You’re correct that it is pretty rare on a passenger car, and with the Crown Vic/Commodore comparisons. The reason why I chose it is because it surprisingly drastically increased my safety to nearly 80, possibily due to the additional weight.
That’s exactly the premise behind it MTC is not a luxury brand, sans the Chinook line, but the Shaman XR is designed to offer everything the S4 has at a pricepoint comparable to that of a fully loaded non-luxury midsize car. And you’re spot on with the cost cutting measures: I chose many build options like non AHS steel and no aluminium construction that would be seen as less “premium” (and add to the car’s obesity) but make it very offroad capable as well as probably safer than the typical entry for that CSR round.
While the Prairie does have its rally car roots, the role of MTC’s smallest SUV is taken up by the cheap and rugged Blackhawk. I did however follow your suggestion in a different way, and submitted a jacked up, rebadged version of the Prairie to the current CSC.
Yeah, I had quite a bit of trouble getting the front end right and pretty much just stuck with the least-bad configuration, not one of my best designs. I got the inspiration for the car surprisingly from the baja bug in GTA San Andreas, which has the V8 engine sound. So when it came time to design a small, “baja bug” inspired sports car I went for a teeny tiny turbocharged v8 in a small sports car.
MTC is not a luxury brand, sans the Chinook line, but the Shaman XR is designed to offer everything the S4 has at a pricepoint comparable to that of a fully loaded non-luxury midsize car. And you’re spot on with the cost cutting measures: I chose many build options like non AHS steel and no aluminium construction that would be seen as less “premium” (and add to the car’s obesity) but make it very offroad capable as well as probably safer than the typical entry for that CSR round.