For public note: I am reversing Knugcab’s fixture violation from the last time because I misunderstood the PM he sent me during the round, and failed to specify something critical.
To that end, I will clarify it NOW so that it’s public (as well as update the round 8 thread to be more specific): The parking lights and turn signals CANNOT be part of the same lens/fixture. They CAN be in the same fixture ONLY if they have significant separation. For instance, turn signals on the outboard side of the headlights and parking lights on the inboard side of the headlights (so P and T lights do NOT touch at all)
Notes:
- I am updating my lore threads with a bunch of back models before I put this in. Design is already done and finalized, in any case.
- If anyone wants some RP fodder to use in May 1978 or later and wants to “borrow” (or steal) a designer for one to two models in their RP (rounds 9 and 10), let me know. US- or UK-based manufacturers only. For RP purposes. PM me if interested. Offer expires whenever someone accepts or this Friday, whichever comes first.
- I have downloaded the latest HardRooster mods. If my computer was playing nice, anyway. So those are available for this round.
Epoch M30 Augustus 27
Are you ready for the new dawn of motoring for only $3,077?
Sorry, not enough time to flesh out advert or lore at the moment. I will fill in when I can.
At least it added some spice to the RPing. 
Michael Bogliq replaces Konstantin as CEO
Bogliq USA HQ, Detroit, MI
October 20, 1973
At exactly 10:00AM, the doors to the great conference hall are closed and the press briefing begins. Konstantin waits until the audience quieten down before beginning his speech:
"Thankyou all for coming here today. I have been the CEO of Bogliq USA since 1930 and I’ve overseen the growth of a company from a glimmer in my eye to a behemoth that has a finger in every pie. Bogliq USA employs thousands of Americans and there’s a Bogliq in one out of every five driveways throughout this fine nation. We’re considered an American icon, like cheerleaders or apple pie, yet we’ve successfully usurped older, more established players, like Ardent, for the hearts of Middle America. In short, I’ve seen, achieved and experienced a lot since those early days of 1930.
But the market is changing. New rules and regulations need to be adhered to. More power and performance cannot come at the expense of increased fuel consumption. Customers expect more from their cars than just simple transportation. These changes have to be implemented without a substantial increase in cost of ownership. This requires flexibility, energy and vitality; assets that are no longer mine to give. Therefore, effective immediately, I hereby resign as CEO and hand over the reigns to my son. Michael Bogliq!"
Just then, an aide to the CEO steps up to Konstantin and whispers furiously into his ear. Konstantin continued to speak:
“Excuse me a minute folks, before I hand over to Michael, I have another announcement to make. OPEC has just slapped an embargo on the US for our support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War… Oil is now four times as expensive as it was yesterday. Batten down the hatches folks, America is in for a bumpy ride!”
The room erupted into a chaos of noise and furious speculation. The America of old was dead. Just as the standing down of Konstantin as CEO represented a unknown new direction for Bogliq, the Oil Crisis would thrust the American car market into a new direction, for which no-one was prepared to deal with. Konstantin, at least, no longer had to worry; he was headed home, back to Moldova, to reconnect with his roots and spend time chasing down the ghosts of his memories…
1979 Sakura Ronin ES-T
Economy for a great price.
33mpg at highway speeds, 29mpg combined, for only $2,660.
Detroit Michigan 1978
In a ceremony held before a handful of loyal stockholders at Olympus headquarters, CEO William Bennett cedes power to the children of Olympus Motor Group founder and former CEO Dale Rathbone. After suffering a heart attack in 1967 (as well as another in 1974 after Nixon resigned and left that bumbling Ford in charge), Dale had been resting easy in retirement. His wife had taken his seat on the board of directors and had run the company admirably, hiring Bennett as CEO, as well as overseeing many of the companies financial maneuverings that had allowed it to survive the 1970s (during which, a gas shortage had pushed the American people to turn more towards imports and other compact vehicles; a move that helped OMG was the positive branding of Pegasus, as America’s very own compact vehicle brand). Now, a 77 year old, slightly frail man was making one last ceremonial gesture for the company he gave birth to; a ceremonial handing of the keys to the company from its current CEO, William Bennet, to its new CEO, Anne Marie Rathbone. For his 11 years of service, William Bennet was given Joe Rathbone’s seat on the board of directors, as assistant chairman; Anne Marie would also be appointed to be the chairman of the board of directors.
Many investors were taken aback as the announcement was made that the Rathbones’ 2nd born, a woman (remember this is the 1970s, so this would have been unusual) would be named chairman and CEO over her older brother. The Rathbones knew better. Dale Joseph had attended the University of Michigan, where he studied business, and then went to Harvard University where he studied law. Along the way, he had taken an interest in politics with his friend and roommate, Bill Clinton. Dale came home to tell his family that he would be running for public office. Indeed, in 1975, he was voted to the Novi city council. His intentions were to run for senate, possibly governor, and quite possibly president of the United States. Anne Marie on the other hand, had attended Northwestern University, and had studied engineering. When she got her masters degree, she announced her intention to lead the company into the next millennium. The Rathbones’ youngest son, Aaron Rathbone, had moved to Hollywood to pursue a career in film.
