"Minivans Are Cool" MPV Challenge [Final Results Finally Posted]

[Edsel]

The “Minivans Are Cool” MPV Challenge!

When Chrysler first introduced the Voyager and Caravan in 1984, the minivan quickly became one of the coolest, most popular family cars on the market. But over the years, the minivan has acquired quite the sour reputation, becoming a symbol for the boring, tired old average family- the kind no one wants to be. Despite being a perfect fit for most Buyer’s needs and wants, the vast majority of car buyers avoid them like the plague because they’re image is just so very bad. This reputation is what, in this one-off challenge, we shall aim to reverse. Our goal is to make a minivan that people want; to make people carriers cool again. How do we do that?

That’s right. We’re making sport minivans!

Each contestant will create a modern, road going, sporty MPV. It can be of any style and for any market you wish, but it should aim to excel in the following 4 areas:

-Prettiness – How good it looks.
-Sportiness – How fast it can go.
-Usefulness – How well it meets the needs of a minivan.
-Pleasantness – How enjoyable it is to own and drive.

Minivans which do well in a respective area will score points for it, and the minivan which achieves the highest total score will be crowned the contest winner. Winners will also be announced for the individual categories.

Rules:

Entry must use the "MPV" body type.

(Note: mods are allowed. Meme bodies that clearly aren’t MPV’s are not. No trains, weinermobiles, military trucks, etc.)

Entry must have 3 seating rows.

(How many and what kind are up to your choice, but all 3 rows must have at least 1 seat in them.)

Entry must have some sort of catalytic converter, and at least one muffler.

(thanks to @abg7 and @Fletchyboy100 for suggesting the converter. These 2 are required just about everywhere these days, even in many racing series. If we want a hypothetical consumer to actually be able to use our cars, we should throw in one of these.)

Trim year and engine variant year must be 2010-2020. Entries must be realistic to this period.

(The car model year and engine family year can be whatever you want.

I want to encourage creativity all that I can, and will be quite lenient as to what I consider “realistic.” But there are some things- like cross ply tires –that just don’t make sense in 2020.

This does not apply to the car’s visual design, however; create whatever makes you happy, even if it ends up looking outlandish, anachronistic, or memey! I’m all for it! :D)

No red warnings.

(Pretty self explanitory.)

No 100 RON fuel.

(You can’t find this at your local gas station.)

Minimum Safety: 30.

(Thanks to @Wachu and @SenseiB12 for pointing this out. Legal safety requirements, after all, are a thing. Keep in mind though; you will be rewarded for having higher safety - see below.)

No limits on engineering time.

(Originally there was a 100ET limit, but it proved far too restrictive. I since got rid of it, and put this clarification here so there’s no confusion.)

Maximum cost: $50,000.

(This is a maximum, but you will be rewarded for being cheaper - see below)

If you’re ever unsure about anything, ask. :)

Seating bonus

In addition to the categories below, all contestants receive +1 point for every fold up seat, and +1.5 points for every regular seat.

So if your car has the bare minimum amount of seats possible to qualify, that’s 1 seat in the front, and +2 seats in the middle and rear rows. It would be listed in game as 1/+4. For this competition, the 1 is considered regular seating, and the 4 will be considered fold-up seats, so your bonus would be (1 x 1.5) + (4 x 1) = 5.5 additional points.*

Scoring areas:

Sportiness
The simplest of requirements. The faster your van can go, the better!

15pts: Fastest Lap Time (Top Gear Test Track)

Scorechart:
1st: 15pts
2nd: 12pts
3rd: 10pts
4th: 9pts
5th: 8pts
6th: 7pts
7th: 6pts
8th: 5pts
9th: 4pts
10th: 3pts
11th: 2pts
12th: 1pt

10pts: Fastest 1/4 Mile Time

Scorechart:
1st: 10pts
2nd: 7pts
3rd: 5pts
4th: 3pts
5th: 2pts
6th: 1pt

10pts: Shortest 100km/0 Braking Distance.

Scorechart:
1st: 10pts
2nd: 7pts
3rd: 5pts
4th: 3pts
5th: 2pts
6th: 1pt

10pts: Highest Average Cornering g's (20m + 200m / 2)

Scorechart:
1st: 10pts
2nd: 7pts
3rd: 5pts
4th: 3pts
5th: 2pts
6th: 1pt

5pts: Highest Top Speed

Scorechart:
1st: 5pts
2nd: 4pts
3rd: 3pts
4th: 2pts
5th: 1pt

Usefulness
If it can’t actually serve as a minivan… well then it’s not really a minivan, is it?

