What. Why am I hosting 2 challenges at once? Why? Read and find out. I promise this won’t effect ALC. Hello and welcome to… The Quick-Fire Challenge!
Simple reviews, quick turnarounds, that’s the premise.
Changelog
Current version: 0.2
Last major revision: 3:30 AM UTC, 29th of April
0.2 Changes:
- Added more judging priorities to round one
- Added more notes to hosts
- Clarified on judging of interiors in round one
- Added procedure on what happens if a round stalls
- Extended judging for round one by 1 week
- Added changelog
Quick-Fire Challenge Rules
- Challenge should generally close at 11:59 PM UTC on the first Sunday at least 7 days from opening. Provide a reason if you wanna extend, and please try and extend in whole weeks. Challenge opens on Thursday the 28th of April? It should usually on the Sunday the 8th of May. Everyone has a week, and the challenge closes at the same time every time.
- Hosts have 1 week to judge, plus 1 day for every 10 cars entered beyond the first 30. Will the challenge make it to 30 entries? Idk. Still, you should be able to do the reviews that quickly given that. If you go over your time, the round may be decided by a poll.
- Reviews are 140 Characters and 1 photo max. Everything you say needs to fit into a tweet. That’s it, that’s all you get. No flashy essay-length reviews, no big long smut or novellas - 140 characters, no more.
- Hosting duties go to the winner, then second and so on. If you don’t wanna host, please try and tell the host in advance, ideally when you submit. If you initially wanted to host but IRL comes up, please make sure to let people know in advance. After 24 hours, the next in line becomes eligible (but you can still accept hosting at any point until someone else who is eligible accepts it).
- Standard realism and rules apply, hosts can bin/roast for whatever. You’re expected to have wipers, lights, all that stuff. If a rule is not written but is common sense - like not using “None” safety, having controllable loudness and a cat when era-appropriate - you can still get binned for it.
- Interiors will never be judged massively, but if you wanna do one, go ahead.
How To Join
Name your family and model “QFC<round number> - <your forum name>”, DM the host your .car file and whether or not you are fine to host if you win, post an ad in the thread, follow any other instructions from the host.
How To Host
- Make a new thread. It’s not fun to read through a challenge all in one thread. Make sure you link back to this post and to the previous round.
- Specify the target market. Work truck/van, compact car, family minivan, whatever. Keep it short and keep it broad, but specifying desirable features like “I wanna see V8s” or “I want economy” are fine. Having a fake client is fine too, but try and keep it all brief.
- Specify your fuel limits, year range and any other rules - maybe a price limit, emissions rules, safety requirements, etc.
- Specify the important stats, to give an idea of what you’re looking for.
- Specify how much interiors will matter. I do not recommend judging them heavily. Never require them or give massive bonuses for them here.
- State the deadline and name format in your post. These are easy, as they are given by the rules.
- Feeling fancy? Throw in some references, some similar cars and such.
- Start working on entries as they come in. Sort them into cars you like/dislike, roast some, whatever. The more work you do now, the less work you have to do later. Trust me.
- Try to give constructive criticism, like “The side of this car is bland, could use more molding”, “These mirrors are way too small”, “Those headlights are too big for the era”.
- Post your reviews in sections, ideally, makes it more manageable. If you hit the deadline and don’t have reviews done, it’s more than acceptable to post the rankings and do reviews later. Just try and make sure you actually do them.
- Try and work through the list to find the next host.
- If you’re making meaningful edits, I recommend keeping a changelog at the top or bottom of the post.
Why?
People are constantly annoyed with how long CSR takes to run. People are writing long, flashy reviews which are good - but if you wait a month or two for reviews, it starts to get a bit grating. In addition, there is a lack of short, low barrier-to-entry challenges and winnable challenges for new players. This challenge is intended to be more newbie-friendly, giving an extra avenue for iteration of skills and giving an opportunity for newbies to host challenges within a fairly easy structure and with lower expectations. If you expect your car to be studied intently from every angle, you are clearly missing the point of 140-character reviews.
Round One: Fight!
The market for this one is simple: I wanna see light, cheap sports cars. Year range is 95-00 for trim and variant, make sure variant year isn’t after trim year, name your family and model QFC1 - <YourForumName>, fuel is 91 RON regular, convertibles and manuals preferred. 2 doors is ideal but not a hard requirement. You need a 3-way cat, Basic 90s safety or better and at least 2 seats. Challenge closes at 11:59 PM UTC on the 15th - I have another challenge closing on the 8th, plus there’s ARM.
Overall design will be judged, interiors will be appreciated but won’t make a major difference.
- 3 Star Judging: Sportiness, Drivability, ATT/Airfield times - this is ultimately supposed to be a fun but easy car to drive, including on the track.
- 2 Star Judging: Price, footprint, weight - lower is better for all, it’s a cheap, small, light sports car after all. My ideal range is 30-40k - AMU translates into 2012 USD, and that’s roughly the 2012 USD price of the 99 Miata and S2000. Cheaper is still better, so don’t worry if you’re in the 20s so long as you have good stats. I’d also recommend a wheelbase of 2.5m or less - again, this is based on the Miata and S2000.
- 1 Star Judging: Comfort, Reliability, Safety - Driving is fun. Back pain, blown engines and being injured in crashes aren’t.
Basically, I want a Miata.
Maybe an S2000
RX-7, anyone?
It’d stretch the budget, but an Exige could work too.
And, lastly, it’s not light, but who doesn’t love a Mustang?
