QFC25 - PATAGONIA SPECIAL |FINALS|

Community Challenges & Competitions
1








QFC25
PATAGONIA SPECIAL








PROLOGUE

Meet Lando, a charming and affluent gentleman in his late 20s. Born into a wealthy family, Lando has always had access to the finer things in life. However, he has never been one to rest on his family’s laurels, preferring to carve out his own path in the world. After completing his education and dabbling in a few different career paths, Lando discovered a passion for horses and horseback riding. He became a skilled horse riding instructor and has since honed his craft, becoming one of the most sought-after instructors in the industry. In addition to his love for horses, Lando has recently discovered a talent for photography. He has a keen eye for capturing beautiful landscapes and candid moments, and his work has been featured in several magazines and online publications. Despite his affluent background, Lando is not one to flaunt his wealth. In fact, he has chosen to move to Chile to live on a ranch and immerse himself in the country’s rich equestrian culture. He enjoys the simple life and finds peace in the rugged landscape and rustic charm of his new home.

As someone who appreciates the finer things in life, Lando is on the hunt for a new car. As he travels for photography gigs, Lando needs a car that is comfortable and easy to drive for long distances. He also needs a car that can handle rough terrain, as he often ventures off-road in search of the perfect shot. In addition, the car must be practical for storing photography and horse riding equipment, and it must be able to haul his horsebox. Despite his affluent background, Lando is practical and down-to-earth, and he values function over form when it comes to his car. He’s willing to invest in a high-quality vehicle that can handle the demands of his lifestyle, Safety is a priority for Lando, as he often travels on long trips and drives on both city and dirt roads. He’s looking for a car that has a strong safety rating and is equipped with the latest safety features. In addition to safety, Lando is looking for a car that is efficient and easy to maintain. He wants a car that is relatively cheap to service and doesn’t require frequent trips to the mechanic.

However, Lando also wants a car that is prestigious and sophisticated, something that he can be proud to show off at formal events and business meetings. He’s looking for a car that has a timeless design and is elegant without being flashy or ostentatious. Ultimately, Lando wants a car that can hold its own both in the city and on the dirt road leading to his ranch. He wants a car that is versatile and practical while also reflecting his style and sophistication. With these criteria in mind, he’s confident that he’ll find the perfect car to suit his needs.

He wants a car that can help him do what he loves most: working with horses and capturing stunning photographs of the natural world.



BRIEF
Lando is in search of a new car that can provide him with comfort and ease for long-distance travel, handle rough terrain, and carry his photography and horse riding equipment. He is looking for a car that is efficient, easy to maintain, and has a strong safety rating. He wants a car that is prestigious, elegant, and has a timeless design, reflecting his style and sophistication. Lando desires a car that is versatile and practical, that can hold its own in both city and off-road conditions, and help him with his work capturing stunning photographs of the natural world and working with horses.

PRIORIDADES


:star::star::star:

DESIGN COHERENCE, PERIOD CORRECTNESS, REALISM
For starters, it has to be road legal. So wipers, lights (3rd brake light), etc. If it’s a base spec Jeep Grand Cherokee competitor make it look like one. Give it some chrome, some plastic. The design needs to represent what the car underneath is, design cues should flow together well and each fixture should have a purpose. This isn’t a call to over- or underdesign your cars, just have them look good. As for realism if your entry has a 2.4 I4 and a luxury interior my eyebrow will rise.

DRIVING CHARACTERISTICS
This is not solely a drivability and a safety stat. I’ll be looking at acceleration (0-100km/h, 80-120km/h), braking distance, is it stable at higher speeds, whether will it roll over if the turn is too sudden, if the suspension is so soft that it bounces uncontrollably as well as drivability and safety stat.

PRACTICALITY AND UTILITY
Lando needs to haul around a lot of stuff your entry must be able to accommodate it. Furthermore, this is not just a practicality stat but rather a combination of how big is boot/bed what’s its load capacity and the utility stat.


:star::star:

COMFORT
He’s going to be driving on all types of surfaces and in all types of conditions. Pay attention to RPMs at highway speeds.

FUEL ECONOMY
I am aware that you are going to be building big and heavy vehicles but fuel in Chile isn’t what you call cheap so keep in in reason.

RELIABILITY
This kind of vehicles are supposed to be dependable. He does not with to deal with frequent failures and warnings.

SAFETY
It’s a family car. It should be safe by 2000s standards, as the passengers shouldn’t be afraid any time they sit in it.

:star:

ENVIRONMENTAL RESISTANCE
It can’t easily rust. Your vehicles are going to be exposed to dust, rain, rough terrain and weather. Steer clear from pure steel.

PRESTIEGE
Lando wants to preserve his dignity. He can’t be seen pulling up to a fancy family dinner in something that can’t pronounce Worcestershire.

SERVICE COSTS
Not as important as reliability If within reason you are all good. Higher service costs are fine if they are justified.

