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.