Prologue
The whole thing was way too big to fit into a normal forum post, so here’s both a google doc link and a .txt file of it for convenient reading.
CSR145 The Car that howled at the moon. - Google Docs
CSR145 Prologue.txt (44.4 KB)
So there we have it. Ze’ev Wulfrith and his suave mechanic boyfriend Storm Breedlove are headed out to scour the countryside of Moose County for a classic late '60s early '70s grand tourer. This is the car that you will be designing. While they will be barn hunting for them, you will be designing these cars as if they were brand new. There are plenty of old and/or rich people who’ve squirreled away cars in “like new” condition for this to work narratively, with Z and Storm only having to clean the cars off and maybe do a quick tune up.
Inspirations
Lamborghini 400 GT Monza
Citroen SM
Volvo P1800
Ferrari 500 Superfast
Bizzarini Strada
Iso Grifo
Jensen Interceptor
Facel Vega II
Maserati Sebring
Mercedes 280 SL Pininfarina
Jaguar E-Type
Bentley Continental S2
Apollo 3500 GT
Prince Skyline Sport (The only Japanese grand tourer type car I could find, even though it is a bit older. The Toyota 2000GT also works, but is very much a sportscar)
Must be a car built on 4.2. Cars from 4.1 will not be accepted.
Model/Family Year: 1963-70
Trim/Variant Year: 1963-70
(The wide year range is purely so you can fit your entry into your brand’s lore more readily. It will only minimally effect the judging.)
Car Model: CSR145 - (FORUM username)
Car Trim: Make, model, trim of car
Engine Family: CSR145 - (FORUM username)
Engine Variant: Engine name
Body styles: Sedan, Coupe (no convertibles. This is the snow belt and Z really doesn’t want the hassle.)
Wheelbase: 2.3 M - 3.0 M (2.3 M is a hard lower limit, meaning no rounding up from smaller wheelbases)
Maximum doors: 3
No Mid-engined cars: While I doubt you’ll find a body to accommodate this anyway, mid-engined set ups are very much sportscar territory. FR and RR layouts leave enough room for a proper 2+2 GT car, MR does not. Visually having the car being front-mid engined is fine though, since it is still using one of the front engine choices in terms of automation stats.
Minimum seating: 2/*2 (These are GT cars, not traditional sports cars. Z also wants those extra seats for the extra flexibility they provide with taking friends places)
Leaded 98 RON Fuel (Z is willing and has the money to re-lead every gas of 98 he gets from the pump.)
No race parts (DCOE carbs aren’t race parts)
No semi-slick tires allowed
Maximum loudness of 45 (These are GT cars, so quietness and performance are expected. Usually this would be 30 but the new intakes have some odd loudness values.)
Minimum 1 muffler, no Straight through mufflers (Z knows what cherry bomb and glass pack mufflers are and doesn’t want them anywhere near his classic grand tourer.)
Budget: $70,000
In the advanced trim settings in the design tab: The engine scale much be set at .160 to get the engine to be the irl size. This should help you make design choices more realistically with your chosen engineering, especially if you decide on using a bigger engine.
An interior is required for this challenge. There are plenty of vanilla interior pieces for you to use and it’s a good skill to have for building cohesive cars.
Design: Z knows craftsmanship when he sees it and this very much applies to how I tend to view design in challenges. Making something cohesive and era appropriate is key. Things like tyre proportions and other smaller details and add a sense or realism to your designs that will be most appreciated. The inspiration pics should give a decent idea of Z’s tastes in cars of the desired type, though you can always run your own inspirations by Z to see his opinions on them.
Realism: I will be heavily be looking at the cars of this era and class and what their engineering choices are. There is a decently broad spectrum to what was available in this category, as shown by the inspiration cars. I do ask that you tell me what the nationality of your entry’s brand is so I can pinpoint contemporaries. The other two points I want to drive home are Research and Explanation. If you don’t know much about went into cars of this era/class, do your research. If you do think you know how these cars were made, still do your research to make sure. In your ads for your cars, explain why you did what you did. If you did something unusual for the era, explain the reason behind it. If I can see that you have a full reason for a certain choice as explained in your ad, due to reasons like lore, engine bay size, etc, I’ll be more informed of how it fits into the era and against the other entries.
