From your friends at Van Zandt,
The number one pickup truck is back.
Everything you know about reliability.
Versatility. Durability.
It’s simply a step above.
When Letara needs to haul a thing or two - Or a ton or two.
It’s the first and last, because it’s the best.
Introducing the 1988 Van Zandt Brazos. And the Brazos Grand Ranch
Round 5 is closed for entries now.
Thank you all who submitted!
Politics, Economy, and Natural Environment summaries will be posted tomorrow.
Car reviews and other results to follow shortly!
Front engined porsche meta oh god not again
I am expecting cake to strap a jet to this thing to make it keep up in the later rounds.
POLITICS
International: Global stability marked this decade as prosperity reigned across most nations. Letara continued to provide aid to less fortunate nations, including Somunds. In return Somunds remained a valued ally to Letara, including their larger (but much unused) standing army - just in case. As international conflicts were more scarse during this decade, the International Court of Peace Negotiations (ICPN) in Fiegheni saw less action as well. However, Letara maintained its strong presence at the Global Federaton Summit (GFS), but with less work to do at the ICPN, maintaining a reputation as a peace-broker was harder to do. Overall it was a rather quiet time on the international political scene, with most work being done in the ‘background’ so to speak.
Domestic: Politically, Letara seemed rather stable for the fist half of the decade, but too much prosperity can also lead to unexpected voices entering the political spectrum. As the country prospered, more and more money was pumped into social programs, which made some people rather… uneasy over time. They questioned whether it was sustainable? “So far so good - more is even better” one side said. “This will bring ruin” the other side argued. The effects of this back-and-forth were masked by the global economic boon, but would that last? Letaran voters are saying: “keep going, we are doing well”. For now…
RP effects: The government will have a large spending budget (spending tokens) - these will be added to the pool of tokens the car companies collectively spend during Rd. 6 Preface. The gov’t spending priorities may or may not augment company spending, and will focus on large-scale infrastructure projects. Environmental issues are gaining a foothold too, and receive considerable political attention.
ECONOMY
The economy of Letara blossomed like never before during this decade. Sure, there were minor fluctuations, especially in the latter half of the decade, but those didn’t seem to worry too many people. Businesses and people prospered like they never even imagined in the past. The commercial sector of Letara saw unparalleled growth, and as manufacturing capacity could not keep up with demand, a lot of Letaran manufacturing was outsourced to cheaper offshore nations. The middle class continued to grow and prosper, propping up the economy, and there seemed to end to the good times.
RP effects: People are drunk with optimism and are willing to invest, spend, and gamble with their money. It seems that double garages filled with two cars are now the norm. For many there also needs to be room for other toys around the house, like a boat or motorcycle. Many completely throw caution to the wind, and buy luxury items they can’t afford, and take out hefty loans.
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
In terms of natural disasters, this was another very quiet decade. The only noteworthy events come at the very end of the decade: the large forest fires in the highlands in 1994 that displaced residents of Modred, and then devastating flooding in 1995. The capital damage and reparation after these events cost the government a lot of money and the effects on the economy could indeed be felt. Not only that, but these events were linked by some scientists to larger, global climatic events taking place, in turn linked to global pollution as a result of past and present activities. It seems that prosperity does indeed come at a cost. Although car emissions regulations were introduced during this decade, many scientists question whether it is enough… or whether it is indeed too little too late.
RP effects: Although industry is booming and saw great expansions in the last decade, there is much more caution now as the environmental effects are more prevalent. The general public is slowly becoming a lot more environmentally conscious too. As time progresses the general mood is shifting from finding environmental regulations an annoyance, to actively demanding more regulations. National forests and parks are seeing record-breaking tourists as people try to get away from the more polluted areas, and reconnect with nature.
Car reviews and other results to follow shortly!
The latter half of the 1980s was an eventful time in Dalluhan history. Despite having nothing to do with the 1961 Prisman Missile Crisis, geopolitical realities in the fallout forced it to the wrong side of the iron curtain and the resulting economic sanctions, among which were a ban on western sales of Dalluhan cars, just a few short years after they started.