10pts: Highest Practicality

Scorechart:
1st: 10pts
2nd: 7pts
3rd: 5pts
4th: 3pts
5th: 2pts
6th: 1pt

10pts: Highest Safety

Scorechart:
1st: 10pts
2nd: 7pts
3rd: 5pts
4th: 3pts
5th: 2pts
6th: 1pt

10pts: Highest Utility

Scorechart:
1st: 10pts
2nd: 7pts
3rd: 5pts
4th: 3pts
5th: 2pts
6th: 1pt

10pts: Highest Fuel Economy

Scorechart:
1st: 10pts
2nd: 7pts
3rd: 5pts
4th: 3pts
5th: 2pts
6th: 1pt

5pts: Highest Reliability

Scorechart:
1st: 5pts
2nd: 4pts
3rd: 3pts
4th: 2pts
5th: 1pt

5pts: Lowest Cost

Scorechart:
1st: 5pts
2nd: 4pts
3rd: 3pts
4th: 2pts
5th: 1pt

Pleasantness
We don’t just want it to be cool on a poster; we want it to be nice to live with, too.

10pts: Highest Comfort.

Scorechart:
1st: 10pts
2nd: 7pts
3rd: 5pts
4th: 3pts
5th: 2pts
6th: 1pt

10pts: Highest Drivability.

Scorechart:
1st: 10pts
2nd: 7pts
3rd: 5pts
4th: 3pts
5th: 2pts
6th: 1pt

10pts: Highest Engine Smoothness

Scorechart:
1st: 10pts
2nd: 7pts
3rd: 5pts
4th: 3pts
5th: 2pts
6th: 1pt

10pts: Lowest Engine Loudness

Scorechart:
1st: 10pts
2nd: 7pts
3rd: 5pts
4th: 3pts
5th: 2pts
6th: 1pt

5pts: Highest Prestige.

Scorechart:
1st: 5pts
2nd: 4pts
3rd: 3pts
4th: 2pts
5th: 1pt

5pts: Lowest service costs.

Scorechart:
1st: 5pts
2nd: 4pts
3rd: 3pts
4th: 2pts
5th: 1pt

Prettiness
One of the biggest factors in deciding how cool a car is: how it looks.

30pts: Best Appearance

Disclaimer: Admittedly, this category is much more subjective than the rest, especially for a single judge (which is why it’s worth the least points). But looks are a big part of how “cool” a car is perceived, and the huge amount of creativity and variety on this server deserves to be rewarded. So while no one can truly eliminate their own biases, know that I’m making it a point to grade this part not based on my own preferences, but on effort, composition, and style. Top entries will receive explanations on why their particular car suceeded.

All styles and designs, be they retro or modern, flamboyant or minimalist, racing liveries or meme cars or just plain boxes, are welcome and encouraged. The best made and best looking designs will be ranked and awarded points on a table such as the one below. The amount of slots on the table (and points per slot) is subject to change based on the amount of entries, but the highest slot will always stay at 30pts.

1st place: 30pts
2nd place: 25pts
3rd place: 20pts
4th place: 15 pts
5th place: 12pts
6th place: 10pts
7th place: 8pts
8th place: 6pts
9th place: 5pts
10th place: 3pts
11th place: 2pts
12th place: 1pt

Submission requirements:
Simply direct-message me the .car file through the forums, and make sure you follow the naming scheme:

Model: “Your forum username”
Trim: “make + model”

Submissions will remain open until 0:00 on Saturday, June 26 UTC. Here’s a time converter.

I can only take one file per person; If you revise or resubmit before the deadline, make sure I know which .car file is the one to be graded come the last day. Also, know that results may take a long time to come in once submissions close.

Feedback is encouraged; after all, this is my first time running a challenge, and I’ve a lot to learn. :D

[abg7]

Depending on the model year and market region, a catalytic converter ought to be mandatory - if I am not mistaken, it was required in the US market as early as 1975, but not mandated in Europe until 1993.

[HighOctaneLove]

I have to agree with abg7 here; what market are we building these MPV’s for? It may seem silly but the different markets have different tastes and requirements that will affect both the engineering and visual design of the car. As there are those who like to roleplay a fictional car company, they need to know the region as they may have differing styles for each region, or they may restrict themselves to certain technology for “da memes”, hahaha.

Another thing is whether you want RHD or LHD designs (or both) as this is important to know if you’re not specifying a region.

But otherwise I think this ruleset is definitely workable and will produce some very interesting designs, hahaha!

[Knugcab]

I think that abg7 and highoctanelove has their points, year and market would be interesting to know. Especially year, if I bring a 1985 minivan to a 2020 contest I would not stand a chance against modern designs.

[Fletchyboy100]

Couldn’t agree more with ABG and HighOctane as some things like Catalytic Converters can seriously restrict or enhance performance. Maybe splitting the year groups up to 1970-1985, 1986-2005, 2006-2020 etc or having certain classes based on markets could work.

