Rising Star
Welcome to the second Journey of Ownership chapter. See round 1 for history and basic rules.
PART 2A - SMALL CALIBER
May of 1955 - Chicago, Illinois, USA
Kenneth Bower now lives in the big city. A boy from St. Paul MN, his family moved to Chicago after the war. He’s 19 years old now and he’s following in his father’s footstep to become an airline pilot. With the space race in full swing, he’s always dreamed of becoming an astronaut but a plane is going to do for now.
He’s driving an old '42 Chevrolet right now and while he’s still waiting for his big payday, he has a big chunk of money available and he’s looking to buy a brand new car. With the super large cars on the road today, he’s drawn to smaller, youger cars that seems to slowly appear on the road. He’s not looking for a sports car per se, but he for sure would like something that pops and certainly not a boring economy car. He will not splurge needlessly however, despite his budget.
He’s romantically involved right now, but he’s fully dedicated to his career and he just needs at a minimum 2-seater coupe for now, but more space would not hurt. A convertible could be a nice thing, but he’s not living down south anyway.
His dad is slowly entering his 40s - he survived the war as a pilot, and now flies commercial out of O’Hare. Kenneth is very close to his father, being the firstborn out of 5 other sibblings - none of them are looking to follow in their father’s footstep tho - everything rests on Kenneth’s shoulder.
However, lately his father started having some health problems. Hopefully nothing major, as Kenneth is 100% focused on his career now and he’s not looking to provide for anyone anytime soon. One thing for sure, his father is proud of his elder son.
He’s a rising star, right? Time to shine!
SUMMARY
Posh 19 years old with daddy’s money, but also at the start of a promising pilot career, wants a peppy compact car, still quite rare in the US.
He does not want a pure unusable sports car, but a sporty daily driver coupe or a personal luxury coupe as they were marketed. He know smaller cars are quite new in the US and does not mind an import as well.
However, it must not look or smell like an economy car at all. A modern or young look is a big plus to him. He also has a good budget, but he’s also cheap so value is very important.
PRIORITIES
Style
He wants something young, more modern, exciting, not a bland coupe. Maybe even peculiar or unique. The 50s is home to a lot of eccentrics and industrialists trying to make a car.
Fun & Drivability
He primarily wants to cruise around and have fun. As a pilot, he also likes being in control - a manual would be prefered.
Value
He has money to purchase something pricy, but he’s also a bit, erhmm, frugal as his father taught him - he does not want to splurge unless it has a ton of value.
Prestige & Status
Of course, as a rising star, he wants a bit of status. An import could also get him something more unique, but there is also lots of local oddball choices in the US at that time.
Comfort
While he wants to be comfortable cruising around, for sure he’d rather people talk about the car than how comfortable he is in it.
Sportiness & Performance
Kenneth does not want a pure sports car, but he will not sneeze at performance, handling and speed. Acceleration seems to be all the rage nowaday and might be more important in his mind.
Service costs & Reliability
He’s not looking for a pure expensive sports car, so he’d like to keep it simple in terms of maintenance - he does not have time to work on the car himself.
Safety
Always important, but much less here. Safe can never be exciting in Kenneth’s mind.
Fuel Econ
As many in that era, not a major priority, and he especially does not want something that screams economy - even a big powerful economical engine would be a bit of a turn off for him.
RULES
IMPORTANT: With the new Tech Pool effects, price and ET especially are subject to be modified before the submission period starts. Feel free to comment.
TECH POOL: Both the engine AND car needs to be +5 TP everywhere. See screenshots below on how to check. New cars are by default at +5, old cars needs to be updated.
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Click the bottom quality box next to any quality slider.
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Which brings up the sandbox techpool box. Just set everything to +5 in both category.
YEAR, CAR TRIM: 1950-1956 only. With the techpool, the body can be a lot newer.
YEAR, CAR MODEL, ENGINE FAMILY, ENGINE VARIANT: Car trim year or older
NAMING CONVENTION:
Car model/trim: JOC2A-yourname / Make and model
Engine family/variant: JOC2A-yourname/ Name of engine
ALLOWED BODIES: Coupe and 2-door Sedan only. Fixed Head, Targa, Hardtop, Fastback, Speedster, Roadster or Convertible are all options.
SEATS/DOORS: 2 doors only. 2 full seats minimum. +2 seats in the back might play better for Kenneth than a bench in the rear if offering more than 2 seats.
WHEELBASE: Maximum 2.84m/112 inches
MAXIMUM PRICE: $18,000 AMU
MAXIMUM ENGINE ET: 65 ET (to be evaluated with new TP) - no allowance for mixed material.
MAXIMUM TRIM ET: 65 ET (to be evaluated with new TP)
FUEL: Leaded regular (92 RON/87 AKI) is preferred. 98 RON (93 AKI) is also acceptable, but might have some small impacts on some priorities (both positive and negative)
INTERIORS: Not needed and won’t be judged, but I will review it if you do provide one.
REALISM: Unrealistic engineering or styling might result in a bin, that includes, but is not limited to, race parts, semi slick tyres etc. 50s features applies as well, including for imports. Only one non-resized plate at the back is required otherwise.
DEADLINES
SUBMISSIONS OPEN: 7th of October, 23:59 (EDT / UTC-4).
SUBMISSIONS CLOSE: 28th of October, 23:59 (EDT / UTC-4). PM me the .car-file and put an ad/description in the thread before that.
INSPIRATIONS
List of inspirations
- IMPORTANT - some inspirations are there style-wise, fit-wise and not always price-wise.
Thunderbird
Corvette
Nash Healey
Nash Rambler
Studebaker Champion
Kaiser Darrin
Arnault-MG
Porsche 356 Cabriolet
Edwards America
Muntz Jet
Dodge Zeder Z-250
Note: I did not include a lot of imports example - there are a too many options to list.
CHANGELOG
- Fixed typo to +5 TP in instructions
- Moved deadlines a few days ahead to not conflict with LHC
- Added 2-door sedan as available bodies
- Added support for 98 RON (93 AKI) with a caveat
