QFC76 - Midlife Motoring [FINALS OUT]

Nebulon · 20 July 2026 19:42

QFC76 - Midlife Motoring

Hosted by @Nebulon and @Vanilla

Previous Round

Somewhere in Massachusetts, 2026…

Leon had just finished his bi-weekly routine grocery run at his local Stop & Shop when he checked his phone. His heart nearly jumped out of his chest upon seeing that a substantial bonus from his job had just landed in his account, a bonus big enough to finally act on a long awaited fantasy. His boss at his real estate job must have had a sudden crisis of conscience (or a very vivid vision involving eternal damnation), but Leon wasn’t about to question his luck…

The time had finally come. He needed a second car. Something fun. Something stylish. Something he and his wife could enjoy on weekend getaways, yet practical enough to handle the school run and the daily commute. A genuine sports cruiser for the modern era.

YOUR TASK: Create a modern sports cruiser, a base model sports car, if you will, for a man in his midlife crisis.

RULES

— GENERAL —

Stable version of Automation ONLY (Al Rima as of current time).

While rather subjective, design and engineering must be reasonably realistic. Have you seen any Twincharged, FWD I6 sports cars in 2026? Yeah, didn’t think so. Design should also include basic street legality, such as lights, indicators, fuel caps, etc…

Abusing glitches/bugs is PROHIBITED.

You must post an ad in this thread as a part of your submission.

— TRIM —

Model and Family year - 2020 (latest year in Automation).

Trim and Variant year - 2020 (latest year in Automation).

Legacy and Open-Wheel bodies are PROHIBITED.

Race parts (Race Diffusers, Semi-Slicks and Race Tires, and Pushrod Suspension) are PROHIBITED

Coupe, Convertible, and 2-door Sedan bodies ONLY are permitted (Bodies that Automation classifies as a “Coupe”, “Convertible”, or “Sedan”s that visually have 2 doors).

LEGAL WHEELBASE SIZE: 2.4 - 2.9 meters (~95 - 114 inches), rounded up or down

Must have at LEAST “Standard 10s” safety.

Must have at LEAST “Standard Infotainment”.

LEGAL SEAT COUNTS: 2+2, 2+3, 4, and 5.

LEGAL TRANSMISSIONS TYPES: Manual, Adv. Automatic, Auto Manual, Dual Clutch.

Tire width must end in a 5.

MAXIMUM tire quality of +5.

MAXIMUM ingame price of $35,000.

Positive downforce is PROHIBITED for all speeds on the aero graph.

ATS is allowed, as long as it’s within reason. 3D fixtures are also allowed (roof fixtures, custom mouldings, etc.).

Interiors are OPTIONAL, and have no point advantage during judging.

— ENGINE —

Engines with MORE than 6 cylinders will incur a $1,000 car price PENALTY. (This means that if you have more than 6 cylinders, you must NOT go over the $35,000 limit after adding the penalty).

V16 Engines are PROHIBITED.

MAXIMUM Fuel System quality of +5

MAXIMUM Loudness of 50.

Unleaded Regular to Premium fuel ONLY. (Regular can have an advantage over Premium to Leon if the fuel economy is on par or greater than Premium-fueled rivals)

Emissions must be WES11.

Superchargers will incur a $500 Service Cost PENALTY

Catalytic Converters are REQUIRED, and at least ONE muffler is required as well (at least ONE muffler slot must not be “None”).

Race parts (Billet Steel, Titanium, anything with “Race” in the name) are PROHIBITED.

— TECHPOOL —

Negative Techpool is PROHIBITED.

MAXIMUM Techpool of 35M combined. You can check your TP budget by taking the sum of the 2 boxed values here:

— HAVE FUN! —

PRIORITIES

Design: Leon is buying this car to impress his kids, wife, and random strangers he would come past. Obviously, he would prefer something that isn’t boring, with a stylish design.

(OOC: Design will be judged by an average out of 10 of @Nebulon’s and @Vanilla’s opinions.)

Drivability: Leon is a real estate agent from Massachusetts, not a racing driver. He wants something that he can easily zip around to his office, the park, or the backroads if he’s feeling it.

Sportieness: Leon is buying a sports cruiser, so he would want something reasonably sporty. Massachusetts is a relatively hilly area, so he would also want enough power to make it up some of the larger hills he drives through.

