Kard Motor Works was started by car enthusiasts for car enthusiasts. At KMW, we believe that all cars should be sporty, despite the power of their engines. You will find the same handling, precision and sharp looks of our motorsports inspired vehicles in our economy vehicles. All cars by KMW will be either RWD or AWD. This may make our cars more expensive, but the end results are worth it. Look at our RWD vehicles for a classic balance and driving characteristic all but lost to modern day drivers, and our AWD vehicles for the cutting edge in technology, acceleration and sophistication. We at KMW agree that FWD has a place in modern vehicles… just not ours, and we readily encourage anyone seeking a good FWD experience to explore the options offered by our competitors. We also offer all our vehicles with a manual transmission for those who want to maintain a connected feeling with their car. F1-type paddle shift transmissions with an automatic mode are also offered, at a premium price for those who want a less traditional, but technologically superior driving experience.
I’ve made a playlist that includes all my Automation video’s here:
With the advent of Automation v1323, all previous versions of our cars have been archived here, and the company will be starting fresh with the new technology offered through this patch.
Here’s an outline of my platform and model designations. In the model designation, the first letter coincides with the model series, the last two numbers coincides with the liters in the engine. In the middle of the chart I have a rough guide for which engine will be used for which liters… though this will likely be the least adhered to part of my naming scheme.
Kard Motor Works has released it’s first new vehicle of the new era, the Kard K-116! This is not a very ambitious project, as far as power or design is concerned, I just wanted to familiarize myself with setting up the suspension options. Still, the 16 valve 1.6L inline-4 engine in this car produces 150 HP to propel you to 62MPH in only 7.2 seconds. Not bad, for a car that still gets you 25MPG!
Now to post my pride and joy. I’ve wanted to create this car ever since I learned of Automation. I’ve tried in the past, but not been able to pull it off. I’ve been excited out of my mind to create it ever since the most recent update, but finally found time to do it tonight.
I present to you, the BMW E-30 325i!
I know, I know, I don’t have any designation for “i” in my model chart, but that’s ok. This is a special car, and it deserves special designation that won’t be used for any other cars in my lineup. This is truly one of my favorite cars ever. It’s not the fastest car in the world, or the prettiest, or the most luxurious, or the lightest, or by far the heaviest… but to me it’s simply the perfect balance of everything.
For those of you that don’t know, the E30 3-series is the ultimate driving machine. It is one of the greatest cars ever made, combining engine performance with the nimbleness of a cheetah, and room for a small family. It’s the first sport sedan that simply got it all right. The E30 M3 is commonly known as God’s Chariot, and for good reason. Don’t believe me? Simply type that in to Google, the first two links are directly related to E30’s. Look at the Google photo results, you’ll see nearly as many pictures of E30’s as you will pictures of divinity. Some would say I simply say all this because I own an E30, but the truth of the matter is that I’ve owned 5 E30’s because everything I’ve said is true. They are simply divine.
I’d also like to throw out my appreciation to the dev team of Automation for including a model that could so easily be turned into an E30. So without further adieu, I present to you the Automation Kard 325i!
Just completed and uploaded my next project, the Kard 635! This car draws from the E28 535i for inspiration, but I named it the 635 to stick to my naming scheme. Besides, I don’t plan on imitating the real 635i anyway. I also built a fairly accurate M30B35 to go in the car. Check it out here:
This isn’t for the production line, I’m attempting to compete with others for the top speed car. In this video I was only able to make it to 309.5 MPH but went back to achieve a top speed of 311 MPH/500.51 KMH. It’s not the fastest car on the forum, but it’s the fastest car I’ve made so far. It’s equipped with a 4.6L twin turbocharged V8 producing 1443 HP and 1069 ft/ib torque.
Well, the design goals of this car sadly weren’t met. It was supposed to be a 2.3L naturally aspirated AWD wagon with 200HP and getting about 30MPH. Because of the AWD I had to reduce the 2.3L engine to 2.0L. This made 200HP quite the challenge… but sadly the engine performed terribly in both performance and fuel mileage in this car. I tried retooling it as a turbo engine but to no avail, so I left it NA and tweaked the chassis as much as possible. AWD had to be dropped, as the only way to increase my performance and fuel mileage was to drop weight. Currently the game doesn’t have a way to calculate weight on it’s own, but I don’t want to make the weight of the car too unrealistically light. Also, with only 200HP the AWD system wasn’t doing much good anyway.
So, in the end, the only goal I achieved was 200HP, but from a 2.0L engine instead of 2.3L. I did get 26 MPG, but abysmal performance with 0-62 times of 8.5 seconds and a top speed of 128.3. Looks like I’ll be making a new engine for this car eventually.