OFFROAD
Keep offroad in mind. Lando won’t be doing rock crawling or some other extreme offroading sport, but your vehicle has to be able to deal with a dirt path or a muddy field.




NOTES AND GUIDES

  • There is no single correct answer when it comes to selecting a chassis type, as there are various vehicle models with different types of chassis that can serve as inspiration.
  • Choosing to go with automatic or manual depends on which kind of vehicle are you going for. As stated above drivability goes under driving characteristics. This should in theory offset the difference between manuals and automatics.
  • Acceleration and power figures. Keep them realistic these cars are not doing 0 to 100km/h in 5s and don’t have 500hp.
  • Read the full story for a better understanding of Lando’s character and what kind of vehicle he is after.
  • 0 to 100km/h is important, but arguably midrange acceleration is more important in the contest of vehicles meant for towing.
  • For those going with more unconventional enginnering choices. To prevet yourself getting realism binned mention the car/cars that have such engineering choices when submitting.




RULES

Model and Trim
  • Years: Model Years - 1993 - 2003 ; Trim Year - 2003.
  • Body: SUV, Pickups (Truck) are preferred, however ute and lifted wagons bodies are also allowed.
  • Interior: Lando does not need more than 2 seats, but be realistic making a SUV it would be expected to have 5 seats.
  • Gearbox: Automatic or manual.
  • Drivetrain: Any you see fit.
  • Techpool: Keep it default (5 in all categories).
  • Maximum Price: 24,000$
  • Minimum Offroad Value: 35.
  • Minimum Utility Value: 40.
  • Fuel Type: unleaded 95 RON
  • Tire width must end in 5 (e.g. 255).
  • Interior: Will not be judged, however feel free to make one.

Engine

  • Years: Family Year - to 2003; Variant Year - 2003.
  • Loudness: 40 or less.
  • Techpool: Keep it default (5 on all categories)

For everything else use common sense aka don’t min max.



INSPIRATIONS

It has to be said that these are primarily design inspirations.

EUROPE




ASIA




USA




more


SUBMISSIONS
  • Submissions open on May 16, 2023, 12.00 (GMT+2)
  • Submissions close on May 29, 2023, 23.59 (GMT+2) COUNTDOWN
  • The naming scheme is QFC25 - (forum username) for the car model and engine family. Trim and variant are free.
  • HOW TO SUBMIT?
    You can submit your entry file from May 16th to May 27th via DMs on forums. Additionally, you need to make an ad for your entry, otherwise your entry will not be considered. Sending in your entry before submissions open will result in your entry not being considered. Resubmissions will not be allowed.


THIS IS NOT A FINAL VERSION. RULES AND PRIORITIES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

CHANGELOG:

Added required fuel type: unleaded 95 RON
Changed minimum Utility Value to 40.
Added Tire Width requirement.



NOTE FROM VOUGE
And most importantly, have fun! Don’t be salty, sad or disappointed if your car doesn’t win as it’s all about participation in the first place. Take your time with your entries, there’s no need to rush them. Also, any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated! Don’t be afraid to speak out when there’s an issue somewhere, I’d love to try and resolve it.


18 Likes
2

Will there be a penalty for having more than 5 seats? At any rate, I’d expect all of those to be full-sized.

Also, unlike his namesake from Star Wars, Lando doesn’t want anything too fast, but he won’t want his next ride to be too slow either.

To reinforce the Star Wars connection further, no matter where he’s going, ihis next car should make driving a lot less stressful than leading the attack on the second Death Star in the Millennium Falcon during the Battle of Endor.

3

Could you increase the budget from $24K to $30K, because some of those inspirations would definitely be over that budget.

Or increase it to $25K so that it is rounded out much more better.

4

Hmmm, 2003 would be the final model year for the Aventura II, introduced in 1993, so it could work…

But I am afraid it is too outdated and would only score mid-range…



2 Likes
5

As I have understood it, towing capacity is very broken in game, so having that as a criteria is not the best idea.

6 Likes
6

No, there is no penalty for having more than 5 seats. If your vehicle has a third row you can go with + seats however, seats in the first two rows must be full-sized.


Just a note 0 to 100km/h is important, but arguably midrange acceleration is more important in the contest of vehicles meant for towing.

If more people express their concerns about the maximum price the price could be increased. For now it will stay the same. I am trying to make you compromise between stats and in general engineering choices.

Yes I am aware of that, but I don’t think it’s broken to the point that the set value of 2100kg is unachievable. The main idea behind it is in its purpose to be used as a balancing method. Tuning for tow and load capacity makes your focus shift from typical metrics. 4 out of 5 test cars I made could tow 2100kg or more. Only configuration that failed to achieve that was a 2.5 inline 4 with RWD and auto 5 speed and even this configuration managed to achieve a towing capacity of around 2000kg. As of now I plan on keeping this parameter. If people will be struggling to achieve desired value it could be negotiated for me to lower it.