In 1963, to circumvent the embargo, Dalluha Coach & Motor Works (DCMW) formed its Hetvesian subsidiary Norðwagen, taking advantage of loopholes, obfuscation both sophisticated and crude, occasional high-level bribes, and Fruinia simultaneously being a go-between open to both east and west, and also highly disorganized. Though labeled “Made in Hetvesia”, it was an open secret that Norðwagen were Dalluhan-made, a confusing legal and political grey area that was not without its complications, whether caused by the western powers, or the elephant in the room - Archana. One of the latter, some shady back-hallway deals likely not involving Letara itself, amounted to the Letaran market being off-limits even to Norðwagen.
By 1985, however, the cold war had begun to thaw, and for DCMW, the first major fissure in the ice was a special exemption from the car embargo for government-owned vehicles. The Letaran government’s call for para-transit vehicles was DCMW’s opportunity to make inroads to that market, but for political reasons, it was decided to market initially as Norðwagen. The most suitable model, a highly diverse and versatile forward-control chassis underpinning the DCMW Neyaarat or Norðwagen Midgard, already had a version with a factory-installed cargo or wheelchair lift between the passenger doors, and required minor modification for Letaran regulatory compliance. That year, a batch of demonstration vehicles were sent to Letaran authorities for evaluation.
At about $19000 each, the Midgard P6 was a typical Norðwagen - intended to be not the cheapest, but the best. While government budgeteers worshipping at the altar of the bottom line typically balk at such a mentality, more forward-thinking and progressive ones eventually come to realize that a solid foundation of quality reflects long-term in a surprising number of ways, both quantifiable and not. A few years prior, the Hetvesian postal service began using Norðwagen - by then with a reputation for luxurious but fickle vehicles - for its most demanding jobs, shortly thereafter seeing overall operating costs decrease due to significantly improved uptime. As one commentator on these Hetvesian mail trucks put it, “Norðwagen put the budget that they usually would put in to making the everything overbearingly luxurious and unreliable in to making it unbreakable.” On the basis of this success, DCMW hoped that Letaran authorities would too see that the value of quality was greater than its price. Especially when the task concerned handicapped passengers, not just mail.
From the 1970s, DCMW was increasingly involved in transcontinental rally events, whose border-transcending nature made them amount to international missions of friendship and goodwill, eventually helping end the cold war. This diplomatic aspect was prominently in mind when Dalluha accepted an unprecedented invitation to the 1989 GT-Endurance event at the Lerance Raceway. With the cold war’s end already in sight, it was a prime opportunity to put DCMW’s name on the map, ahead of the resumption of direct exports.
Of course, a gesture of goodwill and diplomacy in no way implied pulling punches in the race itself. DCMWs motorsport strategy typically relied on a superlative engine moving an adequate chassis, but this time it’d have to be the other way around; the power cap prevented a brute force approach such as the one used in 1960 at La Marche, where the prototype DCMW Barrijat, initially named Raqqada, was the most powerful of any class and dubbed a “battleship” by the event organizers.
The car selected for Lerance, the DCMW Nashwar (better-known in the west as the Norðwagen Loki), wasn’t the heaviest hitter on its team, nor the lightest, but for a medium-pace course it was the racer of choice. With a qualifying lap time of under 5:42, ample reliability, and efficient fuel consumption, DCMW’s expectations were high. With bodywork by the prestigious TIO Design House (@DrDoomD1scord ), it was also an effective publicity tool for the newcomer brand.
Among the factors behind the Nashwar’s formidable performance was the extensive use of aluminum alloys. Though neither was known at the time of its development, this shift in materials, primarily away from steel, would dovetail synergistically with Letaran industrial development efforts, as well as mitigate the large-scale steel shortage in Dalluha in the early 90s.
Dalluhan culture frowns upon blatant corporate advertising like that of typical racecar sponsorship. In any case, none was needed; in addition to DCMW funding the venture from both its R&D and marketing budgets, further funding was offered by the Dalluhan Foreign Ministry, the Onyx Palace’s cultural events fund, and last but not least, the personal reserves of none other than His Excellency, the Sultan of Dalluha himself. Well known as an automotive enthusiast, the Sultan also happened to be a fan of a genre of music in its heyday - Metal. As a condition of his sponsorship, the car was painted in a variation on Dalluhan official racing livery with logos of several metal bands - a battle jacket descended from a battleship.
