Soccer Mom Race Weekend 2014
Background
“Oh come on! A minivan only race is a brilliant idea!”
The fan whirred overhead as the manager facepalmed.
“Please tell me this isn’t your plan to help the track, Jordie,” He grumbled.
“But it is!” Jordie’s face beamed. “Think of it, minivans are some of the least track ready vehicles out there. Imagine how fun it’d be to see a whole field of them racing!”
“About as fun as me receiving overdue bills and noise ordinances from the owner,” The manager sat up in his office chair.
“Look man, there are many successful school bus and hearse leagues out there!” Jordie pointed towards the window. “This could be the next big thing! Nobody else does this!”
“And for good reason.”
“Where’s that passion of leadership and innovation that the track owner wants, hmm? You know street racing is a big problem around these parts, and you know used minivans are dirt cheap now that SUVs are all the rage.” Jordie grinned, “It’ll get law enforcement off your back some I bet with those noise ordinances.”
The manager stared out the window at the sun-bleached track, “Alright, you’ll get ONE weekend to prove that this works.” The manager whipped around, “But if this falls flat on its face, your performance review may not be so bright this quarter.”
“I have full faith in this sir!” Jordie nodded. “I’m sure you’ll have nothing but good things to say in a few month’s time!”
Welcome all to the Soccer Mom Race Weekend 2014 (SMRW14)! A local track decided (perhaps against their better judgement) to host a handful of races only open to minivans!
For this challenge, you will be submitting two cars: A production car to be sold to the masses and a race car that a future owner will “improve” from the production model.
Missed the Production Car Phase? No problem! You can get a pre-assigned vehicle to enter the racing portion! Please fill out the poll below.
Rules:
Production Car Details Archive.
Production Car Phase:
Your boss tasked you with creating a minivan to join the not-so-exciting model lineup. This vehicle will be the underpinnings of your fire breathing race machine.
Remember, even though the intent is to race the vehicle, the production car has to be a reasonable common vehicle. No, your carbon fiber space frame 1.2L V16 Quad Turbo minivan on semi slicks does not count.
General rules:
- Car MUST be in a stable build of Automation.
- No meme entries.
- No legacy bodies.
- No min-maxing.
- Interiors not required.
Production car build rules:
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- Body style MUST be minivan/people carrier/MPV as viewed by the game.
- Entry must be a “reasonable common vehicle”. See above statements for more information.
- Family/Trim years must be between 1980 and 2014.
- Cost must not exceed $32,000.
- No negative quality.
- No race parts.
- Car must “look and function” as a production car (headlights, wipers, gas cap, etc).
- Default techpool (all at +5).
- Tires must stay at 0 quality.
- Car must run on unleaded pump gas (unleaded fuel only, octanes no higher than 93 AKI).
- Trims before 1985 can run on leaded gas no higher than 93 AKI.
- Car must have at least 90% normalized desirability in one of the following markets:
- Family.
- Family Budget.
- Family Premium.
- Family Utility Budget.
- Family Utility.
- Family Utility Premium.
- Premium.
- Passenger Fleet.
- Car must meet Hetvesian emissions regulations for its trim year.
- Car must have at least two seats in each row if a three row body OR have more than 4 seats total if a two row body (aka, car must function as a minivan).
Production Car Submissions:
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You must submit your car through a DM to me here on the forums. If you’re new and can’t DM yet, browse some other posts to earn the rankings to do so.
- Naming convention:
- Car model: SMRW14 - USERNAME
- Car trim: Car name - (Prod). (ex, ACZ Concur S4C - Prod)
- Engine family: SMRW14 - USERNAME
- Engine variant: - Engine name - (Prod). (ex, 2.3L I4 - Prod)
- You must indicate if you would like your car to be available to others to download and modify.
- You must post a picture of your production car in the thread with a short blurb advertising it (1-2 sentences is all that’s needed).
A submission with no advert or vise versa does NOT count as complete.