7

Are fake Diesel engines accepted? Since this is what I would Install for a towing vehicle

8

I am waiting for the onslaught of Cayenne bodied cars (not complaining though)

(edit) since he is not from the United States, wouldn’t the US inspirations be a bit unrealistic? The Cheokee is the only one thats actually seen in Europe from what I know

For everything else use common sense aka don’t min max.

as a newbie, I also dont get what you mean by this? So basically dont touch the quality

10

“Min-maxxing” is local slang for using cheese-strats and exploits in the game to boost a car’s numerical stats artificially high, in a way that wouldn’t make any sense in practice/IRL.

The host is requesting you don’t just blindly push the numbers as high as possible; make sure the car is still coherent enough to resemble something a manufacturer would sell.

3 Likes
11

I struggle getting to 2100kg with a potential contender without some sort of potential cheese (6-speed, or top speed restricted gearing to 177 km/h, or 1000nm turbo engine)
Anyway, I’m sure it will be a V8 time

2 Likes
12

This is a tough thing to learn when you are new, but generally challenges prefer realistic vehicles. Look up the vehicles that fit the brief in real life, and engineer a vehicle that could believably fit in the appropriate market segments.

This challenge takes place in Chile, which is not in Europe. Often, people here have existing brands they like to use, and challenges generally do not want to discourage people from participating because of their brands’ national origins.

5 Likes
13

again, newbie, how do I know if its realistic
(edit) Nvm the Snail of Donuts answered

2 Likes
14

hey another challenge that i have something for!

HiResPhoto1450_1,920-1,080
HiResPhoto1450_1,920-1,0801920×1080 76.9 KB

USA, USA USA, !!!

1 Like
15

To give a couple of examples…

There’s no rule as far as I can see against not including a catalytic converter (I may have missed one). There’s also no rule against fitting a basic interior with no entertainment, or carbon panels and a carbon monocoque with enough negative quality to fit the budget. You’ll still get binned for this sort of thing. How far realism rules go is usually at the host’s discretion.

1 Like
16

I’m also relatively new, and what I’ve learned is that most folks here say “realistic” when they mean “historically realistic”. Many (most?) of these challenges amount to creative works of historical fiction, which means adhering, more or less, to configurations in actual use at the time.

A top-shelf hand-made interior with a repurposed dishwasher for an engine is totally realistic, from a technical/physical point of view. Seeing a major automaker market such a thing is not realistic, from a historical/social point of view. The latter is what’s meant here.

EDIT: I didn’t mean to trash historical fiction or anything else. Retracted.

1 Like
17

i think in this case its easy to figure out what will be accepted and what wouldn’t be, take my truck i posted in here earlier. imagine putting a dainty i4 hell even a i6 in in instead of a V6 or V8. Yes the game will allow you to put anything in it (even a V16) but from a realistic stand point something as small as an i4 wouldn’t make sense (power issues), an i6 would be to long (yes i know Volvo has a transaxle i6) then on the other side of the spectrum anything over a V8 would be too long/overkill for what’s needed out of something like this.

18

Plenty of mid-sized trucks out there with mid-sized 4-bangers, especially outside the US. And even in the US, we have things like the Cummins 4BT that powers what looks like the vast majority of UPS package vans.

1 Like
19

Then you’d have to clarify it in the ad you post, a lot of the inspirational pics are full sized SUVs/Trucks with the challenge asking for years t range from 1993 - 2003. While modern Trucks and SUVs use i4 engines now back then that wasn’t a popular option, goes double for the American market.

Again while the game wont stop you from doing it looking back at what was being used back then, plenty of companies just preferred a good ole V6 or V8 to get the job done.

20

I can get your i4 point but why would an i6 be worse than a V6? In a compact car, yes, size would be a problem but that’s not really what we’re talking about in this case…

1 Like
21

I strongly suggest dropping the towing capacity requirement. I have done some early test mules, and the only way I get 2100 kg - or, in better units, 4630 lbs - is if I give the car a very short final drive and a low first gear. This is unrealistic to how it works IRL - and basically reduces your balancing factor to “hmm do I want a gearing top speed of like 90 mph and a lot of noise, or do I want to be disqualified”. The game’s tow rating doesn’t factor in any actual towing ratio factors like braking capacity; and when it comes to its calculation of towing capacity through torque/gearing, it’s unrealistically harsh.

Let me put this into perspective: My mule car at the moment has a 3.98:1 first gear and a 3.48:1 final drive, resulting in a total first ratio of about 14:1; It is also powered by a 6-liter engine with 400 ft-lbs of torque. The game, however, gives me a tow capacity of merely 2880 lbs.

One of the inspirations - the Lincoln Aviator - has a 3.25:1 first gear and a 3.55:1 final drive, resulting in about a 11.5:1 total ratio. And the engine that powers it only makes about 355 ft-lbs of torque. So it has longer gearing than my car and less torque; however, the Aviator’s real-life towing capacity is about 7,300 lbs.

So it’s all bogus. And I will not be making a car with a period-incorrect 7-speed transmission and maximum gear spacing just to get around this rule.

11 Likes