CSR155 - Swanky Set of Wheels (COMPLETE)

[LS_Swapped_Rx-7]

CSR 155 - Swanky Set of Wheels

Previous Round

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Los Angeles, 1959

The post-war era has ushered in a new wave of consumerism, and Raymond has been riding this wave high, becoming a multi-millionaire at the age of just 33. He is the owner of a company specializing in home appliances such as washing machines and fridges, which has recently earned it’s highest profit in history.

To celebrate this newfound success, he took his top employees for a wild night of partying at a local night club, with the whole area lit up with the presence of hot babes, strong liquor, and- oh no… are those his car keys?

It turns out they were, so after the party, he went on the most shit-faced joyride of his life and wrecked his 1957 Chevy Bel Air. Raymond unfourtanetly survived, but it wasn’t the same case for his Bel Air. He treats this as merely a minor inconvenience, as now is the perfect opportunity to buy a new car.

The question remains however: does he want a flamboyant land barge and ride on a sofa, or maybe a fire-breathing grand tourer to really feel that sweet adrenaline rush? Actually spending his own time looking would just be peasant work, so instead he is sending out an unpaid intern to make a list for him.

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RULES

Car

• Trim Year: 1959

• Legacy bodies are not allowed

• Rear double wishbone suspension is forbidden. It was extremely rare in the 50s anyway, even on the most high-end cars.

• No semi slick tires

• Using radial tires will increase your service costs by 20%. Almost all cars in the US were using cross-ply tires during this time, and only a handful of European imports had them.

• At least 2 seats

• No functional aero fixtures

• Safety: Standard 50s or better

• Max Price: $30,000

• Must have sealed beam headlights (see examples below)

1x 7 inch light

*the example on the far right is upscaled by 1.2

2x 5.75 inch lights

Engine

• Variant Year: 1959

• Fuel Type: Super Leaded (98 RON)

• Max Loudness: 50

• No race parts

Techpool

• +1 point everywhere to start
• 20 extra points for the engine
• 35 extra points for the car

Submissions/Notes

• Model and Engine family name: CSR155 - (forum username)

• Model Trim and Engine variant: free

• A post with some sort of ad and photos is required.

• Interiors are not required, nor will they be judged.

• Advanced trim settings are unrestricted, just be reasonable with it. If you’re unsure about something, just ask.

• Standard CSR realism is expected; any clusterfucks of minmax will be binned without question.

• Submissions close at 2023-06-13T03:59:00Z

CSR155 Deadline

PRIORITIES

Design - Nothing boasts your wealth better than a flamboyant design, that is why Raymond’s car should turn heads everywhere it goes to really inflate his ego.

Comfort or Sportiness - Once again, Raymond is not dead set on what he really wants. He could be satisfied with something with the upmost amount of comfort and luxury, or maybe an absolute thrill ride. Keep in mind, if he chooses the latter, he still expects it to not be painfully uncomfortable.

Realism - Take note of what real life examples use to reduce your chance of getting CONSUMED BY THE FLAMES.

Prestige - Raymond wants something with only the finest of craftsmanship to really elevate his status, so he can really look down on those who dare to own pathetic econoboxes.

Drivability - What good is this luxury murder machine if it is a handful to drive and, lets face it, the victim of even more booze cruising?

Value - Raymond may be very unwise with his spending habits, but he still will only expect the best out of his money, and will be very unlikely to cheap out.

Reliability - Any cost spent fixing the car would obviously not be an issue, but constant breakdowns would still be a huge pain in the ass.

Service Costs - Even though Raymond is loaded with cash, he would still hate to have to pour even more money into his dream machine than he paid for.

Fuel Economy - 50s America; gas is dirt cheap, even for the average Joe. But, the less time wasted at gas stations, the better.

Safety - There is little care about safety either, as long as the car doesn’t crumple like tin foil.

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Misc. Trivia

• Raymond stands at 6"1’, and weighs 175 lbs.
• He currently has 5 exes, and that number is bound to rise.
• Raymond has no trouble driving a manual transmission.
• Raymond doesn’t have a preference on car color, but he would appreciate whatever makes the car stand out more.

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Inspirations

Cadillac Eldorado

Lincoln Continental

Chrysler Imperial

Buick Electra

Jaguar Mark IX

Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud

Chevrolet Corvette

Ford Thunderbird

Mercedes 300 SL

Aston Martin DB4

BMW 507

Maserati 3500GT

Jensen 541R

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Changelog

• upped tp and price limits
• upped radial penalty
• clarification about aero fixtures

[abg7]

Just for realism’s sake, many real-life car engines from 1959, even higher-end ones, had only 2 valves per cylinder, so you might want to ban any head types with 3 or more valves per cylinder. Moreover, DOHC engines (even those with 2 valves/cylinder) were also quite rare back then, and should be penalized with an increased service cost multiplier.

[ldub0775]

but consider: the game already does that with the higher svc multiplier for dohc heads. further multipliers are unnecessary and only work to complicate the brief.

[Portalkat42]

As Ldub said, the game already penalizes for SOHC and DOHC heads. Directly banning certain types like that seems needlessly prescriptive when a minor amount of research done by the entrants would show just how rare those valvetrains are.

[abg7]

Thank you for pointing that out.

As for the use of mechanical fuel injection in 1959: It’s possible to select it with +5 techpool on the fuel system), but it would be unwise to penalize it further considering its greater cost and inferior reliability.