Driveability: No matter how fun it is to have a car that’s a handful to drive, this will be Z’s secondary daily driver. He needs it to be tame enough to not get him in trouble on the less than stellar roads in the county and not be spinning its tyres in every gear. Also while Z can drive stick, he already has one manual car and a break from that every now and then could be nice.
Sportiness: While the automation sportiness value will be taken into account, the main focus here will be real world stats like 0-60 mph, 1/4 mile time, grip G’s, etc. Z doesn’t like to trust the conglomerate sportiness scores that magazines put out about cars and prefers to look at the raw numbers himself. Z isn’t wanting something that behaves like a muscle car in this aspect. He already has that in his '86 Midlands and would like for this Grand Tourer to actually handle as well as go fast.
Comfort: Z wants to not only have the style of a vintage Grand Tourer, but the plushness of one as well. He knows it won’t be up to modern standards, but he’s certain he can find something that would’ve been top of the line for the era. He really doesn’t want a record player(phonograph) in it though, as they’re a bit too temperamental and can’t be used while driving.
Prestige: These are Grand tourers, this should be a no brainer for the category.
Fuel Economy: While Z did just come into a decent chunk of money, he isn’t sure how far he can push his luck with withdrawals, so he doesn’t want something that gets 5 mpg on its best day. That and with the looming threat of electric cars, gas may be even more of an expense in the future.
Price: Z does have the means to use the full budget. However if a cheaper car can do the same as one that hits the budget cap and still piques his visual tastes, it’ll do better. Go too cheap though, and he’ll be wondering if the car is a genuine or not.
-Some fun things about Ze’ev’s personality and tastes that you might find useful. How usefully they are is up to you.
-Ze’ev is 5’7.5"(67.5 inches, 171.45 cm). Not super short, but decently shorter than the mannequin in game.(Storm is 6’2", but will be a passenger most the time.)
-Z does know how to drive stick(his '86 Midlands has a fairly notchy 5 speed), but finds automatic transmissions a bit more convenient and doesn’t mind them having the shifter on the column like in his mum’s Grand Beltane(Crown Vic equivalent).
-Z’s favorite color is purple, though that is a tricky color for him to find in paint that he likes. He usually goes for blue greys, forest greens, silvers, slightly tinted whites, muted blues, and interesting blacks when he’s looking at car paints. He also likes some browns, but they are harder to get right. He really doesn’t like showy colors on cars like red, orange, yellow, or anything super bright. He thinks they look ok on some modern supercars, but he’d never want to live with a car that obnoxious.
-Most of Z’s favorite music is from bands like Metric, Depeche Mode, Beautiful Small Machines, Rush, Freezepop, Ladytron, The B-52’s, and Vocaloid producers such as Pinocchio-P and Deco*27. A very eclectic mix.
-Some of Ze’evs biggest fashion brand inspirations are Alexander McQueen, 1950’s Dior, and Charles James(no, not the beauty youtuber). He also likes a combo of mid century modern and Victorian aesthetics, admiring their optimism and use of wood and leather in intersting ways.
-Z doesn’t smoke or do other harder substances, but will occasionally drink, his usual choices being stuff like Asti Spumanti, Balley’s Irish Cream, and Kahlua, all of which been know to consume straight. He does like the sweeter mixed drinks and will also go for ciders and fruit flavoured beers. His favorite fruit flavour is peach and he despises coconut flavoured things.
-Z very much likes playing DnD, usually being either a buff version of himself as an anthro wolf, or as some sort of sassy, lithe but not slutty female character. This also goes for the characters he likes to play in video games as well.
-He also wears a pair of patent leather doc martens most of the time, so do with that what you will.
-Your .car file
-Your forum post/car ad in this thread.
Send your car to me though discourse dm’s only and let me know if parts need to be hidden (most likely the chassis due to interiors.)
WARNING: This challenge is being hosted on 4.2, which has been going through occasional patches that mess with stats of cars. Keep this in mind when entering. As for all the challenges I host, you are allowed to resubmit as many times as you need to until the deadline of the challenge. After the deadline passes, you can no longer resubmit, so make sure any new patches haven’t screwed you over.