What? No adult toys from AMM?
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Is this the last round?
No, the original post cites 2 more after this (and a potential 3rd)
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1978 Maestrum 1850 Princess 2.0 GL
fuck this was painful to make
After the failure of not only the K-50, but most of Maestrum’s other rear-wheel drive saloon cars during the later part of the 1970’s Maestrum was left stuck between a rock and a hard place. To avoid going bankrupt they had two choices: they could just re-release an existing car again with some new trim level, or they could release an entirely new car. Maestrum, being Maestrum, released a whole new car. The 1850.
Affectionately titled the “Princess” by it’s designers, the 1850 combined sleek, elegant looks with all-new technologies developed specifically for the car, such as hydropneumatic suspension, and headlight wipers. It also featured a brand new powerplant - the old, antiquated inline 4 used in the old C and K series was removed and replaced with a new, more powerful 2.0 litre (an option, the base model had either a 1.6 or a 1.7) DOHC engine with a reliable cast block.
It was a hit in Britain, racking up sales and becoming the image of the traditional British “Family Car.” The suspension was smooth and comfortable, but the engine still provided enough power to propel the car to 115 mph. A catalitic converter was optional, but until the 80’s not many chose to have it fitted.
The GL model, arguably the rarest due to it’s sunroof and lack of vinyl roofing, was the second-of-the-range model, coming in at £3,550, second only to the GXL model, which featured a turbocharger and more sporty rims.
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note: i love the Austin Princess, specifically the '78 Princess 2. i’ve loved it since i was a kid, seeing James May buy one on the Top Gear British Leyland episode. i wanted to do it justice in Automation form, however the body was old and difficult to work with. i hope that it will be updated soon, and that one day i will be able to drive this wedge of British Motoring history for myself.
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IVERA 122 GTB
The IVERA 122 GTB was one of the more significant cars in IVERA Motor's history as it was intended to be a competitor to the Mercedes E Class. The first car from IVERA to be designed by Swedish designer Hugo Nilsson. It's design was an homage to the original Mark I which had the signature sloping rear. The 122 instead of having a separate trunk like the Mark I, was a liftback sedan which offered better cargo space. For Government and police roles the 3L inline 6 was swapped out for a 4L V8 for better low end power.
The IVERA was not known for its fuel economy or its interior comfort but for its unparalled safety. The 122 was one of the first cars to feature proper crumple zones and in 1977 standard driver side airbags.
The 122 was also the first IVERA to feature an automatic transmission as most of their products had been manuals up to that point. Catalytic converters were standard on US market models while in Europe, they were optional.
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1982 Mara Kanyon
Mara developed the Kanyon in the early 1980s as an offer in the emerging Archanan ‘sport utility’ market (albeit with a small ‘s’ and a capital ‘U’) and also sold the car in selected export markets after the initial pre-orders were fulfilled. The early export models could usually run on 85 octane fuel as the engines were only tuned specifically for the export markets from the mid 1980s onwards.
The 4x4 Kanyon: (Almost) uncompromising off-road capability
Engineering-wise, the Kanyon borrowed heavily from other Mara products of the past and present. The 4x4 drivetrain was moderately modernised compared to the Konyk, and the Konyk and Tovarish also had a ladder frame chassis.
Many other characteristics are shared with the Irena: a 2.4m wheelbase, double wishbone suspension at the front, a coil-sprung solid axle at the rear, and a 4-speed manual gearbox (although geared for towing capacity rather than fuel economy or quietness). The 2.5l Perspek I4 engine mounted longitudinally was also similar to the one in the sporty Irena SX or base model Kavaler but here in a much milder tune again focused on low-end torque.
The Kanyon’s externally mounted rear spare wheel dominates the look for the rear
The interior also carried over many parts from the Irena and even the Kavaler, giving the Kanyon a more regular car feel inside the cabin and behind the steering wheel, but without compromising on the off-road prowess (or cost efficiency, for that matter). Notable was also the Kanyon’s low dry weight of around 1.1 tonnes while still having a certified load capacity and towing capacity of more than half that in both regards.