Fuel Economy: Leon drives a lot, whether it be on a commute to work or on the highway. Fuel prices are rather high at the moment, and he definitely does not want a hardcore, gas guzzling sports car that’ll drain his wallet.

Comfort: Again, he is buying a sports cruiser, meaning that he will cruise on the highways too. He would prefer if his brand-new car didn’t rattle his or his family’s bones too much when on longer trips.

Safety: Leon will be driving around his family in this car, and he definitely does not want to be driving something akin to a coffin on wheels.

Service Costs: He does not want his soft sports car to break the bank in the mechanic’s shop either, although given he is a real estate agent, he can take a hit every once in a while. This shouldn’t be as much of a money pit as a hardcore sports car or super car.

Reliability: He wants to spend his time on the road, not in the dealer’s waiting room. Again, while he can take some hits and deal with his car being in the shop every once in a while, it should not be a regular occurrence.

Price: Leon has some more disposable income now, so he doesn’t really care if he has to spend his entire budget, but cars that do more for a lower price will be preferred by him.

Prestige: This will be judged mostly holistically rather than by just the raw statistic, hence why it is so low on the priorities.

Practicality: Much like Prestige, this will be judged more holistically, as again, this is a stylish 2-door coupe he’s buying, not a hatchback or a sedan.

Environmental Resistance: Massachusetts is pretty snowy place with lots of road salt, so having something that doesn’t fall apart on the first winter is ideal. This will be judged more holistically rather than the raw statistic, such as by looking at panel and chassis materials (road salt isn’t very friendly to bare steel…), or convertible roof types (if applicable).

SUBMISSIONS

— SUBMISSION OPEN: 16:00 UTC 22/7/2026 —

— SUBMISSIONS CLOSE: 16:00 UTC 2/8/2026 —

Model: QFC76 - [username(s)]

Trim: Free

Family: QFC76 - [username(s)]

Variant: Free

To submit a car, you must send your .car file to @Nebulon and @Vanilla via Forum DMs.

You are allowed ONE re-submission, and must post an ad a maximum of 24 HOURS after the challenge deadline.

INSPIRATIONS

2026 Ford Mustang Ecoboost

2024 Camaro 1LS

2023 Dodge Challenger GT

2026 BMW 230i

2026 BMW 430i

2026 Mercedes CLE 300

2026 Honda Prelude

2022 Infiniti Q60 (Base)

2024 Toyota Supra I4 (Non-4+ Seat Inspiration)

2022 Porsche Cayman I4 (Non-4+ Seat Inspiration)

2026 Hyundai Elantra N (Non-Coupé Inspiration)

CHANGELOG

20/7/2026 - Clarified catalytic converter and muffler rules, added Environmental Resistance as a low-stake priority

21/7/2026 - Changed muffler rule, added Loudness restriction, changed cylinder count rules to incur a penalty for engines with more than 6 cylinders, and fixed some grammar mistakes.

22/7/2026 - Fixed another grammar mistake

23/7/2026 - EMERGENCY EDIT: Stated that using Regular Fuel can have an advantage to Premium if the fuel economy rivals or surpasses Premium-fueled competition

29/7/2026 - Deadline Extended to 2/8/2026 at 16:00 UTC, as per the voting results

Nik0_2215 · 20 July 2026 20:45

I thought it was for August, it closes in 1 week, we’ll have to do a speedrun

HyperskiesSM · 20 July 2026 23:31

its QFC afterall

(QFC = Quick-Fire Challenge)

oldmanbuick · 21 July 2026 00:29

I assume this means that something other than “None” must be selected in each of the muffler slots, not that the actual muffler count must be exactly 2? Because if you had a dual exhaust with two mufflers on each exhaust, that would be 4 mufflers, or you could have a dual exhaust with only one muffler slot selection, and that would technically have 2 mufflers on the car. Also, I am assuming that this shouldn’t be read to require dual exhausts.

I realize this is probably pedantic hair splitting, but I’d rather make sure than somehow managing to get banned for making assumptions about what this language means.

Also, might I suggest that environmental resistance be put as a small scoring priority or something factored into the reliability score? I believe there’s some significant road salt used in Massachusetts.

Vanilla · 21 July 2026 00:36

Yeah, both options must have something other than none, and for environmental resistance, since it’s a wonky stat, it’ll be judged more holistically. Basically as long as you don’t have bare steel for chassis and panels, you’ll be fine.

