QFC15 - Cheap and cheerful [FINALS OUT]

TL;DR: Achieve the best value for a cheap and cheerful runabout for a cash-strapped university student in 1982.

BRIEF (brief!)

It is 1982, and Stefan has just started his university studies in the big German city nearby and wants his first own set of wheels. Money is tight, however, but he is confident that he will be able to persuade his parents and grandparents to contribute to the right car. Furthermore, his first own car should have at least some pep.

PRIORITIES

3 star

  • Purchase cost: That’s where Stefan hopes to get help from his parents and grandparents. The less he has to ask for, the easier it will be.

  • Running cost: Service costs and fuel cost is what Stefan will have to pay for himself during ownership - so less is better.

  • Drivability: It’s going to be Stefan’s daily driver, after all.

2 star

  • Comfort: Stefan’s time in the car should be reasonably comfortable

  • Reliability: When money is tight, the last thing Stefan wants are costly breakdowns

  • Safety: Stefan’s parents and grandparents wouldn’t want to pay for a deathtrap

  • Sportiness: Even with money being tight, Stefan does not want a mundane set of wheels. He is not looking for trackday car, however.

  • Looks: While the car might not be too special, it should at least look like it is.

1 star:

  • Practicality: there should be space for at least three of his friends to take them to an occasional night out or on a rare road trip.

  • Utility: as long as the road trip luggage fits, it’s fine.

Unimportant:

  • Offroad: Stefan has no inclination to leave asphalt roads

  • Environmental resistance: Taken out by me due to lack of clarity what e.g., base steel panels represent.

CAR AND ENGINE RULES
  • Model year: 1982 or earlier

  • Trim year: 1982

  • Family year: 1982 or earlier

  • Variant year: 1982

  • 92 RON leaded fuel (to keep things simple)

  • Engine loudness max 50

  • At least four full seats (two front, two rear)

  • No positive aero values (test track tab)

  • Radial tyre sizes must end on 5 (and have a look at typical tyre sizes for the era…)

  • No race parts or semi-slick tyres

TECHPOOL RULES
  • Base 2 techpool for all categories (change that from the 5 default for all)
  • 25 techpool points to distribute on top of the base 2 everywhere
  • Max 7 techpool points per category

The usual realism rules apply.

However, feel free to work with positive and negative quality and the techpool point distributions to achieve the best value for Stefan.

Taken together, one should be able to make a case why the chosen quality and techpool combinations are not wholly unrealistic. (That’ll be the main realism bin criterion)

INSPIRATIONS

opel-kadett-rallye

NAMING CONVENTION & SUBMISSIONS

Game Version: 4.2 STABLE!

Naming convention Model & Family: QFC15 - Your forum nickname
Naming convention Trim & Variant: free

Send a Discourse PM to me with the .CAR file
Create a short post in this thread with at least one picture

Submissions opens: 10/12/2022
Submissions close: 18/12/2022, AOE (anywhere-on-earth)

15 Likes

Just to check. 2 points on each techpool and then. 25 on top of that?

Yes. So 2 points everywhere to ‘get out of the shed’ and then develop your company profile with a cap of 7 for each category (open for debate).

1 Like

Price and ET limits?

I think these will be self-regulating. Price in the sense of the best deal is 3-star, and ET probably becomes quite meaningless with the huge influence of techpool on effective ET. (Taking a leaf out of donutsnail’s QFC14 book, er, brief.)

1 Like

I like this idea, no cost rules at all. So it’s up to us to make the cheapest car that isn’t awful

1 Like

Could you increase the noise limit from 50 to 60?

I see no reason for that. This is hardly a class of cars that will see performance intakes, tubular headers, giant exhausts etc. - 50 loudness should not be impossible to achieve using realistic parts.

There are (and were) also quite strict noise regulations for road legal cars, that is to simulate those. (not that boyracer tuners frequently fell foul of those, but these are supposed to be production cars.)

Stefan would expect this to consist of at least two full-sized seats each in the front and rear rows.

1 Like

What is the stance on negative quality? These being cheap cars after all, I would assume being silly and going -15 is off the table at least but maybe -1/-1 would be ok?

Maybe even up to + or - 3 for quality. That seems to be what was usually accepted (at least before techpool was a thing).

From the techpool rules:

So I’ll try and have a rather liberal and nuanced stance on quality, given that 0 techpool and 0 quality means ‘guy in a shed’, according to Killrob.

I partly built it this way so that we can explore the fringes a bit more than in the previous supercar QFC.

3 Likes

Fuel econ is covered in Running Costs right? Maybe making that clearer would help.

Yes, added that back in - got lost during editing I suppose…

With these techpool rules, are we allowed to use a body that’s newer than 1982?

Yes, that’s one among the many new interesting decisions about spending techpool.

Many new updates just hit, this “open” style comp could be good for that, provided we all send in a car from the same version, of course.

IP COMMUTER 1500 TURBO COUPÉ


FF layout, 113 hp 1488 cc i4 EFI turbo, 5 speed manual. 4 wheel independent suspension, 4 wheel disc brakes. Rack & pinion steering. Alloy wheels. Weight 862 kg. Fuel economy 7.6 litres per 100 km. 0-100 km/h 7.9 seconds. Top speed 196 km/h.


Yours for $13100 AMU.

(Yes, I am early and stats may be subject for changes due to rules and game updates.)

14 Likes

Turbo and 4 wheel discs?! You’ve thrown the gauntlet down now