I’ve no interest in that record, as I’m only inclined to build cars that have enough ventilation to make more than one pass lol.
Also it’s taken me a while to come to grips with this build. But don’t worry, aside from that April Fools car, you’ll be seeing some true GG cars in the future!
Damn nice. I expect every person with more money than sense would drool over that. Or spit their lunch out all over their screen (like I nearly did) when they read 1751hp:kg towards the top of the post, which sounds a bit too brutal, even for Gryphon Gear 
W-w-what? Too brutal for GG???
Rubbish!
But if you feel that is too much for your speed, don’t despair. We do have another car coming out that is much, erm, “milder”. By which I mean a flame spitting, turbo spooling, tyre shredding megacar the likes the world has never seen… Wait 
Oh, you’ll understand when I reveal it!
[quote=“strop”]W-w-what? Too brutal for GG???
Rubbish!
[/quote]
Well, 1751hp per kilogram could be kinda extreme, I kinda get Cheeseman’s point.
OH!
Oops, I thought I had fixed that 
I can only imagine what would happen if it were 1751hp:kg… tyres explode wheels fall off car launches off into ionosphere
[size=150]You will have me? I shall have you![/size]
[size=200]T[/size]he world seems to have progressively abandoned a certain purity and loyalty in the ever evolving face of cutting-edge performance. The ancient wisdom that decreed that FR would reign supreme is all but a distant memory, consigned to the chest-beating primitive bellows of tail-happy American muscle and peppy miniature Japanese budget models. Enthusiasts fondly look upon these with a mixture of all kinds of emotions and adjectives. Lairy, bezerk, grunty on one hand. Sprightly, fun, balanced on the other.
All euphemisms for the fact they all seem to get left in the dust by just about every other format bar the obvious econobox FF. Is it just a tradition that supercars are almost invariably MR? Or that there are so many dominant AWD cars in performance? Perhaps you might point out that the newest crop of America’s finest actually do hustle around the track superbly, but is not telling that reporters would care to emphasise such a point? When it doesn’t whiff of a certain kind of desperation, it merely highlights the historical precedent that they are desperate to shed. And let us not get the elements of the picture mixed up: such things as the Viper ACR and Corvette ZR-1 are definitely fast in every way shape and form. You could even say they’ve truly shaken off the hoodoo of horrid engineering and “bloatware” from the last few decades. And they’re quite amazing value, at that. But the ground they break is a world apart from the ground being broken by the cars even greater than the supercars.
If I expanded this picture beyond the rather simplistic frame I’ve drawn up, there would be a few more significant contributions to the FR supercar world, such as the classic range of Aston Martin, notably the One-77, and the DB9 it was based on. It would also include the Lexus LFA. Again, wonderful cars with great performance, but, for their hype and their pomp, I can’t help but feel they fall short of the mark. And the real point is, pretty much ever since the Miura, when one says ‘supercar’, most people think ‘not front-engined’. And so it seems to have become firmly esconced in practice, with each new generations of superlatives. The real question is, where’s the FR hypercar?
The good news is, I just so happen to have one for you.
[size=200]Introducing: [color=#FFBF40]Ascension Daeva[/color][/size]
Are you a motoring purist? A true fan of the beloved FR and its versatility and driving characteristics? Are you tired of making compromises whenever talking about your FR cars versus just about everything else when you know they’re just not as fast around the track, that there’s no true FR car that’s made a real impact on performance benchmarks? Have you ended up resorting to nationalistic redneck rants about how to “drive your car properly” and “always use the red key”, or expounding on petty unbalanced comparisons like how your track-tuned top level trim car in slicks can spank the hell out of the base model stock tyres AWD “overpriced Japanese piece of shit”?
Daeva is your new goddess, and she is well displeased with your sins.
As the amalgamation of everything that a road-legal FR car has never achieved, Daeva is truly unique. She is unique from the point of view of the automotive industry, being the first FR car to achieve hypercar performance on par with the likes of a Huayra, Agera, 918, P1, LaFerrari, and now Aventador. This is a car which represents a broadening of the GG repertoire: adding balance and poise on a knife-edge to our customary brute thrust, to yield an unequivocal sub 7-minute Nordschleife time. This is achieved through a combination of a megawatt powerplant, GG’s exclusive tyre compound, a stiff and ultralight CF chassis, and a complement of LSD, active wing, flaps and sway bars to enhance cornering and braking. In fact, Daeva uses an independent split flaps and wing system to provide downforce where required, when required.
