Ya, i know… but it would make sense in IRL 
Weightsavings and such…
Driver: Cindy Lau
Age: 18
Background: Cindy was a born gearhead and adrenaline junkie. She first learned to work on cars by fixing her mom’s car when she was 12, but her dad had been giving her behind the wheel time for 2 years at this point. But being addicted to speed, she wasn’t gonna settle for driving in circles around a parking lot for 4 more years. She and her friends frequently disturbed a nearby golf course by “borrowing” golf karts and turning the course into a makeshift rally stage.
This happened on and off until she finally got her learner’s permit. Having already long since mastered basic car control on the real deal, she wanted to really test her mettle.A few times a month, she would sneak off at night in her dad’s 1992 Ford Crown Victoria and take to the streets to do highway pulls and master the back roads. Since she hails from central Virginia, she always had to take great care to either outpace or outsmart the local cops, since getting caught would destroy any hope of getting her license, and those cops are absolutely hell-bent on speed enforcement. But despite this, she never got caught.
She took it further the next year after she got her license. She put her first car, a battered 1988 Mazda RX-7 GTU with the upgraded suspension and brakes off of a junkyard Turbo model through the wringer by egging the local Mustang and Camaro drivers into impromptu competitions. But she also learned very quickly that although her car would blow them away on the back roads, the wankel’s torque disparity relative to the V8s left her with a speed difference that on the straights, skill simply wasn’t enough to overcome. So she stuck to the back roads since she didn’t have the money for another car, or the knowledge of where to get tuner parts beyond scavenging bits off of a sportier version of the same car.
Since she always found back roads more fun anyway, she was fine with this until she heard the news from a friend of her’s who just got back from a trip to Europe. That a major race was going down. So she convinced her parents to let her “study abroad,” using the money from her college fund to pay for the trip, and the car. After all, even if she loses, she can still sell the car to recuperate most of the cost. And there’s always student loans…
Motivation for entering: She’s a street racer. Does she need extra motivation to join a street race? Although that potential 5 million is certainly a welcome prospect.
The car:
A 1990 DMV Thunderbolt
The Thunderbolt was built for someone like Cindy who loves corners, with it being able to hold nearly 1.2 Gs of cornering force in its stock form. However, although no slouch, the stock 2 liter 4 banger just wasn’t fast enough to compete. So she took to the junkyards once more and picked the engine and transaxle out of a newer model, a 3.3 liter V8 making a mighty (for its size) 321 horsepower coupled to a 6 speed manual, to give better gear spacing and fuel economy than the stock 5 speed. And although the extra weight means sacrificing some cornering ability, it gives the old Thunderbolt a 0-60 of 3.8 seconds, eons ahead of its stock 6.2 second sprint. And the fuel economy isn’t (that) bad either.
Side note: I’ve done a couple roleplay challenges before, but I’ve never spent so much time developing my lore. I never knew just how much more entertaining it was this way.
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So does my engine reliability matter or is it just the trim that will be taken into consideration and during rolls?
Trim!
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Driver: Ken Holt
Age: 40
Background: Ken is a Tuuklandian ex Formula 1 driver who gambled away most of his earnings. He is not exactly poor but he thinks his 8 year old son Joni has potential to become a good racing driver, so he’s trying to find any way he can to ensure his son has the best possible future. Being the risk taker he is, Ken decides to try this race.
Car: 1986 TM Potatismos 5d 4WD
The 4th generation Potatismos was available in front wheel drive and four wheel drive but even the highest spec trims had weak engines. This one has an engine swap from a 5th gen Potatismos R Turbo making it a 228 hp sleeper that accelerates from 0 to 100km/h in 5.6 seconds.
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Well, engine reliability does factor into the trim reliability, so better engine reliability = better overall reliability…
@accent Potatismos (mashed potatoes), really
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Yes, been using that name for cheap hatchbacks since forever. Reasoning behind it being that the cars are a bit potato-y although they are also entry level hot hatches (hot potatoes!), and also for the lols.
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Name: Ellsworth Pennybottom III
Age: 22
Background: Ellsworth Pennybottom the third hates that he has his grandfather’s name but he definitely doesn’t hate the trust fund that comes with being a young Pennybottom. A trust fund Ellsworth used to contract Stryker to build a one off car specifically for this race.
