extent. Complaints from the previous round have been rectified, with an extended taillight housing that flows back from the rear quarter panels, simpler but more effective headlights and a grille that fits better. There’s still perhaps not enough ornamentation or interaction between elements, but it’s a definite step up. It feels about as unique as, say, the current US State Car - it uses a design language shared with other cars, refined and tweaked for the size of the car.
The same can be said about the DCMW, which shares many elements with the more common Al-Sayaadim Supremacy Six. The door handles integrated with the trim, the method of hiding the headlights, the particular way of doing the flares of the taillights, things like that are all shared. The DCMW does a better job at introducing more ornamentation, but neither car is truly unique. Both use standard company design languages and advertise the main brand. The DCMW does more to differentiate itself though.
This leaves us with the overall appearance… And the DCMW knocks the Rosanda out of the park, to me. The Rosanda makes its two-tone more visible, but DCMW does something similar, very dark purple vinyl roof. It’s the ornamentation that sets it apart, however. The more intricate grille that completely contains the hidden headlamps. The more complex shape of the rear light flares that tapers and works with the lines of the body rather than the simple box with more boxes cut out of it. The far more extensive chrome trim which is integrated with functional features of the car. The cars actually have several similar ideas, but the DCMW executes them so much better. I suppose that’s a little point against both for uniqueness.
Why yes, I did break the order I was following before of doing the priorities from the bottom to the top, how perceptive of you to notice. Why yes, I have been coy about the interiors in my previous images, giving them fully opaque windows. The DCMW has a lot of fixtures and makes the already slow Raytracing performance positively glacial - and removing the interior reduces the 812 fixtures to 272. I’ll take what I can get. The Rosanda, meanwhile… has no interior. It hurts the results it gets, especially when the DCMW is so very intricate and detailed. A minibar, a TV, a generous table, tasteful use of Aragan purple as an accent colour… I’ll just let the pictures speak for it. Really, as mentioned, it’s well past the point of diminishing returns, but it’s just so well done. Careful attention to ergonomics, generous apportionment of features, really, hats off.
The Rosanda picks up some victories in the smaller stats, but a lot of how it does that sets it up to fail later. Sure, it’s fuel efficient… Because the engine doesn’t have the grunt of the DCMW. Sure, it’s safer… But it does that in a really inefficient way that steals points from other stats. They’re pretty close in stats, really, but the visuals of the DCMW, inside and outside. Not having an interior is a bullet in the foot that kills the Rosanda. You had plenty of time, and didn’t use it. Meanwhile, the DCMW was submitted with less than five minutes to the deadline, and an earlier version probably still would have won. I’m growing just a little concerned about how many spending tokens DCMW has at this point; Moroza can seriously, seriously swing things in the next lobbying period… But them’s the breaks.
In terms of spending tokens, both entries will receive a healthy amount; full quantities will be revealed at the end of the round.