The Car Shopping Round (Round 64): Tears in Heaven

Michael was able to arrange the insurance and permit to drive his new car on the public road on the day he bought it. After paying all the money required, Michael come to inspect his new car.

The Salinger D10-55 AWD. In exemplar condition and finished in orange.

He stepped inside and find a nicely trimmed interior, not outstanding, but good enough for his purpose. The car being affordable means he could probably fix all the issues that it got, which is not many at all. The V10 engine purrs smoothly as the day it left the factory. And most of the feature inside is working correctly.

Itā€™s a Dual Clutch Automatic. Which means Michael doesnā€™t have to learn how to shift.

Michael drove the car off the auction lot immediately after he finished the paper work, which took a while but he passed the time looking at all the classics on display.

It was the moment he got another look at the BAM Moenis again. Michael realized something about the car.

The BAM Moenis was the car his mother bought in 2020.

He didnā€™t realize it when he saw it in picture. But when he saw it in metal it clearly was the car his mother bought many moons ago. And this brings all the memories back. His mother drove the Moenis home one day, Michael wasnā€™t interested, but his mother was enamoured by the car that his father bought for her. It was the joy of having the car of her dreams, finally.

But Michael wasnā€™t disappointed that he didnā€™t manage to get it. Heā€™s very content with the Salinger.

At the end of the day, Michael walked to the parking lot which his Salinger is parked in. It was gleaming. And Michael think it looks terrific in metal, despite looking quite ordinary in picture. A sort of timeless design that makes for a really good, understated look.

Michael stepped inside the Salinger for the first time. The brown leather is in mint condition. And the dashboard doesnā€™t have a single nick on it. A great buy, Michael thought.

The infotainment system still requires a knob. A knob! These day you control stuffs with gesture and thoughts. A knob really puts the car in 2020ā€™s where it belongs.

It was this moment when Michael was playing with the infotainment system. That he found a menu marked ā€œMemoā€.

What is it?

Michael reached the glove box for a manual, and turned to the pages of infotainment system use. He didnā€™t find a thing about that feature written anywhere on the paper manual. It just skipped. Seems like itā€™s missing. Michael decided that thereā€™s nothing for it and selected that feature.

The light flashed on the screen, mesmerizing Michael in the way that he never experiences before.

Michael then looked out of the window of the Salinger. At which point Michael was shocked.

He was suddenly in a city centre. A lot of people are going about their business with one hand holding their ā€œmobile phonesā€. The sort which Michael had never seen for ages. And another hand holding fidget spinners. Some were also riding on a 2-wheel hoverboard. And most people are wearing skinny jeans and various timeless looking shirts. With combed, short hair with massive amount of gel and beard or no beard. Everybody was smoking.

Michael know where this is.

It was 2020.

Michael stepped out of the car, when he saw something that caught his eyes. It was a silver, BAM Moenis 636 driving pass him, itā€™s roof was down so Michael could see that the driver was a middle age woman with early grey hair.

His mother.

Michael step back into the Salinger and fire it up immediately. He put it in gear and drove away very quickly. It launches incredibly hard with the AWD system and quick, dual clutch transmission.

The V10 engine screams hard as Michael push his foot down to follow the BAM Moenis. Which didnā€™t take long until it reach the local, mountain roads. This road was closed by the time autonomous driving comes around. The road was not maintained, and government was spending the money on building new designated roadway for autonomous transport.

It was a gorgeous, curvy road with many hairpins turns and swooping, fast bends.

Michael drove the Salinger as fast as he possibly could, the turn in was incredible even if itā€™s all wheel drive. No understeer or such vices, itā€™s also very good at pushing the car out of the corners with good power.

But Michael still couldnā€™t catch the silver BAM Moenis.

Michael didnā€™t remember any of this detail, heā€™d never been here before until now.

Michael parked the Salinger in one of the view spot. He was already tired from the spirited driving effort to catch his mum. Michael stepped out of the Salinger, which is an incredible car. And walk over to the cliffside scenery spotting location.

Michael doesnā€™t know why we bother with autonomous transportation.

Not when he could drive an amazing car such as this.

ā€œDo I know you, Mister?ā€

Michael turned around at the familiar voice coming from behind.

The old, skinny, greying woman is standing there, with BAM Moenis parking beside Michaelā€™s Salinger.

ā€œI swear Iā€™ve seen you somewhere before. But I couldnā€™t put my finger on exactly where.ā€

Michael smiled.

ā€œThatā€™s a very nice car you got there, Ms. Will you promise me to keep it no matter what happen?ā€

11 Likes

Alright! Thatā€™s all folks!

Iā€™m sorry for not having any picture to go along with it. You can just look at the adverts above anyway.

To be honest, I lost interest in finishing it properly when the game decided to not work. It really brings the morale down, but I have to keep my promise of running this properly. So enjoy the wall of text above.

The result is of course, as followed.

The car Michael bought came 1st. The car of his mother came 2nd, and the car that won the review came 3rd.

So

1st: Kubby
2nd: der_bayer
3rd: asdren

Thank you for all of your patience.

It was not an enjoyable experience to deal with the issue, but it was still a joy to write the review for. :slight_smile:

And with that, itā€™s time to end to show.

Goodbye.

16 Likes

ā€¦As fast as 50 km/h? :stuck_out_tongue:

In any case, that was a good round. Congrats to the winner(s)!

now comes to question. to forge through UE4 bugs? or revert back to the ancients?

What a round. Given that UE4 is still a long way from being stable enough for most users, I would prefer to have CSR61 revert to the Kee engine version.

