QFC69 - I Don't Need A Reason [Results Public! :D]

[Edsel]

QFC69 - I Don't Need A Reason

The year is 2020, and Zoey is living a quiet yet fulfilling life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, sharing her suburban home with a loving husband and 2 (maybe soon 3?) adorable children. Passionate about their family and community, she and her husband live in a constant balancing act between raising their children and maintaining their careers (which for Zoey, is in local politics).

With her crossover getting old and a recent pay raise rolling in, it’s become time for Zoey to get a new family car, and she is looking for a large pickup truck. Because she likes them.

Rules

Use the stable (Al-Rilma) branch

• Trim and Variant year must be 2020
• Body type must be “Ute”
• Must have 4 doors, 5 seats
• Wheelbase is free.*

*Most full-size US trucks of this era are over 3.5m in wheelbase. However, that makes for a pretty limited body selection, so I’m going to leave wheelbase choice free.

• Any parts with “Race” or “Billet” in the name is banned
• $300 service cost penalty for superchargers
• Fuel Type: E10 Ethanol Blend OR 91 RON/87 AKI Unleaded
• Must have a catalytic converter, and at least 1 muffler
• Must meet WES 9

Advanced Trim Settings are allowed only for changes which cannot be made in engineering

• Must have ESC
• Must score at least 40 in Offroad
• Maximum Cost: $40,000
• Techpool must be default (+5 all around)

Interiors are not required, and will not be judged.

Some degree of realism is expected in engineering and design. That is, I’m not going to be that nitpicky on this front (I’m no expert on this segment, anyway), but the entry should be cohesive and sensible enough to plausibly exist in real life. Entries which use exploits or cheese to min-max their stats will be smited accordingly. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Naming scheme:
Model and Family: QFC69 - [Your Forum Username]
Trim and Variant: Free

Priorities

Note: Many of these stats are notoriously borked (especially practicality, safety, and utility), so I will be assessing holistically, beyond the stat itself; that is, how well do the truck’s engineering choices actually accomplish what those numbers are supposed to represent?

★★★

Practicality
This is a family car, after all. It should be accessible, easy to load/enter, and have enough spare space onboard to ferry around the kids and their things as well as a truck can.

Safety (+Drivability)
Zoey knows that owning a truck this large is a huge responsibility, and that safety is about more than “bigger car better.” The truck should be good at both surviving accidents and preventing them (the latter part is why Drivability is combined here).

Utility
Well, duh. Zoey isn’t just looking for the image of a truck, she wants the real deal; a tough, genuinely capable utility vehicle. And who knows, once she has it maybe it’ll be her excuse to start a gardening project, or rent an RV this summer?

★★

Comfort
This is gonna be her daily car, that she does a lot of errands in. She’d better enjoy her time in it. Plus, with a wheelbase this long and a cabin this spacious, it should have a lot going for it here.

Reliability
Well it wouldn’t be much of a truck if it didn’t start in the morning. The durability and dependability of these vehicles is one of their biggest selling points!

Prestige
“Rule of cool” is what drove her into this segment, after all; she is absolutely attracted to abundance and to impressive engineering. To that effect, she also has an inclination towards larger trucks (the bigger the better!).

★

Service Costs
A core advantage of these work-oriented vehicles is that servicing them is supposed to be relatively easy and cheap. She’d rather spend her extra money on her real babies over her metal one.

Fuel Economy + Purchase Costs
For the latter, her budget is already set. For the former, her standards are already low. Still, she’s no Bill Gates, and she appreciates a truck that does more for less.

Aesthetics
I’m not expecting a 200 fixture masterpiece by any means, but a cohesive and well proportioned appearance is much appreciated.

Inspirations

Ford F150

Chevrolet Silverado

GMC Sierra

Dodge Ram 1500

Toyota Tundra

Nissan Titan

Jeep Gladiator

Submissions

Naming scheme:
Model and Family: QFC69 - [Your Forum Username]
Trim and Variant: Free
Direct Message your .car file to me here on Discourse before the deadline

Submissions will be open from Invalid date→Invalid date
Unlimited resubmissions are allowed within the entry period, in the same DM thread. Only the last one will be graded.

Changelog

• Removed “size” priority; altered “prestige” priority to reference preference for larger vehicles.
• Clarified “borked stats” disclaimer in priorities. Proofread some priority descriptions themselves.
• Added the Jeep Gladiator to the list of inspirations

[moroza]

I’d advise against considering the Practicality and Utility stats altogether, and evaluate those criteria only subjectively. Both rely on volumes, and the latter also on towing capacity; the former is screwy and the latter is complete nonsense, at least if it’s calculated the same way as before.

Safety, utility, comfort, and prestige already favor a larger vehicle; why single out size and double dip on it?

In the interests of realism and balance, I would advise a penalty on independent rear suspensions, though by no means ban them outright.

[abg7]

@Edsel

Must meet WES 9

Not WES 11, since getting there with an OHV engine would be a tall order.

[Edsel]

@moroza

I’d advise against considering the Practicality and Utility stats altogether, and evaluate those criteria only subjectively.

