I had a ‘fey mood’ strike me, and attempted to make some form of generic 90s american compact sedan. I think the front and rear look decent in isolation but maaaaybe not as well together.
Also, I don’t tend to use the body molding tab too much apart from cutouts for license plates, so see some basic uses of them inspite of not being keen on how they tend to cut and mesh with the body.
The body set chosen, with its 2.7m wheelbase, would have been too large for the compact size class at the time, and would have made more sense for a mid-sizer. Also, single-point EFI would have been generally outdated by 1994, except at the bottom end of the market, and a standard non-galvanized steel chassis combined with untreated steel panels would have given it poor environmental resistance even for the era. Finally, a transverse-engined platform on its own would have suited this body set quite well, but a semi-independent torsion beam may not be the best option even for a lower-end model.
That aside, if you wanted to make a generic '90s/'00s American sedan, then you’ve definitely nailed the look.
All fair points on the engineering. It was something I just half blindly clicked through so definitely is worth having another go through. I was more looking for criticism towards the visual aspects however.
Originally made for QFC47, with a 340bhp 4.2L NA V8 driving all four wheels via either a 6-speed manual or, as shown here, 5-speed advanced automatic gearbox.
In the early 80s, ARVA started to face some challenges. Not only was the Chernaya starting to look dated even by Archanan standards. The fact that some of the people being “more equal than the others” went for the Mara Kavaler was kind of a prestige loss for them.
The 1982 Kondor was an attempt to show that ARVA still were a notch above Maras on the prestige ladder. Larger than the Chernaya, but smaller than the limos used by government officials, the Kondor was the largest ARVA that had ever been offered to the general (cough…) public.
The attempt by ARVA to build an all aluminium 90 degree V6 was maybe not their brightest moment, it was seen as shaky and unreliable, and the ancient 3 speed auto that the top of the line cars got ate a fair bit into the power. 4, or later 5 speed manuals were offered too, though, and got a somewhat better reputation.
By western standards, the Kondor was a rather hopeless case of a car, but it was still exported in small numbers. It should also be said that the two facelifts in 1990 and then in 1998 to some extent improved the car, that was in production until 2002.
1970-1982 ZiL 115-01
A fictional, but still gargantuan, Soviet limousine used to pull the General Secretary and his entourage around Moscow and abroad. It’s got an American sized 7.7L/472 CI V8 that makes roughly 220 horsepower and 350 ft-lb of torque. It’s likely never seen speeds over 50 mph because of the above reasons.
It’s inspired by the Zil 114 and 4104 that moved Brezhnev around, obviously, but also by Cadillacs, Chryslers, and Lincolns alike. The rear end however is straight off a Toyota Century.
The Italian Rapallino company had been looking for a replacement for their dated 13-18 Series large family car for a while. The 1300 sedan was released in 1957, eventually being joined by the 1500 in 1962 and 1800 in 1965. Even with these updates, the car was still not able to compete in the growing large car market. Rapallino wasn’t a large company though, and didn’t have enough to spare for a replacement, instead focusing on their more successful light sports cars.
Their investment in sports cars eventually paid off and they raised enough money for a new large family car and a new family of 4-cylinder engines.
The new car was named the Grison, after the Canton of the Grisons in eastern Switzerland. Seen here is the 1.5 L model, the mid-level model fitted with a 1.5-liter I4 making 71 horsepower. It’s not much, but it was enough to give the car reasonable performance. Other engine options included a 1.3-liter I4, 1.8-liter I4, 2-liter I4, and a 2.6-liter I6 in the sporty Piranha trims.
A major facelift came in 1978, with fuel injection and new fascias, among other things. Production ended in 1982, with a bit over 300,000 produced. Most were sold in Italy and a few other neighboring European nations. Around 10,000 facelift models were exported to the United States with limited success. For a short time, they were also assembled from CKD kits in Greece and Yugoslavia.
Are you using the default Paint material on the newer Scrapmetal body set? It sure looks like it. After all, there was a similar-looking legacy body with near-identical dimensions. At any rate, even the current version of the Scrapmetal is quite difficult to use as a basis for a genuinely good-looking car, but it can be done, with a lot of time, effort and patience.
The yellow car on the left is the original version, with a skid tray and 205-section medium compound tires, plus a softer suspension for better off-road capability. The red one on the right was made later, and is more tarmac-biased, losing the skid tray but having 225-section sports compound tires and lighter magnesium wheels in its place, while the suspension was stiffened up to exploit the extra grip they provide. Both trims are powered by a 2.0L turbo I4 driving all four wheels via a 5-speed manual gearbox and a helical LSD, with a helical center differential.
The idea for the EL3 came about when I revisited the second Themed Car Challenge from many years ago - a single model and engine family for an entire lineup, with different trims and engine variants to suit the needs of specific market segments. However, whereas TCC2 was spread out over four rounds with a different trim being released each year (premium, base, offroad, and performance variants in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998, respectively), the three trims in the EL3 line were all released for the same model year (1996), and submitted all at once for CTY96 - I decided to apply the mindset underpinning TCC2 to my CTY96 entries to see how far I could take the approach without it becoming unviable.