OOC: I briefly thought about submitting the ute version of this in direct response to the AMM above, but the sUV fits better I think.
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Cabrera Avispon COPA 2
The road is yours
Lore
The 70s were a complicated time for Cabrera. The Spanish market started transitioning to a more open market one, and so competition got increasingly stronger in Cabrera´s home market and main source of revenue. Francisco Franco´s death and thus the end of the dictatorship in 1975 also meant that the government aid got axed suddenly.
To face all of this, Cabrera started a rationalization program in an attemp to become more competitive. To reduce spend, most of Cabrera development programs were stopped. Among them, a new FWD platform that was considered too much of a expense at that moment.
Meanwhile, the Golf was a sale success in Europe, and so Cabrera hurried to get a compact car to the market. But instead of the trendy FWD it used, Cabrera built their compact car on a shortened 2nd gen Boreas chassis, and so it retained the RWD architecture but also a independent rear suspension that turned it into a much better handler than the first gen Boreas.
The COPA 2 would be an attempt to move slightly upmarket, sitting above (obviously) of the normal COPA, it featured twin Weber carburettors and a much improved interior, with luxuries such as bucket seats and a tachometer. Cabrera didn´t know how the market would react to a more expensive Cabrera…
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1978 KESSEL LP22
Sold in the United States as the Armor Tyke, the LP22 (for leichte Pflcht) was manufactured in West Germany by Kessel. A formal merger of the companies would come later, but the relationship had always been friendly, as Kessel used Armor’s 2.2 liter 4-cylinder engine for the truck. Though it made decent enough power and fuel efficiency with it’s carburetor, fuel injection would be available in 1981, and a Chevy Blazer-esque 2-door SUV body would come in 1987.
Kessel’s mainstay was building utility equipment like forklifts and such, but, with the help of other companies such as Armor Motors, they weren’t afraid to offer light-duty work vehicles for Europe.
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Random question: Could the front-facing turn signal bulbs double as parking lamps, then, if they are integrated into the larger headlight? Or would I need to have 3 total bulbs?
Good question.
Some composite lamps actually integrated the turn signals too, already before this era.
I would say that I won’t be so harsh that I demand 3 bulbs since all of that is really more a matter of game limitations that should not kill of the fun completely. As long as at least one bulb/lens in the headlight is set to amber/orange and another one is set to white, I will accept integrated turn signals into the headlights.
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I just realised I have no parking lights on my car. This may be a problem.
I see at least 3 pairs of fixtures with white lenses up front, I would not have noticed…
Should I resubmit then?
Honestly I don’t see the trouble, could not the parking lights be housed in the white units in the bumper, as an example?
I’d be fine with that. Also I’ve just realized I got no washer nozzles for the windscreen.
Well, they might be integrated in the wiper blades then, as some Peugeots do have. I must say that I kind of forgot about them when I wrote the rules and got reminded of them when I got that question…
I think I’ll follow this idea then.
The bricken Dione has arrived!
The Anhultz Dione XIII has been released in 1978 in response to relatively mediocre sales of the Dione VII. Anhultz was financially stable, but relatively stagnant in the 1970s. In an attempt to make a premium car for non-premium buyers. As such, the mechanically conservative Dione XIII was born. Leaders and chief engineers at the time were (still!) of the impression that a reliable car will garner respect from the customer base. Thus, reliability became the top-priority, leading to the conservative approach. Coupled with the heavy focus on economics of scale, parrts-sharing also was done to minimize costs and further refine the car.
