Journey of Ownership 3C - Bahnstormer 1978 [FINISHED]

[Texaslav]

CURRENT ROUND - JOC3C

Journey of Ownership 3: Free Spirit

After eight days in development, hopefully it will have been worth the weight. See round 1 for history and basic rules.

Journey of ownership 1 - Discount Elvis - Part 1D (finals)

Based on an idea by @BannedByAndroid I thought that since some people seemed to like this idea, I could as well host the pilot round. I had thought out a ruleset but as usual, I thought too much and overcomplicated things so I decided to mainly use Banned’s ruleset, though I have an idea of a couple of additions. Each character must be played for at least 3 rounds. That’s because I feel like it won’t be any “journey” with less than 3. One round would only be a CSR ripoff, two rounds not eno…

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PART 3A: Freedom of Movement
Berlin, Germany
May 1955

A young woman arrives at a Berlin border checkpoint. She presents her papers to the border officer, who - noting the presence of a valid exit permit and a strictly demarcated itinerary - lets her pass.
Of course, the itinerary will not be followed - and the stated reason for the visit to the West will not be fulfilled, either. This woman - 19-year-old Magda Schultz - has just joined the ranks of many “Republic deserters”, people who have willingly parted ways with everything they ever had for a chance to dwell among the free people of the world. Magda has done this not knowing that in six short years, that border will grow a wall; or that she is saving herself from a lifetime of waiting to own a two-stroke recycled waste product called a Trabant. Hell, she doesn’t even know that in threescore years, a posh online magazine will declare her name “something you should never name your child”. All she knows is that her only remaining family - that of her twice-removed cousin - lives in Frankfurt, and might be able to help her back to her feet in this new world.

March 1958

So, how is life going for Magda nearly three years into Frankfurt life? Well, it’s going. The relatives turned out to be very reluctant hosts and could hardly even be credited with getting young Frau Schultz started. Magda thus found herself living awkwardly off various odd jobs for the first six months or so until she accidentally stumbled onto a relatively steady activity, that being professional photography. Not only did it prove an interesting activity with all of its intricacies, but Magda also found that being able to project a cheery and professional demeanor - something that she used to fake all the time in her East German youth organization - did wonders for her marketability.

By 1958, Magda’s life has stabilized enough to keep a small rented apartment and an equally small house cat; however, she has found that being largely confined to the city’s transit systems is professionally limiting. (Reminder: This city has no U-Bahn or S-Bahn as of 1958 - trams only!) And it sure would be nice to visit the countryside for some recreational photography; maybe start selling the results of that, too… So, in a nutshell, free citizen Magda of the (former) Free City of Frankfurt needs… the ultimate instrument for freedom of movement, the personal automobile. Those aren’t cheap, though, and freelance photography - even with a smile attached - doesn’t exactly rake in thousands upon thousands of Marks. What to do, what to do?

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SUMMARY

Cash-strapped 22-year old freelance photographer needs car strictly for personal use and carrying around work equipment. Needs to fit one person, said equipment, and perhaps a hyperactive 6-pound cat… “Worst” case scenario, a date as well. No 2-strokes: mixing oil is a hassle also they do not exist in this game okay

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PRIORITIES

Purchase Price

Magda’s 1000-something Mark budget (comparable to this competition’s AM$8500 ceiling) is the absolute limit, but she isn’t exactly burning with desire to blow through most of her savings for this purchase. Think hard before you max out the budget in this challenge.

Reliability

Madga is no petrolhead, grease monkey, or anything of the sort; while she accepts the inevitability of the car eventually needing mechanical assistance, she wants it to happen as rarely and painlessly as possible.

Drivability

When Magda does get her car, it will be her first. While a former boyfriend did show her the ropes in his BMW bubble car, she would still prefer her car to be fairly easy to drive so that she can get used to it quicker.

Design

A somewhat less utilitarian category, but this is important. Magda is a professional who’s supposed to have a sharp eye, and showing up in something that looks like a wet dog would hurt her credibility. That, and she genuinely would like to avoid having an eyesore in her life.

Running Costs (Service Costs, Fuel Economy)
Magda isn’t quite as concerned with the cost of breakdowns as she is with their frequency; after all, basic commuter cars aren’t all that complex in this day and age… unless they are. Swiss watch-style designs need not apply. The same applies to fuel economy: most of the cars she’s likely to choose from won’t have much of an appetite - just be sure not to betray that expectation.

Practicality
Magda isn’t particularly concerned about the car being very spacious, but if it’s a total tin can she will be understandably turned off.

