Automation Legacy Challenge Thread 2 - Round 5

is anyone even going to read this? I guess I'll just put a spaceship here (_)(_)=====D~~

The late 70’s; Minex during the war


The P1W Minex Daimos W20LE wagon and 20LE sedan up front, with models of the SRT-E and ARSE behind

The lore

Minex was riding high going into the late 70’s, the Dragonar was sitting comprtably up at the top end of the market, relatively unmatched, and ArcSpace was enjoying Araga’s space launch market all to themselves.

Pretty obviously, that wouldn’t last with 1977’s war with Windon. All of a sudden new luxury cars were right out, and with the aging Dragonar being Minex’s best seller, what could they possibly do in such a situation? Well…


The 1977 Minex Daimos 20LE & W20LE

Minex already had a solid offering down the ladder from their premium Dragonar, but it was badly neglected, being largely quite old Planar models rebadged for Minex. So they naturally had a homegrown replacement in the works, but the war forced a rapid and radical rethink.

Gone was the bespoke chassis (which would’ve been Minex’s first homegrown effort), and instead they used the tried-and-true method from the rest of the Planar Group; rework the Paceman’s chassis.

Unfortunately for Minex, this wasn’t done for further refinement of a good chassis like the Genoace, rather an effort in extreme manufacturing cost cutting. The chassis was largely the same, but had the subframes swapped end to end and modified, so instead of being a rear-engined economy car, it was a possibly just as strange longitudinal FWD economy car.

The interior was spartan, cheap comfort was the name of the game from the start, even without the hastily modified 1955 chassis. But the Paceman reuse had an upside, it was easier on development costs to reuse the complex but effective separated systems for hot/cold air, freeing up resources for its numerous wartime specific features.

Internally, the cabin was well sealed, with vents in the rear that could be opened for throughflow, while a switch on the top of the steering column could dim all the interior lights bar the speedo. The external features were the most noticeable, however, with the CAT (Cabin Air Treatment) filter system having a prominent scoop on the bonnet, and the spring-loaded headlight shutters (shown deployed on the 20LE and retracted on the W20LE), which were intended for use during air raid blackouts, but instead saw use mainly as a style device by owners.

The W20LE wagon did as it said on the badge, and was essentially just a wagon version of the Daimos. Its most notable features were a relatively high load floor thanks to the old Paceman chassis, and the impressive parts reuse from the sedan Daimos (the rear lights and the vent intakes, which were known for not fitting well on the wagon).


ArcSpace's Enhanced SRT

The Enhanced SRT (known as the SRT-E) was just that, an SRT rocket enhanced for payloads that the base rocket couldn’t take.

The modifications over the original were a redesigned wider fairing, extra fins on the fairing for added stability, and the ability to add boosters (up to four, two shown on this model).


1977's mystery signal, revealed

In late 1977, HAMs in Araga were surprised by a sudden SSTV broadcast over an open frequency, and while it was recorded, good decoding wasn’t widely available, and for years people were trying to puzzle out who sent this image of Araga’s coast, and why.

AragaMysterySignal

Shortly afterwards, ArcSpace would end the rampant speculation with a simple press release attached to an image: it was all a systems test according to them, but for what?

The image sent out to the press, with the caption "This image was the result of a systems test from a recent SRT-E test launch, and was merely meant to test the broadcast capabilities of its payload."

It was only many year later that the project was declassified; it was the Araga Reconnaissance Satellite Experiment.

An artist's rendition of the ARSE, released with the declassification of the program

The ARSE was a highly complicated reconnaissance satellite, with two different large format film cameras feeding huge amounts of film into the two Film Atmospheric Re-entry Capsules (FARCs, for short), and a third SSTV camera for either backup, aiming, or post-film exhaustion activities.

It was a surprisingly high tech project for ArcSpace, who until then had been known for their simple solid fuelled rockets, but as David Minet, Minex’s CEO, said in the release where the ARSE was detailed;

“It was felt by me and the board that letting the young minds either under us or in the school system get sent off to war simply because they were fit enough to be soldiers was an extreme waste, so we purposefully embarked on programs beyond our then current capability like the ARSE, or bolstered production of the Daimos, to ensure that they were safely employed and away from the front lines.”


My word this post was wordy I'm so sorry lol
7 Likes

Mrdja Group
PART 4 (AND 5)

Refresher of where we left off last time:

Part 4

We shall note that this is great opportunity to introduce quite some extremes

One of extremes was quite plush...

There was quite some learning experience with 1965 Sieben and that had interestingly solved rear end to increase space avaiable for both people and their cargo (mostly for cargo to be honest)
There was also complaint about suspension tune, which was blamed on suspension type.
One of our opponents for this car would, however, also use such suspension in the rear but there werent any complaints: trust us, we would know as it was mostly used by dictators and one particularly direct car reviewer

But would this be sufficient for victory in presidential limo competition?
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Looks neat and my colleague should have gotten some specs but was too drunk on beer



We didnt really liked the fact we would lose that position, but damn isnt that other entry STUNNING inside and out
It was quite the surprise seeing this was battle between just two vehicles, as we believe honor and prestige of being ride for head of state could have (and should have) attracted more people

...while other was with all four wheels on the ground

Saguaro T-REE in relevant generation would be introduced in 1970 as compact offering made by said budget-oriented brand. This doesnt mean that it will fade into absolute insignificance moment it appears, as its construction is rather up-to-date with times: it runs monocoque chassis (if that would be appropriate description for body and chassis being one and the same) and powers front wheels by using transversely mounted engine

Instead of deciding to describe our entry in mass-market ourselves further, we will let reviews speak for themselves.

There were some surprises we encountered sifting through them, like the fact some people would do 4X4 conversions or putting bigger engines (ok, that other one probably shouldnt be much of a surprise)

Oh, also these two were only wagons on market. Go figure. Once again we are left confused by fact others would miss out on such lovely body style


You will receive pictures and specs of three different variants of Saguaro T-REE: there will be another one that wasnt covered by reviews
Lets go from that one, shall we?

1280 Sedan would be able to put some differentiation between itself and either of two reviewed entries and its not just because of it being a sedan
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Number indicates engine displacement and that would end up being bigger than 1190. Due to the fact EcoWagon had engine mostly tuned towards economy, its greater size of 1400cc would not warrant performance.
1280 would therefore offer better performance than either reviewed variant

To top it off, it would have tad bit better eqiupment: music would derive from either 8-track player or AM/FM radio through 4 speakers. Reviewed cars lack 8 track ports for reference

Idea of 1190 and EcoWagon being submited was that there was assumption they would (and could) be sufficiently different, but that didnt turn out that way.
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This was realised too late for 1190 to bow out and give its place to sedan mentioned above

As you can see tho, its not really bad car just…too similar to another thing in showroom

Speaking of which…1400 EcoWagon
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Due to positive reviews, there is high chance T-REE might return

And it did

Part 5

It was decided that cheaper fuel is way to go for everything, so you are putting E70 in anything avaiable to you (and in one vehicle presented that will not be avaiable as-is shown, but could be made with right specs).
All vehicles you are about to see have iron blocks and will power 4 speed gearboxes. You will also need to operate clutch in any cabin
Panels are steel and chassis is galvanised steel (hehe, chassis; you will see what we mean by this).

Standard deja-vu

Pictures are almost not needed as only change T-REE got during these years would be rectangular headlights
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Specs also stay similar to before

Utilised vehicles

Relevant generation of Kontir Roxton/Cunningham duo was introduced in 1974 while we are seeing 1977 versions here

Roxton is van model that denotes full-size van. Snarky remarks see no place here regarding chassis, as this thing does have chassis as separate unit
There is nothing revolutionary regarding its RWD configuration and longitudinally mounted engine
You have coils in front and leafs in the back; solid lack of independence either way
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Pop the hood and surprises dont come: all-iron unit with over-head valves is ready to work
What you get is 3603cc V6 where the block assumes said V shape at 90 degree angle: this would give you impression that we chopped up V8 engine to do this…because we did just that
Engine outputs 121 hp at 4300 rpm and develops 250 Nm of torque at 2800 rpm
There was attempt to put inline 6, but we were left dissatisfied at size of engine we could put that way. Still, parts of V6 and V8 should be easily compatible because of this and V8 would be avaiable in either of these two
Also, that would not even happen to be biggest said V6 could be
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Apparently it can tow 1900 kg, get to 155 kmph and get to 100 kmph in 13.5 seconds. Uses almost 21.8 liters of E70 per 100km

Regarding Cunningham, if we excuse the fact this is pickup truck and not van, what was said for Roxton applies here as well
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Top speed lags by almost kilometer per hour, but it gets to 100 0.4 seconds quicker than van. While other stats mentioned also happen to vary, difference isnt going to be deal-breaker
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Either way, it should be good improvement on some minor teething issues of prior period

Yovan

Hmm, this section is named after me?
Why is that the case?

I might have an idea tho…
Some background, as is polite

Drivers backstory: it was rough to extent

My name is actually spelled Jovan but, as i noticed some people might struggle with that, there is alternative spelling: that Y is said in same manner as in yoga or yo-yo.

Im currently head of Mrdja Group operations in Letara and needless to say, some relatively early parts of my life werent as harmonius as they probably should have been.
I come from family that ran business of weapon manufacturing and its fair to say, this does have drawbacks with sufficiently jealous competition: my parents paid the ultimate price back then and it was expected for me to follow.

They, of course, didnt expected that i would be able to get away but i did.
Now, several decades later, i heard they might decide to supply Windon with some equipment
And im ready for a rematch

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This is Kontir Roxton as was the case with van shown tad bit above by employee here (from whom i took over the typewriter because apparently he found possibility of me typing about myself amusing)
They forgot to specify that V8 mentioned previously has 6208cc of full capacity; take two cylinders off and that results in 4656cc V6, which is what this van will be running
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This van also has 4X4 drivetrain and manual lockers, which could have been featured on Cunningham we would offer for reviews.

Due to the fact that mangement took some time to recover from war declaration, there is something else im more concerned about regarding that truck: not illegal, but stupid ommission

And while i have decent authority while here, do not think that im in much better position than some random Aragan that wants to prep this kinda vehicle for fight:

  • I couldnt get any guns i or my parents designed because they arent really avaiable here and its pain in ass to get them from Letara.
  • getting van base should be relatively easy. Hell, doesnt need to be of our brand even: i saw plenty of beaten-to-shit Bazards and Centurions that could be bought for bag of peanuts and few bottles of hard liquor

Thankfully, someone had about 8 M16 rifles that i could use to weaponise the vehicle.
I tried to also put some armor here and there and sacrifice something else to do so. Van now still weighs as much as it would do stock, but that does mean armor leaves lot to be desired

Wish me luck

2 Likes
Bins bins wanna do the bins yes please bins. Bins bins. Do the bins. Oh. Play it cool. Play it cool. Here come the bin cops. Help me, bin cops. Bin cops, help. What's your favourite thing about bins? Mine is bins. Bin. Trial. Puttin' the cars on trial. In the bins. Binned cars. On trial. Bin court. For cars in the bin. Judge bin car presiding. Bam. Guilty! Of being binned. Going to bin jail. Where am I? Guess. Guess guess guess. You're in the bin.
REVIEWS PART 5.1
BINNER TIME

Left To Right: HPB Codzie AR77 Wagon and ZSedan by @Vento, Serena Sedan and Wagon by @supersaturn77

Well, this is… Unfortunate. I really don’t like binning cars, but we do have a few bins. Shame.

The first is the Serena sedan and wagon. The issue here is something I likely would have seen and asked for a correction, but I already allowed a late submission for these. The entries have pretax costs of 9950 and 9960 respectively. There’s no way to get the displacement tax low enough to be legal - and Serena didn’t get it low, of course not, both cases are up above 10800. That’s illegal. The rules clearly state that the Post-Tax cost has to be under 10k, not Pre-Tax. So, in the bin it goes.

The second is the pair of standard entries from HPB. Here, the entry was submitted with plenty of time. I pre-screened it, but I missed something - these Polish shitboxes both use 60s safety. That’s illegal, and it’s stated as illegal several times. You didn’t get caught out on one of the complex rules, it’s something really simple: use 70s or better. So, to the bin.

A QUICK REVIEW

For the sake of providing some constructive criticism, I’ll quickly take a look at the four entries. Let’s start with the HPB entries and…

Well, they’re uncomfortable, but it’s because they’re incredibly cheap. The wagon uses a basic interior, while the sedan provides small, cramped rear seats to make way for a convertible roof. They’re also incredibly economical in terms of fuel… Because they have absolutely pathetic engines, which only provide 17.6 kW. The 0-100 speed of the sedan is 35.2 seconds, while the wagon (lacking the excess weight of a convertible) is just two seconds quicker. From there, they crawl a bit further but wind up at a top speed of 115 km/h, just barely acceptable for highways with slight inclines. With those massive times to reach 100, the HPBs would get multiple penalties for this low speed. The fact they have monocoques would have barely kept them legal, probably, but it’s another big oof there. It has great fuel economy… sort of. As listed, it gets 5.59 L/100km for the Wagon, and 5.53 for the Sedan… Sort of. See, it has a truly hopeless engine that puts out a paltry 17.6 kW. That means that it uses the (far easier) WLTP Class 1 cycle for most of its economy, whereas other entries are either mostly or completely determined by WLTP Class 3. In WLTP Class 3, the game says it gets 7.7 L/100, but there’s an asterisk - it cannot actually run the cycle. WLTP Class 3 includes testing at up to 131.3 km/h. This can’t. “Fixing” the HPBs would absolutely ruin the fuel economy, because of how it got that great fuel economy - it’d probably be no better than the competitors.

Once we look past the fuel economy, power and safety, we get a cheap, uncomfortable car… that’s probably just a little worse than the other cheap, uncomfortable cars. It also features a laughably misproportioned front grille, way too small in both guises and leaving far too much negative space.

Okay, what about the Serenas? Well, again, “fixing” it means breaking the stats. Amusingly, the Wagon is the only other car below the 34 W/kg threshold where WLTP Class 3 matters most… And again, we run into the same issue as the HPBs. The Serenas are boats, with a larger wheelbase than the other standard entries by a substantial margin. That means longer panels, longer frame rails for the ladder chassis it uses and a roomier, more comfortable interior. They’re in the top tier for comfort, yes, but only because they has a bunch of extra size which is part of why they’re illegal. They’re also highly resistant to the environment - which is partially because they uses very expensive corrosion resistant steel. You get the idea.

Aside from that - it’s a really good boat, to the point that I’ll be including it in the stats list for next round and will be comparing future boats to them. Sure, the drivability is low, but that’s because it’s a boat. Let’s say that the government politely requested Serena to hold off until the war ended to make such large cars, but then allowed them to come out. Advanced 80s Safety gives the Sedan great safety despite the frame, while taking too long to hit 100 km/h brings it down to just being good. There’s no obvious visual sins here, but I’ll be looking at the visuals later - with some minor tweaks, it’s mostly the same as the legal versions.