We have an unexpected issue with the racing portion of this round that I want to be upfront about, and gauge your opinion as participants and spectators. The situation is as follows. I received 13 race cars, so with my own Mons added that makes for 14 race entries. However, 6 cars are in breach of some regulation, and are therefore binned/barred from racing. That leaves 8 cars in the field. That in itself would not be the end of the world as shit happens and people should be more careful when submitting their cars.
Here are the reasons for the bins (names redacted):
The main problem is that all of my direct competitors are technically binned (I don’t want to mention names, but you probably know who you are). This means that - perhaps barring an occasional DNF - the Mons would be left absolutely dominant over the rest of the remaining field. And that is clearly not fun for anyone.
So I have a dilemma and am torn between ‘applying the rules as written’ leaving this round with perhaps the least fun racing round of the series, or pivoting somehow to still keep the racing fun for everyone. I see three options going forward:
Please have your say, which way should we proceed? I’ll leave the poll open for 72 hours.
What about your original plan - let things affected by the last-minute patch slide, bin the rest?
These are all ‘other’ bins, not the ones due to the effects of the latest patch. I corrected the cars that needed it due to the latest patch and are thus not represented in the above six.
This post will be mostly OOC as it’s just dealing with some unfortunate housekeeping before I get to the meat and bones of the reviews. Y’all seemed to like this format, so here goes. Perhaps some bad news for some, but maybe also some relief for others. So, let’s rip the band-aid off, get the less fun stuff out of the way, so we can get to the good stuff. Only the trims listed here are binned.
CONSUMER CATEGORY
Although I strive to have as few bins in the consumer category as possible, there are still things that cannot be explained away or swept under the rug in some RP/lore friendly fashion. These cars contained too futuristic components that were not available at the time:
@donutsnail Turból j30 Centurion: Engine Family TP 5 (3 allowed). That high-performance engine was just a little too good to be true.
@DuceTheTruth100 Wells Lucida, Wells Lucida SL, and Wells Lucida SSL: All TP at default 5; front indicator yellow; rear indicator and rear side markers red; the SSL doesn’t pass WES6. Speaks for itself.
@ldub0775 Kinnister 1100, Kinnister Evolution Turbo, and Kinnister Utilio: Suspension TP 3 (2 allowed). That suspension is just a little ahead of its time unfortunately.
@VanZandt_Breda 1988 Van Zandt Brazos Grand Ranch Pickup: Engine TP default 5; Doesn’t pass WES6; No rear side marker or indicator.
These cars never made it to Letara’s dealerships for various other reasons…
First, we have ‘Toxic-chemical-gate’:
@Maverick74 Torshalla Kattunge 1600 Turbo: Corrosion resistant chassis vs galvanized for the other two trims. Seems like some banned toxic chemicals were used to make this chassis corrosion resistant, so the government quickly banned its sale in the country.
Then, we have Letara’s ‘Aerogate’:
@Ch_Flash Martinet Requin GRX Turbo: Aero load on rear axle 60 kg; centre brake light missing. Rumour has it that one dealership tried to break off the rear wing to make the car compliant with road regulations, but the car ended up so unstable that it was uncontrollable, and even the owner was too afraid to drive it.
@Riley Zephorus GGX: Aero load on both axles just >5 kg. This car just barely exceeded the allowed limit, but the fix was not as easy as it seems. Given the car’s many integrated aero surfaces, no dealership wanted to tackle adjusting the aeroframe of this bolide.
Then, we have Letara’s ‘Emissiongate’:
@Mikonp7 Popas Rushba 1800-4 MK-III, Popas Rushba 1800-2-C MK-III, and Popas Rushba 1800-2 MK-III: None of them pass WES6; the 1800-2-C MK-III doesn’t pass safety crash tests; the 1800-2 MK-III doesn’t have a centre brake light. Looks like Popas’ engineering division has really fallen behind the times and using 20-year-old low-quality components doesn’t cut it anymore in the modern world.
