The 2022 Trafikjournalen 24h clunker challenge (FINAL RESULTS)

Community Challenges & Competitions
1

People have been begging for a thread and I will have to go to work in 4 hours and haven’t gone to bed yet, so well, it will be a bit rudimentary to start with, I may fill it up later since we are still in the rules discussion phase.

THE IDEA BEHIND THIS
The Swedish magazine “Trafikjournalen” have a tradition since the early 80s, where the contestants will buy a cheap used beater, 10 years or older, and make it hold up for a 24 hour run and try to make as many laps around a track as possible. Now it is time for the 2022 challenge. In fact, this marks the 40th anniversary for the race, which of course is kind of a special moment!

THE CAR:
MODEL/TRIM YEAR:
2012 or earlier/2012 or earlier

ET LIMITS (soft limits, will explain further down)
Engine: 55
Vehicle: 60

QUALITY SLIDERS
-2 quality is the least amount allowed on the sliders except wheels and tyres (see that section for info).

BODY/CHASSIS
All type of metal panels allowed. Fiberglass allowed but with a crash resistance penalty. Carbon fiber not allowed.
Ladder chassis, monocoque or light truck monocoque allowed. Space frames not allowed (also applies to semi).
All steel chassis materials allowed. Glued alu or carbon fibre not allowed.
No “meme bodies”.

ENGINE
Engine trim should not be newer than car trim year
Maximum number of cylinders = 8.
Billet or titanium internals not allowed.
Turbochargers allowed
Racing parts not allowed
Cats or mufflers not required (because as someone said last time, they would probably be gutted anyway).
The fuel should be super unleaded or less. However, cars from 1988 or earlier will also be allowed to run on super leaded or less since cats weren’t required until 1989 for the swedish market.

TRANSMISSION
No more than 6 gears.

WHEELS AND TYRES
Everyone HAS to run hard long life tyres with -1 quality, to represent the fact that nobody will put a new set of Michelin Pilot Sports on a car like this. Maximum width 225 mm, maximum rim size 17 inches.
Magnesium rims not allowed. Staggered tyres allowed.

BRAKES
Ceramic discs not allowed

AERO
Undertrays allowed are none, semi/fully clad and offroad skidtray. Active aero not allowed. One aero fixture up front and one in the rear allowed.

INTERIOR
This time we are back at running single seat basic interiors and no infotainment systems, to represent that they will probably be running gutted interiors anyway. And no, I am NOT even going to discuss this one, after last time for obvious reasons. Besides, it is the most fair thing, giving one less opportunity for min-maxing.

SAFETY
Since Automation safety is more about things like the stock seatbelts and airbags which probably won’t be there anymore anyway, and not about gutted interiors for racing, I have decided that “none” is what we will be running. Besides, one less opportunity for min-maxing if everyone is running the same thing.

SUSPENSION
No active, semi-active or adaptive parts is allowed.

P/W RATIO
Max P/W ratio is 0.115 (number from the test track screen)

REALISM
I strongly prefer realistic engineering and design. I will not be totally strict about this but I don’t want 57 Chevy looking things from 2010 “because LS swap bro!”, mid engined V8 small hatchbacks, etc. and will reject anything that I feel is completely off realism-wise.

PRICE LIMIT (soft limit, will explain later in thread)
$13500

TECHPOOL
Max default +5 on everything. If you can do it with less, go ahead but it’s doubtful. More is a no-no however.

NAMING:
24h-yourname / Brand and name of the car, 24h-yourname / Brand and name of the engine

THE GAME
Basically the idea is that the one that has made the most laps in 24 hours is the winner. The second lap time from the Höljes track will be used as a basis for your car. So, just make a car that does great lap times then?

Well, it is not that easy. Every 30 minutes some rolls will be made. The more reliable your car is, the less chance it is for a breakdown that will cost you time, or in worst case, end your race altogether. The more driveable your car is, the less chance it is for, in best case, worse lap times and in worst case, a crash that may require a pitstop or end your race altogether.

To spice up the game this time (waste less time in the writing with small faults etc.) I have decided to give each cars random modifiers when it comes to the condition of 12 different systems. The less the reliability rating, the more chance it is that the condition of the parts will degrade during the race, and finally require a pitstop, that may require time or in worst case will end the race for you.

