CW7: Golden Age Memories (Round 11: Practicality)

CW7: Golden Age Memories

Link to CW6

After ten years on the East Coast, it was time to go home…

bixby-bridge-another

Brief

Meet Chris Sutter, a 35-year-old man in the midst of a mid-life crisis. After ten years of enjoying a stable high-paying job in the Tri-State Area, he’s finally decided to leave, after realizing the impact the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath had on his business. Now, he’s managed to find new employment as a freelance automotive vlogger in his home town of Santa Barbara, and rediscovered his love of driving in the process.

His current vehicle, a midsize truck, does a decent job of shuffling his girlfriend, Kelly, to and from work, but he’s saved up some cash for something special - one that he hopes will finally allow him to experience his dream of driving all the way up and down the Golden State’s most famous roads (Highway 1, State Route 33, Angeles Crest Highway, etc.) with Kelly riding shotgun. Both of them have clean drivers’ licenses and can drive stick, although neither of them are averse to an automatic. Now, they’re looking for the car that’s just right for them. The only thing that’s certain is that it has to be either a modern classic (from the '80s, '90s, or 2000s), or a (nearly) new car (2010 or later), since these are the eras Chris likes the most - he collectively refers to them as the “Golden Age of Motoring” due to being the time when technology and performance were, more often than not, in perfect harmony.

Basic Rules
  • Trim and variant years: 1980-2020
  • Tires must be radial and have widths ending in 5 (not 0).
  • No race parts (this includes all race tire types).
  • No legacy bodies or V16 engines.
  • At least 2 full-sized seats required.
  • All drivetrain types are allowed.
  • All body styles are allowed.
  • Must be road legal (head- and tail-lights, wipers, external fuel filler cap, license plates, etc.)
  • Should have at least standard safety from the same decade as the car’s trim year (e.g., a 2000s car should have standard 00s safety at minimum).
  • Advanced trim settings may be used, but sensibly and in moderation.
Emissions targets and fuel types
  • Minimum emissions compatibility varies by decade as follows:
    • 1980-1989: WES 7
    • 1990-1999: WES 8
    • 2000-2009: WES 9 (WES 8 for OHV engines)
    • 2010-2014: WES 10 (WES 9 for OHV engines)
    • 2015-2020: WES 11 (WES 9 for OHV engines)
  • Unleaded fuel (91, 95 or 98 RON) required; bonuses/penalties are as follows:
    • 91 RON: 1 point
    • 95 RON: 0 points
    • 98 RON: -1 point
Other penalties
  • Unrealistic/unusual engineering choices for the car’s type and era: -1 point each (instabin if five or more points lost from these)
  • Excessive loudness (over 60): -1 point if over 60
  • Engine stress: -1 point per 1% stress (due to power density, excessive torque, or high RPM).
  • Semi-slick tires: -5 points (race tires must not be used, though).
  • Negative quality: -1 point for every quality point below 0 (e.g., -3 quality in a specific area incurs a -3 point penalty).
  • 4x4 drivetrain: -1 point (unless it makes sense for the type of car you’re making)
  • SUV/truck/minivan body style: -1 point (utes are exempt)
Techpool

The maximum combined techpool budget (the sum of the trim and engine techpool cost, as shown below) is $60m - please make sure your total techpool cost remains under this value once you’ve add them together.

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Budget

Chris has $30,000 AMU to spend on his next car. To determine the budget for your car’s trim year, please download this .zip file and extract it, then open the spreadsheet.

CW7 Cost Calculator.zip (7.9 KB)

From there, you can check your car’s current used value by dividing its approximate price (as shown in the detailed stats section of the overview tab) by the corresponding reverse depreciation multiplier for its trim year. For example, a car that cost $30,000 AMU in 1995 would cost $20,000 by 2020 - well under Chris’ budget.

Cool Wall Priorities and Scoring

Coolness will be evaluated on a scale from -20 to +20; -20 is the “uncoolest” and +20 is the “coolest” on this scale. Other categories are worth up to 10, 5, or 2 points. For each category, the best car gets the highest value, the worst car gets the lowest one, and all other cars will have their value assigned in relation to those, rounded to the nearest tenth. For example (as seen in previous CWs):

The Trans Sport is the most practical and gets 10 points for practicality; the Seville, being the least practical, gets 0 points. The Astra’s practicality, being 1/3rd the difference between the best and worst cars in that regard, is 3.7. But what if we throw in a fourth car into the mix, in the form of a 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse?