Finally, there is the ‘Race-gate’:
@Riley Zephorus GGR: The car has a totally stripped down race interior. The company tried to claim that this was just a lighter version of their GT interior, but the exposed wires and hoses were too much to overlook for the safety commission.
GOVERNMENT ASSIGNMENT
@Aruna Vizzuri MV (Lerance Mobility) W/Ramp: Engine variant year set to 1994.
@Happyhungryhippo Yamaguchi SERA: All TP at default 5 (both engine and car).
@Ludvig Swanson 625 AG Closeddoor: Rear reflector is red; no side indicator.
@Mikonp7 Popas Bukhanka DELUXE Short Bus V: Does not pass WES6; all rear seat rows are full-size and non-removable.
RACING
By popular vote there are no bins this round for race cars, and every car is allowed to race. Some cars had to be adjusted though. Here are the offenders and what was done to make the cars compliant with the rules.
@SheikhMansour Mocabey Kemmel GT4 V8: Engine TP at left at default 5; no side markers or visible indicators. Adjusted engine TP to conform to regulations; lowered family and bottom end quality to compensate for higher cost of engine. Effect: slightly lower drivability, reliability, fuel economy, and a second slower around the track.
@moroza DCMW Nashwar LRC: Over the budget limit by $300. Lowered weight optimization slider by 2 ticks from 100 to 98. The car actually gained drivability and comfort. Slower track time by approximately 0.1 s.
@happyfireballman Rhania Rolandier-RS: Runs E85 (108) RON fuel that is not available in Letara. Switched the car to E70 (106) RON. The car actually gained drivability, sportiness, and comfort; fuel eco actually got better by a not insignificant 1.2 l/100 km. Lost about 0.3 s of track time though.
@Danicoptero Tarske SW612 GTRS: No visible indicator on the rear of the car. Allowed to race as-is.
@Riley Zephorus 450R: No centre brake light. Allowed to race as-is.
@Ludvig Swanson 237 CTRX 61184: Red rear side marker. Allowed to race as-is.
I will also add that there were still way too many people with naming convention errors. Last round I promised to make these hard bins too, but once again I was a softie and I’ve let them slide again this round. But next round they will be hard bins too, they really take way too long to correct on my end.
Car reviews, gov’t assignment, and racing results coming soon!
Well two bins is rather unfortunate. But atleast I get to race! (And do horribly)
Well, the techpool issue might be caused by the fact I had to copy the car some times to try alternate configurations, and this in a very very short period multiple times after the updates. Company TP and Sandbox TP usage confusion added up to that.
Well, shit happens. I feel a bit sour about it but thats a general feel and not against the host so please dont get me wrong. At least the consumer cars seem to have worked. And looking at that massive bin list I am not the only one with that kind of trouble as it seems.
RIP the Vizzuri gov streak, I’m properly shocked I set it to 1994, must have slipped lol 
It’s a shame really, would have been cool if you had managed to nail every government entry! 
DCMW’s origins are explained here.
By the late 80s, DCMW’s original lineup of luxury and more luxury had ballooned into everything from $10k commuter cars, $300k+ limos, 400kph+ hypercars, everyday hatchbacks, offroaders, delivery vans, pickup trucks, and more. Some were “also rans”, some were bread and butter that formed the bulk of sales, and others were halo masterpieces representing the core of DCMW’s strengths. Import limitations meant that not even a representative half could be deployed, so long and careful consideration resulted in a decision to showcase the top priorities: 1. interiors, via a luxury premium sedan of the highest caliber, 2. performance, via a Muscle-tuned Personal Luxury Wagon, a concept invented (or at least named) by DCMW, and 3. comfort and everyday practicality of a family wagon in the Premium or lower Luxury categories.
However, several ill-timed misfortunes conspired to botch the showcase. The steel shortage resulting from Archana’s ongoing government collapse was just beginning to affect vehicle production, and was in part to blame for the unavailability of the family wagon. Instead, car No.3 was a sedan like No.1, albeit in a more accessible price category. While waiting loading onto a transport ship, a major theft incident at the Al Rilma dockyards resulted in car No.2’s interior being partially stripped, along with trim-specific grill, badging, and other exterior details that had to be hastily replaced by those of a different trim line. What ended up arriving in Letara was roughly 2/3 of what DCMW intended to be its showcase.