I reckon we can move onto UE4 properly now as the car import is fixed.

With the devs implementing new things (speed limiter last time out) then I think we need to leave a while yet. It may have been the speed linter and tweaks that made cars incompatible.

I vote for Kee

Thatā€™s not the result I expected. Thank you, Michael, for choosing my car and thank you, @conan, for this amazing prompt.

That being said, Iā€™d really rather pass the responsibility of hosting this onto someone else. Iā€™m not exactly good at hosting things, and besides I really donā€™t want to go back to Kee. @Der_Bayer, are you okay with running the next round?

2 Likes

Thank you @conan for a very interesting round and grats to @Kubboz.

Unfortunately I heard yesterday that I am on a business trip to Murica next week - I really have no time to host this time, although I have 2 challenge ideas almost ready to go. @asdren: How about you?

3 Likes

If asdren cannot host, the next 2 places are.

4th: titleguy1
5th: goblin95

If itā€™s okay, I would like to pass the honor to @titleguy1.

This is probably the longest chain of passing things off to others for a challenge, but Iā€™m really not in a state to host right now. Surely @goblin95 is capable of providing a challenge for us.

6th: Mr.Computah
7th: abg7

Just give me some time to come up with a rule setā€¦ Just in case I have to host the next round.

And yes, I do have time to spare for that.

Oh dear, Iā€™m not used to hosting challenges, especially something of this scale. Maybe Iā€™ll be more confident after I participated in a couple more CSR rounds, but for now I would have to pass the torch.

@Mr.Computah what do you say?

Iā€™m afraid I still need to finish the Great Automation Run. Gotta hand the round to the next person unfortunately.

So that person will have to be me. I do have enough time to host the next round, though, and the rule set for CSR61 will be up in an hour or two at most. I just have to finalize itā€¦ And this is only the second time I have hosted a round of CSR - my first stint as round master since CSR26.

Really I didnt know. Thanks. But you know you could have just said this.

6 Likes

CSR61: Party Like Itā€™s 1999!

Back to Kee this time.

Hereā€™s some music to get you in the mood:

The year is 1999. I have held a driving license for a few years now, and have so far been content with the truck my parents use to drive to work every day. But now that I have saved up a decent amount of cash, I feel like buying a car for myself for the first time. Specifically, I am looking for a performance car that gets me noticed and encourages me to drive just for the sake of it. It could be a muscle car (like a Camaro or Mustang), a pure sports car (such as an Elise or Boxster), or a grand tourer (M5, Jag XK), but I donā€™t have enough cash to stretch to a true supercar or hypercar yet. So, without further ado, here are the requirements:

  • Trim year: 1999 (model year can be older)
  • Car body should not be older than 10 years
  • Maximum cost: $25000 with a 20% markup. You can submit something thatā€™s well under budget, but it might not be the best strategy.
  • Fuel type: 91 RON regular or 95 RON premium unleaded
  • No FWD or 4x4 - must be RWD or AWD
  • Must be a two-door coupe or convertible.
  • 2 seats minimum, 4 seats max - I donā€™t need more than four.
  • Must be street-legal with headlights, taillights, indicators and door handles (pop-up headlights are OK)
  • Loudness must be no higher than 50
  • Catalytic converter required
  • No chunky offroad or semi slick tires
  • Engine variant reliability must be at least 50; average reliability for the trim must be at least 60
  • No race intake or exhaust headers
  • Minimum cooling required and no bottom out
  • Fuel consumption should not be greater than 14.12 L/100km (20 UK mpg/16.66 US mpg)
  • Car must have an advert which includes a picture of the car, and its post-markup price.
  • In the event of your car having ā€œmissingā€ mods (which do not work properly on my end) you may revise your entry to use a different fixture and/or body.

And here are some guidelines to follow:

  • Aesthetics, prestige, and sportiness are very important. It has to draw enough attention - and of the right kind - whenever Iā€™m driving it, and it needs to put a smile on my face when Iā€™m driving it enthusiastically.
  • Drivability, safety and comfort are moderately important - I donā€™t want a car thatā€™s too difficult to control, and besides, my skills are nowhere near as good as those of Michael Schumacher. Nor should my new car be too taxing to drive during the daily grind.
  • Be sensible, even though there is no PU/ET limit for the trim or engine. I want something thatā€™s not too difficult to maintain when something goes wrong.
  • This round is subjective as well, so min-maxing is not recommended.

Naming convention:

Model: CSR61 - your username
Trim: your carā€™s name
Family: CSR61 - your username
Variant: your engineā€™s name

Deadline: 21st January @ 12:00 am GMT

Good luck and have fun!

EDIT: Donā€™t forget to ask me if you are unsure about the rules. Speaking of which, in response to feedback, I have revised the rules and finalized them. Now that the rule set is definitive, entries are now open!

3 Likes

So I just did a brief test of this round, and have a few concerns:

  • the sandbox price calculator is obviously difficult to calibrate, but letā€™s just say with 35k @ 40%, I can build a pretty convincing Lamborghini Murcielago with over 500hp, does 0-100 in 3.5s, has a luxury interior and premium CD player, and it just squeezes into the budget unless I insist on an active wing. Iā€™m not sure thatā€™s what youā€™re really after?
  • Because what youā€™re really after isnā€™t quite clear when youā€™ve said that everything is important: sportiness, drivability, safety, comfort, reliabilityā€¦ thatā€™s pretty much everything except utility and offroad.

I would suggest halving the budget and then being a bit specific about what youā€™re really after.