I was intending for this to be UK themed (Hence the Top Gear references and… hot hatches), but didn’t really have the knowledge about Catalytic Converter requirements over in the EU. It is late in the decision process but I can alter cat requirements and fuel type if it makes things more suitable for European tastes.
I had a look at all the appropriate vanilla bodies when I made that rule, and my thought process was to try to make it more like a normal car (i.e. one that already has a full interior for a commuter car) that had been altered in house to make it more sporty, rather than cars that felt like they cut away too much of the base for the sake of pure performance. But if people would like some more flexibility for their builds I can look into changing the seating rule.
Yeah, Automation’s quirks with seating are pretty annoying and I wonder if they plan to change that in the future, especially on a per-demographic basis based on how many people each kind of buyer wants to carry in the car. In real life, when you have a short-wheelbase car that can’t comfortably carry four adults on long road trips, but there are only two people in the car, unless it’s really small or they’re really tall they can push their seats all the way back into the footspace of the rear seat, thereby having enough legroom regardless of whether the rear row is full-sized, +2 or not there at all. In Automation, rear seats should therefore only carry a stats bonus, rather than a penalty for cutting into people’s space, in categories that prefer small hatchbacks. And realistically, people’s comfort tolerances in Automation should also vary based on how wealthy they are; buyers in the Budget categories would be more willing to accept that they can’t afford a large car and will have to squeeze a lot of people into a small one if they are buying it as a family car whereas people with more money won’t put up with five people in a Polo.
The same problem also occurs in larger cars where front and rear bench seats result in a comfort penalty, even though with four people in the car, they’d have no less shoulder room sat on benches than if each of them had their own bucket seat. The most realistic way to calculate these stats would be for front benches to incur a sportiness penalty in every year, rear (less so) and front (more so) benches to incur a prestige penalty only in the luxury segments, and front benches to incur a prestige and slight comfort penalty in non-luxury cars (maybe excluding Passenger Fleet and definitely excluding pickup trucks) only from the latter half of the 20th century onwards when front buckets become nearly universal IRL.
Well, sometimes I forget that I am a dinosaur and most of you are actually so young that you have no chance to know about the 80s car related stuff. In this case, if you want realistic UK tuned 1979 cars, it would be leaded gasoline without cats and dogs
As I said, a small bonus (practicality a one star priority, maybe?) for five-seaters would be fair, but I guess it would increase the variety of cars if four-seaters (full seats, not 2+2 since hot hatches had a proper bench in the rear) would be allowed.
Catalytic converters were not introduced into Europe (including Britain) until 1986 - it took the introduction of Euro 1 emissions regulations in 1993 for them to be mandated there.
I am a couple hours late for this, as I just got home about 10 minutes ago, but entries are now open for this competition. Additionally, I have done some small tweaks to the ruleset so please make sure to re-read the initial post first before you submit.
Again; MAKE SURE TO RE-READ THE INITIAL POST FIRST BEFORE YOU SUBMIT
If I knew how to make that change colours and be on a shirt worn by a very well endowed lady to make sure that it has everyone’s attention, I would do that, but Italics and Bold will have to do.
Inspired by the Letara-developed Irena SSE of the mid 1970s, Mara tried essentially the same a couple of years later with the Irena’s liftback variant in order to capitalise (ha!) on the growing hot hatchback trend.
The general shape and the rear of this thing looks familiar, although it is announced as new?
Well… actually we did not want to tell you, but this is basically still the 1969 to 1978 Publica III.
That is right - the same car that invented the hot hatch in 69s Letara.
Is it still a competetive car after all these years?
Sure! Keeping the basic shape, we overworked the car so much that it can be sold as new model.
While all other Publica models were replaced with the Urbano, the GTS continues as the only one, and the whole thing was modernized for nothing else than being fun to drive at a discount!
@xsneakyxsimx
I guess you made another goof: Now 95 RON fuel is mandatory, but that wasnt available until the late 80s. 92 or 98 RON would be period appropriate. But you are not to blame since that era was propably waaaay before your time.
Would four-star petrol have even been used in most of these sorts of cars, and might requiring it make the running costs of the car a bit too high for our buyer? I’ve designed an engine that is tuned for premium unleaded, but has no cat so will run on premium leaded without damage; do I need to change that or will it be allowed?
Shortly after Bordeaux took over the Jefferson Group’s operations in Europe and the UK, a deal was struck with Blackpool sportscar manufacturer Llud to turn the humble Solaris subcompact hatchback into a proper hot hatch. The result is this, a rally homologation special, with all the oomph to back up its wild, flared look. Among the changes made to this RWD hatch are a bigger, Llud-sourced engine with 157 bhp, improved suspension geometry with single-tube dampers, a wider track and a stiffened chassis.
The Ventis was released in Europe in 1978 as a three or five door hatchback. In later years the model would include wagons a sedan and a van variant. But for now it’s just the hatchback models.
As a global model the car would get a different designed variant for North America and the European design would get an Oceania release in the early 80’s.
The sportiest model in the launch line up is the SR using the largest 2.3l four cylinder engine from the Valiant range.
120 bhp from an MPI-equipped 16v 1.6L I4 (good for a 120mph Vmax and an 8-second 0-60 time), wrapped in a small 4-seat 5-door hatchback, all for just $10,000 AMU.
Practical? - Oui! It has 5 doors, plenty room to be sitting inside along with many Baguettes (and Croissant).
Is it fast? - Oui! Cest’ rapide! Powered by 1.8 Liter Fuel Injected in a small body, plenty of power to slicing through the traffic! Even Gendarmerie has a fleet of this to give a citation for traffic violators!
Disclaimer - Colere does not condone any risky driving such as excess of speed, risky driving maneuvers, or unsafe driving. Also, Colere doesn’t supply any “Extensive Modification kit”, especially does not supply “Daniel” for driving this 1.8 Rafale.