LEGAL ENTRIES

With those out of the way - and to ping everyone who submitted in order to scare them - I have received the following entries:

  • 5 from @AndiD - 1x Partisan, 2x Std, 2x Utility
  • 5 from @Danicoptero - 2x Mil, 1x Non-Car, 2x Std
  • 7 from @Edsel - 1x Partisan, 2x Mil, 2x Std, 2x Utility
  • 5 from @Fayeding_Spray - 1x Partisan, 1x Mil, 1x Non-Car, 2x Std,
  • 5 from @karhgath - 1x Partisan, 2x Std, 2x Utility
  • 7 from @ldub0775 - 1x Partisan 2x Hybrid, 2x Mil, 2x Non-Car
  • 4 from @lotto77 - 1x Hybrid, 1x Mil, 2x Std
  • 2 from @mart1n2005 - 2x Std
  • 3 from @Mikonp7 - 2x Std, 1x Utility
  • 6 from @moroza - 2x Mil, 2x Std, 2x Utility
  • 5 from @MrdjaNikolen - 1x Partisan, 2x Std, 2x Utility
  • 6 from @shibusu - 1x Partisan 2x Hybrid, 1x Mil, 2x Utility
  • 7 from @supersaturn77 - 1x Partisan, 2x Std, 2x Util, 2x Hybrid (2 binned)
  • 4 from @Vento - 1x Partisan, 2x Std, 1x Utility (2 binned)

That’s 14 people. And 71 entries. Oh boy.

12 Likes

The Serenas have been unbinned. They turned out to have had the engine family quality reset to 0, which inflated the cost and made them illegal.

Given what happened, I’m using my discretion and fixing the techpool. I’ll also be checking for any other techpool issues too.

5 Likes

Superlite & the Tarske Group


Tarquini Vita FI & FA

For the first time in 1977, a car from the Tarske Automotive Group (TAG) was available for sale in Araga. For this task, the humble Tarquini Vita was chosen, an economic and reliable RR compact that proves that a cheap car doesn’t have to be a bad car.


Superlite Mistral 66S

Ride the wind. Following the Tango, Superlite released their new bike in 1977. With it’s 735cc inline 4, the Mistral offers the same excitement as other Superlites but in two wheels instead of four.

A kit car based on the Vita was also planned for 1978, but due to the war with Windon, it never made it’s way to Araga.


ANV Araga

Built by Perseo Heavy Industries, the ANV Araga is the new fleet carrier of the country of the same name. It’s over 260m, has a displacement over 30.000 tons and can sail at a maximum speed of 32 knots. It’s also armed with 8 100mm guns.

There were plans for a second Araga-class that replaced the 100mm guns for SAM launchers, but since construction hadn’t started by the time the war begun, these plans were scrapped. Keeping the carrier in the docks wasn’t a smart option either, so the Araga kept the 100mm guns for the entirety of the war.

5 Likes

Tough times call for tough vehicles…

(Part 1/3)


(Left to right: Kutshuriat (Special) Four X, Hiluq (“) Four X, Neyaarat (”) Four X type V, Neyaarat (") Six type D)

…which is why every DCMW officially sold in Araga for this time period has four-wheel drive, underbody armor, and at least 90.0 reliability.

Wot?! A DCMW with two-figure power and four-figure price? With a lesser interior than Premium, and likely to outlive its driver? What is this, April Fool’s?”

Dalluha Coach & Motor Works’ reputation as a luxury brand is no accident. The quintessential purpose of a car bearing the sapphire star is to be one of the finer things in life to enjoy in a free world, by getting you where you need to go, in a hurry as you may wish, in an interior ambiance you won’t be in a hurry to leave. But when life and freedom themselves are no longer a given, and instead must be defended from threats, priorities shift. Out with the multi-layer lead/vinyl soundproofing and dual-pane windows, in with the factory-optional armor. Out with the Fruinian leather seats with footrests and massagers, in with the hard-wearing cloth and vinyl. Out with politely vague and impolitely obscene power levels from more cylinders than there are windows, in with… how’s 66hp sound? Through a single baffled (but high-grade stainless steel) muffler? Yeah, well, it gets the job done. Don’t you know there’s a war on? Trade those silk slippers for some combat boots, get in, and hold on.

Kutshuriat Four X

When the going gets tough…

…the tough get comfortable.

Seven years of word of mouth mean that our first of four faces needs no introduction. In '70, the Mk. III Kutshuriat took a backseat to the flagship Al-Sayaadim, but in ‘77, a wartime economy has little to no place for a luxury muscle car; now, the understudy would have to be the brand’s standardbearer of comfort, drivability, economy, and overall competence. Wartime restrictions, however, prohibited among other things interiors of what DCMW considers a base standard. Accordingly, these models’ trim level is not Standard, but Special (and generally omitted in badging and references).

Using a redesigned heavy-duty version of the non-X’ full-double-wishbone chassis, the X features a non-differential two-range transfer case, manually locking front and rear differentials, sturdy skidplates, lengthened control arms, and standard-equipment high-profile all-terrain tires. It is intended for regular use both on and off pavement, about a 50/50 split, while maintaining the civilized road manners and general comfort befitting a DCMW… or at least whatever semblance thereof wartime circumstances may permit.

With 66hp, it’s likely to be outrun by anything more potent than a Mijikai. With 90.0 reliability, however - the lowest of the four - it’s unlikely to be outlasted by anything with moving parts (short of another DCMW, that is). And with a low-spec but high-quality interior featuring an 8-track player, the safety of a modern monocoque chassis, carefully-balanced suspension and zero-fade brakes, its longevity is likely to be appreciated as a faithful and competent companion, not resented as a miserable shitbox that you wish would die but won’t.

Hiluq Four X

When the going gets tough…

…the tough get going.

When Ass & Trash missions involve more Trash than Ass, something like a pickup truck or a ute is in order. Based on the monocoque Kutshuriat, and near-identical from the B-pillar forward, the Hiluq features a partial monocoque - rearward unibody extrusions offer a ladder-frame-like conventional mounting platform for a truck bed/tray (as comes standard) or any other attachment.

Designed for getting small cargo to just about anywhere, the Hiluq X takes its offroad credentials further than the Kutshuriat X. The octet of wishbones is replaced by a coil-suspended solid axle at each end: five-link at the front, three link in the back. Underbody armor is more extensive, and standard equipment includes bolt-on rock sliders and front nudge bar (most of which also fits the Kutshuriat). While optional, and easily retrofit or deleted, most are shipped with dual fuel tanks, each with its own skid plate. And last but not least, tires are even taller mud-terrain types, including the full-sized spare, reflecting a use case of more off-pavement than on it.

6 Likes

Centurion Industries Presents: Big Things Come in Small Packages



CMI Series 7200

The Series 7200 is revolutionary in the tractor-trailer market for its small size and short wheelbase. The 7200 has been designed from the ground up for short haul delivery services and operation in areas with less space to maneuver, like cities or towns with tight streets.


CMI Series 7200 Long Base

The Series 7200 Long Base has been designed for logistics tasks and operations unsuited for other types of trucks. Its heavy haul capabilities are unmatched in the industry, while retaining a shorter wheelbase than equivalent trucks by a wide margin.


Centurion Flatbed Trailer

Alongside trucks, Centurion produces trailers and accessories to perfectly compliment their designs. The Centurion Flatbed follows the same primary design constraints as other flatbed trailers on the market, but is of sturdier, heavier construction such that more intensive loads can be carried.


CMI 7200 Garbage Truck

The 7200 Garbage Truck is a shining example of the possibilities of the platform. The short length and wheelbase relative to other trucks on the market makes the 7200 the prime candidate for this dirty yet necessary job.


Special Feature: Centurion Industry’s Contribution to The War

As a division of the Aragan Government, Centurion is uniquely aware of the ebbs, flows, and needs of the Government during war time. That, in combination with our penchant for heavy vehicles and strong focus on high quality engineering, made us a prime candidate for military contracts.

The 7200 Military Logistics Platform, paired with the K22 Missile Trailer, is the result of Aragan industrial and military might. This platform has the ability to strike deep into the heart of any military target at the drop of a hat, securing a clean and easy win for Araga’s Democracy and Freedom.


© 1976 Centurion Industries, All Rights Reserved

ArcSpace booster (7200 long base pictures) courtesy of @lotto77

4 Likes

Ok y’all, quick poll time…

As I’ve been reviewing stuff, I’m split between two broad approaches… Last round, a few outside factors meant that I released a lot of reviews as a big batch, having some threads that ran through reviews and allowing me to link forward and backwards, using knowledge of other segments to influence reviews.

I’ve been working on reviews, and I’ve had a bunch of moments where I want to go “Oh, I want to look at an entry from another segment before this review in the segment that’s mostly finished”. So, that brings up the question… Should I hold reviews and deliberately aim for one big mega-drop all at once with threads woven throughout, or should I continue with the “traditional” dripfeed structure, trying to give segments as soon as they are completed? This round is admittedly a little odd, because of how a bunch of factors have caused entries to be a touch odd and unusual.

  • Wait for a mega drop
  • Try to maintain a consistent pace through the month
0 voters
3 Likes
REVIEWS PART 5.2
WORKERS OF THE WORLD

Left To Right: Pillar 1500C by @karhgath , Serena Haul Pickup and Vanette by @Saturn , DCMW Neyaarat (Four X, type V) and DCMW Hiluq by @moroza , Ilaris 4x4 by @shibusu

The utility segment has an odd issue to it: A lot of the entries are just unrealistically good. Taking a look through the brochures of the time, it looks like around a gross vehicle weight of around 5 tonnes is the common maximum, with a minimum of 40% of that being the actual vehicle weight. For instance, here’s Ford.

So, if you submitted a car like the F-250 - 3500 pounds of vehicle, 3500 pounds of cargo (or 1.6 metric tonnes) for the 4500 USD that J.D. Power reports for 1977 (17,000 USD in 2012, which is roughly equal to AMU)… You’d be laughed out of the room when compared to the entries in this round, which give you gross weights well in excess of the F-350. Why is the F-250 so expensive in Auto terms? Because making that load capacity work is really expensive. They had to reinforce the frame and suspension heavily, that brochure I linked to includes boasting about all that. It ensures that when you actually load up the bed with one or two tonnes of stuff and hit a bump, you still have a car and not a broken axle or frame. That’s not the case in Automation. If you move your ride height around to change cargo weight, the cost of the car doesn’t change at all. The game also doesn’t include any tools to simulate highway performance with those massive loads, meaning that the 350 Nm of torque that Ford included with the F-250 doesn’t have much of an impact.

Why do I bring this up? Because some people did submit cars like that. Cars with perfectly reasonable cargo weights, that have the issue of just sucking compared to the competition. As a result, I’m going to be jumping around a little in this review block, taking a look at the “sensible” entries with 1-2 tonnes of cargo weight first, then the ones with wilder cargo weights second, and finally at the more light-duty entries last.

Oh, as an aside - this round includes plenty of car-based trucks. Where that’s the case, I’ll generally just judge how the car’s visuals differ from the standard-segment version, and save those visuals for later. If you wanna know why, ask on Discord.

SERENITY NOW

Left: Serena Haul Pickup. Right: Serena Haul Vanette

And here is one of those cars. The Serena Haul, available as a Vanette or a pickup. It weighs 1480 kg, with stiff rear suspension providing 1550 kg of load capacity. It has a much smaller inline six than the Econoline or F-Series, with substantially less torque, only 210 Nm. It’s low for reality, but high for this mid-weight segment. That’s not what restricts the cargo capacity though, the constant-rate springs are. Only two other cars in the round used them, and neither is a simple, regular utility car. Adding it gets the Serenas up to 2570 kg, which would be far more serviceable. It also decreases utility because of how broken utility brake fade is, but I have already ranted about that.

The problem with the Serena is that, well… It’s better than the F-250, but not too much better. 44 drivability is tolerable, but the competition has at least 40 and some hit the 50s. 14.3 L/100km is great for a truck IRL, but you chose E10 to get there so your costs are pretty average - range is good though. Actually including padding and a headliner (“standard interior”) was really nice at the time, but everyone else did too so comfort is just average. The same goes for including power steering, which was merely an option in that Ford brochure but is an expected feature here. A locking differential and offroad skidtray? It’s the same there.

The end result for these car-based utilities is, well… Their stats are just underwhelming. They’re realistic, they’re sensible, and they’re not that great. You went and made the car similar to what it would be like in reality, and it’s probably a little better than it “should” be, but it’s just worse than all the competitors. What do I do there?

The Serena has a special place in this, because there’s two of them, and there’s no “Heavy Duty” Serena - well, sorta, there’s the non-car versions but they don’t count. It also comes in at the top of the allowable prices, which is still better than the F-250 et al but obviously not great in the challenge. I just don’t know how to review it. I’m going to be saying this a whole lot through the round, but the only real changes visually are at the rear, where the tailgate of the Ute and the barn doors of the Vanette force the lights out to the side and underneath them, sent to the edges to make way. It’s an important change, though.

A GENERIC TITLE FOR A GENERIC NAME

Both Cars: Ilaris 4x4

The Ilaris is in a similar spot there. Ilaris doesn’t have a heavy duty option - they have something we’ll look at later, it’s odd. The Ilaris 4x4 carries 1340 kg and weighs 1350 kg, perfectly sane numbers in reality but low here. Drivability is a carlike 51, but some of the heavier cars have more. Comfort is in the same “It has a standard interior, it’s decent” range as the Serenas and much of the segment. The cost is 11500, most stats are just acceptable, really… But there’s one massive trick up its sleeve. It uses just 12.6 L/100km, on E70. That keeps the running costs really low, potentially under 3000. There’s not that many cars to have lower running costs, and all of them make compromises to cargo weights. That wonderful fuel economy translates to a really solid range, 384 km is a definite challenger to the E10-powered cars in the segment. It’s worse, of course, but not by much.
Of course, all of that fuel economy comes at a price. The car runs a small inline 4, which I would criticise over insufficient torque if it wasn’t for the segment being down overall. Reliability is a little bit down compared to the others on the market, but 80 isn’t awful, really. There’s not really a lot to say about an average utility vehicle, and I’ll be discussing that later. Utility judging just kinda sucks with this many entries, I guess, entries get lost in the shuffle. The Ilaris is the one car-based utility to not be submitted alongside an accompanying car though, so let’s look at the visuals. It’s considerably more ornamented than the rest of the car-like utilities, with insets on the grille and Ilaris’s trademark headlight covers. There’s a trim line up the hood, and it’s one of the few cars to have lights on the tailgate - not illegal or questionable, and a definite differentiating factor. The car is technically a convertible, but this is really due to a questionable choice in the creation of the body which was used.

