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)
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.)
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.)
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?