New for this year is that I will give you a list of the condition of the car, to make pre-RP easier. It may look something like this:
"THE GOOD:
Engine was recently going through a complete overhauling
A brand new carburetor was installed just a couple of years ago
Most of the bushings in the front suspension are new
Brake discs, calipers and hoses are brand new

THE BAD:
The transmission is grinding on downshifts
There is a small leak from the radiator
There is more structural rust than one would wish for"

This example comes from a random roll I just did out of the blue. You will get a list like this back when you have sent in the .car file, and of course it is completely up to you to decide how much your characters know about the condition of the vehicle.

Another thing that will take 5 minutes off your time is fuel stops, so a fuel sipper may spare you time compared to a gas guzzler. Every car will be running a 50 litre tank to make it simple, and even if automation average figures is not the most realistic for racing, they will be used for simplicity.

TL:DR - focus on:
Lap times on the Höljes track (link some posts below)
Reliability
Driveability
Fuel economy
(Honestly speaking, nothing is really important except for them, but min-maxing that hampers realism is not encouraged)

WHAT IS A SOFT RULE?
I will allow you to stretch ET and price limits a little bit, since not every car is doing this to be fast. However, it’s up to me to decide in every individual case if I am going to allow it, and if you get your first car rejected, your next one has to stay inside the limits, so choose wisely. Also, any car that breaks the soft rules will be assigned double rolls on EVERYTHING reliability related, and the worst one will be chosen every time.

Also, if some car fits inside the rules but are obviously cheesing them, I have the right as a host to even give that one the double roll penalty. A hint is that regardless of ET limits, something that looks like a supercar and goes like a supercar, what is that? Yes, you guessed right.

THE PRESENTATION
A presentation of the car and your team also has to be put in this thread before the start of the race, and if you want a special starting number, claim that one too (or you will be assigned a random one). Also, RPing is what have been the greatest charm of this event, so it is HEAVILY encouraged, even if I am not forcing anyone into it (life takes time and comes in the way, etc.). “But I suck at that” - no, you don’t. It doesn’t have to be novels, you know.

DEADLINES
Rules discussion until October the 8th, 10 AM (UTC+0)
Submissions start October the 8th, 10 AM (UTC+0)
Submissions ends October the 22nd, 10 AM (UTC+0)

Höljes track can be found here:

And here is the IRL event that inspired me (video is at the right time point in the link):

CLAIMED STARTING NUMBERS:
8 - @karhgath
13 - @Rudzis
16 - @Maverick74
23 - @Knugcab
42 - @SheikhMansour
47 - @TheYugo45GV
69 - @Jaimz68
113 - @cake_ape
357 - @Madrias
404 - @stm316
722 - @Fayeding_Spray

10 Likes
2

Consider me interested. I’ll get to work cloning a car and making the adjustments.

3

Just reminding you, this should be 2022.

4

This one seems interesting, I’ll surely want to participate

5

Do the cars need lights? Or is the track well lit? Read: can we submit our stripped AGC derby cars?

6

“Or is the track well lit?”
So is my brother, but he still needs headlights! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
But yes, I’m curious about this as well.

And I feel as if the default +5 techpool is a bit overpowered for this. It seems pretty doable to hit the budget at +3 and still have a decent enough car.

1 Like
7

A few comments based on killrob’s (and my) CCPC cheese:

  • It looks like our track is affected by the suspension cheese for bumpy tracks (where, depending on the drivability / sportiness ratio, a very soft suspension can be faster than a sane one, and a sporty one can be surprisingly slow; just ask karhgath…).
    Suggestion: all four suspension bars (springs & dampeners front & rear) are required to be on or on the right from the centre (drivability) line (so that they are of a resonable level of stiffness). Source for that rule: An old BRC rulebook by DerBayer

  • Brake fade doesn’t affect laptimes at the moment. Suggestion: Excessive brake fade above a certain threshold should factor into the reliability score (or use a separate calculation) so that people with severe brake fade values have to visit the pits quite often to cool the brakes…

  • +5 Techpool makes the first +quality slider steps very cheap. So putting +3 to +5 quality on lots of things wouldn’t be frowned upon because that’s what a regular manufacturer would have done anyway, based on their techpool when the car was built? Or, in other words, +5 techpool & 0 quality is the new 0 techpool & -3 quality?