You may have noticed the subtle shark fin on the roof. Daeva is also unique from the point of view of GG itself for many reasons, one being that this is the first GG production car to have an inbuilt infotainment system of any kind. This one has integrated into it the hydro-electronic control interface. It includes a basic 4 speaker (2 tweeter, two sub) system (for which we obviously outsourced supply), but as with every part of GG, we’ve selected a top end company supplying superior parts. Daeva also happens to have a boot 
though, admittedly, access to it via the rear hatch is somewhat delicate, as the rear wing has a fair amount of hydraulics attached to it, so in reality, there’ll be no shoving any IKEA tallboy flatpacks in there and tying the bootlid down! But a boot is a boot, and while it carries only a space saver, these are the first hints of a car aimed for a wider (and I’m aware of the somewhat esoteric perspective from which I say wider) range of real-world uses than driving to the track. It also has proper bucket racing seats which are individually moulded to each occupant, and our usual recommended minimum 5 point harness, so you’ll be just as planted stationary as when you’re pulling 2 lateral g at 270km/h.
Another unique point is the build costs. This is the first GG car to also have a reduced engineering and production budget (that is to say, the first of the official GG lineup in which I have not simply yanked the sliders to maximum). This represents a saving of in excess of 50K in total costs, or nearly 20K in material costs plus about 1200 production units for each model, pointing towards a reduced price relative to the hypercar crop, and, importantly for a small factory of increasing reputation, increased production. But true to the GG ethos, we did not skimp on the engine or the drivetrain, nor our usual tyres.
Now for the biggest surprise yet: Daeva comes in two trims. While their official names are [color=#0040FF]Aesma[/color] and [color=#FF0000]Indra[/color], it may be easier to think of them as the “European” and “American” version.
[size=150]Aesma vs Indra: What’s the difference?[/size]
Even at the pinnacle of performance, there is often more than one approach to yield the top result. The other cars I’ve mentioned here already demonstrate this in abundance. Daeva takes this one step further, by producing a hypercar with the same chassis and performance package… and two mutually exclusive philosophies, encapsulated by their engines and their drivetrains. Both are front-engined, RWD 6 speeders. Both engines produce exactly 1MW at peak. And with almost identical weights and dynamics, both cars are capable of sub 7-minute Nordschleife laps. But both take completely different paths to achieve this.
[color=#0040FF]Aesma[/color] (the European)
This is the path of forced induction, an angry 5.8L i6 with a carefully boosted turbo to yield over 1300Nm from just a smidge over 3000rpm almost all the way to the redline of 8000rpm. Mated to the already proven minimal lag and shift pause sequential DCT, Aesma is a flappy-paddle affair, and with the launch and traction control keeping busy with all that boosted power surging to the wheels, she’ll rocket to the quarter mile in under ten seconds. Of the two, Aesma is more economical, with mixed economy figures of 14.2L/100km, quieter, and more reliable. But the turbo and the lag saps responsiveness, and exits from corners were a little more difficult.
[color=#FF0000]Indra[/color] (the American)
This is the path of 'MURICA, FUCK YEAH. While not quite an OHV affair (GG doesn’t, and generally can’t do OHV, especially not a megawatt engine!), this is a giant NA V8 (crossplane, naturally), the big weiner, the Viper-dwarfing blockbuster. 545ci of beer swilling, fire breathing oversquare grunt, with a power curve that progresses evenly through the revs until the business end where all hell breaks loose until the redline of an astonishing 9100rpm. With an engine like this, of course, no self-respecting driver with a giant pair is going to insist on any less than rowing their own, hence this also is the first GG car with a trim that offers a traditional manual transmission, with the shortest, crispest throws and the most precise clutch travel we could find. Thus its speed off the mark is only as fast as your shifting is good, and the fuel economy is probably just as bad, if not worse than a Viper’s, at a smidge under 20L/100km, or just under 12mpg. It’s also a bit louder, by which I mean literally 10 times as loud, probably deafening you as the sound reverberates around the cabin and rattles your very soul. Part of the reason for the loudness, aside from the bigger engine, more cylinders and higher redline, is the less restricted exhaust, a rigorously engineered and balanced tubular affair that also contributes to a significant increase in price for this model. But the response is unadultered, the pedal feel more predictable, and thus the car more controllable, even, and perhaps especially, if you want to kick the tail out and throw up some smoke. Testing revealed that even with the manual shifting, this was the quicker car around a technical track, with the notable theoretical exception of Pikes Peak, due to the power loss suffered by NA engines from the altitude.