Again, the Trans Sport scores 10 points. This time, however, the Eclipse has the lowest practicality and gets 0 points. Meanwhile, the Seville’s score is now 4.4 (2/5ths the difference), and the Astra’s is bumped up to 6.6 (3/5ths the difference).

Beyond coolness, Chris’ other priorities are as follows:

  • 10 points: Sportiness (including skidpad grip, top speed, and acceleration times), prestige, drivability, exterior design
  • 5 points: Reliability, comfort, current used value (for money)
  • 2 points: Service costs, fuel consumption, practicality, environmental resistance, safety (for its decade)
  • 1 point: Fully detailed interior, good choice of exterior colors
Cool Wall

Suggested cars will be ranked based on their horizontal position on the Cool Wall below.

You may suggest up to 5 cars for the Cool Wall until the deadline - be sure to state the car’s year each time. Any cars that have been suggested will not be added until August 9, 2024 at the earliest. However, you may replace one of your previous suggestions with another one until then, and you also do not have to send all your suggestions all at once.

Whatever cars you suggest, they must all be real-life passenger vehicles (this includes trucks, SUVs, and minivans), not fictional ones (and no, I’m not treating heavy commercial vehicles as valid suggestions). An invalid suggestion will not count against your quota, however.

Here is what the Cool Wall looks like as of now (August 28th 2024):

This should give you a rough idea of what Chris wants.

Submissions
  • Model/Family Name: CW7 - username (trim and variant are free, although you should name your car and engine regardless).

  • Rules discussion runs from now until August 9, 2024. Once the rules are set, submissions will be open from August 10, 2024 to September 14, 2024, anywhere on Earth. During this time, I will allow resubmissions in case of game updates. Also, you may send Cool Wall suggestions (which will be added ASAP) until the deadline, as long as you have not used up all of your suggestion chances.

  • Ads for submissions (consisting of at least one picture) can be submitted up to 24 hours after the deadline for .car files has passed.

Changelog

August 4 2024

  • Removed body style and drivetrain restrictions; these have now been replaced with score penalties
  • Added exterior design as a 10-point priority (in Chris’ own words: “If it looks right, then it is right… Most of the time.)”
  • Removed license plate dimensions penalty
  • Reduced excessive loudness penalty
  • Downgraded safety to a 2-point priority
  • Defined what constitutes a valid Cool Wall suggestion and what doesn’t
  • Deadline extended by 1 week and Cool Wall updated with new entries

August 18-28 2024

  • Cool Wall expanded further

September 14th 2024

  • Submissions to close on 11:59:59 pm, Cool Wall to be finalized (done!)

September 27th 2024

  • Coolness rankings released

September 29th 2024

  • Sportiness rankings released and added to overall scores

October 21st 202t

  • Scores corrected

Good luck, and have fun!

2 Likes

I have successfully imported the “.xlsx” calculator file into Google Sheets.

I could send you the link for editing permissions if you need to change the calculator.


Here’s the public link:

2 Likes

Like the sound of the challenge, might have already cooked something good for this.

But for now, here are som cool wall suggestions

Porsche 944 (1982)

Saab 900 turbo (yes I know production started 1978 which is before the challenges earliest year, but it was produced until 94 so…)

BMW E30 (1982)

Edit: forgot years for the cars

2 Likes

Would for example advanced 90s safety be OK on a 00s car? Especially considering that unlocking standard at the beginning of a decade needs techpool.

1 Like

This sounds great so far! I do have a few pointers, but overall I’m liking the brief.

Mainly, I would recommend making these minor penalties, not rules. Especially the body-styles one, since it severely cuts down the available variety of entries. Sure, the client may not prefer them, but a user should be able to take the challenge and try to fit one anyway; one of the quirks of cool wall is that what the client likes or needs isn’t always what they think they want; who knows, maybe someone manages to make a ute that does beat everything in stats? Or, maybe automation misclassifies a body as MPV, but as a participant’s entry reveals, it’s really more of a hatchback.