Although a Zafiran’t VXR might be a good shout for me to build here… so I’m definitely interested.

[Edsel]

@abg7 @HighOctaneLove @Knugcab @Fletchyboy100
Ya’ll have brought up some really good ideas! Thanks for the support!

I wanted the design aspect of the competition to be as broad as possible; Make whatever you enjoy, from whoever you want, for whoever you want, so long as it excels in the parameters stated above. And put the steering wheel wherever you please! (Interiors aren’t being graded anyway, so it doesn’t matter.)

With that being said, the competition- especially the engineering side -could definately use some specialization. I’m going to take you’re guys’ advice and tweak a few things.

[frantesta]

Hell those are millions of point opportunities, the challenge is really interesting and I would love my chevrolet zafira to be a sporty car, so count me in!

[Stryder237]

I’ve actually had my mind on creating a vaguely cyberpunk minivan on the dustbuster body, so I might just make one and enter this

[Wachu]

I would suggest minimum safety to avoid ultralight coffins for whole family.

[SenseiB12]

Safety should definitely be in there, every minivan buyer cares about that.

The looks scoring falls off FAST and is kind of dependent on the number of entries. Maybe instead just rate it on a 1-10 scale and give cars 3-30 points accordingly? Or maybe not a linear scale, but at least not dependent on the number of cars. As it is now it could be a narrow line between 30 points and 15/12 if there’s a few entries that are tough competition.

[Edsel]

@Wachu Safety is already being graded as part of the practicality section. If a player chooses to ignore it, then they’ve made a poor minivan, and won’t get those points.
Still, I might think about a bare minimum safety rating to reflect legal requirements.

@SenseiB12 And the looks grading is definately not final; it will likely be finalized after submissions close (but before any grading happens). I don’t know how many entries will come in, and want to award as many as possible. That chart is there as an example of what it could be.

Thank you both for the feedback!

[Wachu]

If players ignore safety, they sacrifice 10pts. They don’t sacrifice any other stat and benefit in all performance oriented ones.

[SenseiB12]

Well, besides the points, it’s always possible that a car could just be binned for ‘none’ safety or anything absurd like that.

[Edsel]

Yeah, I think I will be implementing a safety minimum of 30. There’s no way modern regulations would let you get away with anything less.

Safety isn’t everything, and I don’t want one stat to become dominant over the others. But I played around with the editor, and found it really difficult to get a safety of less than 24 in the time period cited; some bodies reached 30 with “none” safety. So I think this is a pretty reasonable target; it’ll still allow a lot of creative freedom, but will stop the most absurd of shevanigans.

[Madrias]

Maybe I’ll blow the dust off of Sinistra and shoehorn something interesting into a minivan. Now, where did I leave that Police Interceptor Traville again… I need the engine.

Edit: Yeah, I got something I’m kinda liking. Can’t make something look 2020 to save my life, but I’ve used a few fixtures I don’t normally use, then stuffed something fun in the engine bay.

[SenseiB12]

Oh, I thought of one last thing: You may want to add some kind of Engineering Time limit. The main reason most competitions do this is that there are a few areas where very high quality or complex features are limited by Engineering Time but are not very heavily represented in the total cost, because the cost per ET is low but in a real car there is a need to get things done on a deadline.

[abg7]

@SenseiB12

Oh, I thought of one last thing: You may want to add some kind of Engineering Time limit. The main reason most competitions do this is that there are a few areas where very high quality or complex features are limited by Engineering Time but are not very heavily represented in the total cost, because the cost per ET is low but in a real car there is a need to get things done on a deadline.

On that note, for each and every given era represented in this challenge, there should also be two separate ET limits - one each for the engine and trim.

[Knugcab]

TBH, this is why it is easier to hold competitions like this within the same year or at least in a circa 5 year interval or something… Simply too hard to compare cars with too different model years in a fair way, even when it comes to ET etc. I’m not saying that I am against the idea of competitions with no fixed model year, it’s just a reflection.

[Edsel]

@SenseiB12

…there are a few areas where very high quality or complex features are limited by Engineering Time but are not very heavily represented in the total cost…

That’s a really good point you bring up. I still really want people to have ample room to play within the requirements, but I should probably put at least a generous cap on to stop the extremes.

And I’ve already specialized the mechanical requirements to modern minivans (though feel free to design visually from whatever era you want). @Knugcab brought up a good point earlier.

If no one else has any suggestions/notes, I believe I will be opening submissions tonight; specifically, at midnight, June 18th UTC.

[Madrias]

Ouch. 100 ET limits me down to a SOHC 4V V6. I mean, it’s sensible, but I really was hoping to toss in the old '87 Sidewinder V10 Pursuit engine with some modern upgrades. Still, at least we’ve established that now I have to work within that expectation that the best engine you can get in a minivan is a V6.