Where Aesma seemed like the relative, and I do mean relative, paragon of refinement, we felt the Indra embraced a vision so overbearingly testosterone-fuelled we had our new testing and racing consultant, Touring Car racer Sam Neil, write the foreword of Indra’s service manual himself. I don’t dare proofread it.
Either way, Daeva stands as a demonstration of the impossible made possible, and beyond that, a duality of possibilities. While the two trims appeal to vastly different types of people, whether it be the one favouring the cutting edge of technology, or the one favouring a visceral, tactile rawness, all are united by their love of fast and pure, the original front-engined, rear wheel drive sports coupe taken to its ultimate extreme.
SPECIFICATIONS:
You may have noticed that despite being manual and apparently slower in a straight line, the [color=#FF0000]Indra[/color] is significantly more expensive. Why? That’s by virtue of the race headers, which make it significantly more time consuming. As far as a sports car experience goes, Indra is also more engaging, with a fuller, more dramatic exhaust note, more of a hardcore driver’s car. And it’s faster around the track (6:58.57 around Green Hell compared to [color=#0040FF]Aesma[/color]'s 6:59.87, from a standing start). Not to mention that this is a row your own with hypercar performance, which is unheard of.
As a result of this discrepancy, Indra will be the rarer of the two trims, where production is expected to total approximately 50 units a year, there will be about 30 Aesma for every 20 Indra.
Great backside! Looks really good. 
I also like the presentation and the comparison. 
Nice work Strop, I’ll take one Daeva Indra thanks, to help encourage our engineers to do a better job!
All that quality slider abuse makes my Znopresk gland hurt so badly
Intresting work however.
You seem to have made a typo which makes my Skoda 50 times more powerful.
[quote=“Kubboz”]You seem to have made a typo which makes my Skoda 50 times more powerful.
God damnit, first the hp:kg thing, now this xD good spot.
Yeah I know… The engine sliders are still all 15+
Except for the race headers. There’s actually very little in terms of performance boost up there so I think it’s more like 11 or 12 <_< as for the rest, body got dropped to 10, brakes to 11, entertainment and driving aids to 10 (because damn high tech on entertainment makes it heavy), and suspension to 6 or something. Lap times were only minimally affected, and yes, the tech sliders are still way up there, but as a result the cars have total costs of like 120000 and 135000, prod. Units 2000 and 2400 respectively, which is a lot less than my usual 200k+ and 4000 unlts.
Bottom line is, FR cars are hard to make super fast. I might next look to see just how cheap a hypercar can be, but I won’t expect it to be a GG product >_>
I should commission to GG the tuning of the “everyone supercar” Znopresk Zeus 
If you are serious about that, I would be honoured to. It’d be the obvious step to tuning something fast but affordable… a more realistic dream for the real world!
I’ll send you the car (and probably I’ll rebuild it) once the new game update is available.
Deal?
[quote=“NormanVauxhall”]I’ll send you the car (and probably I’ll rebuild it) once the new game update is available.
Deal? [/quote]
Ok! Any restrictions you wish to place on it to honour the Znopresk spirit, I’ll honour them.
Though I don’t have any time at the moment so it’ll probably be some weeks before I really get to it. But thanks!
Hi guys. Been a while, but it’s always a while between me coming up with new stuff. Also, as I said elsewhere, I was planning to hold a BSLL2 soon, but due to too many work commitments, I’ll have to postpone it, probably until this time next year. Besides, as far as story writing goes, BSLL events are actually quite important to the direction of this company, and Cen and I need to catch up with the plot lol. Also, not writing BSLL2 allows me to actually finish the thing that I really need to be finishing, that Mille Cavalli Shootout from last June 
But before that, I do have something for you. You can see where it came from, based on the conversation right above, in this thread. It occurred to me that our economic situation as a whole could stand to really hurt the bespoke car companies, particularly in Australia, and that Gryphon Gear, with its low profit, high overheads, low unit turnover, would be especially vulnerable when a volatile market implodes. I’m no economist, but I’ve attempted to explain why, and thus the rationale for this new partnership in a short story below. I tried to make it a bit entertaining, but I honestly don’t know how entertaining or dramatic you can make talking about economics 
Anyway, if stories are too much for you, just skip ahead to the car presentation at the end of the post.
