Hold your phone however you like, this should look and work correctly anyway.
(also let's just ignore the word "soon"... :P)
Lineup overview - MR76 on the left (Kombi should be MR80), MR82 on the right
Again, Kombi here looks like a MR76, while it should be MR80
Education corner
This is the OOC part. Since it's the first one, I'll explain - whole PZS is my idea of "what if FSO was any good", and therefore it's story and lineup are both heavily inspired by FSO, but with many improvements. However, I strive for a rather realistic effect with all that, so no Mary-Sue-Poland-stronk fantasy with cool V8 muscle cars in the middle of the Eastern Bloc. That's why I try to examine every improvement I introduce against real world commie cars, not necessarily FSO. Also, I operate this under one three main assumptions - 1. PZS starts on remains of another pre-war company 2. automotive cooperation in Comecon is common and effective 3. PZS focuses its effort on continuous improvement of what they have, and can convince the Central Committee that it's worth doing it - none of those were true for the real FSO but I think that those are rather minor (in the scope of the country's history) and realistic historical fiction. Worth noting IMO is the amount of concepts for new models that FSO made, that PZS doesn't - models with no real chances for production...
OK, having that done, let’s get back to the car. Each “Education corner” will delve into those real world inspirations and connections of a given PZS model - commie era ones almost exclusively, as for the later ones there’s not much to such directly base them on.
Mistral II is quite obviously designed as a rough Polonez equivalent, even though it’s about a class smaller. Even the name is based on it! “Mistral” was one of the export names of the FSO Polonez. Real Polonez was introduced in 1978, and it was too using a combo of tech inherited from its predecessor (in this case Polski Fiat 125p) and a licensed, Italian body being a discarded (Fiat) prototype with modern safety solutions. Another similarity is the rare option of a large Italian twin cam - Polonez had a 2.0 from Fiat. This is where the technical similarities mostly end - the Polonez was RWD with DW front/leafs rear, the Mistral is FWD with McP front and coils rear. There’s one aspect in which Mistral is a downgrade, however - the Polonez had 4 disc brakes, while the Mistral uses drums in the rear - discs in the back were unnecessary IMO, especially considering the lower weight. Engines are a major upgrade, with OHC valvetrain replacing real life’s OHV (but still in an iron/alu combo) - considering that Lada used OHC exclusively, and that in my timeline PZS had access to late 30s designs of a cheap OHC engine, I thought this could be justified, and while it has significant benefits, it’s not really a very advanced tech. Those engines are slightly larger than those of the Polonez (ordinary variants that is, not the 2.0 DOHC), but similarly powered, surely enough for such a compact car - around the regular variants of cars like the Fiat Ritmo or the VW Golf.
Well, damn. I can only say that I got my gaming attention redirected to other games, and even when it comes to Automation I shared time between the 4.1 (from which this car is) and 4.2. And, probably most importantly, this is my first forum car release since… 2018. Related to that - what do you think about this format? Isn’t it too much unnecessary text? Or maybe some interesting stuff is missing?
Well, I wouldn’t ask, if I didn’t need answers. I miss the external perspective to know if I presented the car neatly - mine is tainted by knowing everything about it.
This is really cool, and I imagine the Mistral II having success in export markets and possibly a quite a following in Poland. The lore is awesome and you can never have too much lore text. Could we get the file?