Safety

Frankfurt isn’t the fastest city on Earth, and Magda lives in a time where crash test results don’t appear in headlines. Just be sure your car isn’t brittle enough to earn a nasty reputation.

Comfort

The argument here is pretty simple: unpleasant cars are, well, unpleasant. If Magda can’t even get to the countryside without crushing her spine, it’s no good.

Performance

Frankfurt might not be a fast city, but Magda isn’t switching from trams to end up going slower than one; she is also not looking for a car that’ll be incapable of keeping speed even in the rightmost lane of an Autobahn. The car doesn’t need to be fast, but it does need to be adequate.

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RULES

TECHPOOL: +2 everywhere as default; 13 points to spend freely between trim and engine positions; this means that the overall tech-pool comes out to 45 points. Maximum of +4 in any given area. And no, you are not allowed to empty the turbo techpool just because it’s useless.

• Click the bottom quality box next to any quality slider.
  

• Which brings up the sandbox techpool box. Just set everything to +2 in all categories, then add 13 points on top as prescribed above.
  

  

YEAR, CAR TRIM: 1958.
YEAR, CAR MODEL, ENGINE FAMILY, ENGINE VARIANT: Car trim year or older
NAMING CONVENTION:
Car model/trim: JOC3A - yourname / Make and model
Engine family/variant: JOC3A - yourname/ Name of engine
ALLOWED BODIES: SUVs, Utes, MPVs and vans prohibited; all others allowed.
SEATS/DOORS: The car must have at least 2 full front row seats. If the wheelbase is shorter than 96 in (2.44 m), the rear row may only be jump seats (+2/+3); otherwise, full-size second row seats are allowed.

Four or more doors Incur a AM$300 purchase price penalty.

MAXIMUM PRICE: AM$8,500
FUEL: Leaded regular (92 RON/87 AKI) is mandatory.
INTERIORS: Not needed and won’t be judged, but I will mention it if you do provide one.
REALISM AND PARTS LIMITS: Explicitly banned parts include semi-slick tires and all “race” parts; locking differentials; all valvetrains with more than 2 valves per cylinder, as well as DOHC (including 2v).

Rear Double wishbone suspension may not be used under any circumstances. Both live axles and torsion beams are allowed; rear MacPherson Struts are allowed on rear-engined cars for free as they are the only remaining option, whereas on front-engined cars semi-trailing arms can be used for a $300 purchase price penalty. You are free to pretend/interpret/roleplay/fixture-model independent rear suspension as swing arms, semi-trailing arms (even when rear engined) and other suspension types appropriate for 1950s IRS.

Radial tires incur a AM$300 purchase penalty as well: While they were available in some Italian and French cars of the time, they were mostly confined to sportier and higher-level cars, and it’s not like production was entirely streamlined. Tire profiles lower than 80 are banned.

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DEADLINES

SUBMISSIONS OPEN: 5th of March, 23:59 (CST / UTC-6).

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE: 17th of March, 23:59 (CDT / UTC-5).

PM me the .car file and post an ad or description in the thread by the closing date.

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INSPIRATIONS

List of inspirations

• IMPORTANT - Most of those inspirations are “forward-looking” - id est, beginning production in 1957 or even later - you can go with a more classical styling if you wish and it will not be penalized. A couple are also midsize/“large family” cars by 1950s Europe standards.

BMW 700 LS

VW Typ 1

Ford Anglia Wagon

Wartburg 311

Vauxhall Victor

Renault Dauphine

Auto Union 1000

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CHANGELOG

3/4/23

• Banned radial tires under 80 profile

-That’s it, really.

[abg7]

Any limits on minimum tire profile?

[Knugcab]

I’m not Tex, but it should be kept in mind that 80 (or rather, 82, but the game does only state profile in steps of 5) is considered “standard” profile on radials. Low profiles really weren’t a thing in 1958, so my opinion is 80, or maybe 75 to allow for a little more fine-tuning.

As a reference, my first car was a 1974 Opel Kadett. The owners manual mentioned that optional equipment was wide radial tyres with an extremely low profile. The dimension in that case was 175/70R13…that’s a car in more or less the same class as what is being asked for, but 15 years later.

[GassTiresandOil]

To piggyback on your answer, bias-plys are also a lot more restrictive with size in-game. As long as you’re using them, it might be pretty hard to cheese tire sizes. But yeah, I would say at least 75 to 80 would be the norm.

[Knugcab]

Absolutely. Though I guess the question came up because radials is going to be allowed.