DALLUHAN DOUBLE

Left two: DCMW Neyaarat (Four X, type V). Right Two: DCMW Hiluq

The DCMW Hiluq is uhh… Potentially the boldest name choice I have seen in a while. It’s one slight sound away from the Toyota Hilux, a perennial best-seller here in Australia. It’s also bold with its approach to the rules, with an extreme amount of 3D work going into making a body that’s meant to be a car-based ute like a Commodore or Falcon look like a dedicated ute platform. It’s not a dedicated ute platform, which is how DCMW sorta kinda gets away with submitting three utility vehicles, because the rules technically didn’t outlaw this sort of thing. They should have, and they will next time, but you were really pushing things this round. The same can be said about the rear lights - a thin annulus like this with just 1cm of thickness wouldn’t be realistically possible to illuminate at the time, but your rear lights have the sufficient area so they’re legal.

So, how does this car turned ute fare as a car? If I put it in the standard segment where it was submitted, it fares horribly. It does a lot of things that drag car stats down, like having all-solid suspension, offroad-first tyres and the like. That’s why it’s here, because it would never be bought as a car. It would have been legal there, at the very least, with a purchase price just barely legal before the utility tax break. As a utility vehicle, however… It’s incredibly hard to separate from one of the other DCMWs, the Neyaarat (Four X, Type V). The Neyaarat carries about 20% more, 1.8 tonnes beating the Hiluq’s 1.5 tonnes - but DCMW is one of the brands that has a trim with an unrealistic maximum cargo weight. The Neyaarat’s a touch easier to drive, but it costs a little more to run and a decent amount more to buy. The Hiluq handles a little better offroad, the Neyaarat has more advanced rustproofing. The Neyaarat does boast higher comfort, safety and torque, so it’s got that going for it… But the comfort in the Hiluq is fine, and both entries use a partial monocoque to have decent safety, with the Hiluq being a nice 69 to the Neyaarat’s 78. The Neyaarat has the best range of any utility entry, but the Hiluq is just 9 km less.

In a sense, it’s impressive how close these stats are, because the engineering stuff is actually substantially different. One is a pickup, the other is a van. The two have substantially differing wheelbases, different model years, different distributions of quality. One even gets an extra gear. There’s a lot of very real differences under the skin, but if I was told I have to pick one… Well, do I need a truck or a van?

There are a couple of comments specific to the Neyaarat but not the Hiluq. First, I’m not sure how a partial monocoque works with a one-box van design. A ute, sure - especially with such a clear separation between cab and bed - but this van? I’m dubious. Second of all, the service costs are probably a touch lower than they should be. It’s only about 50 bucks more than the Hiluq, but I’m not entirely sure this cabover design would really be easy to service, the engine is in such an awkward spot. Of course, being a cabover does mean efficient use of space, with plenty of cargo room, but… We’ll mention that later. Overall, these are minor things, and sorta more issues with the game itself than anything else.

Visually, the Hiluq gives you a large bash bar, and blue paint that cannot be in high supply during the war. You also get square mirrors, larger flares and some dubious lights placed below the tailgate, plus a rear bumper you can step up on. It’s very much more truck-like, but they’re very similar. I think the biggest reason it looks like a truck is the way the body has been lifted up off of the chassis a bunch using ATS, which I’ll need to check the rules for next round. Either way, the truck and the regular car are clearly related. The Neyaarat, however? A different headlight orientation, a different grille and facia, top-mounted windshield wipers, a vertical rear light cluster rather than three horizontal units, drab green paint you can probably find in a military surplus store… Just as the engineering is different, the aesthetics are too. They both look pretty good though, similar results overall.

CREATION OF PILLARS

All cars: Pillar 1500C

So, the DCMW was a car with realistic (on paper) capacity from a brand that made a car with unrealistic capacity. The Pillar 1500C fits that bill too, but it’s admittedly borderline. 2190 kg is nothing to sneeze at in reality, that’s F-350 levels. Technically possible to make, but with just 130 Nm of torque, at this price point? No. Just no, it can’t happen. What if we imagined it with a more realistic cargo capacity, or moved past it?

Well, the first thing we get is reliability that genuinely challenges DCMW. DCMW boasts that all of its vehicles have over 90 reliability, and they’re sorta the only ones to accomplish that, but only just - the Pillar 1500C has 89.8, only 2 points down from DCMW and just as nice as it. Fuel economy is marginally better than the Hiluq - thanks to that unrealistically small engine - which makes annual costs marginally lower than the Hiluq. The lower footprint hurts range a bit, but that’s about it - being a van means more of the length is available for cargo than the utes in the segment, and the only real competitor in proportions is the cabover Neyaarat which already has a major advantage. Drivability is the best in the entire utility segment, but only because drivability is not evaluated with cargo load. Try and take advantage of that massive capacity, and things go downhill. In summary:

[BERNIE SANDERS “I AM ONCE AGAIN ASKING FOR THE ABILITY TO EVALUATE CARS WITH DIFFERING LOAD CAPACITIES”]

So, what else is there to look at? I’ll be honest, not that much. It’s not that great offroad, but there’s still need for deliveries that are restricted to the city. Comfort is mid. It’s just a solid, economical van. In terms of the stats that I can fairly judge, it’s probably the equal of the Neyaarat. I’d like to introduce more stuff that accurately penalises the low torque, but it’s unfair to do that now, so I won’t. It is what it is. Funnily enough, the van allegedly has only two doors, apparently the rear isn’t a door. Bodies are weird like that. The front is nice, but it just feels like a generic van that leaned heavily into the styling of the era, whereas other entries feel more… timeless, I suppose? We’ll be revisiting it later though.

ON CARGO CAPACITY

I was originally going to analyse this on a car by car basis, separate it all out, but… There’s not that much to separate, really. I hinted at it here and there, but most of the cars here are actually in a similar class. The Ilaris and Serena are both similarly-built, car-derived utes, with similar bed lengths around 1.7 metres. The Hiluq, in spite of the hefty remodelling, is ultimately still car-based too, and has even been separated and modelled to have a slightly smaller bed, around 1.5 metres long. Widths are all similar, depths are all similar, they even have similar amounts of wheels extending into the bed. The beds, in short, are all similar capacity for this segment. Really, the amount you can carry in each of these utes is similar.
That leaves the vans - and wouldn’t you know, they can all carry more by sheer virtue of being vans. Not having a partition between where the passenger space ends and where the cargo space begins means not needing to use some of the vehicle’s length on that. Of course a van will have more room for cargo than a ute, it’s part and parcel of being a van. The tradeoff, of course, is that certain types of cargo like mulch or sand are harder to carry in a van, and a van has more restricted ways to load it. If your job needs a van, it needs a van.

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REVIEWS PART 5.3
HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONS

Rear: Bazard BTD8 and BTA8 by @Edsel . Middle: Kontir Roxton and Cunningham by @MrdjaNikolen . Front: Pillar 2000X by @karhgath and DCMW Neyaarat (Six, type D) by @moroza

These entries should not carry this much stuff. They all carry over 3 tonnes of cargo. In some cases, they can carry an entire fully loaded Ford F-350. No. Just no. These are not made. These should never be made. Y’all have found a region of the game where things no longer make sense. Not just the heavy entries, there’s issues elsewhere, but it’s especially bad here. This segment is defined by a stat being unrealistically high. Yeah, sure, you can carry 3 tonnes, good for you. You actually can’t, but if I added the maths needed to work out how much you can carry, it’d be unfair. So, this is getting fixed next round, somehow, I’ll work it out. A lot of this was in the previous section, but this is actually the last I am writing for utility and I am just. so. sick. of. utility.

HELP ME, WOJSAWAN, YOU'RE MY ONLY HOPE

HPB Wojsawan by @Vento . Exterior by @MoteurMourmin

This is the HPB Wojsawan… And the stats it offers, on paper, are solid enough. If you want a large load capacity and you want something else, you’ll have to pay another 3000 on top of the Wojsawan. Operating costs are bang on average, drivability is a little bit low but not abnormal for the segment in spite of the lack of power steering - normal for reality, not for the challenge. It’s painfully uncomfortable, but not unreasonably so for the segment - I could definitely see someone deciding to save 3000 bucks upfront and just dealing with the basic interior and all-solid-axle suspension. It could actually carry even more weight, but the suspension has been set rather soft here, presumably to salvage some comfort. Corners were cut just about everywhere for that price, every system is towards the bottom of the barrel but hey, it’s cheap and it carries 3 tonnes.

There’s three big issues with it. First of all, there is absolutely zero rustproofing applied anywhere. This really limits the use of the chunky offroad tyres and the offroad skidtray installed. Sure, you can drive it through the mud, but only for a few months before the frame starts to rust a little. That soft suspension I mentioned before really hurts any offroad aspirations too.

The engine, meanwhile, is nothing special. It absolutely stinks, failing any and all emissions tests and belching out fumes. The redline is artificially low too, hitting right at the redline and forcing a bunch. Some cut corners in the engine and all the other corners cut make it the least reliable, but not by much. You will need to refuel multiple times per week, as the Wojsawan’s 258 km range is substantially lower than the 288 minimum for businesses. Heck, at higher rates, you may have some weeks where you refill three times. Not great, but enough for a day.

Finally, well… Just look at it. Those plates are about five eighths of an inch thick, so that’s gotta be armour, right? But it doesn’t protect the head or chest of the occupant, and it might not protect the cargo either - plus it does absolutely nothing about the front and rear. Oh, it’d also massively up the weight of the car, massively dropping the carrying capacity and upping the fuel economy as well. It’d probably up the cost too. So I’m just gonna pretend it’s not there, ignore the lack of any door handles and say it’s just a cheap, uncomfortable, disposable heavy duty van. And if you can accept that you’ll spend 30% less money for something like a 30% shorter lifetime before it rusts, it’s probably fine. Yeah, there’s problems, but you get the same carrying capacity for less and it doesn’t suck too much. If you need a big van and you need it now? You go for HPB. If you can choose and you have spare money, you go elsewhere.

BUZZARDS CIRCLING BAZARD

Left: Last Round’s Bazard BTH8. Middle: The Bazard BTA8, in its natural habitat. Right: The Bazard BTD8.

So what do you get if you go elsewhere? To Bazard, who held an empty market last round? Well… No. Bazard’s downfall this round is a sadly realistic one, something we have seen in real life. Bazard in this round is Intel of about three or so years ago. Their competitors came out with products genuinely capable of surpassing their previous generation, they looked at what the market leader was doing and said “okay, we have to be better than that by a substantial margin” - and they managed to do that. The market leader ran into issues trying to extend the previous generation’s product, which was actually the product of the generation before that, but released it. With Intel, that was the 11900K, which was often worse than the 10900K, which came as Intel squeezed the last life out of their 14nm platform while AMD took a massive leap with Ryzen. With Bazard, that is the BTD8. Like the 11900K, the Bazard does represent a step back in some very real ways - it’s less fuel efficient and substantially less comfortable, compromises made generally in the name of shaving the existing price down to remain legal. The BTD4 does theoretically offer the largest cargo weight on the market but not by too much, and these numbers are all absolutely crazy, with gross vehicle weights all above 4.5 tonnes, aka “Heavy Duty Land”. The engine is the same 100 kW unit we saw from Bazard last round, albeit carburetted… And that engine is the same engine that Bazard gave in round 3. And it was first made in 1960. It’s got grunt, yes, but annual costs are going to be 30% higher than other comparably sized vehicles. A few of those - like the Wojsawan - have lower range, but the Pillar 2000X extracts roughly equal economy and range from E70, while the Neyaarat Six still has over 3 tonnes of cargo capacity and uses an impressive 12.5 L/100 on E10 to reach even further than the BTD8. Like the Wojsawan, it is a total failure with emissions, belching the hopefully metaphorical black smoke. Is the BTD8 bad? No, not really. Those competitors don’t completely kill it, the market will still buy it, but it’s no longer the king. Their competitors moved quicker than they did, and clinging to an old architecture led them to release a slightly compromised product.

Y’know, Intel was the correct company to refer back to, because the other entry has some truly woeful efficiency. The BTA8 is a twin cab variant of the BTD8, but the BTD8 was already close to the government-imposed maximum price. So what did Bazard do? They cut a bunch of corners in the engine and just cranked everything to the absolute max, trying to wring all the power from the corpse of their 1960 engine while making it cost even less than it did before. If you want to sell this as a work vehicle, this causes issues. The BTA8 uses over 25 L/100 km. With the fuel prices we have in Araga and still using E10, that means that fuel costs for the utility segment range from 6500 on the lower end, or 13000 on the higher end. Yes, the fuel costs are higher than the maximum purchase price - and you need to add taxes and service costs onto that. Yes, it seats five, but the annual costs are almost twice as much as other entries. Yes, they offer advanced safety that most others don’t, but is it worth the money? Almost certainly not, for a business.

There is a cute thing they tried to do. The BTA8 is the most comfortable truck on the market, largely thanks to interior volume not varying as morphs do for trucks like this but also due to “luxury” features like a slushbox automatic transmission and a standard interior plus 8-track. Could it be a viable luxury car, taking advantage of the 2000 extra AMU they’re allowed? In a word, no. Your money buys you more power and some offroad ability and that’s basically it - it’s no more comfortable than the other options, and just about every other stat is worse. It’s a fun idea, but it just did not work.

ROLL FOR KONTIR-STUTION

Background: The Bazards. Foreground Left: Kontir Cunningham. Foreground Right: Kontir Roxton

So, who passed Bazard? I mentioned Pillar and DCMW, but Kontir passed them too. Let’s start with the Cunningham - which I thought was a better BTA8, but not quite. It uses a V6 instead of the BTA8’s V8, but both are similar sizes and the Cunningham has 10% less power but 10% more torque. It’s also fitted with an extra muffler and a catalytic converter, which are both nice - but the real attractive feature is the way it operates on E70, and uses less fuel than the BTA8. That makes the fuel costs of the Cunningham half of those of the BTA8. Comfort is about what you would expect for a reasonably appointed utility, with a standard interior and 8-Track matching most of the competition. Solid axle front suspension has its costs, but it has some benefits too, and it’s still better than average. It also costs less than average too, a purchase price of about 10400 saves some money upfront. Annual costs are solidly average for this heavy duty portion of utility, so it’s a nice, frugal choice - and “solidly average” means “a whole lot less than either Bazard”. On the negative side, it’s as unwieldy as the Bazards, doesn’t go as far with its rustproofing as others (but is at least rustproofed) and performs poorly offroad, but it does have a feature that only the BTA8 has, at least among trucks: Four doors. Yes, the Kontir Cunningham has a twin cab… But only one row of seats. Why? What could possibly motivate a car set up like this? Why would you want a door like this rather than a longer bed, or a second row of seats? Putting in that second row costs about 400 more, doesn’t harm most of your stats, and just makes the car far more attractive. It’s a truly baffling combination, I don’t get it.