Quick guide to DCMW nomenclature:
Models are given names, and are normally referred to by (Name) (Trim level), with an optional cylinder count, and in cases of a special tune, its letter.
Trim levels (price ranges are very approximate, and vary by era and market):
Special - <$25k, no side strakes
Standard - $25-40k, one dividing strake in the vent(s) behind the front wheels
Superiority - $40-100k, two strakes
Supremacy - >$100k, three strakes
Vent count is a (very approximate) indication of engine power:
No vents - <200hp
One vent - 200-400hp
Two vents - 400-600hp
Three vents - 600-1000hp
Four vents - >1000hp
Special tunes. All are relative to the model’s baseline:
M - Muscle. Emphasis on straight-line performance with adequate handling.
S - Sport. Emphasis on handling performance with adequate or better straight-line, and reasonable street use.
R - Race. May or may not be street-legal, but even if it is, you wouldn’t want to for very long.
X - Cross-country. Big AT or MT tires, intended for at least soft-roading (in the context of cars) or hardcore off-road use (in the context of trucks and offroader models).
Most combinations are available for most models.
The Marqaba nameplate was one of DCMW’s first, representing a mainstream large sedan. Shown here wearing Sapphiric Abyss paint and the Infernal Boudoir interior package, the Marqaba Supremacy is one of the few DCMW with an automatic transmission, reflecting the intended buyer as someone who prefers to be driven as they repose, coccooned in the finest accommodations.
Heated, cooled, reclining and massaging seats with power rear and manual side curtains. Picnic tables, vanity mirrors, individual lighting for each seat. Silk headliner with a subtle damask print.
Four-zone climate control. In the front, the best CD sound system money could buy. In the back, another of same. An in-console refrigerator, on its lid a handmade gothic cathedral rose window mosaic of flame maple, teak, walnut, blue abalone, and desert ironwood. A handmade Vanden Weelderigplas clock (thanks, @shibusu ), itself costing as much as a smaller family car, front and center.
Lower wood trim is Macassar ebony, upper is French walnut burl, both tung-oiled by hand. Genuine wool main carpet, silk place rugs on top of that. Seats are trimmed in silk velvet and bison hide.
A turbocharged 6.0L V12 was tuned to provide an optimum between speed and comfort. Careful acoustic tuning resulted in engine loudness of just 20.4 and smoothness of 90.0 - a forged steel fist wearing a velvet glove. Far from the reckless excess of previous decades, economy and emissions were among the priorities: the car passes WES7 and consumes 11.9L/100km - hardly an economy car, to be sure, but for 1779kg powered by a 528hp V12 through an automatic all-wheel-drivetrain, something of a feat.
Pricing on request. Additional trim level options:
While the simplest explanation for a Personal Luxury Wagon (PLW) is a Personal Luxury Coupe (PLC) with extra cargo room, the concept was an independent development. The Business Coupe was a popular body style in the 1920s-1940s, a car intended for traveling salespeople and similar professions who needed substantial cargo room, and not much passenger room, but good ride comfort for long-distance trips. The groundbreaking 1947 DCMW Sharriallat featured a conceptually simple change that had important implications - the cargo and passenger areas were integrated, repurposing existing space hitherto reserved for cargo, and making it available for passenger use. This extended the vehicle’s role from mere transportation to being a mobile shelter, making it instantly popular for long road trips, and with the advent of 4wd versions, for cross-country expeditions as well.
The 1959 Sharriallat exemplifies the type:
In its home market, the Sharriallat is typically sold with all-terrain tires, underbody armor, a two-speed transfer case, and manually-locking differentials. For DCMW’s Letaran debut, it was instead decided to showcase the company’s prowess for civilized on-pavement performance, so they sent a special version, a modern Luxury Muscle Car - the Sharriallat Superiority M.
