Part I: The Depths of Bin City
“A piece of char siu looks more coherent than that car!”
Well, you see, being as successful as she is, Angela is a busy woman.
As such, she has no time looking through each options on the market on her own. Fortunately, she has a friend that could help.
Somewhere in Shanghai, China…
William is a young designer who has previously worked for established automotive companies abroad. Looking for more challenge and influence in the final product, he made the brave decision to join a certain startup EV company, and became a high level designer for it.
One of William’s work at the new company
When William received the message from Angela with the list of cars, he was doing a mental relaxation exercise (slacking off on his phone) between his design sessions at the office.
“She wants me to pick cars for her? Well you certainly asked the right person.”
Looking through the list, some entrants on the list he definitely know about, but some of names do not invoke anything in his memory.
Being a designer in the industry meeting all kinds of people, William never underestimate anyone’s design capabilities, even from people or company he has never heard of.
“Well, in any case, looking at designs I have never seen before can definitely get me some inspirations…” William says as he randomly selected a car and looked up its press photos:
CBC Special Quest 20’
@AKA_NOBUDDY
“…”
Despite the immeasurable disappointment in the form of a picture of a pink sedan ruining his day, he gathers more press photos of different angles of the car, and looks up some information of the car. After reading all the information, he notes down something, and promptly moves on to the next car.
This section is for OOC commentaries
While this technically isn’t an instabin, there are quite a bit of problems that prevents this entry from moving forward.
So first of all, you’d think a 5.62m long luxury sedan would have a striking and beautiful side proportion, right?
I haven’t used this body too much so I don’t know how much of this is a lack of morph options, but this body shape really doesn’t look good at all. Black wheels of that type also does not fit the identity of this car at all.
There are definitely better headlight internals to use other than this whole premade piece, and even with this piece using a more glassy projector material definitely helps. The DRL that extends downwards just feels like an afterthought and isn’t very coherent.
Overall shaping wise the headlight housing doesn’t really work with the grille either, and the grill has no surrondings with metallic or other kind of material, making it look really flat.
Using a high metallic/flake paint can make messy places look really messy, so I would avoid them unless you can make your body nice and smooth
Engineering wise the 5-seater layout is not what we are looking for and is technically a rulebreak.
On top of that, drivability is massively below average, and the safety is a bit low too. V10 is a very questionable choice given its lack of smoothness, and this one doesn’t make a lot of power compared to its competitors.
Even if the engineering rulebreak doesn’t instantly kill it, remember the design is a top priority, and this just doesn’t quite meet the expecations.
Verdict: Eliminated
Hopefully the design advice helps a bit.
After taking notes on the first car, William looks up another car, only to be met by a far bigger disappointment:
Gigliotti Pegasus
@azstudios
After some searching, the conclusion William came to is that all that exists of this car are some pictures and a website with an AI generated description of the car. It’s probably a good thing though, as the car design also looks like its generated by one of those early-age diffusion models.
Your file is for openbeta while the challenge is on stable
I dunno what to tell you other than please actually read the challenge description next time
This is obviously a bin
Just as William is about lose hope on getting anything decent from the list, the next car he looked at immediately grabbed his attention.
MION Almanac V8
@azkaalfafa
“Woah, this is a really striking design!”
Being a designer himself, this is the kind of design that would get him excited.
“Let’s see, it’s from the luxury brand of Namwong isn’t it, MION. While I have some reservations about the design of some lower end cars from the company, this car is undoubtly a design that has the presence, while being bold and creative in its character lines, and wrapped up in a coherent package.”
“In other words, as is, it is undoubtly a great design.”
After checking some information and reviews on the car, William confidently places this car into the accepted category in his notes.
I really like the design! While I have a few gripes with it, the overall idea is great, and so is its execution.
Since we already know how important the design is, this is solidly a finalist.
However, there is one single problem, that could kill its chance of becoming the winner…
More Details in Finals!
On first glance, the next car seems to be very promising too.
Currus 900L Evo-3
@Beetle
The stately looking front end immediately captured William’s attention, being well proportioned as it is.
He is however not too sure about some of the details.
After seeing some underwhelming reviews on the engineering of the car, Williams decides to not include it in the shortlist.
While the pictures from the ad looks decent, a closer look at it reveals that the detailing is just way too overdone and clutters up the design.