With that issue noticed, I figured that the painted bed and trim stripe had a slight error too, they look just like default Automation Red. No, that looks fairly intentional, and it’s even in your photos, so I guess it’s intentional, like the seats.

With the Cunningham taken care of, we move to the Roxton. There’s not much to say, really, it’s incredibly similar to the Cunningham, but it’s a van. That’s the thing about utility though, some people need vans and some people need trucks. The Roxton has five doors and only two seats, similarly to the Cunningham - but it’s more understandable here, as vans need a door to be accessed from the side. Those doors are fixtures on, but it’s fair enough, really.

Range is mediocre, but at least a couple of users will be able to last a week with it, and nobody will need to fill up three times in a single week… But let’s address the elephant in the room, I’ve dodged it enough: It looks like a knock-off Bazard! Both entrants used the exact same body, and neither did anything to change the way the body looks, nothing to disguise it. Bazard was using the body first, both on the Aragan market and the challenge - look at last round. That lack of visual differentiation is definitely harmful. The rear is a bit more put together on the Kontir, I suppose, but the front lacks the cohesion of the Bazard. In isolation, it’d be fine. Next to the very similar Bazard, it’s not a great look.

PILLAR OF HERCULES

Left: Pillar 1500C. Right: Pillar 2000X. Shown from side, as that’s the important profile here - the front and rear are the same as the 1500C.

So, let’s go to the Pillar 2000X. It costs 11920, just 80 bucks from the cost cap, but there’s a big caveat there. Phenix was presumably left with a surplus of spare engines after they had to pause sales of the Helios, and some of those 4-cylinder, 2 litre boxers somehow found their way into this truck, bored out a little and producing 75 kW. Not the most powerful in the segment but passable, and that efficient basis means that it uses just 18.5 L/100km. Of course, the engine here does have one major difference to the Helios we saw before. It runs E70, and this brings its fuel costs really far down, under 2800 at the lowest end of the market. It could be even lower, but the 2000X is one of the only trucks on the market with an automatic gearbox. Annual costs are anywhere from 500 to 1000 less than the Kontirs and the overall average around here, which includes that DCMW I mentioned. Handling is shockingly car-like for such a heavy-duty truck, and running vented disc brakes all around makes brake fade a thing of the past, and advanced safety features bring it close to the Bazards - a nice feature to boast about, but mostly a tiebreaker. Somehow, those aesthetics that seemed instantly dated work better on this one. Perhaps it’s the way the van is clearly meant to be a proto-SUV with panels added, an unseemly addition that’s halfway between wagon and SUV and not really a van - whereas the ute has no such qualms, an open bed avoiding the need to style the car there.
The engine is perhaps the worst on offer, in terms of what it can do. The 2000 in Pillar 2000X means around 2 litres. That means the lowest peak power and the lowest peak torque - and that peak torque comes later than the competition. The other big heavy entries have serviceable acceleration when empty, but this lack of both torque and power translates to a relatively low 17.8 seconds, making it cause issues when loaded up. That low displacement does give you a low fuel bill, but that’s really it.

A NEYAARAT ONE

DCMW Neyaarat (Six, type D)

And now we come to our final heavy duty truck. The Neyaarat (Six, type D) - for brevity, the Neyaarat Six - carries 3 tonnes and not much more. Like the Pillar, it uses a boxer engine - this time a six cylinder one with around double the displacement of the Pillar, higher than the Kontirs and Bazards and really everything else in the entire utility segment. It’s substantially down on power, because the engine is incredibly lazy and designed for monstrous low-range torque. This gives it a lacklustre top speed, but tremendous acceleration - especially when heavily loaded with cargo. Somehow, in spite of its manual gearbox, the Neyaarat Six is just as drivable as the Pillar. That’s largely due to the solid axles being firm and responsive, which has an impact on comfort. 12.5 is still serviceable, but it’s a tad low. Annual costs are about the same as the Kontir duo - while the Neyaarat Six’s fuel costs are a tad lower in spite of running E10, the service costs are higher thanks to the boxer having less room to either side of the engine and the taxes are marginally higher too. You’d think that the firm suspension and high torque would make it good offroad, and it is - but not the best. The Pillar is a little better there, largely because of a far, far lower first gear.

The Neyaarat Six has a few nice tricks up its sleeve that make it really worth paying attention to. While the Kontirs came with catalytic converters that allowed them to pass WES5, the Neyaarat Six passes that bar without a catalytic converter. Despite the pushrods and cast iron design, the six-cylinder engine is incredibly lazy and lean, and that allows it to avoid polluting that much. It also utilises a unitary chassis for the cab but a traditional ladder construction for the bed, providing best-in-class safety - not best in utility, but best for heavy duty. It’s also nearly bulletproof, with DCMW having put in a massive amount of effort into overbuilding almost every single part that can break. Both the engine and the chassis are up above 90 reliability, and the least reliable components are the easiest ones to replace or tolerate, like the lights and radio. That’s a big plus for a work vehicle, where breakdowns have a serious financial cost. It can also travel a little short of 400 km on a single tank, which is healthily more than all of the other entries in this 3+ tonne bracket.

At the very least, it looks distinctive. The cabover shape is a nice difference to the other utes in the segment. The assorted metal trimmings provide a nice contrast to the dark red paint - a paint that will coincidentally do well to hide the dust and dirt. Not really an easy-to-find shade, but a utilitarian one nonetheless, at least until it fades. The rear lights are a spartan cluster shoved in a cube, but at least the front looks nice.

CARGO VOLUME, VOLUME TWO

Well, the previous segment was filled with mainly car-derived utes and some vans, where the car-derived utes had similar bed sizes. This round, the car-based utes are gone, replaced with utes on dedicated platforms. There’s some variance here, but it’s not much. Widths and lengths are all mostly the same. The BTD8 has a really long wheelbase, giving it the longest bed which helps it claw back some of the ground given up, I suppose. The BTA8 and Cunningham both have the same wheelbase (as they’re on the same body), but they both use a longer cab that eats into the bed, placing them right alongside the shorter 2000X. The Neyaarat Six has a bed almost as long as the BTD8, thanks to being a cabover - which should maybe attract a higher service cost, but I have to take what the game gives me. That really tilts things in DCMW’s favour, a 5% shorter bed is easily made up for in fuel costs and improvements to all stats save for the already outrageous cargo capacity. There’s a slight elephant in the room around all this cargo stuff though, and I’ll bring it up later. Wait and see. Probably a lot of wait.

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REVIEWS PART 5.4
LIGHT WORK

Left to right: Bazard DTL4 by @Edsel , Wara Irena 1.3 TR and PR by @AndiD , Knightwick K4/4 Pursute by @mart1n2005 , Renwoo Merci Courrier by @Mikonp7 , Ilaris VsR by @shibusu

And now we come to the end of utility. These entries all carry less than a tonne of cargo. That’s a reduction, yes, but it’s accompanied by a reduction in costs. Where the previous segments were filled to the brim with cars up above 11 grand, with only two entries below ten… All but one entry in this segment are below ten grand. In some cases, substantially below. In theory, carrying the amounts of cargo this section can carry is perfectly fine for most people. Are the weights here unrealistically high like the rest? Maybe, but I don’t particularly care to work it out, in all honesty. Next round, perhaps.

THE SUN WILL SHINE ALWAYS

Left: Irena PR. Right: Irena TR

Stepping down in price brings us to Wara. With the communist east willing to export vehicles to Araga, Wara’s cut-price utility vehicles find a natural home in those who need a new vehicle and are fine with compromises… But like the HPB Wojsawan, the compromises are there. There’s no rustproofing, no padding and such on the interior. The other big change from previous segments to this one is the loss of power steering, much like the Wojsawan - but that’s not really that exceptional here, and lacking power steering with a gross weight of 1700 kg is not really an issue in this period, it’s an acceptable loss. You might think that such a low gross weight means a low cargo capacity given the ratios shown with those Fords way back when, but no - the cargo capacity is higher than the empty weight, in both trims. Wara took an interesting approach to saving weight, opting for a barebones complement of safety equipment and relying on the presence of a monocoque and its superior crashworthiness to achieve a competitive-for-utility 59 ADPR.

What’s the difference between the two? Well, besides the obvious change in body styles, the PR (the ute) has slightly altered gears, a skidtray and all-terrain tyres, plus a third seat. While the TR (the van) is as easy to drive as a car with 60 drivability, its offroad is just 16, enough for perhaps a slightly rough dirt trail but not much more, while the PR loses 5 drivability but gains 10 offroad. The PR also gains a third seat, making it more practical but less comfortable. That offroad package and extra seat costs 200, but it’s nice that it exists. The costs have been slashed low enough to be affordable with all these corners cut, at just 6200 for the TR and 6400 for the PR.

So, with all these comparisons to the Wojsawan, why not just buy that? It has so much more carrying capacity, after all. Well, the problem is that the Wojsawan is a pain to maintain and needs frequent refills in the fuel tank. Meanwhile, the Wara TR has half the running costs of the Wojsawan, thanks to far better fuel economy and a much simpler, easier to service engine. It even hits 425 km in range, equalling those midrange utes mentioned before - remember, the Wojsawan couldn’t even make it a week between fills on any realistic mileage. The AT tyres and extra seat in the PR do bring that economy down a little, but it’s not a dealbreaker. It also has a similarly-sized bed to the midsize utes, so if your cargo is bulky but not heavy, it’s a really good option to save some money. Wara is a reasonably reliable, highly economical choice. Visually, the Wara’s changes are all due to the switch to a ute, but they’re absolutely good, needed changes - the tailgate extends all the way to the bumper, so the lights have been put in a tall, thin vertical housing that has just enough space to be legal, right on the edge.

BAZARD'S BACK, ALL RIGHT!

Both Cars: Bazard DTL4

So, another brand with a third entry, using the same loophole as DCMW. The Bazard DTL4 is entirely free of the mistakes of the other entries from the company, mostly. It’s a complete clean sheet design, using a brand new engine design and brand new engineering, starting from scratch to bring about a relatively, uh… Small ute. The DTL4 has a shallow bed, just 1.2 metres long and fairly narrow by ute standards. The car can theoretically carry 715 kg, but it’s going to be hard to fit a lot of loads into that weight. At 9.5 Offroad, it’s absolutely a creature of pavement first and foremost. It does manage to undercut Wara by making similar sacrifices, but not by much, and it’s a smidge less reliable and a touch more expensive to operate. A galvanised monocoque allows it to stick around for longer, while better safety equipment leads to a high ADPR of 70.
Looking at the DTL4, I cannot help but feel that the bed is just too small. I cannot help but think that this is over the line in terms of where it’s useful, I cannot help but think that buyers would gravitate to the Wara. It is, at the very least, more competitive in the market than the Wara. This is partially due to the car-based body that was chosen lacking any appreciable size to the bed, but it’s also partially due to not making the most - the rear could have been morphed further back for a longer bed, it simply wasn’t. So, I think it’s a fair criticism. As for visuals… It’s the same as the regular car, really. Minor changes like rims, but not much.

HOT PURSUTE

Both Cars: Knightwick K4/4 Pursute

The Pursute happens to run into a somewhat unfortunate quirk of how Automation evaluates cargo capacity. If you have four seats, it fills them and then it works out the cargo from there. That’s normally fair enough, the seats are a distinct area from the cargo space and such… But not here. The Knightwick places two rear-facing jump seats in the rear of the car. The people go in the cargo space. With the people there, you can carry 460 kg. Without them (and without the 20kg of seats), you can carry 750 kg. Let’s be real though, with a compartment that small, you probably aren’t carrying two people and 460kg of cargo. It is about the same size as the Bazard DTL4, with the seats removed. Adding the seats back takes away over half the length, and then those people will need to put their feet somewhere too.

I guess that brings up a question… Should this entry have the comfort and ADPR it does? On ADPR, yeah probably. Thanks to Superlite, there’s an existing precedent for open air seats with sufficient safety equipment to be considered safe - and, at the suggestion of the government, a roll hoop and three-point harnesses are included for the jump seats, providing protection in many types of collision. As for comfort, well, the rear passengers aren’t getting the carpet floor or hearing the radio, but these seats are engineered as reduced size, so it’s fair game to me. Yes, I did mention carpet floor - unlike the Bazard DTL4 and Waras, you actually get padding and decent seats if you’re actually in the cab. You only get the seat part of that in the bed, but still, it’s better than nothing. This does bring up the price to 8200, but omelletes and eggs and all that. Speaking of which, fuel costs are lower than anything else on the market, due to a tiny 1.3L i4 using E70. Range is down too, but still good enough for a week.

The thing is, the Knightwick actually fulfils a niche that is relatively unserved. You can drop the kids off at school, then drive the same car to a job site. It’s the third car to have an opportunity at this, but the Bazard BTA8 messed up with woeful fuel consumption, while the Kontir Cunningham seemingly forgot to add the needed second row of seats. It may not be able to use both at the same time, but the Pursute provides both a second row of seats and a bed. Would you want to drop the kids off in it without needing to go to a job site? In a word, no. Actual sedans that don’t force you into the bed exist and they’re cheaper, more economical, more comfortable, easier to drive… But if you need a bed, and you need 4 seats, maybe it’s right for you! It’s still cheaper than two cars, after all. Visually, the rear has been changed to accommodate for the tailgate, splitting the rear lights into two separate clusters - a vertical one to the sides of the tailgate and a horizontal one below it. The wraparound indicators have also been lost, and the rear bumper is gone too. Up front, you get a little less trim and a push bar with extra lights, very useful additions.

WHAT IN THE GODDAMN...

Both Cars: Renwoo Merci Courrier

The Renwoo is a car that lives or dies in the worldbuilding of the challenge. In the previous round, I described a hypothetical customer for the Hikaru Mijikai, this farmer turning up with a tray of goods, but I just couldn’t see that person buying a Mijikai. Too unsafe, too basic, too small. The used market looked better… But what about the Renwoo Merci Courrier? Yes, this is the car for that person, more than any other. Sure, the Wara could fill that role, but the Merci fits it better. It’s smaller, lighter, cuter. It’s cheaper too, costing under 6 grand. It may not carry as much, but if you’re just taking a small amount to a local market, that’s fine. Unlike the Mijikai, it has an actual padded interior and a decent radio - no 8-Track, but at least there’s a radio! It’s also quick enough to drive on the highway if you need to. I can even see someone operating a small coffee truck or similar out of one, partially due to just how cute it is. Would the higher reliability and larger size of Wara’s van make it a better choice in the role? Yeah, the Renwoo only has 73 reliability so probably, but I can see someone buying the Renwoo because it’s cute, it’s quirky, it’s fun and it’s useful enough. This envisioned use would also be putting less distance on it - rather than making lots of deliveries through a week or going to a ton of work sites, it’d do perhaps a couple of events in a given week. There, back, more like a consumer car. This makes that reliability a bit easier to handle, less use means a lower chance of failure.