That is about what I planned to do, yeah. Look past the stats, and assess the vehicle itself. To that end…

@moroza

Safety, utility, comfort, and prestige already favor a larger vehicle; why single out size and double dip on it?

…that should reduce the effects of that, at least for the first 2. But that’s still a good point. The goal of making that a stat was to reflect my sentiment of “I prefer a full size all else equal, but will still consider a mid size that’s good.” But maybe there’s a better way to communicate that?

@moroza

I would advise a penalty on independent rear suspensions, though by no means ban them outright.

Will look into that, but I’m not sure I’ll take it. I do want to do my best to keep this challenge simple, and Solid axles already do already have strong offroad and utility advantages (stat and actual) that suit them to this segment; those priorities + the realism clause may be enough there.

[moroza]

With the existence of the Honda Ridgeline and others, a realism clause shouldn’t apply to IRS on a light truck in 2020.

@Edsel

I prefer a full size all else equal, but will still consider a mid size that’s good.

That statement should suffice as it is.

[Edsel]

Should clarify:
Saying I’d use “Realism clause” here doesn’t mean I’d ban it outright, just that I’d scrutinize it a bit more heavily. Grading is subjective, after all.

And fair point.

[Capri78]

@Edsel

Advanced Trim Settings are banned, except for changes which cannot be made in engineering

Can we alter Just the front or rear ride height, but not both?

[Edsel]

I admit I’m not super familiar with ATS, so I’d appreciate some feedback here; but since there’s no way to do that in stats, that seems like it should be fine.

[moroza]

I’d advise leaving ATS fair game except for wheel width, wheel diameter, tire diameter, and camber. This is particularly useful for making dually setups.

[Oreology]

I just want to let you know that practicality and utility stat in game is absolutely useless, not sure what you mean by holistically.

For example, smaller dimension cars are instantly more practical than larger cars, and for utility all you need is very stiff suspension and load height.

[AMuteCrypt]

Smaller cars are more practical… until you have to transport something larger than the small car can transport. The practicality stat does actually simulate this, there’s a goldilocks zone where you hit peak practicality because it’s roomy enough for all your goods and small enough to get in and out of tight spaces. The biggest issue with practicality is that there’s genuinely not much you can do to effect it here - once you mandate a body type, door and seat count, you don’t have much room for engineering to impact practicality. Speaking from experience on that one, I mandated 7- or 8-seat minivans once and there was really not much in it. It also hurts that morphs can’t trade interior volume for cargo volume despite visually lengthening the bay by shortening the cab.

Utility is more than suspension too. It’s how well your brakes can cope when you add a bunch of extra weight to the car, it’s how much effort the steering requires from the driver, it’s how much cooling you have for when you need to really keep the engine revving hard and it’s how much torque you have tor moving a heavy load from a standstill. Utility is a lot more than just suspension… and it’s also some stats that really don’t work how you’d hope.

“Assessing holistically, beyond the stat itself” means “tossing away a fair amount of the borked stuff and looking at the full context of the car”, which is what you need to do.

[Edsel]

Submissions are open!

[Kreator]

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TRUCK STUFF

The ACZ HAC Bullhorn is back! Is it too much truck? NEVER! You can never have too much truck! Show the world that you need ultimate utility and family vehicle rolled into one stupid perfect package! Nothing can withstand you when you’re as strong as a bull!

[DoctorNarfy]

Hey, just a reminder that AI content is no longer allowed.

any content that is either AI-generated, or AI-enhanced, will no longer be welcome in any Automation-related areas of the official Automation community spaces. This also includes, for those of you who are present in them, our official forums… Posts with content of this nature will be deleted without warning, and habitual posters of AI-generated or enhanced content will be subject to disciplinary measures, up to and including bans for repeat offenders.

[DuceTheTruth100]

2020 Wells Overland 4x4 SL1*

Serious about everything you are.

*1) Base model shown

[AndiD]

2020 Mara Bizon 4.0 KEL AutoTrac

The V8-powered Komfort Extra Long version of Mara’s venerable 3rd generation pick-up, equipped with the mid-tier AutoTrac On-Demand AWD system, adapted from the brand’s CUV range. More off-road capable than the base RWD version but also more suitable for on-road driving than the more purist 4x4 (“4Trac”) version.

[Capri78]

2020 Dukes Raider SX

If you ever needed a vehicle that doubled as a drivable torch, well that’ll have to be the Raider, small for US standards and with enough lights to be able to light up Dallas whilst in Dunkirk.

One of the few plus points of the Raider is that it’s atleast cheap to mend when it breaks 5 minutes after the warranty period ends.

Offroad? Enough to be able to drive over wet leaves when exiting the driveway.

American? Very. [Apart from size]

Comfortable? Better than sitting on spikes.

[donutsnail]

Bolland L3500 HD

[Edsel]

24 Hours remain

Or just short of it. So far, I’ve submissions in from:

@Kreator
@Amos
@DuceTheTruth100
@Capri78
@donutsnail

Also, @AndiD has posted an ad, but I’ve yet to actually get a submission.