CSC 29 - Sharks Circling All Around
Intro
(lore background - safe to omit)
It’s the year 1986. Zavir Automobili, an Italian-American premium car manufacturer, is in a deep crisis. What originated as two virtually separate entities under one ownership went through an intensive unification project in the 70s - it mostly saved the company from the catastrophe of the '73 and '79 oil shocks and, against all initial plans, left it under the sole rule of the Italian division. This gave rise to a series of R&D projects and successes in motorsport sprouting from that. Yet not all was so perfect, and on the west side of the Atlantic this Euro-performance focus sent the company into its own kind of malaise. Seeing skyrocketing costs and slowly decaying incomes the board of Zavir Group - the parent company - posed an untimatum - either American division will participate equally in the company management, or they will introduce severe restructuring solutions. Both divisions wanted to avoid the latter, and thus the Italians backed down. Americans have a chance, and they’re not gonna waste it.
The situation
(actual challenge - READ PLEASE)
You act as the team in the American Zavir division, tasked with making a big change - creating a brand new generation of the Squalo (it. shark) flagship sedan. A limousine that would remind customers that once Zavir made astounding full-size luxury cars, not only those fancy-sporty Italian cars they offer today, including the current Squalo, based on a car a class smaller. However, you have to keep the brand’s dynamic image, that even those old landyachts had - high speed landyachts. The car needs to be bold, luxurious, stylish and, most importantly - good for the American market. Since the Italians dumped piles of money into research, you have access to nearly every tech you like, but remember that you have to be more reasonable than them, so don’t put more in the car than would be useful.
As for the styling - keep it recognisable as a Zavir, yet bold and fresh - you’re here to make a difference, in the end. Zavirs always have a split grille - with the upper part being usually thinner and narrower than the bottom - and indicators touching that grille. The beltline usually slightly rises at the end. Squalo line always had wide, “dual” taillights, sometimes connected. Below are some examples of other, past and future generations of the Squalo. All are from the old Kee era, and thus are no longer canon, but can be used as an inspiration - though pay more attention to the words above, than them.
Other inspirations
A pair of outdated UE4 Zavirs
A Kee Zavir from a moment later than this challenge - my old interpretation of the style that you have to start here
A Kee Zavir quite well showing the grill’s design principle in a great work by Titleguy
Rules
- Your design has to be set in 1990 - that is the year the car comes out.
- The price (market tab will tell you) has to be under 80 000 $ - that’s a hard limit, it should be noticeably less.
- The car should be shorter than 530 cm/210 in - not a hard limit, but strongly advised.
- You can’t use multilink - the new management won’t spend cash on new tech, when the old one is just fine.
- The car has to be either RWD or AWD, the former more expected.
- You have to use the provided engine family and ABSOLUTELY CAN’T modify it (failing that one is the only way to instabin) - Zavir Motori knows their work better than the car division
- You have to use a clone of the provided engine variant and may retune it, but that is not required - do as you wish in that regard (if you do keep the variant year 1989).
- The car has to comply with all Fruinian standards for 1990 (easy to check by getting normal, non-0 scores).
- Almost standard naming convention - “CSC29 [username] - Squalo [whateveryouwant]” for the car, leave the engine family name as it is, name the variant - “CSC29 - [username]”.
ENGINE TO USE (in a container!): CSC29-CONTAINER
Suggestions
- Be reasonable and somewhat realistic
- Note the brand image described and don’t send me a turd on a ladder frame, for example. If you need more info on the brand, here’s the legacy thread (exact info outdated, but the vibe is still relevant): [Kee museum] Zavir Legacy thread - FUTURESIGHT: A glimpse of the future
- You’re making a highly-specced, yet not the top variant - definitely no need to use handmade interior. There is both one that is more luxurious as well as a faster one.
- Comfort, prestige, drivability, styling are the most important.
- Reliability, practicality, service costs, performance (not outright sportiness) are a second priority.
- All else is only limited by the 1st suggestion.