The other downfall is theoretically the comfort, but I do not actually believe the stats here. It’s as mid as any other entry here, and just gets screwed by the way that the interior volume calculations work. See, the volume calculations work by just measuring a few key dimensions (length, width, height) to get a base volume, then splitting it up based on a few simple metrics, like how many rows the body has, how many are occupied, what they’re occupied by and what the body is. So, the game says that 60% of the Merci is cargo and 40% is interior. It’s not, I can see that it’s not and I can even measure it, it’s like 50/50 at best. It’s not cramped, but Automation thinks it is, and there’s absolutely nothing that can be done about it. Yeah, it has low comfort, but I think the stat is lower than it should be, so…

(For the record, this is effectively a problem the devs have marked as “Won’t fix”, because it turns out that trying to dynamically determine body boxes is really difficult. I’ll concede that to them, it’s a fair decision. Maybe the fabled Automation 2 will release in 20XX and fix this, but in edge cases like this… I reserve the right to ignore the game.)

VERY SPECIAL ROADSTER

Both Cars: Ilaris VsR

Truthfully, this is only barely a utility vehicle. It only carries a little more than the Courrier, but it costs 11500. Annual costs are higher than all the other lightweights, which lean on a low net and gross mass to extract acceptable performance from a small engine. The Ilaris VsR is not content with merely acceptable performance, no. 120 kW is the highest power available in Araga - not just from a utility, but across the entire segment. No other car incurs the speed tax, nothing else is fast enough - some cars skirt around it with 10.1 second times, but they’re all above it. The VsR, meanwhile, clocks in at 8.5 and costs you 300 AMU per year. At least that power comes from an electronically injected OHC engine running E70, which makes fuel costs merely high rather than awful. With sports-oriented cars, it’s clearly a loophole car, the sports car you buy when you can’t buy a sports car. This muscle car is the only way to get sports in Araga. The market went from muscle cars being a foreign pipe dream killed by tax to muscle cars being the only way to get performance. The market niche is empty, and for those who are willing to consume in war, the VsR fills it. Sure, it’s not sporty or drivable due to the weight distribution of a ute… But it’s fast, and better than the rest of the market. And that makes it succeed, really. The market is more ready for it than the offerings from Empire, because there’s literally nothing else.
But if you’re willing to wait for the war to end, or modify a car, you can get better.

14 Likes

Might be a tad late, but that’s supposed to be fashionable, right? Anyways…

Ready for something different?
Audax presents a wonderful idea.

The new Serena is here to stay.

Quite a first impression, huh?

Hello, Araga. We here at Audax hope that our entry to the market is as bold and unforgettable as we strive to make anything our brand is emblazoned upon. Admittedly, perhaps this time, the boldness is finding the time and energy to make our revered Serena into something comfortable and practical that still fits into a tight-strung budget. How did we do that? Well, one thing's for sure. We didn't cut corners. Yes, it's still grand-size. Yes, it's still classy. Yes, there's even an 8-track player. No, we didn't forget to make it aerodynamic. No, we didn't break our commitment to top-notch safety. No, we didn't skip the full-size spare, either. We did, however, include a nice towel — after all, any buyer suitably wise enough to rightfully believe they deserve a Serena also deserves to know where their towel is.*

But wait, there's more.

Of course, we also considered more than just the standard sedan buyer. Perhaps you want a roomy wagon with more cargo space than some vans, perfect for skipping around the city and suburbs alike? The Serena's wagon guise does it all, available configured to sip on E70 fuel, and with its full-size spare mounted at the rear to free up more internal space for whatever you need to have in store.

Modern style, modern components, modern engineering, all put together with the same excellent quality and attention to detail you can expect from Araga's best new brand. Better yet, all as you see here can be had for just under $10,000. So why wait?

* Towel comes with Audax Serena embroidered branding. Custom name-embroidery available upon request.
† Exact price may vary based on options chosen or available.



AUDAX
Dare to be bold.
Gallery: Audax Serena
Hardworking doesn't have to mean hard to live with.
Audax presents your new favorite colleague.

The Serena Haul gets it all done in style.

You don't need to compromise.

If you want something comfortable and classy, but you need something practical and utilitarian, what do you do? You sit back, relax, and enjoy your new Serena Haul, that's what. Be it as a Pickup or Vanette, any Serena is sure to float your boat.


You can even get yourself a Serena prepared for your specific job. Need a big cargo hauler, larger than a Vanette? How about a heavy-duty bed atop two solid rear axles? The Serena Haul is available as a cutaway cab ready for an upfit, with several varieties available through your local dealerships. Conversions done locally, with options available at your request.*
Ask and you shall receive.

Cruise ship meets cargo hauler,
now for your driveway and jobsite.

The Serena Haul is available in a variety of forms, ready for whatever you need to ask of it. It's a no-nonsense machine — you get the same interior as any other Serena, with a solid rear axle and tough suspension that can handle some heavy workloads. It's simple, effective, and for what you get, shockingly affordable.

Modern style, modern components, modern engineering, all put together with the same excellent quality and attention to detail you can expect from Araga's best new brand. Better yet, all as you see here can be had for just under $12,000. So why wait?

* Cutaway comes with heavy-duty engine options and a higher base price.
† Exact price may vary based on options chosen or available. Fleet purchase discount rates available.
Please contact your dealership for more details.



AUDAX
Dare to be bold.
6 Likes
REVIEWS PART 5.4
SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

Semi-Trucks, Trailers, Garbage Truck: Various Centurions by @ldub0775 . Crane: Roebridge T77 Mobile Crane by @Fayeding_Spray . Bikes: Superlite Mistral 66S by @Danicoptero . Truck on trailer, box truck in rear: Serena Haul Cutaways by @supersaturn77 .

Here, we come to the first part of non-cars, the ones which would be bought by consumers. I apologise for being unable to write a good intro, I had a rent inspection yesterday and I’m a touch exhausted. I might edit one in later, I might not, I just wanted to make a post.

MISTRAL AND FOG

The Superlite Mistral 66S

There are two things I can say about this entry. First of all, I do not know much about motorcycles of the era. Second, though, looking at the most iconic bikes of the era, I cannot say that it looks that much like those. And I’m not going to knock it for that, not in any way shape or form.

See, the thing that makes the Mistral look different is the exposed frame tubes, up and down the entire length of the bike. There are some with plenty of those, but most that I can find are from the 60s. Mostly, however, a lot of these frame rails are tucked under fairings or structural elements, not as exposed as the Mistral. At least, a lot of these frame rails on real world motorbikes. The Superlite Tango had exposed struts for the front wheels, and a tube frame roll cage and windshield. The Zero had those front struts plus the same on the rear and a tube frame around the roll hoop and working as the engine bay. Their Alpha 15R Go-Kart had the same, plenty of exposed tubes. It’s part of their brand identity, Superlite does exposed tubes and paints stuff green. Did people do these exposed rails? No. Could people do them? Yes, of course.

So where to next? Well, that’s honestly the extent of the Tango’s oddities, to me - in a good way. Exposed rails aside, it looks a lot like other bikes of the time. That slanted i4 mounted in a transverse orientation? Those individual headers running into separate tips? Well, both of those are present on plenty of bikes, old and new - especially the Honda CB750. In fact, this entry looks a lot like the CB750, but does plenty to differentiate itself. It’s a solid, realistic, well-crafted motorbike. Funny story, I wrote this bit of the review before finding out on Discord that it is, in fact, inspired by the CB750. It carries the inspiration well.

How would it sell? Well, it’s got an i4 that’s remarkably similar to that CB750. Assuming that the rest is just as sophisticated as the CB750, it’d see some absolutely remarkable sales, being an enduring icon that manages to have some great staying power. Again, I don’t know bikes, but this is clearly a bike you could sell plenty of.

ROE, ROE, ROE YOUR BRIDGE

Roebridge T77 Mobile Crane

The Roebridge Mobile Crane is, sadly, under-modelled. It’s missing a vital component of the construction: Seams and joins. This really makes it hard for me to understand how it’s meant to work. As modelled, the base of the boom is just a cube. The platform it joins to is also just a cube. They just intersect without any proper modelling there. Same with the structure that connects the little platform to the actual structure of the vehicle. As modelled, it’s a static crane with a single orientation. However, it also has what looks like a hydraulic cylinder that pushes the boom up and down, changing the elevation. Presumably, there’s also some internal for pivoting the platform… The thing is, these are not simple mechanical things. A real crane cuts part of the platform out to extend the boom into said platform, then slides a pin through to create a pivot which allows the boom to move up and down. It also splits the body into two components, an upper body which spins along with the load and a lower body which doesn’t need to - allowing your wheels to stay still while your wheel moves. Is this the right shape for a revolving and static body? I don’t think so, but I can’t really say - it’s not modelled to allow me to judge, I can’t really say.
To say that this is useful, I have to invent a bunch of stuff for it. I have to add a ton of capabilities to it that aren’t there already, make judgement calls of how parts should be considered. Maybe some pinch point stickers or actually modelling those mechanical parts would have helped. This could be a solid rough terrain crane, or it could be so inflexible that it’s not a particularly useful crane. Maybe if it was a forklift or excavator, it wouldn’t matter as much, but I just don’t want to do the work because it’s undermodelled.

MY LOVE FOR YOU IS LIKE A TRUCK

Front: Centurion Flatbed Trailer. Rear, Left To Right: Centurion 7200 Long Base, Centurion 7200 Garbage Truck, Centurion 7200 Day Cab

Let’s start with the Centurion flatbed trailer. It’s, uh… It’s literally the base of the trailer from last round, without anything on top. The 3D work is impressive, sure, but I’ve seen it before. It’s nothing new. There’s not really much to say. My one real comment is that it’s a touch longer than ideal for certain roles - it carries 50 feet worth of ISO 668 Standard Containers, but the common sizes there are 40, 30 and 20 feet - so you either mix your containers or you waste 10 feet of trailer.

Luckily, there is plenty to say about the Centurion 7200 Series. The previous round’s 8300 was designed for long distance haulage, carrying massive loads along relatively straight roads with gentle curves at most. A long wheelbase and a big sleeper cab makes sense there. It doesn’t make sense for the middle of a bustling city with smaller streets and tighter turns. And that’s what the regular Day Cab version of the 7200 is great for. With a wheelbase shorter than some regular cars like the Centurion C120, this cabover is compact - but that’s the advantage of being a cabover. You scrunch the entire car a bunch, and you end up with a much smaller overall package that’s great for the cities.

“But wait,” you say, “what if I want to connect this to a longer trailer?” Yeah, the smaller turning circle doesn’t do that much for you if you’re pulling a big, long trailer behind you. It doesn’t really make you more manoeuvrable. That’s what the 7200 Long Base is good for. It has the same cab as the regular 7200, but it’s around the same length and wheelbase as the 8300. That means a lot of empty space, allowing far, far bigger turning angles and hence tighter turns (in the right place). It’s also useful for heavy and bulky loads, as the four axles provide plenty of weight spreading but the long base allows said loads to extend off the front of the trailer. The wheelbase is marginally shorter than the 8300, which does limit your ability to carry loads across bridges a little, but not by much. That issue is very pronounced with the shorter 7200, but you probably aren’t hauling bridge-breaking loads with that. The cab also has an angled top which isn’t quite the full height of an ISO container, but which is close enough to move most of the oncoming air up and away from the face of the container, helping to reduce that high drag from being a cabover. I do need to make some ISO container props or something.

That really long base allows Centurion to do another thing, too - provide garbage trucks as an upfit kit onto the existing car rather than needing to be something bespoke. That’s the 7200 Garbage Truck, rather unsurprisingly. Mechanically, it’s just a 7200 with something bolted over it - so all the existing servicing infrastructure there helps you out. The upfit even includes a hydraulic bin tipper - yes, that’s actually what the things that reach out and grab your bin are called. Garbage collection may not be a glamorous job, but it’s a job that ultimately needs doing. The 7200 Garbage Truck is more or less made by the government, for the government - and taking an existing platform and just adding something to it really makes sense there, it’s the path of least resistance. It doesn’t have any of the manoeuvrability advantages of the regular 7200 platform, but it’s absolutely better than it would be as a long cab model, with the engine in front of the cab. That’s par for the course in the sector, of course, and garbage trucks don’t need to be designed to manoeuvre well.

Ultimately, the 7200 cannot and will not replace the 8300. The flat front will cause worse fuel economy, placing the driver above the axle and engine will mean a worse ride quality, and there’s a host of other disadvantages. But Cabovers do have their benefits, like a tilting cab to make maintenance easier and the wheelbase being shorter than a comparable long cab. The quality of the modelling is overall excellent, and there’s plenty of thoughtful choices here - like including a sheet of metal on the rear to protect the fuel tanks, and plenty of steps around the vehicle.

SERENE GRACE

Front: Serena Haul Cutaway (Box). Rear: Serena Haul Cutaway (Ext, w/ Bed)

These ones are a little hard to judge from a consumer perspective. They’re in this sort of grey area, where they are almost but not quite cars. I have spoken at length, but the game really doesn’t do anywhere near enough to simulate this sort of thing. A box truck should cost more than a regular van, because it should have more reinforcement for cargo capacity. That extra money should buy more than just extra cargo volume - it should buy genuinely heavier duty parts. The same is true about the other Cutaway, the one with three axles - that’ll cost a bunch, but it’ll increase your carrying capacity by distributing the load. The third pair of wheels will also improve braking capability and decrease the likelihood of wheelspin, allowing for a stronger engine or taller gears. In theory, then, these should offer higher cargo capacity and be more capable of maintaining acceptable performance under those conditions… But how can I actually stand here with a straight face and say that these hold more than the other entries, that’d put them up at 4 tons! So, I’m in a corner here and I can’t really judge these as products. Would it be good to have the shared components with normal cars, do they make sense? Yes. How would they compete with the rest of utility? I have no idea.

What I can judge here, of course, is the quality of the modelling. Up front, it is a Serena, through and through. You get a hood optimised for extra cooling to reflect a beefier engine, you get wider mirrors to handle the reduced visibility, that’s about it. It’s what comes behind the cab that’s impressive though. Let’s start with the extended version with the bed first. The exhaust has been routed to be side exit instead, placed behind the door. Two large external fuel tanks have been added, as well as a smaller mid-tray between the larger box and the cab. A detailed ladder chassis has been added, with nice touches on the very rear like a simple light cluster and lights to illuminate the licence plate. Looking back, that’s actually a nice little detail I missed on the utility Serenas, very nice. An additional solid axle is even modelled, complete with suitably heavy duty leaf sprung suspension. It’s very nice, and exactly what you’d buy if… Well, if the existing entries aren’t heavy duty enough for you. I can’t imagine that with the stats the game shows, but the game is showing inflated stats.