  • Do you want to exclude the legacy body mod? There might be some broken stuff in there…

I also wouldn’t mind for the target price to be lowered further to take into account the +techpool effects on price (ET is probably fine), but then again, look who’s making that statement… :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
8

Well, to put it this way, most of the text is just copied from 2021 to get this shit out, so I can make corrections when I come home, so please don’t send in cars yet. The test cars were done in default techpool but I sure can look into lowering it (a suggestion I actually prefer over “boohooo the limits are too tight I can’t build a 959 replica”.

I don’t have the legacy mod since it seems a bit like a load of crap to me, I guess if someone uses it to make a car I have to get it, but my suggestion is to choose something else if you can. (And a too borked car will get a bin)

Nah, not really looking into a stripped down derby cars, try to make them more intact, with that said, some tape on the headlights won’t hurt since there might be some contact.

Unrealistic suspension softness or brake fade might, like all unrealism, get a bin. But sure I can look into those stats. With that said, it feels like it will affect driveability a lot if it gets too out of limits, which is a tradeoff you don’t want to make.

2 Likes
9

Well, if the tech-pool gets lowered, I might have to look into what exactly is costing so much in my car’s design, because I’m under the engineering time just fine, but pretty much at 16k. I’m not complaining, though. I’d rather have to revise my car than have 15 cars enter in that break the challenge. Just… I kinda suck at making my cars cheaper without absolutely murdering their performance in the process.

10

Could be as simple as a lot of material costs; check your panel material and stuff. I’m at 70/65 for ET rn with maxed power/weight but I’m still only at 15k-ish

1 Like
11

Well, the test cars I did was at around 16K with 0 quality everywhere and 5 techpool. Engineering wise they were at the same level as a Saab 9-3 and a Mercedes C240, both early 00s models (which IMO represents more or less the outer end of the scale of what could show up, quite technically advanced compact executive cars from 20 years ago, compared to see if there was any difference between DOCH i4 16V turbo and SOHC V6 18V N/A). I guess both would have some + quality IRL if translated to Automation language, but that would just give too many cheesing opportunities… I am not sure that I will touch techpool at all, but I may give some “punishment” to cars using the ruleset too much in their favour…

1 Like
12

From my brief testing, I think I can give a hint. There is at least one area where more techpool may actually slow you down. :astonished:

Edit: A cool idea could be to give everyone X engine and Y car techpool to place as they see fit, with X and Y both being not enough for +5 everywhere.

1 Like
13

As of the current open beta build, I take that as “any undertray more advanced than fully clad”, i.e. flow optimized, sport undertray or race diffuser.

14

I will look that over when I come home, don’t look too much into the rules before that and absolutely do not start making a car… Way too much is still copied from last year, did this quickly in the middle of the night to not upset people for not putting the promised thread up.

4 Likes
15

My idea was to pull the techpool research prices from the campaign and have a “max techpool cost”, but I fear that would punish specialization too much

16

Updated with new, stricter regulations, link to the track, some small fixes and a clarification about aero.

While I like @AndiD s idea in theory, I don’t like the extra strain it will put on me as a host, and I guess it will complicate things a bit for beginners at the game. I want to have a fairly simple ruleset after all.

2 Likes
17

So would something like this or this be allowed?

18

Well, to put it this way, this is more for cars that are supposed to be fairly close to stock (which of course is a hard thing to interpret in Automation sometimes). RWD and inline six in a small 90s hatchback really feels a bit off IMO. Closest I can think of there is the BMW Compact which was a fair bit larger than the Geo Metro. The bike engine? Well, more realistic in terms of size, cylinder count, in this case also orientation being T-FWD etc. and once again, Automation has its limitations, how can you tell if something is a bike or a car engine? You can’t. Just keep a look at the ET and P/W limits though. Bike engines often rev like crazy, meaning that they would need a bit of quality spam to not grenade themselves, and also, power to weight limit does not allow for too much of a beast under the hood. Just because ET is a soft limit does not mean that you can exceed it by ANY amount, if it is used to quality spam an engine to rev it to the moon it will be rejected.

19

@Knugcab - Price limit is that the cost to make?

20

“Approximate cost” under the “Detail stats” tab. In case you think it feels low, since I haven’t seen you in a while, I don’t know if you have played this a lot lately or not. Do you know about the very recent changes with techpool in sandbox?