More specifically, the overuse of horizontal lines on the bit between the grill and headlights, grill itself, the turn signals on the fenders and the side chrome trim line
Notice how this car has a lot of detail too, but is mostly cohesive due to the way the details are integrated
This tailight design is the worst example of the line-spamming syndronme on the car. I would highly recommend looking at what the tailight assembly on an actual modern car looks like.
I know you are trying to go for a side chrome line that gradually fades way, but from a distance it still looks like it ends abruptly and awkwardly. The choice of the door handle is also questionable.
Other than these problems, it is actually for the most part a decent design.
The interior is pretty decent too with no glaring issues. It’s not quite as good as some cars you will see later on in the challenge, but over it’s good work.
Engineering wise, many of the key stats (like Comfort or Drive) are below average, with a surprisingly high sportiness stat. The choice of Viscous AWD and coupling 245 wide tires with a V12 making over 600hp makes it not an easy car to control.
Overall, while far from the worst entry, this will not make it into the finals, making it an Elimination.
Also, spelling mistake lol
“…”
DiMarcos Monarch
@sutarttt
“…”
To be fair, the Polestar body can be tricky to use (For the application of a luxury sedan) and may need some creative modifications. If it works, it can look really good (we will see that on a certain American car later), but on the other hand…
I’m not sure if you are trying to make the dash-to-axle ratio longer or what, but that A-pillar morph makes it looks massively awkward.
Even if some modern cars has light signatures that are roughly this shape, they are usually not a flat rectangle stick colored flat white placed on a flat surface
They usually have some actual depth to them.
Not too sure about the metallic rear bumper either.
You said you were in a rush, but I really think you should reallocate some of the time spent here to the exterior.
Engineering wise, well…
(For context, this thing has over 800hp)
Seriously, I know you might be in the process of chasing some stats (It does have good comfort and presteige admittedly), but putting a CVT in that aint realistic by any stretch of the human imagination. It also likely annhilated your drivability.
And the CVT is somehow not the worst issue:
So I have no choice but to bin it.
(Overbudget by $41k)
From the front picture on the website of this car, the light signature doesn’t seem to look too bad…
Primus Imperator
@Happyhungryhippo
William then found a picture of the side of the car.
“Oh…that’s…oh…”
Speaking of Polestar builds with very questionable body shape:
Why is the trunk so long? Why is the rear door so short? Why is the ground clearance so tall? Why are the tailights so boxed in that from the side it almost looks like it has no tailights?
For your reference, the closest shape I can find to the sedan Polestar body
Theres also this area where the bottom grill doesn’t go wide enough and reach it, making the car looking like it has a long neck and is trying to reach something in front of it.
The rear design with its light shape also makes it look 10 years older than the front.
If there is one redeeming feature, the headlight DRLs looks pretty decent in the one picture you provided in the ad.
Engineering-wise, even with the insane top speed helping prestige a bit, all key stats are below average, making it a less than competitive entry stat wise.
Verdict: Eliminated
“Finally, some good fucking fo- ahem design.”
Jefferson EL9 Executive
@the-chowi
While a nameplate not heard by US car buyers for a long time, the EL9 is a well known model in China from its history, with the Executive being the 4-seat variant with the highest luxury features.
Overall William thinks it’s a professionally executed design, with some minor complaints.
Combined with some stellar review it received, William decides to overlook those design complaints and place this on the shortlist.
While not the most striking design, it is for the most part a solid design with some nice details only shown by seeing it in Automation. With the highest comfort stat and other stats that are very competitive (minus one stat-we'll get to that later), this entry is a
finalist.
More details in finals!
For the final car of this reviewing session, William decides to pick the car from one of his company’s competitors:
Looq 9x Palladium+
@vero94773
“Looq 9x Palladium+. Of course they called it Palladium—jewelry name for all the bells and whistles they’re gonna put into it.”
Being a competitor, William tries to find some critical flaws in the design, but to no avail.
“It’s too safe for my taste, but you have to admit, this is the kind of design that appeals to the masses”.
Being a car model just released onto the market, there’s little information about its long-term ability, but the first-drive reviews are all positive, noting its all-around capability from ease to drive to comfort.
Despite not wanting to at first, William has to put this car in the shortlist.
Solid design, solid specs. You are a
finalist.
More details in finals!
Current results:
@azstudios - binned
@sutarttt - binned
@Happyhungryhippo - 14th
@AKA_NOBUDDY - binned
@Beetle - 10th
@azkaalfafa - Finalist
@the-chowi - Finalist
@vero94773 - Finalist
If your name isn’t there, you will be featured in the next round!