A few notes/disclaimers:
[ul]]There are a few expletives in the story. I don’t censor stuff often./:m]
]Sadly, I had a story to go with the Mercury presentation but never posted it. It took place between the end of the first BSLL and this story. Some of the dynamics and the reactions to certain things would probably make more sense if I had posted it, but I’ll have to settle for posting it later./:m]
]The characters’ opinions are their own, and not necessarily that of the author. Except Strop. It’s fairly safe to say that Strop’s opinion as voiced in stories tends to match my own 
/:m][/ul]
[size=200]T[/size]he gang knew something was wrong when they piled into the darkened board room for their Quarterly Meeting and the only Board Executive there was Dan. Little mousy Dan, in her powerdressing finest, smacking the end of her riding crop in her palm.
Immediately Strop’s hair prickled on end, pupils dilating, and he would have bolted from the room if not for that big lug Boden, who was in the laborious process of squeezing himself through the door. Pushing through the palpably heavy atmosphere, they sat down one by one: Strop, chief designer and concept artist; Hannah, founder and chief engineer; Boden, Hannah’s husband, head of mechanics and fabrication; Tesla, former “tool bitch” turned second-in-charge of mechanics; Hunter, overqualified materials specialist; Luca and Isla, twins and floor managers of Gryphon Gear’s two production lines; Noah, head of electrics, who was dragging along resident computer nerd Waxwell. Kai, their semi-tame test driver, shuffled in and diffidently plonked himself into the chair at the far end, swung his feet onto the table, and promptly fell asleep. Finally, the well-antlered manager behind the scenes, Assistant to Dan and Executive Liaison, dubbed the Deerector, slid into a seat on the opposite side of the table and glared at them balefully.
“I’ll get straight to the point,” Dan snapped, cutting through the confusion before anybody could ask her what was going on. “We’ve done well up to this point, but financially, Australia’s going to go to shit for a couple of years, and that’s going to hit us hard.”
Hannah, arms folded, was first to comment: “Dan, haven’t we been seeing this coming since we started this company? Why this now?”
“Because it’s worse than even we thought.” Dan tapped the board and it lit up, flooding the room with a flourescent glare and making everybody cringe. “This pie chart shows us where our money is coming from.” She jabbed the especially dominant red slice of the pie with her riding crop. “And suffice to say about two thirds of our sales come from China. More specifically the nouveau riche who have ridden China’s boom and suddenly have so much money they want to buy everything we have for sale. It works for us, because we think we make the fastest cars in the world, to them, we make mega status symbols, and that’s what these guys want.”
Not accustomed to the abstract concepts of economics, Hannah frowned. “What’s your point? That if the market goes arse up we’ll lose all of our customers?”
“Sort of, but worse.” Dan tapped the screen again. “That was just to point out that we as a company are dependent on the Chinese just as much as Australia as a whole is dependent on China. We’re their number one source of raw material exports because they’ve been industralising. That’s one reason why we didn’t feel the effects of the 2008 GFC nearly as bad as elsewhere around the world.”
“Bullshit,” Hannah bristled, almost rising out of her chair. “We felt it alright. Or at least I did, even if you didn’t. All our local car manufacturing and fruit companies wouldn’t just go under if we weren’t in trouble would they?”
At this, Dan’s demeanour almost softened, but she remained even. “You’re right, Hannah. I never forgot what you went through, or why we’re even here in the first place. But that’s the truth, and that’s why it’s worse than we think. Holden, Ford, Toyota and Mitsubishi pulling out of Australia just goes to show how little we’ve done to create a viable export industry outside of cows and coal. The cows is, well, that’s a story for another time. As for the coal, let’s just say if China’s running out of steam, and most of the number crunchers think it is, then most of Western Australia is going to turn into a ghost state faster than you can say FIFO. Hell, it’s already happening.” Dan pointed to the graphs labelled Mining Export Profits and ChiNext Index, both of which featured a precipitous dip after a surging boom, like the power graph on an 90s VTEC engine. “Export dries up further. Consumer confidence will be shattered. Nobody will buy anything, and since our governments in their vote chasing wisdom didn’t invest in the future, our future, which is becoming our present, is going to be fucked, because our own economy finally goes into a long overdue recession, and this time, it’s going to be a deep one.”
With the exception of Kai, who was asleep, and Waxwell, who was playing with his phone, most of the rest sat in silence, too oppressed by the intensity of the talk and the Deerector’s censoring glare to say anything, so they left it to Hannah, who was currently rubbing her forehead. “I thought you said you were getting straight to the point Dan.”
“I am. But if I didn’t say all of this now, you’d drag it out of me after what I’m about to say next, only you wouldn’t be listening. I know you guys.”
Hannah and Dan glared at each other. “We’re not going to like what you have to say are we.”