With its naturally-aspirated 6.0L V12 making 687hp, performance is as expected: 0-100 in 2.9 seconds, 80-120 in 1.98, 1/4 mile drag in 10.98 and 1km in 19.65, top speed 328kph. Everyday useability may however be surprising: WES7, 11.0L/100km using RON91 pump gas. While not meant to compete with single-minded hypercars, the Sharriallat Superiority M lives up to its trim name in embodying a superior blend of performance and comfort. A record-breaking hypercar may be what you’d like to brag as having driven, but this is the car you’ll want to actually drive, long and often.
The Superiority M is priced about 88k depending on exact exchange rate. Other trims available:
Not everyone wants or can afford a motorcade-worthy palace on wheels. A more normally-equipped and normally-priced variant, typically outselling its fancier stablemates by orders of magnitude, is one of several powered by DCMW’s secondary engine specialty - flat-six, in this case a 4.0 making 251hp. The powertrain features DCMW’s proprietary Integrated Front Axle, saving weight and space, in the latter case enough for the layout to be considered an FM4 or FMA.
Although car company investment in the Lerance Raceway waned in the previous decade, most companies were still enthusiastic about keeping the Raceway legacy alive and return to the venue. Lobbyist pushed hard for a “street-legal GT-style” race series to demonstrate their engineering and tuning prowess through cars that are “accessible to the masses”. In other words, make relatively cheap race cars with minimal capital investment but maximum skill.
With the minimal investment in the Raceway itself, the owners of the track saw little opportunity to make substantial changes to the lay-out. The main focus was to re-open the long track for the GT series, and make minor changes to the track to bring it up to modern safety standards. A few long and fast sweeping corners from the past were re-designed with slower, more technical elements, but the 270 degree “roundabout” was made faster with steeper banking. The long rear straight was broken up by a chicane to reduce dangerously excessive high speeds, and another chicane was added to the end of the straight to reduce speeds in the following sweeper. Finally, modern gravel traps and barriers were installed all around the track.
With the limited budget available, spectator seating was barely increased compared to the previous decade. Instead of increasing seating capacity, the main focus was on the less sexy, but more important aspect of spectator safety: barriers were erected to prevent flying debris to enter the stands and proper egress routes were established. Despite the lack of construction of new stands, it was hoped that with modern televised races overall viewership would actually increase, and that enthusiasm for car racing would remain just as high in Letara as it has always been.
The cars
Early in 1989 each company brought a prototype of their prospective race car to the track for scrutineering. Most cars passed with ease, but a few were found to have breached one or more technical regulation(s). After some debate and a public hearing, the organizers decided to allow each car to race, albeit with minor modifications for those in breach. Once all modifications were completed, each car was allowed to do a test run in ideal conditions to set a qualifying lap time, and a few longer runs in various conditions to determine other critical statistics about the car.
The test day was televised and closely watched track-side by many eager fans who wanted to see the new crop of cars to race around the legendary Raceway. Two new race commentators joined the team for the televised portion - AJ Tamarin and Derek Quinn, both former professional race drivers with race engineering experience would endow the masses with their insights and wisdom. Here is a snippet from their conversation during the test day:
DQ: Looking at the qualifying times, it looks like we have a clear top three…
AJ: Well, yes, the Zephorus, Mons, and DCMW seem to have a clear pace advantage over the rest of the field. But as you know there is a lot more to winning races than a single-lap effort. The races will be 100 laps!
DQ: Indeed, you have a point. What about the Benetsch and Mocabey? Do you think they will be duking it out for 4th in the championship? Or are either in the running for a podium or two?
AJ: I’m still looking at the top three… Look, on the long runs the Zephorus seems to be guzzling gas. It’ll need one, likely two more pit stops than the other contenders.
DQ: Yes, and it seems to be a bit sluggish - if that is the right word to use - in certain conditions, but quite easy to drive. What about the puffs of smoke at the end of the longest runs?
AJ: The puffs of smoke may be a little worrisome. but not quite as bad as the DCMW that threw a piston through the block on that last run. That was quite the fireworks!
DQ: I asked them about that. Seems like the con rods in the car are a little… failure-prone. The team was a little secretive, but one of the mechanics blamed the engineers for allowing over-revving the engine, leading to catastrophic con rod failure and pistons shooting through the already stressed engine block.
