Dance Officer posted:

You can find it in the last tab of the engine builder. Look for economy.

In other news, turns out my group A engine had enough potential to be a good group B block with some tweaking.

slothrop posted:

I've found this to be generally true. I'm really struggling to come up with a decent Group C design though

The Boston Globe posted:

LOWELL - New England Motorworks today unveiled their new Kancamagus GT supercar today, stating they already had sold out the first year's production of the hand-built, mid-engine all wheel drive coupe, designed to go 215mph. The company will also be campaigning the model in the upcoming SASC championship, in both the Group B (as the Kancamagus GTB) and in the Group C (as the Kancamagus GTO) classes.

Dance Officer posted:

You need the economy number of the engine. You'll find it in the final engine tab. It's expressed in g/kWh or p/Hph.

In other news, turns out my group A engine had enough potential to be a good group B block with some tweaking.

Dance Officer posted:

Aye I am also having problems with group C as well. There's a very limited amount of bodies that can take the engine I want to put in, and only the Porsche allows for really fat tyres.

Kilonum posted:

*Kancamagus GT stuff*

Autosport Weekly posted:

Responding to critics, Equipe Mardre Sports released details of the production Salope 3.6. "See, it is a real production car, that one can drive on the street and fuel with normal, premium fuel," explained President Jean-Luc Ledgédale. "I soundly reject all criticism that we never intended to make a street version. Er. Normal version. I in fact drove the Salope to this press conference and did in fact not die." Asked if there was, or would ever be a second street example made, Ledgédale rolled his eyes, replied"oh piss off," and refused to respond to any further questions.

Dance Officer posted:

You need the economy number of the engine. You'll find it in the final engine tab. It's expressed in g/kWh or p/Hph.

In other news, turns out my group A engine had enough potential to be a good group B block with some tweaking.

mekilljoydammit posted:

Are you morphing the body around? It's necessary.

Zeppelin Insanity posted:

Actually, does 4x4 count as AWD by the rules?

I initially planned on using the Saab Sonett chassis because it's cool, but despite it being able to do some pretty great lap times, I figure that uh... 40% ish wheelspin might make it uncompetitive as far as tire wear goes.

Now I'm actually struggling to find a way to handle the torque my engine is producing, even with other chassis. I haven't touched the game for 2 years so maybe it's just me being terrible, but I can't figure out a way to do a low specific fuel consumption engine that doesn't also produce a mountain of torque.

wargames posted:

I am having trouble finding fuel consumption in UE4 automation.

Plek posted:

e2: Actually, is anyone else using the UE4 to actually build a car? It seems to be missing too many parts at the moment to work for the competition. It is missing body styles, they cannot seem to be messed with, and you cannot play with much besides suspension, gearing, and lights.

Zeppelin Insanity posted:

Actually, does 4x4 count as AWD by the rules?

Dance Officer posted:

As far as I know morphing the body does nothing for engine bay volume. I am running a much older version though, so it might be a new feature that I simply don't have.

Dance Officer posted:

Torque will (almost) always be higher than hp. The only exception I can think of is an extremely high revving engine with an extremely aggressive cam profile. If you have really high wheelspin you should get bigger and wider tyres and lower the spacing on your gearbox.

mekilljoydammit posted:

Define "extremely"? Even the street version I made and posted has more HP than torque.

Free hint - there's more to life than just fuel burn / power -
it's all a balance. There's some huge downsides to chasing best efficiency (and thus power) at the expense of all else.

Dance Officer posted:

don't act like a cocky butt.

mekilljoydammit posted:

Sorry, wasn't trying to be. I went through about a dozen car and engine families in the last week trying to optimize for lap time and I'm honestly really excited to see other people's interpretation of how to do things and or if I did something silly.

Dance Officer posted:

K.

How did you get to an engine with more torque than power without tanking reliability, anyway? As far as I know, that's 7500+ rpm stuff.

Dance Officer posted:

K.

