Yeah same suspension failings here, but hey, there’s always room for movement with the tyres and the engine.
Let’s just say my truck can match a Lotus Exige S around the track, any track, despite being more than twice as heavy. It kind of does also consume a lot more petrol…
Mine’s got solid axle coil in the rear and MacPherson strut in the front. Far from a performance setup, but at least it’s cheap, great for carrying heavy loads, and going off paved roads. Like strop said, just work the wheels and engine around that.
I already submitted mine. Though it seems my truck is faster than a BMW M3 E46 around a particular german track 
, that makes me somewhat happy.
Do i have to keep the quality in my model from the first round? Not looking too hot for this round
I just checked, mine does too! 
Nope. Just have to stay within the price rules.
Damn, I really don’t know how you guys do it… I’ve tried several times to make a sport version of my truck, and each one sucks even more than the last.
My weighted score is worse than last place’s score in the previous comp… And I can’t do anything about it… 
The metrics are completely different here, so don’t sweat that too much.
While working efficiently and goal-oriented on two new models, there suddenly was a big ruckus at the back of the office. Espen gave Petter, the newest employee a nudge in the side and said “Pay attention, dis gon b gud”!
“Trygve, you brilliant oaf of a man, where are you?”, Puffster yelled while storming in, eyes blazing with enthusiasm.
“Right here, now slow down, what’s the rush”, Trygve replied, rightfully sceptical. He had experienced this before and had a hunch about where this was headed.
“Show me the progress on the Mule Kick, the sporty farm truck!!”
" Very well, it is actually going really great, the plans we made for it look really promising", he replied while they worked over to the right working area.
“We’ve balanced out most of the car even at the reduced price, and with only minor alterations we have kept most of the stats and hence the score pretty good in the weighted categories. It’s still not a rocket, but the engine has had some improvements as well, while getting all the bonus points.”. Trygve looked quite pleased with what he had accomplished.
“Well, mediocrity is not enough! Luckily I’ve had an epiphany…”
“Oh no, have you been watching old reruns of Top Gear again?”
“Yes!”
“With the Clarkson compilation afterwards?”
“…Yes”
“And will you be listening to reason after that?”
“No.”
Trygve groaned as Puffster began laying out his new plans for the Mule Kick!
“Now, first of all, we’re gonna throw out that tiny excuse of an engine, we need proper dicplacement, And we need turbos! I’ve got one coming in in 10 minutes!”
“That tiny excuse was a 6 litre V8…”
“Exactly, tiny! I’ve gotten us a 9 Litre V8 racing engine that revs up to heaven and beyond. POWEEEEEEEER!!! Now, after that we slap in a sequential gearbox, slam it down to ground and throw a couple of 28” rims on that sucker, 335mm wide in the front and 395 in the back."
“But that will ruin the comfort and offroad capabilities of the car as well as cost a fortune. Do they even make tyres that dimension?”
“Barely, but i found a company that makes them, even though the brand is not well known, it will be fine. The gearbox will of course be upgraded and we max out the aerodynamics of this brick. Throw on a lip in the front and a wing on the roof. This means we will have to throw out the nice seats and replace them with the ones from the cafeteria for budget, so we will save weight as well.”
“This is a 2600kg truck with macpherson front suspension and solid leaf axle in the back, and you are talking about saving weight and racing setup. Are you mad???”
“Possibly a bit, but it will be a fantastic experience. Now get to work and build me that racecar.”
With Puffster walking back to the design offices, Trygve was left tearing his hair out and muttering loudly to the wall.
Two days later, the prototype was done and Trygve was doing the simulations with Puffster plaing close attention:
“Well, we managed to squeeze about 1300hp and 1500nm out of the engine while still maintaining the mpg requirement with three drops to spare. She will do 0-100 in 2,9 with a top speed of over 300 and get around the Green Hell in about 7.40. The ride is absolutely ruined and we will probably score more negative points than positive, but at least we will do it in something fast.”
“Magnificent, once again you have proven how brilliant you are at this”
“Yeah, yeah, just don’t pull to hard on the door when opening it, they might fall off if you do”
And so, the ABR Mule Kick entered the competition:
I’ll need some eyebleach after that poison green invasion on my screen.
U wot m8 , my truck seems like a snail now. Damn, i forgot to add wings on my truck.
Very nice entry
LOL. Clearly I’ve mellowed out, that’s like twice as much as my output. Does it get the required mileage???
As it says in the text, with about 3 drops per mile to spare. Did some choices in first part that made all modest attempts at actually winning rather meh, so I just said F*** it and went all in for speed with no chance to win 
[quote=“asdren”] I’ll need some eyebleach after that poison green invasion on my screen.
U wot m8 , my truck seems like a snail now. Damn, i forgot to add wings on my truck.
Very nice entry [/quote]
Hehehe, sorry about that, I am trying out some color combinations to get the proper dialogue standing out, will switch it out in the future.
Got all my eggs in one basket now and will probably end up much further down the list this time 
Thanks!
as he said. 3 atomic droplets to spare above the required mileage.
also double than mine…
and i thought changing engine from a 4.5l to a 6l is quite an improvement…
I kept my engine. That’s all I have to say.
Based on the poll results and the fact that I’m finishing up FTC Stage 1, I’ve extended the deadline to Sunday instead of Friday. I’ll be checking submissions tonight for inspection purposes.
Alright folks, I have done an inspection on all entries received before this post. We had 5 trucks fail initial inspection with one correction. That leaves 4 of you in need of revisions. Check your inbox and the OP for details. I cannot promise you that another inspection will be done before the deadline. My region is supposed to get slammed with snow. Thankfully, I have my F-150, so I can get around. Sadly, I might lose power and internet.
I will be able to check the forums with my phone if I do lose power, so feel free to ask questions and send submissions. Entries are considered in before the deadline based on the time of the message I see in my inbox.
I also must say that the ATT Times are astonishingly fast. I want to post the current running average, but the challenge is still open so I will not do so.
Mm, yeah that snow is rough.
A dead drive took all my cars with it, but luckily the automation messages let me recover my truck so its not a complete set back for this challenge. I’m worried about those ATT times. Its hard enough to get a 5000lb truck to go fast even harder while trying to stay within the bonus points and price range. My entrant probably won’t be as good as it could have been especially considering I don’t want to compromise on some aspects even if I costs me.
In any case stay warm KLinardo and drive safe if you have to go out.
Here I am trying for the last 15 mins to get the color right and everything looks like crap but cant figure out why. I just looked down and realized that f.lux was running…(Disable for one hour…CHECK!!) Colors look great now!
I have absolutely no perspective on what ‘astonishingly fast’ on the AT track means. All I know is that my truck is kind of faster than I remember it.