The room applauded! Everyone was happy. Olympus was once again a family company. The press release was in The Financial Times magazine opposite page of the following advertisement.
Early 1978 - FHL Proving Grounds
In the wake of the 1973 Oil Crisis, FHL fast tracked the replacement of the Fenton LE and Everette Bellevue in order to meet consumer demand for better fuel economy. Efforts were at first hilariously ineffective due to the limited toolkit with which they had to work in addition to new emissions regulations which vampirically sapped power from engines. The initial second gen Bellevue marks came on the market in 1975 with the base 5.5L big block V8 becoming the top option and replaced by the 4.8L small block. And on a good day when the planets lined up they achieved perhaps 11.2 mpg. After the Fenton LE ended production in 1976, the big block option went entirely and the engine was downsized again with the 4.1L V8 becoming the base and the 4.5L becoming top option.
FHL rose to the challenge however and began developing a new V6 engine based on the 90 degree V6 then in production to provide the power and efficiency needed, not just for the economy minded public (which by 1976 was starting to lose some of their interest in economy and go back to large cars), but for the looming beast of Corporate Average Fuel Economy – CAFE. The emerging V6 was an overhead cam design with a new thing called “electronic fuel injection”, or EFI, and was supposed to debut in the 1979 Everette Bellevue. FHL president, Buck Whittaker, visits the FHL proving grounds to survey the progress with the new engine.
As Buck sat in the driver seat of the prototype Bellevue, he looked a little bewildered and the attending engineers were catching on. Buck was stuck in his ways and largely baffled at the ease with which people could carry out the various aspects of their lives. He was a competent businessman, yes, but hadn’t much in the way of practical skills.
“What’s with the shift pattern in this thing?” He asked. “Why is Park up at the top?”
Everette division head, Bill Waterson, who was also in attendance asked the question others were afraid to, on account of possibly looking stupid in front of the man who could end their careers.
“I’m not sure I understand. What do you mean?” He asked.
“Well the shift pattern in my car is Reverse, Neutral, Drive, Low, Park. This one has Park above reverse. Its just a little weird thats all.” Buck replied.
“Hmm. I mean if thats what you’re used to. But the automatic shift pattern has been the same on all our cars since 1967 – Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, Low.” Bill retorted.
Buck messed around with bits of the dash for a few seconds, even going as far as to bend down and inspect underneath it.
“Where is the choke on this thing?” He asked.
All of the engineers looked at each other in utter bewilderment. They were all think it; Was this guy serious?
Bill stammered out an explanation “Umm, theres… no manual choke. In fact this car has a completely new fuel system called ‘fuel injection’ – it doesn’t even have a choke, manual or automatic. I thought we went over this.”
“Huh. Well I gotta say, I a little bit lost on this thing.” Buck said with a chuckle.
“Its very simple. You just turn key.” said Bill, beginning to get as confused as the other engineers. Finally his curiousity got the better of him. How did the head of a major automaker know so little about cars?
“Buck, what the hell do you drive anyways?” he asked in a somewhat surprised manner.
Buck pondered for a second. “Uh, '65 ZL335”
Bill’s jaw dropped wide open. “Wait… you mean to tell me you’re the one that drives the piece-of-shit ZL into HQ everyday? The one with the rusted quarters and blown rear shocks?”
“Uh yeah. And…” said Buck matter-of-factly, somewhat aloof of why that might be a problem.
“Buck…” was all Bill could manage for a second.
“Well I mean it runs just fine. You give tires and oil and it just keeps going.”
Bill almost hit himself over the head he was so flabbergasted. “Buck, I’ve seen that thing stop three lanes of traffic because it burns so much oil. You need a new car. Or to take better care of your car – no offense.”
“Eh, none taken.” Buck said, still not quite sure what the issue was. “You’re just watching out for me I suppose. I mean, I try to take care. But I just get so caught up… you know?”
Bill laughed a little. It was the only reaction that was even occurring to him. He couldn’t believe his boss was driving a car that looked like it came from one of Detroit’s ghettos.
“Buck, tell you what,” he said. “We need to get test miles on the new Bellevues before launch. You go ahead and take this one since clearly you could use it.”
“And it might be good for us to know how this car is likely to get treated.” He said a little quieter, turning towards the engineers. They all exchanged discrete grins.
“Alrighty then. You sure that won’t be a problem?” Buck asked.
“We’ve got several other vehicles. It should be no issue.” Bill said.
All the test miles on the new engines got most of the bugs worked out before launch. The 1979 Bellevue came to market finally able to bring something resembling fuel economy twith it, getting almost 20 MPG highway and 15 combined.