“No.” Dan took a breath, drawing an imperceptibly raised eyebrow from Strop- a moment of nervousness? But he didn’t even have time to process that nor brace for impact before Dan made the pronouncement: “We can’t make any more million dollar cars.”
Somebody had thrown the windows open, the glacial gust of Melbourne’s rain laden wind blowing through the room and dropping the temperature a good ten degrees. Everybody stiffened as one, and even Kai woke up, jerking upright in his chair. “Did you just say no more Mephisto? No more Mercury?”
“ESPECIALLY no more Mephisto,” Dan emphasised. Kai threw up his hands in disgust. “This can’t be! Hannah, do something!”
Hannah needed no instruction, for she was already fuming. “The Board put you up to this didn’t they, that’s why they aren’t here now. You call them up right now so I can give them a piece of my mind and tell them where to shove that suggestion of theirs!”
Dan sighed and maintained her glare at Hannah. “It’s not a suggestion. And yelling at the Board won’t save our company. I for one agree with them.” Boden reflexively put his hands on his wife’s shoulders, but she shook them off, jumping up and knocking her chair over where it clanged on the floor, making everybody else jump.
“You say you haven’t forgotten what I went through, but have you forgotten what this company means!?” she shrieked. “This is an Australian company. We’re resilient! We’re determined! We’ll rise from the ashes of the past and be who we are and whoever doesn’t like it can get stuffed. And now you’re saying we can’t be who we are?”
“Hannah, could you keep being who you are if you ceased to exist?”
“That’s not the point!” Hannah would have jabbed her pointy nail directly into Dan’s nose if not for Boden’s restraining hands. “You can draw all your pretty graphs to paint doom and gloom all you like, but we’ve worked our asses off to come this far in just a couple of years. I know our bottom line is good. We turn a profit. We have plenty of contacts and sponsorships. And all our people are good people who came together under this vision and like hell I’ll let the Board change that or lay anybody off!”
“Which is precisely why it’s our responsibility to respond to the situation to alter our business model to one that ensures our survival,” Dan hissed back.
“Wait wait hold up for a minute,” Strop belatedly found both his voice and his cojones. “Do you mean to say that we’ll be going back to scrounging a living off making sportier versions of affordable shitboxes? Because I don’t think any of us would be cool with that.”
“No, if you would let me explain-”
But Hannah, too fired up to wait, jumped in first. “Do you realise just how much impact such a shift will have on all of our staff? How much we’d lose in operations, shuffling logistics? There’ll always be customers for our cars and we’ve already sold out our entire production run of Mercury and Daeva in preorders and you want us to cancel that?”
“Sorry for the interruption.” This time it was Luca and Isla, barely audible in the rising volume of the argument. “The production of Mercury and Daeva need to be stopped when?”
“I bet you I know where this is really going, this is a bait and switch isn’t it. You’re going to say actually no, there’s a way to save the production line and cut the racing team aren’t you. You can’t fool me, I know the Board’s been opposed to our racing from the get-go and-”
“If we stop producing cutting edge tech we might as well be dead in the water, because it’ll be a capitulation and all come snowballing down…” That was Hunter, for whom the penny had just dropped that his tenure in particular was in potential jeopardy.
“No Mephisto is simply unacceptable. Unacceptable! Where will the rock stars get their two thousand horsepower cars from then? That shop that does up Gallardos??” No prizes for guessing who that was.
By this point, most everybody had gotten to their feet and were inching closer to Dan while barraging her with their questions. As commanding a presence as she was, she was also the second shortest there, and against nine raging beasts (okay, more like one furious, one merely angry, two concerned, four confused, and one not even paying attention), her diminutive stature placed a hard limit on her effectiveness. She drew her arm back, about to resort to the crop, when a hand reached out and closed around the crop. Momentum broken, Dan looked up, as did everybody else, to find the Deerector had also risen, towering antlers nearly scraping the ceiling. Second in stature only to Boden, but with a multitude more pointy bits and a far more curmudgeonly demeanour, everybody collectively agreed that it was wiser to stop arguing.
“Everybody,” the Deerector spoke with barely more than a murmur. “I suggest you all resume your seats, so that Dan may finish her explanation, after which you may ask questions.”