(also, given that these are used cars, it’s well possible for safety or emissions to have degraded over the years- this isn’t desirable, but again if a car is good enough the client may be willing to overlook this.

So as I understand, I don’t need plates at all, but if I do have plates, I can have them any size and shape I want as long as it isn’t Euro spec? :P

tbf, if you’re buying used cars, the original plate doesn’t really matter anyway since it’s often being replaced on sale; but if you do make it a penalty, maybe just request “unscaled US plates” for clarity.

Having this table in raw text in the post would be nice, in case a user doesn’t have Excel (or for their convenience)

I think this is a holdover from a previous challenge, since nowhere does it say ads are required? (And nor do I see any reason to require them)

But yeah, that’s all I have, take it at your discretion. This is looking awesome so far, I’m excited to get into it!

Since safety is on the priority list could it not be relaxed a little? Using the raw numbers a large ahs steel sedan on basic safety would probably be better than a fibreglass roadster with advanced safety, but the sedan would not actually be legal

I don’t know if I misunderstand you now, but if you ask me that’s actually a good reason to run a minimum safety standard. IRL, a land yacht on AHS steel would never run anything else than advanced safety. Making such a car with basic safety is nothing but Automation numbers cheese, that actually could do a clean sweep with more realistic designs.

What I am a bit oppossed against is just the imbalance. With no techpool, standard safety unlocks 1985, 1995, 2005 etc. IIRC. That means that if you build a 1989 car, you would be fine with standard 80s and can use your techpool in any way you want. If you instead build a 1990 car then, you either have to shell out for advanced 90s, or have to allocate a fair amount of techpool to safety. Then suddenly in 1995 you’re free to do how you want again. That’s both unfair and unbalanced IMO.

BTW, to test the waters a bit I want to add three cars to start with…

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1993 Alfa Romeo 155 V6


1980 Maserati Quattroporte


1995 Lotus Esprit S4

Saving the last two for when I see where the wall is heading.

4 Likes

I’ll start my cool wall submissions with two cars.


Third Gen Dodge Challenger (2008)


C4 Corvette (1983) [No idea if this is even an '83 model but sure.]

Good point. I’m considering downgrading the body style restriction to merely a score penalty.

In view of this, I could abolish the requirement for (unscaled) US-spec plates, and assume that they will be fitted upon purchase.

I might want to require them, just to ensure that I can notice entries more easily.

And regarding safety, I’ll also take into account the trim year of each submission when judging that particular criterion - which should convince me to push it down the priorities list a bit.

1 Like

Lexus SC430

2 Likes

Some… different suggestions for the Wall of Coolness incoming:

1999 Mazda Xedos 6 2.0 V6 SE Auto

2003 Citroen Saxo Desire 1.1L
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1982 Ford Sierra Estate
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1989 Ford Escort XR3i

1988 Austin Metro Vanden Plas

2 Likes

Alright got a few.

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1984 Reliant Robin (Rialto?)


1985 Zastava Yugo


1983 Ferrari Mondial


1990 HM Ambassador


1990 Toyota Corolla

4 Likes

Lemme stick up a few contestants real quick

2005-2008 Dodge Magnum SRT8

2004-2009 Honda S2000

Will save the rest for once its open

4 Likes

ok my first 3:

2001 Renault Clio V6

2011 Hyundai Veloster
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1990 (or any year really they’re all the same) Caterham 7

5 Likes

2001 Honda Integra Type-R


1994 Land Rover Defender 130 Pick-up

1980 Porsche 930

1994 Daihatsu Charade DeTomaso

1993 Jaguar XJ220S by TWR

These are the 5 cars I choose

3 Likes

I have two for the meantime:


2018 Subaru BRZ


2016 Opel/Buick/Holden etc. Cascada

1 Like

oh boy i love doing this :+1:

2011 Lexus LFA

2024 BigMacWhopper M5

1973 Porsche 917/30

1947 TAMA Electric Car

1978 ThyssenKrupp Bagger 288

4 Likes

There’s only 3 10 point priorities, I wouldn’t mind if some more 10 points priorities were added

2016 Peugeot RCZ-R


2016 Citroen e-mehari


2001 Peugeot 406 coupe


1990 Citroen BX GTI 16v


1993 Renault Safrane BiTurbo

1993 Renault safrane biturbo

2 Likes