The vehicle shown was the base-spec Dione with a whopping 75hp out of a 2.0L 5 cylinder engine. The heavily modular approach made swapping engines for testing very easy. A 1.8 and 2.0L 4 cylinder was also trialled, but ditched in favor of the 5 cylinder for better NVH values as well as better reliability. The remainder of it was rather primitive, still employing an OHV valvetrain as a leftover of the efforts done after the early 60s R&D fire. In most of Europe (not necessarily Sweden, that’s up to the host) as well as america, initial sales and preorders were very promising, with the future being determined by the upcoming years.
In the middle of development, leading hands switched, with far more aggressive plans to be made. As such, the vehicle gained a 5th gear as standard, a Double Wishbone suspension adapted from the Superkroon luxury car at the time as well as other, less significant improvements. The engines were kept for lack of a suitable alternative at the time. A new set of engines shall be pushed to the supposed facelift model in a few years (see next round lol).
In the same year, Anhultz bought Keika Automotive, a small-scale japanese sports car maker, which is planned to be used as the in-house tuning company for the Anhultz and Moover passenger cars as well as selling independent sports car models.
Various cars got a top-end sports “FTE” (Flex-Tape-Edition) model, starting the first true sporty intentions of Anhultz save for a few souped-up oddity models in the United States.
Will it be successful in Sweden as well? Time will tell…
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Upon Franco’s death in 1875, power transferred to the “true” king of Spain, Juan Carlos, just as he had directed. Plot twist: Juan Carlos believed in democracy, and began transitioning the country to democracy almost immediately. Spain caught up with the rest of the developed world’s human rights basically overnight; and having been primed with foreign ideas for the past decade, the people were ready, jumping wholeheartedly into these social and political changes like the swing of a pendulum.
Of course, the description above is an egregious oversimplification of what happened; but to someone coming of age during this time period, it was very easy to get caught up in the excitement of all these sudden changes…
The 1981 Cade Super-eXtreme-Injected (SeXi)
IS STORY HERE
When the dictatorship collapsed, the once-government owned CADE was privatized. It kept all its factories, as well as its strong but fading dealership network in Spain and its barely surviving export network. But what it lost was most of its higher-up executives and designers; since they had been a loyal part of the old dictatorship, and for the most part still were government officials, their ties with the company were cut as part of the privatization process. And almost as soon as the spots were vacated, a variety of fresh-out-of-college yuppies immediately stepped up to fill the gap.
Now, know that these “kids” were all very intelligent individuals. But they were also very young, and very inexperienced and excited, and all caught-up in the energetically liberating atmosphere of the period. And now, in charge of one of Spain’s most (in)famous brands and with the ability to build whatever they wanted, these men and women got a bit carried away.
After a brief rebranding of the company (“CADE” lost its acronymical meaning and became a regular proper noun), Cade’s first course of action was of course to build a sports car from scratch (no more stealing allowed!). In an excitingly chaotic design process, they stuck anything and everything they thought of as “cool” on there, including huge spoilers, bright colors, a hood scoop, rear-hinged doors, a black front end (dubbed the “heat shield” in advertising), and a giant decal on the side of the car with the car’s name.
And the development process was even crazier. For example:
- According to surviving documents, Fuel Injection was implemented primarily because “it sounds cool.”
- Catalytic Converters were also nearly implemented as standard for the same reason. It wasn’t until a couple months before release that a marketer actually bothered to look up what they were.
- One of the most frequently repeated goals of the team was to figure out how close the car could get to the noise regulations in every market it was exported to.
- Front bench seats and a floor shifter were implemented to make it easier to have sex in the car. This was explicitly advertised as a feature.
The resulting car, called the SeXi, proved… a bit weird, to put it lightly. The general Spanish public didn’t really know what to do with it. But it had a way of resonating with the very same kind of youngsters that created it. Love it or hate it now, it certainly was a product of its time and place. But they didn’t confine it to that place; they aggressively exported the car as far and wide as they could. To Europe, South America, North Africa and even as far as Japan, they wanted as many countries as possible to see their new creation. And for every country it was exported to, a different reputation emerged…
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How much shitpost is this?
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