@LS_Swapped_Rx-7

Rear double wishbone suspension is forbidden. It was extremely rare in the 50s anyway, even on the most high-end cars.

As in the previous CSR, this makes sense for balancing reasons. But what about semi-trailing arm rear suspension? Can we use that instead?

[Portalkat42]

Some cars in '59 did get fuel injection, but as you said it would on the riskier side for stats. On the semi-trailing arm bit, some cars did have independent rear suspension, but it was also very uncommon. Another thing for the inspiration research to weed out depending on how advanced people want to present their cars as.

[VaporScape]

@LS_Swapped_Rx-7

Must have sealed beam headlights (see examples below)

The sizing of these isn’t too specific is it? As in there wont be penalising for headlights that are inaccurately sized? (at least within reason)

Also, is there a benchmark for what kind of sports/comfort/driveability/etc stats should look like? In a quick mockup I’m finding that most of them are considerably low and I can’t really tell if I’ve done something terribly wrong or that’s just what 50’s cars are like in Automation.

[abg7]

I would also suggest a ban on the use of functional aero fixtures (which were very rare in 1959, if they existed at all back then).

[Texaslav]

I suggest stricter rules on radials - for one, maybe limiting them to the same aspect ratios as cross-plies, as low-profile tech was a long while away at this point. Anything lower than 75 profile, no doubt, is space butterflies. Maybe a somewhat bigger penalty, too: for the accuracy of the setting, you don’t want them used by anybody who does not need them.

Also, maybe some caps on techpool, like +6 or at least +7? Because right now I could put 10 in block and 10 in fuel, and I wouldn’t love to go that route.

[shibusu]

@Texaslav

Also, maybe some caps on techpool, like +6 or at least +7? Because right now I could put 10 in block and 10 in fuel, and I wouldn’t love to go that route.

Well, those who seek to abuse the techpool for maximum cheese would IMO either have to be binned or write a 10-page essay detailing the history and lore of the company and how they managed to scrounge together the seasoned engineers to achieve 15 techpool in block and 10 in fuel system.

[LS_Swapped_Rx-7]

deciding what to do with techpool for csr 152 was actually painful

i think i’m just going to leave it as is this time

[Texaslav]

I can only imagine the rock-salt potential of that. We’ll have a dozen people with neither the decency not to minmax techpool nor the decency to be respectful of a decision to bin them for minmaxing.

[LS_Swapped_Rx-7]

Are you happy with the techpool rules currently, or do they allow too much potential for minmaxxing?

this is quite possibly the last time i discuss techpool in any challenge ever

• It is fine the way it is
• There should be limits to prevent minmaxxing

Keep in mind if option 1 gets chosen yet I still deem your techpool allocation bin-worthy, I will not show sympathy.

[Texaslav]

Well, y’all know what my opinion is. Option 2 would likely end in implementing a limit on the maximum techpool amount you can put into a single category, as was present in CSR154; as long as it’s not as overly tight a limit, I believe it’s the best way to curtail TP minmaxxing without people being either binned or sidelined for mis-guessing what a realistic distribution is.

[moroza]

Regarding TP: I voted for fewer restrictions, but really my preference would be the bare default. I swear my game has a mischievous elf living inside it that screws with TP when I’m not looking.

Regarding engine tech: at least two of the inspirations (the Jag and the Benz) are DOHC, and at least two (the Benz, and optionally the Corvette) had MFI. The latter had been around since 1906 on aircraft and 1930 on motorcycles.

Now, that’s DOHC-2. Regarding DOHC-4… I see a case made for either way. While the technology dates from 1913 in race cars, no production car had four valves per cylinder until… it’s unclear. Some souped-up American V8 in the early 60’s may have been available, unofficially but through a wink-nudge “heavy duty” parts scheme, with four-valve OHV setups… still looking into this.

EDIT: a bunch of pre-war luxury cars (Duesenberg, Bentley, Bugatti, Stutz) had 4 valves per cylinder. I vote it should be allowed.

Regarding IRS: I don’t get the issue with double-wishbone rear, but whatever. Semi-trailing arms should be allowed if for no other reason than that swing-arms and other IRS aren’t in the game, and many of the inspirations have IRS of some sort. It’s been around since at least the 30’s, hardly rocket science by 1959.

Extending that argument, I generally favor allowing whatever the game allows on the grounds that it compensates for real options that the game doesn’t have. Straight-8, sleeve valves, air-cooled, monoblock (a personal favorite), flat-8 -10 and -12… and so on.

[Madrias]

I mean, with techpool, I think my highest in any category right now is +8. And it’s not in one of the “cheese” spots, I think. (It’s under Interior.)

I picked uncapped because you’re willing to bin the min-maxers who choose to put “all the techpool” into the cheese zones.

[Knugcab]

I think the C10 Skyline GTR was among the very first production cars to have DOHC 4V and that was circa 10 years later…

[moroza]

Apart from pre-war examples - which are relatively late and otherwise conventional, not ancient oddball horseless carriage weirdos - yes, the 1969 C10 Skyline appears to be the first.

Are mid-engined layouts kosher?

[abg7]

I’m not sure if a mid-engined build would be viable, given the blanket ban on double-wishbone rear suspension.

[moroza]

I’ve a mule that seems viable with rear Mac struts.

Since Raymond would consider a sports car, what about raising the noise limit, perhaps to 60?