The box upfit is relatively similar to the bed. The underlying chassis is modelled very similarly, largely just with the removal of the extra axle. This does place the centre of the box pretty much on the rear axle which could cause weight distribution issues, but that’s not unheard of in the segment. The roof curves for aerodynamics, and also to allow the door to the bed to roll up onto the roof, much like a garage door. It offers a lot more cargo capacity than the other enclosed vehicles on the market, which gives it a definite reason to be bought.

8 Likes

Tough times call for tough friends

(Part 3/3)

30 December 1976

From: Sultanate of Dalluha, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Special Commission on Aragan-Windonian Conflict, Chief Commissioner Shaikha Nisa al-Qiharruni
To: Republic of Araga, Department of Foreign Affairs, Minister Alexa Karvelas

To the Honorable Minister Karvelas,

It has now been four months since, pursuant to our previous correspondence, liaison officers of the Sultanic Armed Forces began contributing eyewitness “boots on the ground” accounts of Araga’s military conflict with Windon to Dalluha’s ongoing observation of same. These attachés’ Reports have added a valuable perspective to that of our intelligence agencies and diplomatic corps. As you are no doubt aware from our World Assembly representative’s speech last week, Dalluha’s generally non-interventionist foreign policy has recently yielded to widespread public opinion among its population, and shifted to formal diplomatic condemnation of Windon for its ongoing and apparently intensifying prosecution of this terrible war, now entering its second year. I am writing to inform you of the fact and details of an important update, in accordance with this new diplomatic stance and in response to some of the aforementioned Reports, to our Military Aid Policy.

Notable among these Reports was one from Colonel Attieh al-Mordeni concerning the details and significance of armored vehicle combat as a major element of military activity and an area of frequent complaint from informally surveyed Aragan personnel. The SAF is in a good position to assist in this particular domain, so by the authority vested in this Commission by the Sultan, I am pleased to hereby officially announce the Offer of the use, subject to certain Conditions and Restrictions, of Dalluhan armored fighting vehicles by the armed forces of Araga for its righteous defense of your people, your sovereignty, and your territorial integrity. In addition to the medical supplies, body armor, radio equipment, and DCMW non-combat vehicles we have provided at or below cost for the previous twelve months, the Sultanate of Dalluha is now willing, for the first time in centuries, to provide another nation not only lethal weaponry, but that of the highest caliber (no pun intended).

While details will be formally codified in a separate document, the aforementioned Conditions and Restrictions are, in crude summary, as follows:

  • The vehicles must be marked as Aragan military vehicles and crewed by Aragan personnel. We will provide training. Araga assumes full and sole responsibility for their use.

  • They may be used exclusively on internationally recognized Aragan territory. Any operational exceptions are subject to approval by designated repesentatives of the SAF.

  • At the formal or effective cessation of hostilities, all surviving vehicles and their components must be returned to Dalluha.

  • The vehicles, spare parts, transportation of same to a servicable Aragan port, and training of crew and mechanics will be provided at no cost. Fuel and ammunition will be provided at cost, barring any additional aid packages including same. Transportation to combat zones will be Araga’s responsibility.

The vehicles included in this Offer are, at this time, the following two types.

Direlba-51/77 Main Battle Tank

The Direlba-51 has been the primary main battle tank of the Sultanic Armed Forces since its development after the Great War. The essential recipe of the original -51 is: ultra-heavy and efficiently-arranged armor, a small-medium form factor, the resulting medium-heavy vehicle made viable by a very powerful and expensive engine. Relative technological simplicity, exceptionally high assembly labor and engineering quality, and a clear-sighted ranking of priorities made it a successful design for the peculiarities of Dalluha’s use case.

The 51/77 is an up-gunned, up-armored, and otherwise modernized -51, adding incremental improvements in design and manufacturing quality, and quantum leaps in two crucial subsystems. The major changes are:

  • Armament. By 1977, even a very high-quality, high-velocity 85mm gun is no longer adequate. A whole new turret was designed to fit increased armor, and a scaled-up 100mm smoothbore version of the original rifled gun. Tweaks to the autoloader kept rate of fire the same, a larger turret rear overhang balanced out the considerably larger gun, and modernized fire control systems including 3-axis stabilization mean that the tank’s main firepower is improved in every way except ammunition capacity. In accuracy, penetration ability, and overall effectiveness especially as an anti-tank gun, it ranks comparably to the best in service with any armored force anywhere in the world.

Secondary armament remains as previous: a 7.62mm machine gun at the gunner’s hatch, another of same coaxial with the main gun, and a 14.5mm heavy machine gun remotely operable from inside.

  • Armor, previously cold-rolled and cast plain steel, it is now a proprietary steel-aluminum-titanium-ceramic composite. Already excellent performance against all major ammunition types has been enhanced even further to include modern HEAT and APDS resistance approaching de facto immunity. Field testing using numerous contemporary tank guns and other ordnance shows that while the Direlba-51/77 has no particular invulnerability to being immobilized by track damage, or disabled by a hit on the gun or turret ring, there are only three reliable ways to actually destroy one: from behind or at very close range from the side; with high explosives on the order of 250kg or more; from above, and even then only with multiple hits from >30mm armor-piercing cannon, or from a shaped charge such as a helicopter-launched ATGM.

In full disclosure, several caveats and drawbacks to this tank must be pointed out:

  • While it performs very well in proving ground tests, the 51/77 is simply too new to have been tested in protracted actual combat. The older 51 has been in service for over two decades, but only on one brief occasion - the Christmas Raid of 1966 - ever used in a real situation.
  • It is very expensive, and moderately maintenance-intensive. The armor and automotive components in particular were developed by DCMW to a cost-no-object specification; I believe your recently delivered (and proven) presidential limousine gives an accurate idea of what this entails, and of the engineering ethos employed.
  • While versatile enough to use in a tactical counterattack, short operating range and limited anti-fortification firepower make it less than ideal for offensive operations.
Direlba-51 Ilaris Heavy Industries Air Defense Vehicle

In contrast to the Direlba-51 and 51/77, both products of formal and transparent development processes ordered by the government, the Direlba-51 IHI ADV is the result of a grass-roots work by enterprising engineers from the Sultanic Armed Forces and Ilaris Heavy Industries (@shibusu), many details of which were less than well-documented and remain unclear. At any rate, the result is basically an IHI AT6 ADV turret mated to the hull of an older Direlba-51. Armament is a single five-barrel 25mm rotary cannon, and four MANPADS tubes mounted to their own elevation drive. The Direlba-51 hull provides a relatively heavy but well-protected fighting compartment, with amenities like the front engine and its rear-access hatch, while the AT6 ADV turret provides systems and required armament to serve in a SPAAG role.

At the time AT6 chassis vehicles were just being rolled out, the clean-sheet design resulted in tooling issues and general production lethargy. While the main hull and its components were complex and new, the various turrets were based on previous designs and therefore well in to their production. This under-supply of hulls resulted in many turrets sitting around with no purpose until mated to a hull. Meanwhile, supply issues resulted in Ilaris’s home government prioritising delivery to its own armed forces. Technicians were quick to discover the similarity in ring sizes to Direlba-51 MBTs, which were becoming somewhat obsolete for frontline use.

The five-barrel Gatling-type rotary cannon has a combined fire rate of around 4000 rounds per minute, using standardised 25x137mm ammunition, with a continuous belt-feed system allowing for ~30 seconds of sustained fire. Several ammunition types are available, a typical load alternating armor-piercing and high-explosive rounds, with a tracer rounds every ten (AP-HE-AP-HE-AP-HE-AP-HE-AP-HE-TR). The magazine is at the rear of the turret, holding 2000 rounds. Capable of elevating down to -2 degrees and up to 80 degrees, the gun is guided by the IHI R MMW 225, a Ka-band phased array radar allowing for highly accurate target tracking (as long as the area is unobstructed). An IHI R XMW 125 X-band search radar is also included, allowing the ADV to search for targets at a longer distance to acquire with more ease. Along with its main gun, the ADV includes four MANPADS tubes allowing it to fire infrared guided missiles at close-in targets too manoeuvrable or observant to hit with the main gun. Uncaged, these missiles can allow for a stealthier operation of the system, requiring no radar track to fire besides a general direction, as the seeker will pick out the highest contrast (usually the sun, at which it is unwise to fire, or a jet engine).

The fire system is mostly automatic. While the gunner must command to fire, target acquisition, tracking and lead calculations are fully automatic. The crew must however select targets to track, to avoid uncommanded movements. The SPAAG turret, and the vehicle in of itself, are not designed for front-line use without support, thus visibility is poor. The vehicle commander does however get two mirrors to see around the vehicle. The driver must make do with the Direlba-51’s standard 180-degree viewports, and the gunner can only view through the gunsight and accompanying radar displays.

6 Likes
REVIEWS PART 5.5
WORTH THE WAIT
Part One Of Standard

Front, Left to Right: Wara Irena 2.0 SSE by @AndiD , Phénix Cortège Sport 1600 by @karhgath , Tarquini Vita FA by @Danicoptero , Bazard D-Light! (DWM4) by @Edsel , Empire Elba by @Fayeding_Spray
Back, Left To Right: Wara Irena 1.3 LK by @AndiD , Renwoo Merci Snedbug and Coupe by @Mikonp7 , Empire Temujin by @Fayeding_Spray
Deja Vu, I’ve taken this photo before…

I really must apologise for the delay. I ran into the worst case of writer’s block I’ve had in a while. I simply could not find the energy to direct anywhere. This was originally going to be one great big mega post of standard cars with some sorta-blocks that lead into one another. It went from the cheap end to something a little sporty to… Well, I won’t spoil it but the structure is kinda nice.

Then my energy vanished, I hit writer’s block and just couldn’t get to it. So, I took a look and kinda guessed at where the halfway point was, and called that good enough. This is Standard Part One.

WARA YOU?

Left: Irena 2.0 SSE. Right: Irena 1.3 LK

Let’s start with the Wara Irena 1.3 LK, because it really represents the bar for other entries to try to get over. It is a reasonably cheap, ordinary, competent budget sedan. It has its drawbacks - the frame has zero rustproofing, the rear suspension has a solid axle and leaf springs, but that’s really about it. Five seats, a manual with four gears, a standard interior and a nice enough 8-Track. The engine bay contains an inline 4 that displaces 1.3L and can only really be called sufficient, getting it to 100 km/h in a perfectly acceptable 19.8 seconds. It’s a dated platform from 1962, but it’s still solidly reliable, decently economical and, well, decent. A large tank and good economy allow it to go about 3 weeks between fuel refills, about 470 km. Running costs are an acceptable 1900 per year, and it costs 7400. Stats are fine, with drivability and comfort around the upper numbers we saw last round. It is an appliance, a refrigerator, a car that gets you from here to there at a low cost with few real complaints. Yeah, it might rust a bit, but it did the job, didn’t it? Safety is basic but legal, you get what you pay for. It’s a car for people who need a car but don’t really care which. It is a perfectly serviceable, perfectly average automobile. It does not disappoint, it does not excite, it simply is. I love that niche. The world needs more products in that niche. The Wara Irena 1.3 would sell like hotcakes. Styling is generic and forgettable, but not underdone or too basic - it’s a realistic, sensible appliance of a car. That’s the Wara Irena 1.3: An unremarkable appliance for people who want unremarkable appliances.

EXILE TO ELBA

So what can you get if you don’t want to fork out 7400? What comes in below the Wara? Three cars do, let’s take a look at these two first though - the third is an oddball. So, the Elba… Oof. Let’s start in the engine bay, where we find something a little ahead of its time but plausible - an electronically injected inline 3. It’s the sort you can swap for a carb, but still, very modern. Of course, it’s a real small engine that makes the car so slow that it loses points in the ADPR. Being an inline 3 means it has awful smoothness, but it’s only got a harmonic damper rather than balance shafts. Heading under the car, we see a modern layout too - torsion beams, a galvanised monocoque, just mount the engine transverse instead of longitudinal and I’m describing a very modern design. It even includes hydraulic power steering too, and the safety equipment is better than the Wara (but the rating is about the same, due to that acceleration issue). It understeers like crazy and has the worst drivability of any regular car at just 457.8 points, so not great there. Mileage is good, range is up above 400km, let’s open the door and… Here is where we find the issue. Exposed metal, seats so bad and basic you’d hit a wrestler with one, a tinny AM radio of dubious quality that can’t play any tapes, it’s bad. The Empire Elba cuts all of its corners in the interior, and that’s where it saves a lot of its money. The rest comes from not polishing the engine at all, causing all those new, somewhat experimental systems to break all the time and leave you stranded. The end result is as uncomfortable as the most spartan of work trucks on the market - but while you get paid to be in those work trucks, you usually don’t get paid in a sedan. And the Irena is only 800 more than the Elba, remember! So all those really nice features are let down by an interior so uncomfortable as to be intolerable for a commuter sedan. The styling is a little bit more bare and basic than the Irena, but still acceptable for the price point, so at least there’s that.

MERCI, MADEMOISELLE

The Merci Coupe, meanwhile, costs almost a full thousand less than the Irena… And it has an issue I need to address. I have a sort of pet peeve about engineering not matching fixtures, but it’s not a written rule. So when I see a car with three seats fixtured in the rear but only two engineered, I get a little uneasy. When I see that this body family has a model that’s very close to your roof but is an actual convertible, I get more uneasy. I’m not going to punish it too hard, but it’ll make me change the rules next round. Because of a Renwoo. Again.

It doesn’t matter that much. The seats are already uncomfortable, being reduced-size in the rear. The interior volume you lose for being a convertible doesn’t hurt you that much, actually, and some stats even get improved. Ironically, the additional weight over the rear means additional rear grip and hence no more terminal oversteer. A car with terminal oversteer and only basic safety should probably be on the borderline of legality, but it’s not - partially because of a monocoque, but still, system will be changed next round. Because of a Renwoo. Again. Comfort is compromised by being so small, but at least there’s enough padding and features to match the Irena. I just wish I understood what was happening with the engine. Why does it cost so much to service? Is it just a too-narrow bay? Maybe. Why is it so unreliable? Well, there is absolutely no balancing at all - Renwoo stripped out all the counterweights, and didn’t use a damper of any sort. It also has a relatively low degree of polish, including almost nothing spent on the bottom end, but at least it puts something into the exhaust and fuel system. The Elba’s engine has no polish anywhere but is still a bit more reliable than the Merci - which is a mixture of actually having balancing features and deboring the engine. Trust me, this will be relevant later. I guess a cramped interior and unreliable engine is a better way to save money than the austere interior and unreliable engine of the Elba, but it’s not great. At least it looks good. Or should that be great? I already went into how much I love the cute styling of the van version, but the Coupe is even better. The shape is way cuter than the van, the way it curves like this. Pulling the top down and standing up may not be safe, but it would be pretty fun.

