design is underrated by design
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I understand everyone’s concern with which cars took the podium, but as the rules stated this was strictly a points challenge (with a small element of design). I can’t take points away for mid-engined cars (or even small cars) because they all technically existed in America at the time… even if they weren’t the norm. Future challenges may restrict size or drive type (hosts may want to consider that after people’s reaction to the results here 
) but I left this challenge open to it. I’m actually surprised no one even attempted front-wheel-drive. It would have boosted drivability by a ton.
no, fwd is just silly, even for me…
There were no American mid engined production cars at this time, and certainly not sedans. The mere concept is silly. There also weren’t any fwd sedans, just large luxury coupes.
Compacts also were also rarely if ever used by police - they were sometimes city cruisers or for government paperwork like the CPS or IRS, but highway interceptors were mid or full size.
Honestly anything with less than 2.6m of wheelbase, front engined, rwd, live rear axle should have been culled for “minmaxing”. You can most certainly drop cars out of specs challenges when they are unrealistic, especially in a history focused challenge like this.
The Corvair was rear engine. Not mid, not in the slightest. The engine was behind the rear axle. A mid engine sedan would have the engine in the back seat.
The Corvair was also discontinued in 1969. It was not available in 1971, nor was any vehicle like it.
It’s of course at your discretion if you want to ignore realism in favor of arbitrary numbers obtained through manipulating the game. You are the judge.
I can tell you are angry. I’m not trying to rile you up even further. Just a couple things though (perhaps just to clarify where my mindset was on this challenge).
Firstly, and I cannot stress this enough, this is only a game. I’m not sure how historically focused anyone else took this challenge to be, but in the end every single one of the entrants was a made-up car. Whether it was a rear-drive sedan or a mid-engined one or an SUV, none of these cars actually existed in 1971.
Secondly, the scoring was clearly outlined before submissions opened. More importantly, one of the cardinal rules of challenges is this: Anything not specifically spelled out in the rules is not a rule. I did not exclude mid-engine cars, or SUVs, or front-wheel drive. Therefore, I cannot, must not bin those entrants simply for being what they are.
The PDC Challenge was created to be more focused on the engineering of the car. I took that to heart in the creation and scoring of this challenge. I’m sorry if it didn’t turn out to be what you thought it would be. Hopefully the next one is more up your alley.
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