Since I am competing too, I will not check any submissions until the deadline has passed, so in theory you have unlimited re-submissions.
Design Inspiration
Production Car Rule Deliberation Deadline: 2025-01-25T05:00:00Z→2025-02-02T17:00:00Z
Production Car Submission Deadline: 2025-03-03T17:00:00Z
Race Car Phase:
The year is now 2014. You, a street racer, see an ad in the local paper for a race weekend for minivans. You decide to acquire a minivan through some potentially legal means and set aside the next several weekends to get your new vehicle race ready.
What if I submitted a production car?
- You have to race the car you entered. However, you are allowed to receive an additional vehicle at random to tune, although this isn’t a requirement.
What if my production car got DQd or I didn’t submit a production car?
- You can receive either one vehicle or two to race, both randomly determined.
If you are interested in joining the racing portion AND/OR want a second vehicle to enter, please fill out the below poll. If you do NOT fill out the below poll, I will assume that you do NOT need a random vehicle, either as a primary or a secondary entry.
Poll
- I submitted a production car and only want to race my production car.
- I submitted a production car and would like another vehicle to race tune alongside my production car.
- I’m new/my car got DQd and would like ONE car to race tune.
- I’m new/my car got DQd and would like TWO cars to race tune.
Bear in mind, any vehicle received from me other than your own production creation will be RANDOM.
Car files will be first sent out once Race Car Rule Deliberation ends. After that, they will be sent out on a rolling basis. You will be DMd your respective car files.
The poll will close on 2025-04-10T04:00:00Z, 4 days before the Race Car Submission Deadline. After that, any newcomer will be unable to join.
Making the Race Car:
The idea for the below rules is: What mods can be done over the course of several weekends in a garage by a maximum of two people?
To determine your race budget, you will have to:
- Clone existing car model and engine variant.
- Set car trim year and engine variant year to 2014.
- Have ONE full race interior seat (no +1 layouts) with +3 quality.
- Have Basic AM radio with +3 quality. (it’s the same quality slider as interior)
- Have Advanced 80s safety at +3 quality.
Check the vehicle price after making these changes. Your mod budget will be $3000 ABOVE whatever new price your car is showing. For example, if your car originally cost $20k, and after making the above changes, it now costs $15k, your race car can cost NO MORE than $18k. Check the below table for your car’s Maximum Race Budget (rightmost column). If you’ve done the steps correctly, your car’s price should match the value in the Race Starting Price column.
However, there’s wiggle room for more budget if you read the rules closely…
Race car build rules:
- Car trim and engine trim must be set to 2014.
- Cost must not exceed the allotted amount (see above for details).
- Default techpool (all at +5).
- Car must be reasonably street legal (lights, wipers, etc), enough to where a cop wouldn’t immediately pull you over (big wings are encouraged, but please be a little realistic).
- Max of 3 aero fixtures. (hidden aero fixtures will result in an instant DQ)
- A mirrored aero fixture counts as one fixture.
- No race parts (anything with the word “race” in it, minus interior).
- This includes - Carbon ceramic brakes, billet crankshafts, and titanium conrods. These parts are rare on the aftermarket and are only for those with super deep pockets.
- No active aero or active suspension components.
- No Launch Control or ESC. (ESC can stay if the car has it as standard)
- No flow optimized or race diffuser undertrays.
- No negative quality.
- Car must show no sportiness brake fade.
- Engine must run on unleaded gas with octanes no higher than 93 AKI (aka pump gas).
- Vehicle must have a racing number visible from the front, rear, and both sides. More details on numbers in the submissions section.
- Vehicle must have at least one muffler.
- Toe limits: +/- 0.5.
- Tire width must end in 5.
Things that can NOT change from parent car/engine:
- Car model/engine family data (year, body panel, suspension type, block material, piston configuration, etc). This includes their respective quality sliders.
- If the race car is a cloned trim from the production car, none of this data would have changed.
- Car body.
- Body morphs.
