DISCLAIMER: This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but is bigger and more ambitious than anything I’ve attempted before. It will, therefore, likely run into a few unexpected issues/difficulties/questions/etc, but I will attempt to deal with these as fairly and transparently as possible. If there’s anything major that affects everyone, I’ll likely put it to a vote as to how to proceed.
The Early Days of Motor Racing Challenge
Challenge Background:
Motor racing’s origins are rooted in the very first days of the automobile, but it wasn’t always the controlled and polished sport we recognize today. In the beginning, these cars were far from efficient machines; they were ungainly, difficult to control, loud, unreliable, and dangerous, and the often eccentric drivers behind the wheel were seen as fearless adventurers, addicted to the rush.
This (ambitious but hopefully ongoing) challenge seeks to explore how motor racing has transformed dramatically over the years, experiencing the change from what once was a wild, untamed challenge to a more organized, rule-bound competition, governed by strict regulations.
Challenge Details:
There are two ‘layers’ to this series – 1) the overall challenge that includes world events, team scores, and progression of the timeline, and 2) the individual race events themselves.
For the overall challenge:
- This challenge will primarily be an Automation challenge, however I will also be using my experience driving the car in Beam.NG as a modifier to the automation scores.
- This means that if your Automation scores are great, but the car drives terribly in Beam, your scores will be reduced but will still be ‘good’ and competitive overall.
- The challenge will start in 1900 and time will progress (usually) a small number of years after each race.
- People can enter up to two (2) manufacturers in the overarching challenge.
- There will be a series of races that occur as time progresses, but these races may be different styles / classes / etc (e.g. Endurance, Closed-Circuit, Road, Rally, etc).
- People can enter each race as they see fit (each race is optional).
- Some races will allow multiple entries, whereas others might limit to only 1.
- I will attempt to come up with period-realistic rules for each race (I’m not an expert, so these will be roughly correct in spirit, not in the exact letter of the rule).
- I am primarily interested in running this with a combination of fun and realism. This means that I will not unreasonably penalise / exclude / bin a car if it isn’t 100% accurate to the time period, however I will definitely reserve the right to discard an entry if it is completely unrealistic.
- I’m not an expert, so if your car has orange indicators 5 years before they were introduced, I really do not care. Similarly, if you are running with four exhaust pipes on your 3-cylinder luxury barge I won’t exclude it (although I will make fun of you).
- For situations that are a bit more debatable whether you are bending vs breaking the rules in order to get an unfair advantage, then it will be more case-by-case. I will always try to err on the side of giving cautions / penalties (that outweigh the advantage) rather than outright disqualification.
- I want to have some sort of ‘bonus’ for people that enter the same car / series of cars / series of races, to simulate getting experience and R&D & help keep an older car competitive & build up a story / reputation with particular iconic vehicles (also so people don’t necessarily need to build a new car ground-up each race). Options that I’m thinking of so far include:
- Bonus quality points
- Bonus tech points
- Bonus Stats points (performance? Reliability? Etc…
- There will be much more variability / variety in the races than what is often done in challenges, so that it’s not simply a case of one specific car being faster therefore always winning. There should be an element of chance and unpredictability in it. I will attempt to simulate mechanical breakdowns / driver error / random happenstance in a fair way.
- I will potentially enter my own cars into the competition to see how they stack up, but will never win (mostly because I’m not that good, but also as a hard and fast rule).
- If not covered by rules, I will try to post up some general guidance for each race as to what sort of performance is expected / realistic.
- I will be happy to answer questions on whether things are within rules / realistic enough / etc before each race, and will publicly post up both question and answer to be transparent to all.
- It would make me very happy if people used this challenge to build up their brand’s lore / history / achievements, but that’s obviously not a requirement!
Current Challenge State:
Year: 1900
Overall Status: It’s a clean slate!
World Background: Automotive racing is in its infancy, and whilst humans have been humans and many people have been involved in individual private races, there hasn’t really been much in the way of larger and more organised events.
(This section will detail the current state of the world and updated manufacturer rankings as time progresses)
Race 1 Details
Entries Due: Saturday, 8 February 2025 at 00:00:00 UTC Time
Please let me know if you have questions / ideas / concerns / comments / anything else constructive to share!
Max weight is too low to allow interesting engines.