[Lanson]

What’s the horsepower range on a car like this? A lot of the inspirations were running like, what, 40hp? That seems too slow to beat a train in this game. I’ve got a mule with 55ish HP, a 0-60 of “yes” and a top seed of like 80-something. Am I way off base or is that good for these cars?

[Knugcab]

55 hp sounds more than adequate. Cars in this class WERE underpowered back then, it’s easy to forget sometimes. They were dead slow even IRL.

[Texaslav]

Orient yourself toward an 80-profile radial rule, which I will add shortly;

And remember: The trains and trams you’re aiming to beat aren’t exactly 2020 high-speed-rail tier.

[doot]

Why the ban on full size rear seats for compact cars? Most of them can’t do it anyways, and the ones that can have rooflines to fit.

[Edsel]

@Texaslav

rear MacPherson Struts are allowed on rear-engined cars for free as they are the only remaining option

So does that mean that front MacPherson struts are banned entirely? 'Cause without that, live front axles are the only legal option I have, which seems wrong for a mid-engined microcar…

Also, are rear MacPherson struts allowed on mid-engined cars too (where they also seem to be the only option)? or just rear-engined cars?

[Knugcab]

I see no reason to not allow front McPs. They were used by, for example, the Ford Anglia. I think the reason they are mentioned is because of a somewhat limited choice on rear suspensions for RR cars in the era.

[Texaslav]

@Edsel

So does that mean that front MacPherson struts are banned entirely? 'Cause without that, live front axles are the only legal option I have, which seems wrong for a mid-engined microcar…

Also, are rear MacPherson struts allowed on mid-engined cars too (where they also seem to be the only option)? or just rear-engined cars?

All front suspensions are fair game. I’m restricting independent rear suspension to prevent comfort cheese.

Mid-engined cars have the same suspension options as rear-engined cars, thus the same rules apply. That being said, MR is kinda of alien space bees-tier on these cars.

@doot

Why the ban on full size rear seats for compact cars? Most of them can’t do it anyways, and the ones that can have rooflines to fit.

Because they’re tiny; even when you supposedly have the roofline to “fit” a rear row, you’re going to have a fairly small and cramped interior overall. I would appreciate further input from more people on this, though.

[mart1n2005]

The ban on full-size rear seats seems ok to me, bearing in mind full size seats have a comfort benefit over the +2 seats even if they wouldn’t fit in reality in the body

[Knugcab]

I am not sure that it is a good idea. Comfort rating already takes quite a big hit from bodies with small interior space AFAIK. As I understand it, this will mainly be a vehicle used by one person, and +2/+3 seats (which IMO is rather supposed to be things like jump seats in pickups than actual seats in a small car) hurts comfort a fair bit. That will mostly make it tempting to “cheese” it a bit by making 2 seaters I guess. The jump seat penalty mechanics are a bit weird after all, even if I know why it is like it is, it is a bit weird to say that a 2 seater is more comfortable than a 2+2 seater. Yes, as long as you use all the seats, it is, but that’s not really a fair comparision. A 2+2 seater is exactly as comfortable as a 2 seater if you’re using all the seats that a 2-seater does have in both cars.

[AndiD]

My single data point here is that comfort only dropped by something like .6 when going from 3 to +3 rear seats in a 2.1m wb car.

So I like the rule as it doesn’t really disadvantage short wb bodies that - for some reason - allow full rear benches, but treats all car bodies fairly.

I suspect we’ll have pretty terrible comfort across the board anyway since manuals now hurt comfort (and autos are also kind of alien space bees-tier in this type of car in Europe in the 50s. Beetles got their first auto in the mid 60s…)

The ‘2 seater’ cheese is an entirely different story…

[Knugcab]

Thanks for the clarifications. Maybe it is a somewhat justified regulation then.

[doot]

That’s fair. I just find the jump seats extremely jank in automation at the current moment- as others have gone over. But if everyone has it, I can too.

[mart1n2005]

I never thought about people making 2 seaters.

Maybe a rule where a body with two rows can’t have just one row of seats?

[Maverick74]

So for techpool just to clarify, it’s 14 points combined for engine and trim, on top of the +2 everywhere? Or would that be 14 each for engine and trim? And that’s a max of +4 on any one place? Or would it be +4 on top of the standard +2, for a total of 6?

[Texaslav]

13 combined for engine and trim. No, I’m not letting you add one just because it’s a baker’s dozen.

The base +2s total 12 TP for the engine and 20 TP for the trim, giving 32; 32+13 is 45. The max techpool level is +4 in any given area. And I’m going to be honest, I thought the way I worded it was pretty dang clear.