1979
-
Hamston : i guess we were lucky with the timing for the Sublime wasn’t we? importing our more efficient euro models over here. and suddenly fuel crisis.
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Grudsen : can’t fault you on that. our sales barely budged whereas those landships were barely selling after the crisis struck
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Blake : anyway, let’s start with this show shall coughcough. pardon me
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Hamston : you okay there sir?
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Blake : i’m okay… just for now… but Grudsen. if i can’t make it to the end for some reason, i need you to be ready to replace me on stage
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Hamston : Yes sir
Well, I bit the bullet, got some new air-coolers that fit my rig. Still undecided as to whether to continue in the competition, though.
After all, I missed the era where I could’ve thrown the 662 big-block in the Savage.
Still, Malaise Era… Possibly a time for the 2600 to shine.
Link to the Lore
Sinistra Motors Headquarters, Nevada, 1979
“You guys need to stop doing burnouts in the Bogliq parking lot.” Luke demanded, looking at his employees with a grim look on his face. “I just got a fuckin’ phone call after one of you idiots got themselves busted making fish-hooks with the new Traville. They’ve threatened legal action if it keeps happening, and I’m tired of not being able to find my employees when they’re needed most. This shit cost us a spot in Motor World Review, because no one was available to deliver the Savage 662.”
“Sorry boss.” Andrea said. “Guess we got carried away harassing the outsiders, cost us a bit more than intended.”
“Just sell the cars, please. I get it, burnouts are fun, and everyone wants to leave their mark in the competition’s parking lot, but we need to grow up as a company, and leave the childish pranks to the newcomers.” Luke said.
Just then, an almighty screech and a crash erupted in the parking lot. Luke sighed as Mark arrived, then said, “Sorry, Luke. Bald tires, wet spot on the pavement. Kinda wrecked my Traville and your Savage.”
“That’s coming out of your fuckin’ paycheck. I just gave a lecture on not doing burnouts in the competitors’ parking lots, and you come here, having done exactly that.”
1974
The fallout of the complete failure of Rado’s first “attempt” to enter the passenger car market was immense. Stock had fallen 30%, sales on Rado’s vans and trucks were down significantly, and the CEO and other officials implicated in the scandal were forced to resign. The company was pretty much forced to temporarily pull out of the standard vehicle market until they could come up with something better. After all, if Rado had issues designing an almost completely new vehicle in the late 60s, they certainly couldn’t design one after the disaster that was the Rado Communt. Then, a new plan arrived…
1975-1976
The plan was to take their existing long-wheelbase van platform and make it narrower so they could fit a standard wagon body on it, then they would debore and destroke the existing 2.8 liter/171ci engine to a smaller amount However, using a modified van platform would have several problems, such as the fact that the car had solid axles front and rear, and the fact that the car was less fuel efficient than it’s rivals. In the end though, Rado leadership decided that the cost savings of adapting existing parts to a new market outweighed the disadvantages, and leadership ended up narrowly voting for the plan, and it would form the basis of Rado’s next car.
Erin’s top end luxury limousine in the 1970s was called the Nedala. The ill-fated Mk II variant launched in 1978, having been conceived by a board of directors who had no idea what the market wanted.
The Nedala Mk II was an incredible advanced car at the time in terms of luxury features. On the top end GT12 trim, features included electric reclining seats, a champagne cooler, a specially designed Marantz sound system - that was, at the time, the most expensive in-car audio system ever fitted to a production car - in car telephone and more.
It’s most famous feature, however, was its 395 hp 5.4l V12. It could push this behemoth from 0-60 in 7.7 seconds and onto a top speed of 151 mph. It was the fastest four-door production car ever made at the time.
But it came at the wrong time, particular for its home UK market where the economy was a mess and for the US market where fuel prices were almost fluid in how much they changed. For a car that barely averaged 10 UK MPG, it was doomed from the start.
No matter how comfortable, how well equipped or how nice to drive the Nedala Mk II was, it was fated from the beginning. Launching in September 1978, initial sales were promising. But by January 1979, units had stopped shifting - they’d essentially run out of buyers who could actually afford the £200k+ (in today’s money) price tag of this thing - forcing Erin to slash prices.
Soon enough, the losses were overwhelming, and combined with poor sales across the range, bad press which damaged the company’s image and a dispute between the CEO Marco Erin and his Board Of Directors who had pushed for this car so much, Erin went into financial ruin and was forced cut huge numbers of jobs and end production of all but two of their models.
An outstandinly well built and well engineered car, that today is still revered for its incredible levels of comfort and complacency on the road, that was a insanely stupid idea from the start, totally unfeasible when it came to fuel costs and one that fully highlighted the bad status of Erin’s management in the latter half of the 1970s.
I would like to contest the claim about being the fastest 4-door production car, though I will gladly concede it as the fastest four-door luxury car.
Uh oh… Sinistra vs. Erin… MORTAL KOMBAT!!
Yes, when it comes to the british car industry, the asians always win…