UN PETITE INSECTE

By your powers combined, I am Snedbug! What do you get when you combine the ultra basic interior of the Elba with the unreliable engine and small size of the Merci Coupe? You get the Merci Snedbug. It is unbelievably uncomfortable, at a truly loathsome 4.96. That’s atrocious, that’s horrific, that’s awful. At least the seats are correct and it’s actually a convertible this time.
Believe it or not, that comfort value isn’t because of the meme of “Automation hates convertibles”. Passenger volume only takes a little hit, and the flat 10% penalty is there, but that’s it. No, the Snedbug has a barebones interior, with exposed metal abound. Add in that convertible penalty and the diminutive size, and you get a comfort solidly below the Elba. It’s theoretically the second best option for offroad, and I’m left reminded of a real world vehicle… The VW Type 181, aka the VW Thing. The, uh… thing about the Thing is that it wasn’t too successful as a vehicle sold to consumers in developed economies who were used to more features; it was quickly dropped in Britain, dropped after safety standards changed in the US and so on. In Mexico, of course, it sold plenty, but Araga is not Mexico in terms of finances. Is the civilian market desperate enough for the Snedbug? I don’t think so, because Automation won’t let it be as cheap as it should be. The base price is just too high. The Type 181 was a parts bin special, many of the fixed costs such as engineering and tooling had already been amortised. The calculations in Automation assume that those costs still need to be paid off, and set the price accordingly. Still, the Type 181 didn’t solely have civilian buyers, and neither will the Snedbug…

AND IRENA SO SORRY

Okay, so what if we want to fork out more money? Well, Wara has an option. For an extra few hundred bucks, they’ll sell you a 2-door version with a nicer interior, a bigger engine and sportier tyres. While the Irena 1.3 was a boring uninspiring appliance, the 2.0 is actually pretty sporty for a cheap 5-seat sedan, beating out the VME Tourline Optijector from last round in both drivability and sportiness. Comfort is a little down thanks to stiffer springs and those sportier tyres, but not by too much - and it’s a fair price to pay. It’s the same with fuel consumption, that’s 50% higher but it’s the price you pay for having almost double the power.

The Irena 2.0 SSE ultimately occupies a similar spot for sports cars as the regular one did for, uh, regular cars. It’s the bar, a solid benchmark which the others have to clear. At just 8100 AMU, it’s relatively cheap for a sports car. Running costs are average among cars with some power. 60 Drivability and 15 Sportiness is an acceptable package - not a “true” sports car, but good enough for here. You’re not taking it offroad, and it’s not the most comfortable option, but it’s pretty good.

Perhaps the oddest thing about the Irena as a sports car is the leaf-sprung solid rear axle. If you were to design a sedan to be sporty, you would not use this. Picking independent suspension would make the car sportier… But I can see why Wara did it, it’s for the lore. This is not a modern sport sedan. This is a refinement of a design that’s probably a couple of decades old, that started life as a plain old sedan made on a budget - which is why I didn’t mention it in the 1.3. Of course that old design used leafs, and of course those leafs were too hard to change away from. It makes perfect sense. The same sort of approach is taken aesthetically, the changes from the base model limited to some decals, a painted roof and a more complex grille, plus a different body style. Sensible similarities. Thinking about that context with regards to the regular Irena, it feels even more sensible for it to be generic and just a touch on the lighter side, like so many Warsaw Pact cars of the era. Of course, we don’t quite have the Warsaw Pact here, and I do have some worldbuilding questions for AndiD specifically, but those can come later.

PHENIX FROM THE ASHES

Of course, the Irena SSE isn’t the only sporty sedan on the market. Let’s start with a look at the previous round’s king of the sports cars, the maker of the ultimate hero car - Phénix. The Phénix Helios and Helios Turbo RX are obviously unsellable during a war, and Phénix sold their engines… But they still wanted to sell some cars, what brand wouldn’t? Well, there’s the Phénix Cortège Sport 1600. It costs more money, its 9600 AMU tag being about 1500 more than the Wara SSE. So, what does it give you that the Wara doesn’t?

Well, let’s actually start with what the Phénix doesn’t give you. It doesn’t give you five seats, the rear only offering two seats - comfortable, moulded full-sized ones, but just two. Its ADPR is also tied (widely) with the worst on the market, with bog-standard safety features and a ladder chassis tying it with other, similar trucks and the terminally-oversteering offering Coupe from Renwoo. Aside from that, though, it’s solidly better than the Wara. It feels a lot more responsive in the handling department and the engine reacts quicker too, giving it a better feeling in terms of quickly responding to things coming up or rapidly changing direction when pushing. Speaking of pushing, it’s got FWD rather than the RWD seen elsewhere - that’s a little bit of a killjoy for some, but it’s still plenty of fun and the tendency towards understeer will save more than a few novices. It’s also a bit more comfortable and not just for the rear seat configuration, but it goes from “the lower end of what’s decent” to “solidly mid” - but hey, that’s what sports tyres and stiffer suspension will give you, right? It also makes the switch to E70 unlike the E10-fuelled Wara, and it also brings the fuel consumption down a little too, keeping running costs down. You get a galvanised chassis too, and reliability is as good as the Wara. Visuals are a lot sharper and more substantial than the Wara SSE too - I’m jumping ahead a little, but the regular version lacks the red trim on the grille, the matching wheels and the hood scoop, and it adds a decidedly un-sporty tow ball at the back and merges the headlights for a far less sporty look. The changes are more extensive here, but not unrealistic.

For practicality, it also gives you five doors along with a hatch in the back, and that honestly makes this challenge parallel reality rather well. See, in reality, the hot hatch segment had some early predecessors throughout the 1970s, but it was a pair released in mid 1976 that really filled out and defined the segment - the Renault 5 Turbo and the Volkswagen Golf GTI. Make the engine more powerful, make the car handle better, make it look better and there you go. I’ll address the visuals later, but for now, let’s look at the Renault 5 Turbo to Phénix’s Golf GTI… Or should that be 5 Turbos? Or Fives Turbo?

There’s, uh, there’s no real reason to call one of these cars the Golf and one of them the Turbo. It’s just a fun pairing and I got to make a joke. The GTI and the Turbo both have 3 doors, so neither is really a good comparison. Similarly, they all use natural aspiration, turbochargers being too expensive for any entry to utilise during the war. But let’s look at the options we have, there are indeed two of them… Sorta. Maybe the Wara was the Renault. See, I can come up with a fun comparison here between the Wara and the Phénix. The Wara is a bit cheaper, it scores higher on safety, it adds a seat. The Phénix gives more sportiness, more comfort, more economical and such, plus it looks the part a lot more. You can find good reasons to pick one or the other.

I FEEL A LITTLE BIT GENGHIS KHAN

Let’s take the Empire Temujin as the first hot hatch to challenge the Phénix. When pushed, it’s just as good as the Wara but when it’s for regular driving, it’s not really as impressive, falling to the bottom of the pack. The biggest issue comes under the hood, though, where the engine in the Temujin is the least reliable on the market. Remember back when I mentioned the Elba being a bit more reliable than the Merci but still not great? The Temujin is worse, and it genuinely took me a while to work it out - but I did. There’s not many changes between the two, the same lack of quality applied everywhere, the same electronic injection. So, I actually called out the harmonic dampers in the Elba, was that a harmless throwaway? No, I’m bringing it up again, of course not. This one, the V6 engine, this is the one that gets balance shafts. Is this why it’s less reliable? No, it’s not where it loses 6 points of reliability, it’s more like 0.6. I was pulling my hair out, almost, then I found it. Remember how I called out the Elba being debored, how the variant’s bore is lower than the family bore? Yeah, that was for this section. That was for this review… Because the Temujin does the opposite. The Temujin bores it out all the way. There’s the change, there’s what it does, there we go. The engine in the Temujin has narrow walls between the adjacent cylinders, and that’s why it’s so unreliable. It took me a lot of time to work it out, but it wouldn’t take people in reality time to work it out. Damage to the cylinder walls, massive overheating, that’s what would happen. Great, your car has plenty of power, the highest power to weight ratio you can get now, but at the cost of awful reliability.

And from one mystery to another… What is control? In determining drivability, there’s three stats that form the base. Footprint is simple enough, evasion makes a bit of sense, but… What is control? Well, the Temujin has less control than everything else, but why? It’s not the steering graphs - the 92.6% drivability displayed there corresponds nicely with the -7.4% Circle Test result. Same goes for the percentage shown in gearing. It’s not the forces which can be sustained on the skidpad, those are on par with everything else. It’s not acceleration either, or weight, or throttle response, or brake pads. I was about ready to call it quits when I found it.

The game’s tooltips are just straight-up lying to you.

If you look at the tooltips, there is no difference in drivability between the four options we have at the moment - manual/hydraulic ball/rack. This is not true, and there is even a column labelled steering in the detailed stats for drivability. Different options give a different percentage here… But they also change that control value too. The Temujin uses the very worst option for control - hydraulic ball suspension. It makes sense, I guess, but it’s just so opaque. Add in that lacklustre circle test result and the result is less drivable than the other sports cars. 53 isn’t awful, it’s just low here. That steering saps the Temujin of its sportiness, making it merely on par with the Wara. Why does a car weighing just a little over 1 tonne need power steering in this era? It doesn’t. That’s actually a large part of why the Elba has such low drivability - not the acceleration or top speed or lack of power, the game considers those mostly fine and only docks 0.4% for the low top speed!

Oh, and it only has two reduced-size rear seats and an incredibly uncomfortable suspension that only gives 3.7 degrees of body roll, making its comfort on par with the Wara - which was only that uncomfortable thanks to, y’know, the worst rear suspension option. Purchase price is high too, at 9600. The engine gives you some bragging rights with 79 kW, but it’s not particularly faster than the Wara or Phénix on the drag strip - and that engine uses E70, so the running costs are higher than anything else outside of utility cars. The other ray of light is a nice slate of safety features which give an ADPR of 80, but there’s just not enough.

If it wasn’t for the poor reception I gave the Elba, I’d call the looks of the Temujin a slight misstep. See, part of the reason for making a hot hatch is to sell the cold version. The Golf GTI sells the normal golf too, people see the cool version and want one, but end up picking the more sensible, less sporty, more economical option because it suits them better. For this, you want them to look similar, like the pair of Phénixes do… But the Temujin shares very little, having a silhouette that’s perhaps closer to a coupe than the hatchback the game calls it - unlike the very pedestrian Elba. The bumpers, rear lights and door handles are shared, but the headlights, grille, side indicators and even the mirrors are completely different between the two. The Temujin looks sporty, for sure, with that shape and styling evoking American muscle in a compact form factor. It won’t sell many Elbas, but the Elba won’t prevent many sales of the Temujin.

VIVA LA VITA

Okay, so, there’s Ghengis Khan slain, let’s look at the Tarquini Vita FA, the last sporty hatchback. The Tarquini is the economy option. It’s just 300 bucks less than the SSE - 7800 isn’t particularly cheap, but it’s cheap for a sports car. It’s got the best fuel economy of any legal car in the round though - and it’s not even using the more lenient WLTP test cycles, it’s in cycle 3 like everyone else. That economy comes from using a really tiny flat-4, just a little under 800cc. Is it a perfect hot hatch, is it the embodiment of that idea? No. That i4 makes just 28.3 kW, it has solidly mid power to weight, which leads to a solidly mid 0-100 km/h and a similarly ordinary 148.2 km/h top speed. Economy car numbers. It’s doing this on E70, so it’s the cheapest for annual costs.

It’s lucky that acceleration isn’t counted in drivability that much. While columns exist for power/weight, top speed and acceleration in detailed stats, these are just minimum thresholds which need to be cleared, and the Vita clears them. I think it might be counted in evasion a little - why else would the nimble Vita be a little lower there? - but the Vita is nimble enough in its handling to match the Phénix in leading the way for drivability. Sadly, the same cannot be said with sportiness, as the game counts acceleration in the base and has large modifiers for top speed and power. The Vita loses a lot of sportiness here, as it sorta should… But if you can look past the engine or perhaps swap it for something bigger, you will end up with a really nimble little thing. If you’re not in the cramped rear bench and can ignore the massive lack of features, it’s pretty comfortable too, a point behind the Phénix thanks to the few details having a decent amount of attention paid to them, plus some comfortable suspension.

I can’t find many differences to the other version, so I’ll address the Vita here and this’ll cover both: It’s cute. The other cars we’ve looked at for sports all look, uh, serious. They’re serious cars made by serious brands and they should be taken seriously. The Vita is lovable, the round lights being set on their own make it feel cute. There are some cars that just look happy to see you, and this is one of them. “Come on,” it says, “let’s find a hill with some tight corners and just have fun speeding down it! It’ll be fun, let’s go!” And that’s exactly what a fun slow car should be, really.

I WILL LOOK UP WITH SOME D-LIGHT

From hatches to wagons, but trust me - this makes a decent amount of sense. I was going down the list and trying to pick the sportiest entries, I got the Wara, the Phénix, the Empire and the Tarquini, then I came to the Bazard D-Light. It’s just 1 point below the Tarquini, but we only have 11 left now. So, a bit borderline, kinda close to sporty but not quite. It’s a lot like a less extreme version of the Tarquini, picking up some smaller penalties for having a low power/weight which keeps the acceleration down too, but also lacking that quick, nimble handling thanks to being a full-sized wagon rather than a tiny hatchback. There’s less you have to overlook, but you get less when you do.

Within this sort of mini-segment, it’s a little behind in sportiness but a little ahead in comfort. It’s nothing revolutionary - five seats, standard features, reasonable suspension - but that puts it ahead here. It doesn’t make it fantastic in the broader market, merely good. It’s at the top of the tree in terms of price too, so not great there. For visuals, well, it’s a step above the Irena but not on the same level as the other sports cars. It doesn’t scream sports, it’s just a well-done, serious sedan. It’s a commuter car that its owner would love, those little creases and bits of trim giving plenty of definition when you’ve spent months or years with it… But you won’t be falling in love when you walk past it. Where the D-Light wins is, well, what you’d buy a normal Bazard for - offroad, cargo space, carrying capacity and such. An offroad skidtray and AWD makes it good in the dirt, or on broken roads. The safety testers also gave it the highest rating of any car made during the war, praising the fact that the seatbelts, reinforcement and padding work just a little better than other cars with similar features. It’s a reasonably sporty, reasonably comfortable way to take five people and some cargo wherever you need to. It’s solid enough overall, really, it’s a market that exists and it’s sold well… But how does it do outside that niche? What other wagons can you get, if you don’t want sportiness?