AJ: Oh, that seems to be a bit of a problem. I wonder how much that will affect them in the races. But what about the Mons? Have you found out anything?
DQ: Not really, actually. The mechanics just quietly got on with the job, and got through the testing program without much drama at all. The car seems to be a little more peppy than the Zephorus, but less twitchy than the DCMW.
AJ: Hmm. Ok. let’s talk about the Benetsch for a second then. It’s a little off the pace, but seems very solid otherwise.
DQ: Indeed! All of its driving character points to a very solid car that can perform above and beyond whatever conditions are thrown at it. It is also pretty good on gas, and has shown no real issues with reliability either.
AJ: Yes, if any of the top three struggle in any race, the Benetsch will surely pounce and take the opportunity for a podium, maybe even a win.
DQ: Let’s also not forger the Mocabey. It is only marginally slower than the Benetsch, and seems to handle even better! Surely it will be up there too, no?
AJ: Yes, I think so. Its two main weaknesses are fuel consumption, and some minor reliability issues seemed to creep in during the longer runs. Nothing major, but may be enough to drop them a little back. However, I would not count them out by any means!
DQ: We have one more car under the 6-minute mark: the Torshalla. Quite a bit off the leading pace… but…
AJ: But, they have built a reliable car. It’s not the easiest to drive, but if the driver keeps it on the track, and there is much mayhem up the road… who knows….
DQ: A podium?
AJ: Like I said, if there is carnage up ahead. And the drivers stay ahead of the cars behind.
DQ: Indeed, the Tarske and Levante are not too far behind, even the Wolfe could be considered of this mid-pack.
AJ: That’s a bit of a stretch, but you’re right. In the longer races the pack tends to get stretched and compressed as reliability and driver fatigue make their presence known.
DQ: Speaking of which, the Tarske mechanics seemed pretty busy in the garage, what happened there?
AJ: The mechanics said that they had to deal with some micro-fractures in the engine block. Perhaps they pushed their little B6 a little too far.
DQ: That sounds a little worrisome. But the drivers I talked to were very happy. They told me the car was easy to drive. So as long as the engine holds, they are in good shape they reckon.
AJ: After talking with the Levante and Wolfe crew, I heard similar stories in both garages. Mechanics and drivers alike satisfied and hopeful for a strong showing.
DQ: All right, let’s take a look at the tail pack with qualifying times above 6:10 now. What do you reckon are the hopes of these cars?
AJ: It’s always tough being near the rear. But that doesn’t mean that the fight for points is over before it begins! Some of these cars have absolute bomb-proof reliability, such as the Swanson, KHI, and Daniloski.
DQ: Indeed. As the saying goes, to win, you have to finish. Period. And barring anything drastic happening, these cars will finish strong, without reliability affecting their pace one bit even near the end of the 100 laps.
AJ: Yes, they may fall behind, but their chance is catching up in the late race as the faster cars start to falter.
DQ: Especially the Swanson seems to be cut out for this tactic. It is so easy to drive, that driver fatigue will also be a negligible factor.
AJ: The Rhania…
DQ: and Wolfram…
AJ: Yes, both cars… Well, they qualified in the same pack too, however their reliability doesn’t quite match the others. And while the Wolfram has great driving characteristics, it may be hard to no fall off the rear toward the end of the marathon races.
DQ: So, you’re not putting your money on these two, is what you’re saying?
AJ: I mean, crazy things do happen during races, right? And with the top 10 receiving points each race, I predict even these cars to occasionally pick up a point or two.
DQ: Well, that about concludes our coverage of the pre-season test. Thank you all for listening…
AJ: And see you on race day!
With the above information in hand, eager Letarans wanting to test their fortunes will be able to make “informed decisions” regarding their bets come race weekend. What do you think, how will these races pan out?
…to be continued…
Derp. I raised the revlimit as an experiment and forgot to put it back. I hope the chucked piston pleased rather than maimed the crowd.
Minor correction: the DCMW was a collaboration with @DrDoomD1scord . Any points it earns should be evenly split with them, assuming they’re otherwise participating.
Any news on the progress? 