Why are they taking part in the GAR?: Ellsworth doesn’t need the prize money, he’s in this purely for thrills and glory. Though, I’m sure he can find something frivolous to blow 5 million on if he wins.
The Car: '95 Stryker Chupacabra
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Name: Sam Smith
Age: 38
Background: Producer of straight to DVD movies with plot-lines revolving around street-racing. The third film is currently in the early stages of filming and so Sam decided to use the Great Automation Run to collect authentic sound data and inside/outside shots of high speed action.
Sam is car enthusiast, Socialist Libertarian and is currently single despite his many attempts to woo the starlets who feature in his films but remains positive he’ll find his soulmate soon.
Why is he in the GAR?: Simple really, $5 million dollars will lift the budget into the decent film category and see “Angry Angus” achieve box office success!
Name: Ben Smith
Age: 30
Background: Brother of Sam and the “Star” of his movies. He’s also the mechanic so he keeps the cars in the films from grenading themselves trying to keep up with Sam’s creative vision!
Ben hates cars but loves driving and he knows he is going to miss his lovely wife of 10 years and their 2 sons as he travels about Europe at breakneck speed. A dyed in the wool Social Democrat, Ben’s looking forward to seeing one of his brothers films actually sell well, which will allow him his dream of owning his own home…
Why is he in the GAR?: 50% driving holiday, 50% work requirement. Ben’s coming along for the ride!
The car: The car chosen to star in “Angry Angus: Irritation Road” is a heavily modified version of a 1977 Bogliq Bushranger Veloce.
Essentially a licence built XC Ford Falcon hardtop, the Bushranger packs a 351ci Cleveland V8, makes about 165Kw and is a handful to drive anywhere where there’s a corner.
The Bushranger has been extensively modified with aftermarket alloy heads and stroker kit being sourced to stretch the engine out to 408ci. Multi-point fuel injection was installed using a Leeroy Racing kit and the cam was replaced with a Bathurst specific grind so that there would be a wide spread of power without stifling the top end. Quality extractors were installed to a dual pipe, crossover exhaust system which exited at the rear of the car via two twin pipe cannon mufflers. Power has been massively increased to 308Kw and the gearbox, tyres, brakes and suspension has all been modified to cope with the massive increase in power.
The result? This car’ll do the 0-100 sprint in 5 seconds flat and will go on to top out at just under 250Km/h.
Best of luck to all who enter because regardless of where you end up, you’re likely to find yourself immortalised on film! 
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Please tell me there’s someone in the cast that looks like Steve Bisley… or at least a “Bill Hunter in a pub” scene.
At OMG we like to experiment, we like to stand out, and sometimes we do things a little oddly. When we heard about an illegal race across Europe we knew we had the perfect opportunity to test out our new economy sports car! We believe our new car to be the best bang for the buck, but not because of how it comes, but because of what you can make it. This car is made to modify! To prove it we built a one-off race tuned version specifically to run in this race. Then we called our driver for hire, Frank Martin.
Name: Frank Martin
Age: Too scared to ask, we’re guessing late 30s.
Background: All we know is he loves to drive, as long as there is a seat, a steering wheel, and body that isn’t a total death trap, he’ll drive it to its limit!
Why are they taking part in the GAR?: Because OMG needed a driver.
The eco base model of the OMG Canny:
Frank will be driving the one-off R version:
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In 1995? The DVD format was introduced in late 1995 and definately wasn’t immediately used in cheap stuff like direct to dvd releases. It would be VHS at the time.
come on, it’s automationverse 
So… they put +15 tech points in storage media and got DVDs before anyone else?
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ye
blu-rays m8. and 11" LCD screen too. in 1995 
I’ll be interested to see how going the high fuel economy and drivability route works out for you
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The R version has an engine swap, so it’s not as economical, and the handling has been drastically increased, while driveability is a bit lower and sportiness is much higher. I’m hoping this will be interesting as well!
The point wasn’t to describe the tech available in 1995 but to accurately portray just how small time the brothers are in the film industry… As in really, really small with a meagre budget! (The films do get displayed on the big-screens, but usually at small, Indie cinemas.)
But for timeframe accuracy’s sake, yes Team Angus is headed up by a straight to VHS filmmaker.
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