Nebulon · 21 July 2026 01:23

Basically what vanilla said. (also updated the rules accordingly to include clarification on muffler count and env resistance)

abg7 · 21 July 2026 04:29

That refers to 91 RON/87 AKI and 95 RON/91 AKI respectively.

Also, the requirement for an actual rear seat of any size is mainly for balancing reasons - a pure 2-seat layout gives too much benefit stat-wise.

JANXOL · 21 July 2026 05:46

May I ask why the 6 cylinder restriction? You have listed several pony/muscle cars as inspirations, while i know these specific models are the ones that make a purist cry, I am curious why V8 is not an option. Perhaps an extra service cost based on engine capacity or configuration might be better than outright ban?

abg7 · 21 July 2026 05:55

Anything with more than 8 cylinders could be overpowered in the client’s view - four or six would suffice for him.

mart1n2005 · 21 July 2026 13:07

Turbocharged cars have naturally less exhaust noise than N/A engines in the game. How about a noise limit instead of a blanket 2 muffler rule. Less than 45 for example

Nebulon · 21 July 2026 14:02

We mostly did it because basically no modern entry-level sports cars have anything more than 6 cylinders (like our inspirations). Along with that, like what abg said, we figured our buyer would view larger engines as more fuel-hungry/overpowered.

A price/svc penalty for more cylinders isn’t a bad idea though, we’ll see how much of one to give after messing around with our benchmark cars

Nebulon · 21 July 2026 14:08

Also a good point. We’ll see how much of a noise restriction to have by messing with our test cars, although we’re probably still going have at least one of the muffler slots not be “None”

Nebulon · 21 July 2026 15:05

Rules changed accordingly. Now, only at least one muffler slot needs to not be “None”, there’s a loudness restriction of 50, and engines with more than 6 cylinders add a $1,000 car price penalty.

abg7 · 21 July 2026 15:16

One aesthetic inspiration you haven’t cited is the current Subaru BRZ/Toyota GR86, which would fit right in due to being a 2+2 instead of being a pure 2-seater as the ND MX-5 and GR Supra are.

Vanilla · 21 July 2026 15:53

The reason why we chose to omit it, despite being pretty similar, is we thought of it more as a track toy, rather than a “baby GT” in order to guide away people from just making a track toy, which isn’t what Leon wants.

abg7 · 21 July 2026 17:54

The tire quality and downforce caps are for balancing reasons (Leon’s not looking for an out-and-out sports car, after all).

Also, the price cap is something I can agree with - any more and Leon would be looking for something more focused and less practical, which defeats the point of the exercise.

Nebulon · 22 July 2026 16:04

Submissions Open!

You have exactly 7 DAYS to complete and submit your cars, right until 29/7/2026 (at 16:00 UTC)! (With an extra 24 hours after that for posting your ads)

Nebulon · 24 July 2026 02:36

An emergency edit was made to the rules regarding fuel types and their advantages, sorry to anyone that’s started on submissions, it’s our first time hosting and didn’t take this into account, but this is the last one and the rules are set in stone now

abg7 · 24 July 2026 03:14

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time I’ve seen a challenge in which using regular unleaded gives an advantage over premium unleaded, but only in certain circumstances.

moroza · 24 July 2026 05:11

Are 4/5-door coupes legal? How about 2/3-door shooting brakes that are classified as wagons, hatchbacks, or something else altogether?

Titanium and billet parts aren’t much suitable for this kind of car, and banning them for this particular challenge is ok, tho I’d rather see their use should have its own consequences (expense, mostly), not an outright bin for legality. More importantly is to note that they aren’t generally considered race parts as such, and while I can’t name any remotely reasonable production cars that came with a billet crank, titanium isn’t quite as exotic. Not sure about “semi slicks” as that isn’t a well-defined term to begin with*, but I’m inclined to consider them as a contrast/counterpart of racing slicks - an explicitly road-legal counterpart, and therefore not a race part by definition (though also ok, IMO, to just ban by rule in this QFC).

*Are these semi-slicks? You tell me.

Just a sampler of this can of worms, from Michelin’s catalog. Where do you draw the line between Sport, Semi-Slick, and various Race tires? Go ahead and post your best guess for the following five tires, regarding 1. which of these three tire types (or any other type) it is, 2. whether it’s DOT legal, and 3. whether it does or doesn’t come with any official warnings to avoid any particular conditions of use despite technically meeting the legal requirement.