This forum is filled with some really, really good cars. Challenges have come and gone to make the best car possible. This is not one of those challenges. This is… The Bad Car Challenge, by @AMuteCrypt and @HelloHi !
Bad Cars come in as many shapes and sizes as good ones. For this challenge, we are looking for late 90s compact cars. They should have a model year somewhere between 1996 and 1999 (inclusive), have a wheelbase of around 2.7 meters or less, and cost around 20 thousand dollars or less.
Who's Bad: A Guide To Good Entries
It is important to note that we aren't looking for the worst car you can slap together in Automation. It should feel like a car which could have actually been made by a respectable (or semi-respectable...) automaker. Five-fixture cars, glitched-out monsters and the like aren't what we want. Cars with engines that immediately fail due to knock aren't it either. We want ugly cars that could actually exist. Some examples:Bad cars which would be good entries
Renault Twingo
Ssangyong Korando (or basically any other 2000s Ssangyong, for that matter… eww)
Lancia Ypsilon
Fiat Mistake. Uh, I mean Fiat Multipla.
Last but not least, the Pontiac Aztek. We feel this is enough visual assault, so we’ll stop here!
These cars are all incredibly ugly, but they aren’t your lazy five minute job. A lot of care and attention went into the cars, to make something unique, innovative or different, but it just failed completely in the end. That’s the kind of car we want. A car that people could buy from a dealership, but would never want to buy. Note that some of these cars don’t quite fit the brief here - the Aztek, for instance, isn’t really compact enough, and is too modern - but they’re all in the same vein.
Rules And Judging
This challenge will focus a bit more on design. As a result, there are fewer rules around engineering. The basics are:- Model year between 1996 and 1999 (inclusive).
- Wheelbase of around 2.7m or less.
- Cost of 20,000 or less. Note that this is not a goal - if your car makes sense at 15k, submit at 15k.
- No V16s, in the interest of a level playing field.
Cars will be judged by myself and @HelloHi on a six point scale. We will both review each car and score it in each element, and add up all the scores to determine the winner.
-
- Creativity (30 points)
– We don’t want the most boring car you can make here. We want something with effort, with creativity, with a spark. Yes, you aren’t making a masterpiece, but you should still put in some effort and make something that has real care and attention to the design. This will mainly be looking at the exterior design, but interiors may also be considered. -
- Realism (20 points)
– Make something that could actually see the market. Shoving a V12 into your budget compact might make for a funny meme, but that’s not what we want to see here. Realistic engineering choices and realistic styling choices will pay off. Use a sensible number of lights, include your door handles, that sort of thing. We are looking for cars that could have come from the dealership, not hideous tuner monstrosities. While you can add a gaudy, ugly aftermarket body kit, it’s not what this challenge is looking for. -
- Theme (20 points)
– Make a cohesive car with intent behind its’ original idea, even if that idea got lost mostly along the way. Let’s look at the Aztek for a moment. It was designed as a versatile car, able to go anywhere. With its aggressive, “extreme” styling and supposedly-rugged, innovative options, it clearly tried to target a youthful, active Gen-X market. While it failed to do this, the idea was certainly there. If you can make a car with a cohesive, consistent audience or brand, you will do well. -
½ - Ugliness (15 points)
– Simply put, does your car look awful? Is it an eyesore? Will people ask you to move it so that they don’t need to look at it? Bonus points if it manages to do all this but still be somehow endearing or cute, in an ugly way. -
- Uniqueness (10 points)
– Make your car unique. We want something that stands out, something truly exceptional and odd. Yes, bland cars are bad in their own way, but that’s not what this challenge is about. If you are doing something above and beyond, something unprecedented or seriously unique in design, something with that really special something, you will get some extra points here. -
- Engineering (10 points)
– Make a competent if likely uninspiring car. We don’t want to see knocking engines, overly stressed components or the like. We don’t want to see crazy amounts of over/understeer, or tiny brakes. Make the car make sense, give it a useable platform underneath the ugly. Some flaws here and there are perfectly fine, however - many of the example cars are far from perfect. Unique ideas for the time in engineering are also allowed and welcomed (to an extent, of course), but not if there is an obvious intent to minmax under the price cap (just… why?) or ideas that wouldn’t be capable of existing in a car this price in real life. Use your best judgement since stats don’t matter very much at all. We will too while judging your… creations, so think of how we might view these choices as well!
The challenge will be open until 11:59 PM on the 23rd of May. We can’t wait to see (or, hopefully, unsee!) what you all create! To submit, please send a DM to @HelloHi and myself, with the .car file for your entry.
IMPORTANT EDIT
It has come to our attention that we forgot to include a naming convention. Please name your models and families in the format BDC - <forum name>. Any submissions from before this edit (6 AM UTC, 04/05/2021) will be exempt from this rule, although resubmissions to fit this will be appreciated.