- Flared wheel arches are okay for wider tires, as long as they don’t deform the whole side of the car, just the arch. If you are unsure as to what counts as a flared wheel arch, DM me.
- Vehicle drive type. (ex, FWD entries must stay FWD)
- For AWD entries, this includes keeping the power distribution the same.
- Only manual transmission swaps are allowed, but if applicable, you may keep the original automatic transmission.
- Suspension type. (ex, a hydropneumatic car must stay on hydropneumatic)
- Engine displacement changes, even in variant settings.
- Fuel injection type (ex, SFI engines must stay on SFI).
- VVT/VVL status. (a car that does not have VVT and/or VVL cannot gain VVT/VVL for the race phase)
- Tires must stay at 0 quality.
- Weight distribution and weight optimization cannot change from parent car.
- The following quality sliders cannot change:
- Chassis.
- Engine Bottom End.
- Fuel Injection.
- Drivetrain.
If you have any doubts on whether a modification would result in a DQ, feel free to reach out via DM.
Race Car Submissions:
- Race car files must be sent in by DM.
- You must post a picture of the race cars here in the thread. No blurb/backstory is necessary, but encouraged.
- Naming convention:
- Car model: SP07 - USERNAME
- Car trim: Car name - Race. (ex, ACZ Concur S4C - Race)
- Engine family: SP07 - USERNAME
- Engine variant: Engine name - Race. (ex, 2.3L I4 - Race)
- A racing number must be reserved by DM upon submission. Go here for spreadsheet of available numbers.
- 3 digit numbers available upon request.
- A driver name is required for participation. Even something as simple as John Doe will do. If you’re looking for inspiration, go here.
- Any joke or meme names will result in an immediate DQ for ALL user entries.
As before, since I am competing too, I will not check any submission until the deadline, so you theoretically have unlimited submissions. The last DM received before the deadline will be treated as the final submission.
Race Car Rule Deliberation Deadline: 2025-03-14T04:00:00Z
Race Car Submission Deadline (Tentative): 2025-04-15T04:00:00Z
Race weekend
Cars will be entered into a race weekend at Ellisbury in four different events:
- Circuit Race on Ellisbury GT Circuit: Winner is first across the line.
- Drag Race: Standing quarter mile drag with 5 heats. Lowest average time wins.
- Time Attack on Ellisbury Junior Course: Winner is the vehicle with the most consistent lap times as determined via standard deviation.
- “Endurance” Race on Ellisbury Grand Prix: Same as the first event, but the race is longer.
All events will be run on my race simulator, tracking reliability, drivability, fuel consumption, and tire wear. You can see what modifiers your car will get in the simulator here.
Standings will be tracked across all four events with points. The challenge winner will be the driver with the most points.
Important race car statistics:
- Drivability: How “easy to use” is your car? A more drivable car will be less likely to crash at the hands of the “professionals” entering this challenge.
- Sportiness: How hard can you push your car? The more a car can be pushed, the faster it’ll be around the track.
- Reliability: How frequently does your car break down? A more reliable car will be less likely to break.
- Fuel efficiency: How much fuel does your car consume? A more fuel efficient car will go longer between refills.
Ideally, you should look to increase your car’s:
- Top Speed.
- Acceleration.
- Lateral G.
- Stopping distance.
- Fuel economy.
All race cars will receive a PI (Performance Index) number prior to racing. You can check what your car’s PI is here.
Depending on challenge interest and overall performance of vehicle entrants, cars may be split into classes based on relative PI, relative hp, or a strict drive type split. If classes are used, winners will be announced for each class.
General Tips
It’s recommended to switch your game units to imperial to avoid unintended DQs and to better judge your vehicle PI.
Remember, In order to finish first, you must first finish. A high sportiness car with poor drivability or reliability may get fast lap times, but it still has to cross the line to win. Furthermore, remember that there are four events you must finish if you want a shot at winning the weekend.
A DNF from the weekend does not mean that you lose all your points, it means that you will no longer gain any points in future events.
And that’s the final set of rules! I look forward to seeing your race creations!