Sufficiently muted, in Hannah’s case muted but fuming, everybody did as told, and Dan kept going as if nothing had happened. “Thank you. To address Hannah’s point about our present finances, our problem is that since the conglomeration of local parts manufacturers went arse up along with the big players since everybody started outsourcing parts, labour and finally product, even if we assemble everything locally and make many of the parts ourselves, we still import materials from everywhere. Our engines are the biggest culprit, since we subcontracted the one major firm in Germany who makes magnesium blocks, and that’s just one example. All that is probably going to get a hell of a lot pricier. And yes, we’re a surprisingly profitable outfit, but that’s only relative to bespoke small businesses like us. The real profit margin is tiny, and the money’s still going to dry up. And if it does, that’s when we lose people, but we can’t afford to lose anybody because we still need to keep up our capacity or we’ll definitely be finished. We just have to find the demand elsewhere.”
“And the racing team? What about the racing team?” Hannah quizzed.
“Since we’re well invested in WEC now, and that’s the healthiest FIA code at the moment, the racing team is valuable to us, and therefore safe.”
There was a collective sigh of relief, but simultaneously a ripple of disquiet. “I knew it,” Strop lamented. “The factory’s gonna be ricing up shitboxes.”
“Not so fast,” Dan pointed the crop at Strop, shutting him up instantly. “To answer Luca and Isla’s question, first, we will honour all those preorders, so we will continue production of Mercury and Daeva until all 25 Mercuries, 30 Aesmas, and 20 Indras are completed. After that, however, is the tricky part. Given the way you all, and I too, feel, we should find a way to deliver superior performance, except for a lot less.”
“Please explain,” Strop paused deliberately, “How this doesn’t mean we’re going to rice up shitboxes.”
“Yeah, and how they aren’t going to be cars I want to drive directly into a ditch?” Kai added.
“That last request sounds impossible, seeing as you appear to be fond of crashing all cars into a ditch, Mister Kristensen,” the Deerector snarked. Kai blew a raspberry at him.
“The last part is your job,” Dan deadpanned. “As for the main question, we’ll just have to redefine affordable supercar.”
“What, like the R8?” Strop stuck his tongue out. “Ewww.”
“And so, like, corporate,” Noah shuddered.
Dan rolled her eyes. “Well, I didn’t say build a fucking Audi now did I?”
“Dan, I don’t see how this solves our issue of having to change our assembly line structure or processes,” Hannah reiterated.
“Except if we don’t.” Dan slapped the board again, and the image changed. Up came a new logo, one that looked like a big fancy Ž. “Surely you have all heard of Žnoprešk Avto.”
A barely suppressed snigger echoed through the room, for it was a running joke that Žnoprešk and Gryphon Gear were completely opposite things. In her traumatised panic, Hannah missed the joke.
“You don’t mean to say the Board’s proposing a merger with a supercompany do you?”
Dan placed her hands on her hips. “Please stop jumping to conclusions, Hannah. I know they have nothing in common with us. But if you remember our little April Fools joke, the T- To- the Tømtæ.”
“Oh yes, the car I loved so much I did drive it into a ditch!” Kai grinned.
“Yes, that one,” Dan muttered. “Anyway, other manufacturers apparently didn’t get the memo so it ended up being run in a car comparison, where it actually held its own, which is pretty fucking amazing to say in the least. Žnoprešk Avto were there, and more recently we were contacted by their office to see if we were interested in a partnership.”
“Oh lordy, we really are ricing up the Zest,” Strop groaned.
“For Dog’s sake Strop would you shut up about ricing!” Dan slapped the board especially hard, making Strop startle and almost whinney. “Besides it’s not the Zest. It’s the Zeus, Znopresk’s one attempt at an affordable supercar. And they’re extremely good at making affordable without compromise, so I suggest you all start taking notes from them. But they’ve realised that their car may have oodles of power, but doesn’t quite get up to speed elsewhere, so they’ve come to us to take a look at how much we can wring out of it without wrecking its Žnoprešk-ness. In fact, we should be taking delivery of one right about,” Dan glanced at her watch, “Now.”
There was a stunned silence as that sunk in. Dan had everything planned all along, and they didn’t even suspect it until it was already sewn up. Then somebody started applauding, slowly. It was Waxwell, who was still looking at his phone.
“Well played, Dan. Well played. It’s such a shame you aren’t on the internets, you would make such an epic troll.”
Dan winked at Waxwell. “Who says I’m not?”
The Zeus pulled into the warehouse, engine burbling and cutting off. As it ticked, the door opened and out stepped Kai, tame racing driver, to brief the rest of the core team.
“So how’s it feel?” Strop asked. “Did you want to crash it?”
“Almost,” Kai stuck his tongue out. “But not quite. Acceleration is okay, for an NA. It’s a bit, how to say it, stodgy in the corners, just progressive understeer. Good for regular people who think they can drive fast but they can’t, you know? Safe. Predictable. Boring. But it has some potential.”