SCISSOR SISTERS

And here is where I’m ending this post - forcing myself to, really. This post was originally written as one block. That question at the end of the Bazard review was going to lead into more wagons, but… I wanted to have the entire challenge done over a week ago. I still haven’t looked at the military entries, or Partisan Rally. The remaining reviews have a lot of stuff marked down as “look at this later” and still need visuals done. Truthfully, I just want to get something out so… Cliffhanger time, I guess? I’m not putting a date or time on the rest of it. It’ll come when it comes, hopefully soon.

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REVIEWS PART 5.6
IT'S OVER, ISN'T IT?
Part Two Of Standard

Left To Right: Serena Sedan and Wagon by @supersaturn77 , Minex P1W Daimos W20LE and 20LE by @lotto77 , Saguaro T-REE 1400 EcoWagon and 1290 Sedan by @MrdjaNikolen , Phénix Cortège Cargo by @karhgath , DCMW Kutshuriat (Four X) by @moroza , Tarquini Vita FI by @Danicoptero , Knightwick K4/4 HS by @mart1n2005

The last round ended off asking what other wagons you can get… But there’s a little bit of a loose end from the Bazard D-Light review, something that I missed: It only has three doors. That’s a definite drag on practicality. Is a wagon that forces you to climb out through the front door really more practical than a hatch with a smaller cargo volume? I don’t know, it’s a pretty major drag overall, I think. But let’s see what the other wagons offer.

FUCK ME WITH A CACTUS

Well, the Serena Wagon and the Saguaro T-REE EcoWagon both offer…

Wait a minute.

Wait a goddamn minute.

The Saguaro T-REE EcoWagon?

It’s the EcoWagon from last round, with fewer corners cut and running on E70. There’s other minor changes to the suspension that make it more drivable and comfortable, and the radio has been downgraded but given an 8-track slot, but that’s about it. Yeah, sure, an E70 Saguaro, whatever, it exists, you want a Saguaro but not a used one or wanna save money by running E70, buy it. There’s not a lot to say that I didn’t already say. The problem with the EcoWagon is that it’s a known quantity. Over in utility land, everyone was trying to be better than Bazard. I suspect that this happened here in wagon land too, everyone knew what the EcoWagon was like and went further than that.

SERENA-TY NOW!

Okay, now to the Serena. The Saguaro offered half a point of sportiness, the Serena offers three quarters of one… But it also offers a lot of car. See, the Serena is a great, big, American boat. It’s just 7.50 AMU short of the price cap. “Serena With A Steak Dinner” is illegal. It handles like a boat, or a truck. Fuel costs, at least, are low. The acceleration is just barely low enough to get penalties, but at least it can rattle off a long list of safety features to get a good safety score - even with a ladder chassis. But really, the “it’s big” card is the biggest one here - that makes it comfortable, that gives it so much range you only need to refill every 3 weeks despite running E70. It also gives you tons and tons of space to fill it up with whatever you need to transport. Yes, it’s a boat, but sometimes you just need a boat. On the plus side, it’s reliable and incredibly resistant to rust, that makes it a really nice dependable car.

At least they both have five doors, so someone can get out of the rear while the front seats are occupied - or you can chuck stuff in there as extra storage easily and not have to snake around a panel.

I’m didn’t discuss the aesthetics of the EcoWagon, because I already have. The Serena, however, feels American without being excessively American. The sealed beams inset deep into the front fascia are a typical design trope of the era, and the way the top line of the grille cuts them in half is a nice touch to help it feel cohesive. The chrome trim stripe that runs around the car is a nice way to tie it all together, as is the black cladding around the whole thing. It’s on the borderline of too much chrome for wartime, but not past the line, I think. The barn doors on the rear are a fun little quirky touch that’d be useful for some but hinder others. I have just one potential concern, which is that the side mirrors don’t have great visibility if you have to push the seat back due to long legs, but that’s a bit of a nitpick.

MI-NEXT UP!

There’s one more wagon on the market, and its manufacturer remained true to form when they made it. Minex is a brand known for luxury cars, but what can a luxury brand do when you can’t include all the trimmings you’d normally find in luxury, in a time of austerity? They can make the Daimos W20LE, which is as close as you can come to a luxury car during the war. Only two other cars on the market are more comfortable - and one of them is the other Minex. This is achieved through a smooth boxer 4, soft suspension and extra effort spent on the interior (without using an illegal amount of resources). A monocoque and advanced safety place it right at the top of Araga’s safety ratings. The issue for Minex is that luxury cars have their downsides too, and the W20LE has all of those here too. The price is right up at the cost limit, at 9750. Minex managed to fit a lot of features into that price, but they had to skimp on some too, like how there’s a general lack of quality to the car. That’s felt most in the reliability - where other makers put in extra effort to make sure everything works, Minex just needed to get the cars out. Perhaps it’s a little bit of a panic given the war throwing a spanner in the works, perhaps it’s deliberate, but the Minex is as unreliable as the Merci. It also features the highest running costs of any E70-based car on the market, for reasons I can’t quite place but which seem to be related to that lack of quality - oh, and having an engine that can put out plenty of power. It’s also a pain to service, the combination of longitudinal FWD, double wishbones and a wide boxer 4 making the space constrained to the front, rear and sides.

At the very least, I’m not angry at the game for the difference in passenger volume between the Minex and the Serena. The Serena really is that much bigger, it really is a larger vehicle. They both have modelled interiors, and the Serena’s one is a whole lot roomier, giving more space to stretch out. It’s not even a trick of interior modelling either - the two have similar proportions in where they place the seats and dash. But if you look past that passenger volume, the Minex is rather clearly better on comfort - double wishbones over STA in the back and a nicer set of speakers will do that. So, how big are you? And how much can you afford an unreliable car? If you don’t need the space, maybe the W20LE looks really good.

Amusingly, Minex used a similar mirror positioning to the Serena, and it comes with the same issue - sit towards the back of the driver’s seat, and you can’t see them too well. Aesthetically, it’s a more stripped back, budget sort of Minex. The Minexes of last round had plenty of chrome up the front, with a showy grille and bumper - this one has no chrome anywhere in sight, just black plastic. The previous ones had a dapper two-tone paint job, you just get a decidedly drab green here. It’s even adorned with that most plebian of accessories, the roof rack. You’re getting a Minex for ten grand, sure, but you’re not getting to look like the people who spent a lot more money on pre-war Minexes - which is totally, completely fair.

CAR GO? SURE HOPE IT DOES!

I thought the W20LE was really well-positioned. After all, the Serena was the only wagon with comparable comfort, but that was a much larger vehicle with boatlike handling.

Then I made the last post, saw the responses and actually placed everything into the photoscene. Lo and behold, the Phénix Cortège Cargo can actually handle a decent amount of Cargo. I probably would’ve seen this when doing photos and design, but that’s how I saw it this time. Now, the Bazard doesn’t have an interior modelled, but all the others do. All the others have slightly more cargo capacity, but it’s not a whole lot. The distance from the top of the roof to the back is a little shorter; while it slopes the same way as many of the other wagons do, it turns to vertical sooner. It’s got just a little less cargo capacity, but cargo capacity isn’t the only thing you want. The Cortège Cargo is no sports car, that’s what the Cortège Sport is there for. Of course, the Cargo version has the same high-quality handling for the day to day, but it’s paired with more “responsible” design. There’s a full row of 3 seats in the back now, the presence of an offroad skidtray and more standard tyres makes it a sensible option to leave the asphalt unlike the Sport version. The suspension isn’t as snappy and responsive, but it’s so much more comfortable, bringing the Cortège from mid-pack to near the top. Reliability is solid too, which is nice. Phénix mixes fuel types across their lineup, the E70 in the Cortège Sport making way for E10. Unlike some other manufacturers, Phénix tuned their E70 engine for power and their E10 engine for exceptional economy, giving range just six km worse than the record-holding E10-powered Serena Sedan on a tank two thirds the size, with fuel costs only a small amount more than the Cortège Sport - a difference easily swallowed by the Sport’s service costs. In fact, the running costs are lower than the E70-powered Minexes!

This does raise a question which makes me scratch my head. What’s the actual, real difference between a hatch and a wagon, if the two have similar shapes? Is it size? They’re pretty close and could easily be the same here. Is it that one is a 4-box design while the other is 3? No, the Cortège is 4-box and the D-Light is 3-box. The fourth box in the Cortège is small, but it’s there. What is the actual difference? Does it even matter? The Cortège Cargo is probably just better than the Minex, so long as you’re fine with something a bit slow and sedate. That means that the buyers for the Minex are looking for comfortable, luxurious sedans and a bit of power under the hood, in exchange for smoke - or they want more space than the Cortège but not so much space as the Serena. It’s narrower than I thought.

KUT PRICE

And this brings us to another hatchback - the DCMW Kutshuriat. In Aesthetic terms, the Kutshuriat looks similar to the previous one with just the money-saving removal of chrome trim, but the similarities end there - unlike the EcoWagon. Underneath the skin, DCMW had to do a lot to cut the previous generation down from almost 18 thousand, and they took the opportunity to add features that are suited for a country at war. If you want a car that’s better offroad or more reliable, you need to head to the utility segment with all the costs entailed within. Part of that offroad prowess is achieved through tall, soft suspension, factory all-terrain tyres and a factory stock 4x4 system - not AWD, full-fat 4x4. Drivability and especially sportiness suffer a bit, and a 4x4 hatchback is uh… Well, it’s something that might get penalised for realism elsewhere because (almost) nobody does it, but it’s not like nobody could ever do it. The AMC Eagle exists too, after all. It also uses E10, which delivers exceptional range at the cost of 15% higher running costs compared to the Minex. Oh, and the final nail in the coffin: It’s more comfortable than the Minex! The biggest issue with the Kutshuriat is one that was also present with most of the other hatchbacks - extremely limited cargo space. You could carry a fair amount in the Cortège, you can’t really do that in the Kutshuriat. That helps the Minex retain some customers, but it’s more solid competition than I originally thought there was. If you want comfort and don’t care about cargo space, get the DCMW. It’ll treat you better than a Minex too.

ANOTHER ONE

Well, at least Minex can rest safe with its sedan, right? Nope. There’s a Serena for that, the Serena, uh, Sedan. Like the 20LE, it has a Wagon Cousin. The engines used by the Serenas have some substantial differences though; the Wagon uses E70 and has a more economical carburettor, while the Sedan uses E10 and a less restricted carburettor. This gives the Sedan better straight line performance and pacifies the safety people, but it also minimises one of the advantages of E10 - the Serena does lead the market on Range, but it’s only a 10% step up from the Wagon. Fuel costs suffer substantially for it, though, the drawback is still there.
Besides all of that, the Serena and Minex both offer similar differences between the Sedan and Wagon options. Easier to drive, a little more comfortable, a little less practical, no difference to cost. So, do you want a sedan or do you want a wagon? The 20LE is probably the Minex that sees the least competition overall, because there isn’t a DCMW or Phénix sedan. Sedans are actually a bit of a rarity on this market. Really though, everything I said about the wagons applies here.

AND THE REST

And now we come to the last three. We’ve actually sort of looped around a little bit, remember how I called the Wara 1.3 the bar for other entries to clear? Well, the Elba and Mercis both had issues trying to get under it - the money saved wasn’t worth the drop in quality. The Cortège Sport leaped over like the athlete that it is, and was followed by a gaggle of other sporty hatches. Those gave way to more comfortable premium options which gave a very real reason to spend the money… And that leaves us with just three entries left. Three entries that ask buyers a simple question: Is it better to pay now, or pay later? See, they all cost more money to purchase upfront, but they also use E70 fuel where the Wara used E10… And here’s where I need to actually stop and think about how I want to judge, right near the end. I’m… I’m not going all the way back and re-evaluating things, no, I don’t want to.

But let’s take a quick break from the challenge to consider the real world implications of a car costing a bit more? Well, in our world, a lot of people will get loans on a car rather than buying upfront. Depending on how the loan is structured, if you have a set amount for your deposit and choose between the four cars, the savings on annual costs may well be equal to the increase to payments over the term of the loan. How long does the average Aragan keep their car? What is the typical loan terms? These are all questions I don’t want to answer here, really, because it’s a little unfair to add those. I might add them next rount. I’m going to give a slight annual cost advantage to the E70 cars, but it’s not as much as it should be.

So, how about we actually get back to the stats? Well, it’s a wash again. The Knightwick is sportier but more demanding. The Saguaro is a little less reliable but a little more comfortable - while the Tarquini is just a touch better but substantially less reliable thanks to a complex mechanical injection system. That system does allow it to pull enough power from a miniscule engine and gives it the best economy of these four, but it also makes the upfront costs highest. The Taquini is at least saved by its ease of handling, I suppose.

I think the fact that I needed to split hairs this much ultimately speaks for itself. The costs and stats were so similar that I had to really get into the weeds, study the sort of deep levels that people don’t usually consider. There’s enough variance for there to be appreciable differences, but they’re similar enough for those differences to leave me without a clear winner. If the answer to “which is best?” ends up being “well, it depends on your credit”, there’s a healthy, competitive market. Like I said, the stats are really a wash, you lose a few points of this for a few points of that, take your pick based on taste really, they’re all good. If I was buying, I guess I’d take the Vita, but I wouldn’t fault someone for picking any of the others.

Aesthetically, well, I’ve already looked at the Vita and Saguaro, but the Knightwick was only looked at in terms of “what did the Pursute change”? So, let’s look at the Knightwick. I’ll be honest, it’s not winning any beauty contests, but I think it beats the Wara. The two are quite similar, in all honesty - the grille, headlights and bumpers are similar concepts, the rears have similar layouts too… But the Knightwick feels more well-executed, more like a contemporary take on things than a gradual, slow refinement of something from a bygone era. It looks nicer, but it’s not winning awards.

CRAZY? I WAS CRAZY ONCE...

I am never, ever, ever doing this again.

Not another ALC round - there will be plenty more - but never one like this.

I packed everyone’s normal entries into two fairly small lanes. The price limit and the removal of dedicated sports cars both really homogenised the entries, and then you all just kept hitting. There were very few genuinely bad cars this round. When I want to write a decent amount for each car, it gets hard to separate out one 9500-ish premium car from the next.

I’m suffering from success. If y’all weren’t so good or if there weren’t so many of y’all, it’d be easier.

Keep ‘em coming.

13 Likes

Is my car good, bad or indifferent? it sounds like it was too expensive, but at 7490 i assumed it was cheap enough to carry the more “classic” engineering used

THE AMERICAN BRICK IS A SUCCESS!

Now to see how many get passed down as first cars to mildly upset teens who don’t want slow boats and wish the reliable thing would break so they can get something else.

I ran out of steam towards the end, my apologies. It’s good but lacks anything that really sets it apart from a field of good entries, it’s a budget option in a crowded budget market where I couldn’t find much making entries stand out.

2 Likes

Seems like it’s truly “an car.”