Maybe we can conscript a generous community member to make modernised variants of older bodies. Is making bodies that difficult?
That is a very subjective question. In my experience it all depends on a number of factors including skill level, complexity of your subject, your goals for the resulting body and your tolerance to the quality of the output.
A couple of my bodies Iâve come away thinking âthat was hard workâ, even starting over when Iâve felt it was not going right. With others Iâve felt they were easier than expected.
I just want it noted that me as the OP that mentioned the 911 as an example, never claimed you could do a 996 with a body of a the first 911 from 63. You could hower make and jump 30 years and do one from 93 with a 63 body by flaring the arches and using era suitable trims for each of the cars.
And if we take the 996 and the two body âgenerationsâ that follow it they are basically indistinguishable so that one seems to be servicable at least 20 years, and who knows what the future will hold.
That is the reason i said you could cover 7 911 generations spanning over 50 years with only two bodies. (Also the reason i proposed diminishing returns from a re-engineer body feature)
That being said the question/proposal has already been adressed here and this âconcernâ is solvable within the confines of the game, either as more bodies get released or through moded bodies.
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Gameâs not stopping you though. You can do so if you want. However are you really expecting Singer and Morgan to cater to the same clientele as Porsche and Lotus? The only negative downside to using an older body in game from what Iâve seen is a desirability hit and drag.
Well, I just made an example of porche being able to sell body that 30 years old. Yes it changed styling quite allot with the 996 (it was even criticized for that very thing as well as becoming bigger)
Lotus Is another good example of a company that re-engineered a car chassis (to meet new safety standards even) The Lotus Elise is still in production after 20 years and 3 generations. And I am positive they could be represented with the same body.
Currently when dealing with premium cars that care about prestige (and safety to an extent) its hard to sell a car 20 or 30 years later simply due to the body being old. Irl they sometimes go through generations with little external change like the mentioned elise or 911 (still excluding the big change that happened during the 90s) or with basically the same mechanical basis but more and more stuff added to a long going iconic line like the Citroen DS.
The reason I created this post is that I wanât to be able to have those iconic cars based on what becomes successful in my companyâs own story rather that hopning I have suiting body as a followup to a especially successful car.
With re-enginering (done properly with a cost weight increase and diminishing returns) It would be possible to create my own icons, and extend the life of a hit upwards to 30 years as long as you keep bringing out new models and include new innovations when applicable to. (Would be very hard to do in a category that cares about prestige and safety otherwise)
Itâs not stopping me, but itâs kinda like saying âPokemon isnât stopping you from leading the life of a Ghost-type guyâ. It technically allows it, but itâs definitely pushing the player away from it. As for your example, no, I donât think Morgan and Lotus have the same clientele at all, I agree with you 100% there. But Morgan still has a clientele, despite how archaic they look, is my point. The world hasnât jumped in and said âYouâre receiving a massive penalty for using a body style from the '40sâ. I like the year system, I like that certain aesthetics are locked off early on (As they should be). I like that certainly technologies and materials donât become widespread until later. I like that countriesâ demands change with the times. What I donât like is the game saying âOK, this style of body is now punishable to even think of. We havenât got a suitable replacement for its aesthetics, so if you were wanting to do a similar style, tough luck.â
Make no mistake, I absolutely adore Automation, and even if this is never changed, I wonât stop enjoying it. It just does feel a little confining to have the game give me a finger-wag for trying to do a classic style over modern drivetrain.
But you do have a clientele. If you donât have a consumer base your desirability would be zero. Alot of the car buying public is turned off with very retro designs.
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Guys, itâs really simpleâŚ
- Learn 3D modelling
- Make the modern versions of the âclassicsâ
- Upload to Steam Workshop
The devs can get on with the game instead of upsetting you! 
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Or just edit the LUA file to unlock it later in game and you can use it without penalty.
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To add to this, copying the folder from the âcamsoâ folder, pasting it in âgamedataâ then renaming it and editing the year in the .lua should have it working correctly as a ânewâ car.
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Iâm not sure how to organize my thoughts nor how feasible (extra work developing or testing, game balance, etc.) this will be, but here goes.
Say there is a not-911 body that unlocks in 1960 game year. Thereâs the 3d model, the deformation data, and the body specific lua (passenger / cargo boxes, aero, etc. for coupe, sedan, wagon, etc.), if Iâm not mistaken.
(Numbers made up, and by someone less than amateur)
Another section could be added to the body lua which describes scaling modification for specific years e.g.:
In 1990 the car body gets scaled along the x, y, and z to 1.10* its base value (space used by additional safety stuff), the aero gets scaled by 0.95 (larger surface area for same body style), weight would increase, etc.
*It could be adjusted based on axis (e.g. 1.10 along x and y, 1.05 along z)
Maybe the boxes (passenger, cargo, engine, etc.) wouldnât increase because thereâs just more padding around them, not usable room? (Again, less than amateur here.)
In 2010 the scale factor is now 1,20 the base value (20% increase of the base, 9.1% increase of 1990, assuming my math is correct), aero is now 0.90, weight is increased compared to 1990, etc. (Again, made up numbers for illustration purposes; I havenât a clue how ârealisticâ or verisimilitude they are).
The year could be saved with the specific model, which would be used to calculate the âtoo oldâ modifier. e.g. You make a 1960 not-911 which is deemed âtoo oldâ in 1990. You could clone the 1960 model which then updates the model year to 1990 and inherits the updated stats (base * 1.10 visual scale, base * 0,95 aero, etc.). If you cloned it in 2000 it would inherit the 1990 stats. If you cloned it in 2010 it would inherit the 2010 stats (base * 1.20 visual scale, base * 0.90 aero, etc.)
This would effectively be a âclone modelâ button (similar to âclone trimâ currently). Youâd still have to engineer the car like it was new, but maybe you gain some familiarity bonus to engineering the body.
Fixture placement should only have to be recalculated; itâs the same body, just scaled differently (similar to how morphing a trim adjusts fixtures now).
Thinking on it more, it also seems rather niche; a decent amount of work that probably wonât get too much use (e.g. compared to clone trim or morphing a body with fixtures intact). Though, perhaps more feasible than several variants (1960, 1970, etc.) of every style (coupe, sedan, etc.) of every body (not-356, not-911, etc.).
This âclone modelâ feature would favor people who donât want to redesign the fixtures every time they make a new car; people who are more engineer (stat tweaking), rather than aesthetic designer, or people who want to roleplay a retro car maker.
(Or a personal use case of mine: make a DeLorean replica that sells from 1980 to 2020 and only updates the engineering / tech side of things 
)
The thing is that itâs not just a question of scaling.
The bumpers especially are quite different between 1960 and 2010.
Same thing for stuff like the fatness of the various pillars.
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Yeah, visually it wouldnât line up, but purely on the stats it could work. Though the dev time, and testing time for such a niche feature, yeah⌠still, I thought Iâd throw out the most feasible way I could think of doing it (a bit of extra lua data, and backend code).
Regardless of retro refresh (getting rid of âtoo oldâ), being able to âclone modelâ would be less niche, I believe. Iâd be nice for us people who suck at aesthetic design, but donât want to just make cars that are just a grill. We could make something passable, once, and use it for the entire bodyâs lifetime (maybe 3 or 4 models, in current terms). Though, I believe, the UE4 UI design overhaul will add something equivalent.
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I think heâs thinking of the same thing I am, which is a cheap and dirty way of âfakingâ a newer car. Of course it wonât be a perfect new 911, but so long as itâs a âclose enoughâ job, we can live with it.
Iâm curious to know if itâd work myself.