“Polymer panels. That’ll explain some of the low costs.” Tesla had the car on the rack already, muttering numbers as she paced the perimeter with measuring tape and calipers. Boden, similarly, had unscrewed the undertray and had his horns buried in the engine bay.
Strop nodded to himself. All said and done, the Zeus was a car that genuinely interested him. It had many potential titles, including best car for under 100K, the R8 beater, the European answer to the pony car… not to mention that for its simplicity in form, it had a certain elegance, a counterpoint to the glaring menace and outright Fuck You of his own designs for Gryphon Gear.
“What do you think?” On cue, Dan sauntered up, idly tapping her riding crop against her thigh. “Can you do something with this?”
“Of course!” Strop laughed, trying to hide his nervousness around the crop. “I mean, it’s got similar dimensions to the Mercury, so I figured we’d upgrade the aero with the package from the Mercury, chuck it in the wind tunnel-”
THWAP! This time Strop did whinney as Dan actually did smack him with the riding crop. “Bad horse! No wind tunnel! We’re trying to save money!”
“You’re cramping my style!” Strop protested, rubbing his still smarting flank.
“You heard the lady!” the Deerector called out, as he walked across the floor.
“Nnngh…” Strop attempted to recoup his shattered dignity. “Then I thought we’d beef up the tyres, turbo the fuck out of the engine…”
“Okay good.” Dan produced a clipboard and shoved it into Strop’s chest. “Before you go on, here’s the brief. It also lists all the things you can and can’t change, and the parameters you must satisfy. Note the maximum costs. And especially note that you can’t use carbon fiber.”
“Maaaaaate!” Hunter, who had been skulking just out of sight, suddenly appeared, looking like he had just been shot.
“Get over yourself Hunter, you still have work to do. Go figure out how to make active aero work with plastic without ripping it to shreds.” Dan raised her voice to address the group. “Everybody, I expect you to talk to Hannah and have a working plan by tonight, because I want the car done in a fortnight. Any longer and we might as well pack up shop and brace for the economic holocaust. Now get going.”
“Yes Ma’am!” the team replied in unison.
Two weeks later… and we have something special for you!
[size=200]Žnoprešk Zeus GG Tune[/size]
[size=85]Original body by NormanVauxhall. Very little in the way of styling was changed, except for the roof scoop and wings, which are imported directly from Mercury, the exhausts, and the GG Tune decal[/size]
The original Žnoprešk, as designed by NormanVauxhall, is an aluminium frame, plastic panel, ~600bhp supercar that cost a measly ~16500 money units to make. It also comes equipped with standard interior, entertainment and safety, and active sport suspension. With its combination of splitters and a rear lip, plus downforce undertray, It generates zero lift, and has nice predictable handling. And with a top speed of over 350km/h, and making its way around the full lap of Green Hell in 7:50, it does have some sporting credentials to add to its well roundedness, making it a fierce competitor for best sports car you could retail for under 100k. Frankly, I thought this was amazing, given that for most of the cars I make, the material costs alone come to more than that. But then again, I also tend to insist on cars that hustle around the 'ring in under 7 minutes.
For this challenge, I was to try and max out the performance of the car, but in order for Žnoprešk to consider it for production, Drivability had to remain at least 50, Comfort at least 30, and total costs could not exceed 22500 units. Given my interpretation of how cars test (which may change, I dunno how BROBOT will affect the simulation), a properly fast supercar would require a time of less than 7:07, which is to say in the least a challenge. In addition, I committed to leaving the chassis completely unchanged, and the materials of each component also unchanged.