The Kard 116, affectionately known as the BMW Golf, has received it’s first update! Since I didn’t spend much time designing the 1-series I went back and touched up on it a bit. I then installed the 2.0L 200HP engine I previously designed for the Kard 820. This made a huge improvement over the original 116. The engine added 2 cylinders, .4 liters, 100 extra RPM’s and 50 HP. Also, the thick sports tires equipped on the 116 were substituted to a more economical and thinner medium compound tire to help improve fuel mileage, costs of running, and ability to create hoonery. Below are the performance changes all this made:
This is just a mild refresher to the 325i to turn it into the sport model. I kept the same engine, but did some minor tuning to get a few more HP out of it. I wanted to turn the car into AWD but the engine compartment wasn’t large enough to use the M20B25. My next update to the car will likely be a new chassis and engine to accomidate for the extra space required by the AWD. The performance updates to this car are probably similar to the real world update from an '86 325i to an '89 325i, this this car has a bit more HP than a stock M20B25 ever had. As it stands, the new car saw gains in the following area’s:
In this build I wanted to focus on the engine. I did some minor upgrades to the body, but spent most of the time upgrading the M30B35 to super-M5 specs, while retaining the longevity of the original engine! This car is for the business or family man who needs room for guests, but demands the power of a super car. Below is a list of the performance increases this car produces:
KMW has moved into modern car design with the Kard 758s sport coupe. This car is powered by a 5.8L naturally aspirated flatplane V8 that produces an awesome 624HP to drive this 3000ib car from 0-62 in only 4.7 seconds, reaching a top speed of 207.5 MPH and achieving a reasonable 17.4 MPG.
As promised, I have developed an AWD version of the 3-series! My original plan was to redesign the chassis to use a transverse mounted engine to see if I could get more engine room, but this was ineffective, and I learned the chassis does not allow for a transverse mounted awd setup. So I scratched that, and went back to the E-30s platform. Sadly, this setup would not allow for a decently sized inline-6 engine, so I was forced to develop a naturally aspirated 2.8L inline-4 for this car. It’s a bit unorthodox for my normal engine lineup, but it works.
The engine produces 268HP at 7000 rpm and rockets the car from 0-62 MPH in a mere 6 seconds, and on to upwards of 154 MPH. The quarter mile is achieved in only 14.5 seconds @ 97 MPH, and even with all-wheel drive the car maintains an astounding 30.6 MPG! Truly, this car is worth the premium that will be charged for it.
Truly, this car was a success on many levels! Not only does the use of the engine and AWD system from the 328sx help subsidize the cost of the cars and make them more affordable, it also helps to realize the original vision of the 8-series. A sporty, safe and economical family car.
Performance Gains:
Power:
200 HP to 268 HP
Top Speed
123.8 MPH to 153.2 MPH
0-62 MPH Acceleration
8.5s to 7.3s
Quarter Mile
16.3s @ 91 MPH to 15.2s @ 92 MPH
Economy
26 MPG to 28.1 MPG
With so many improvements to this car, production of the 820 has ceased. The 2.0L I6 engine will live on in the Kard 120.
This car is all about sporty efficiency. It’s not the most powerful, fastest, or best handling car we have ever made, but it is the most efficient, sporting 35 MPG from a naturally aspirated 3.0L inline-6. This is actually the first vehicle I’ve been able to meet all my design goals in, even if only just.
For the engine, I wanted an inline 6 that has an efficiency of at least 30%, low emissions and more HP than the 2.8L I4 used in the 328sx and 828x. It also had to rev over 6000 RPM.
For the car I wanted cornering of at least 0.90g, economy of 35 MPG and a top speed over 150 MPH. Of course it goes without saying it had to be RWD as well.
In a quest to release the ultimate sleeper car, the research and development team has created the most powerful production car ever released by KMW, the 358! The body and chassis of this car is almost identical to the 325s.The suspension has been upgraded, and it has different tires, but other than that the only way to tell the difference between this and a normal 325s is the unique lava colored paint.
The heart of this beast is a lightweight naturally aspirated 5.8L flatplane V8 producing 642HP at 6400 RPM!! The engine is similar to the one found in the 758i, but it uses much lighter weight materials, and produces a bit more horsepower.
All this adds up to produce a car with a 0-62 acceleration time of 4.5 seconds, a quarter mile time of 11.8 seconds and a top speed over 200 MPH, from a car shaped like a brick!
KMW saw a need for a sporty family hatchback in the market, and decided to fill that need! The Kard 230 is an evolution of the 1-series for the young family on the go. This car is powered by the same 3.0L inline-6 found in the 530s efficiency coupe, so not only is it quick, but great on fuel mileage as well! This car is designed to dart from 0-62 in only 5.7 seconds, with a top speed of 161 miles an hour, and get a fuel efficiency rating of up to nearly 32 MPG! Now you can have your cake, and eat it took.