In the end, as Strop declared, the total changes were as follows:
[ul]]Slight increase in fixture quality/:m]
]Addition of two wings, with active aero/:m]
]Very slightly boring and stroking out the block (by 0.5 and 1.2mm respectively) to attain a total displacement of 5999cc, without affecting reliability/:m]
]Going TUBRO MOTHERFUCKER on the engine (well, not really, turbo quality is 3+ and boost is barely 1 bar), and obviously retuning the engine to support that. Still, 1023hp on 95RON!/:m]
]Upgrading air filter and throttle body, upping the redline by 200rpm, and pretty much nothing else/:m]
]Retaining the same transmission, only replacing the diff with a better one with electric LSD/:m]
]Changing the size of the tyres, and upgrading to Pirelli P Zero Corsas (+8 quality semi slicks yields the same price, as total cost of tyres was 2468, which is about what you’d pay for 2 255s and 2 345s)/:m]
]Optimising brake balance/:m]
]Upgrading quality of aero to +13 (Mercury package adapted and fitted)/:m]
]Stripping some of the entertainment out and switching to GG default for safety (-15 Advanced). Adding launch control, because the engine is now turbo and puts out >1000hp/:m]
]Switching to GG default suspension (no active sports! Too heavy! Progressive springs, monotube dampers and active sway bars)/:m][/ul]
Everything else was kept exactly the same, meaning that Žnoprešk can easily continue to build this car mostly themselves, provided we fit the aero and interior. My main point of concern is that this is now a properly fast supercar, but it still has standard seats to save costs. Proper sports seats are bloody expensive however, and may need to be an optional extra. If not, hopefully the extra sturdy harness holds you in your seat
That aside, the overall project was a great success, with all parameters on the brief being met, plus my own performance goal:
[size=85]A >1000bhp TURBO megacar with a drivability of 50!? Like uwotm8.[/size]
We (okay, I) was really excited to undertake this project, as well as achieve this result, and it may very well provide some hope for our embattled industry, should Žnoprešk wish to take this prototype all the way to production. NormanVauxhall did also mention in his brief that an optional special CF limited version might be on the cards, and I hope that this will be the case, for with the change in materials plus our own manufacturer supplied tyres, I am confident that we could produce a 7 minute car by any measurement whatsoever, unequivocally a hypercar for the people. The main drawback would be that such a car does double both in production and maintenance costs, so it would definitely be a rarity.
I eagerly await NormanVauxhall’s response!
With the fairly severe (for me) balance changes coming up in the next release, plus the next round of developments, namely, the addition of V12, among other things, it’s now clear that all the cars in GG’s supposed lineup are going to be undergoing complete revisions until the point that the game reaches its final form. This means all GG models and all their associated stories: Nightfury, Mephisto, Mercury, Daeva, plus the other prototypes i.e. Sleipnir, and a few that haven’t been released yet, are going to be rebuilt from scratch in several months anyway. This is particularly necessary for me because I make extremely pointy end cars, and what seems pretty minor in most places is actually pretty extreme at the pointy end. In this case, everything has become considerably more difficult and if I build the way I have in the past, I get hit with huge drivability penalties which severely compromise track performance. In addition, I can no longer feasibly abuse tech sliders with 15+ and pretend that my car will be realistically sold (well, I could, but given that in the new version, Hypercar-like performance is attainable from a supposed sale price of about 240000 money units), I’ll have to be mindful of what I do. That’ll become even more obvious when engineering costs are implemented…
This being said, I’m still here to tease something that’s been in the works for a while: following on from the success of the Znopresk-GG partnership, comes a similar, yet rather different project from Rennen-GG. The car was spotted being put through its paces on the quieter roads around GG’s HQ North of Melbourne…
[size=85]As always, thanks Google Earth for your fancy mapping technology[/size]
Stay tuned for a behind the scenes excerpt and breakdown!
Nice little teaser.
The V12s and balance changes are here! The good news is that BROBOT in de-randomised form is also here, which means much more realistic times on all the tracks, which is like my Christmas come early as far as Automation is concerned (I can’t thank Der Bayer enough for the work he has done on that, plus all the people who helped him organise and run the various challenges that refined the process).
As I mentioned previously, this does mean a big shakeup of the GG lineup, plus a revamped history to more realistically reflect the development cycle of even a manic company like GG. I’ll be taking this opportunity to highlight how the cars already here will change, which ones can be rebuilt already, and which ones will need to wait for further game development. I’ll also provide a bit of information on what will come in the future.
In a non-exhaustive, bare-bones chronology (prone to revision with ongoing changes to the spreadsheet calendar which Cen and I are developing):
Note that while some real-life companies and potentially real-life people will be referenced in this fiction, and this universe makes reference to real-life occurrences, unless otherwise specifically stated, fictional characters and companies do not in any way shape or form purport to have any likeness or event relating to these real companies or people
#2011- Wretched Beginnings
#2012- Enter Chaos
#How Will the Cars Change?
##Nightfury
##Mephisto
##Mercury
##Daeva
###So what were the possible 2016 cars?
##Orphiel
##Salamander
Mule model only, design as yet incomplete
So, what do you think? If you had to choose: Orphiel, or Salamander? Is Orphiel still too old-school and more of the same, or is Salamander… not GG enough?
Sweet mother of Henry Ford, what is this thingus on the back of Orphiel, my windowshill or what? My vote is on Salamander (unless you’ll change this panelling thingus on Orphiel)