How did you get to an engine with more torque than power without tanking reliability, anyway? As far as I know, that's 7500+ rpm stuff.

Dance Officer posted:

As far as I know morphing the body does nothing for engine bay volume. I am running a much older version though, so it might be a new feature that I simply don't have.

@Kilonum, you have fitted your group B entry with something other then AWD, yes?

Kilonum posted:

yeah, my group B has RWD and only slightly more horsepower (though produced more efficiently).

MrChips posted:

Larger displacement engines tend toward having more torque than displacement. They're not without issues, though; packaging them in a car can be a challenge, in addition to dealing with the weight of a larger engine spoiling, well, everything.

mekilljoydammit posted:

Hm, shoot, I may not have a competitive prototype.

Dance Officer posted:

You can always bolt on a turbo

Top Gear posted:

*voiceover* “It’s a mid engine coupe weighing just over 1100 kilos, with unequal length wishbones on all four corners, the rear actuating Formula 1 style pushrod dampers. It’s powered by a 3.6 liter flat plane V8 also tracing its roots to Formula 1, redlining at a stratospheric 8500 rpm and producing 400 horsepower. The latest product of Maranello?”

*the camera cuts to Clarkson standing in front of the Salope parked on the airport test track* “... not as such no.”

*the camera pans around to beauty shots of the car while the presenter continues on* “This is the Equipe Mardre Sports Salope 3.6, the product of an aerospace company situated in the North of France. 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds and a top speed of 177 miles per hour sound good but how is it to drive?”

*the camera cuts back to Clarkson opening the door of the small mid-engine coupe and awkwardly trying to fit himself through the door. After much grunting and adjusting, he makes it and shuts the door.* “The interior is nothing much to write home about - it’s better than a kit car but most of the switchgear is clearly taken from Citroen’s parts bin. But when you turn the key…” *he twists the key and the engine kicks to life for a second or two before dying again. Clarkson laughs* “I said when you turn the key…” *the engine kicks to life again, settling into a crackle that is only barely civilized by the mufflers* “... well.”

*the camera cuts back outside the car as the engine note rises to a wail sounding like a pre-turbo F-1 engine before the car takes off in a small cloud of tire smoke*

*the camera cuts back inside the car with Clarkson shouting to be heard over the noise* “One of the test drivers talked to me and said that despite what anyone says, the engine was a Formula 1 unit that they modified for GT racing and only then did they bother to make a road version. I would believe it! The power delivery is brutal, the noise… the noise!” *he laughs* “This is from a company that had never made a car of any sort before this year… reading between the lines, the president had it made because he was bored. And to have this result? It’s insane! The steering is light, the car is surprisingly well balanced and… that sound!”

*camera shots of Clarkson flogging it around the track before it cuts back to the studio*

*Hammond* “So really, why do we have here?”
*Clarkson* “I wanted to hate it, I really did, but the whole thing is just too mad. It’s a first car from the company that’s already a shot across the bows of Lotus and Ferrari, from a French aerospace company that might not be doing cars next year, with an engine that isn’t just a hotted up version of some street engine, but a genuine detuned racing unit.”
*May* “Kind of like a French TVR then?”
*Hammond* “But it didn’t break down during the test, did it.” *the audience laughs*
*Clarkson* “It’s time to turn it over to our tame racing driver… some say that on a wine tasting in the Bordeaux region he ended up eating the bottles… others say that he only runs on leaded avgas… all we know is, he’s called the Stig!”

Zeppelin Insanity posted:

MrChips, could you say a little more about the tire life simulation? Specifically, could I get a rough estimate of how much of an effect wheelspin of 5-10% have on tire life?

slothrop posted:

So I've been looking at a few real life engines for some inspiration and it looks like you can't replicate really short stoke designs? The bore and stroke seem to be linked in such a way that you can't do say a 80mm x 55mm design. Is there any way around this?

Nerobro posted:

Oversquare designs end up having some really screwed up combustion chamber and flow problems too. There are lots of compromises to make motors breathe at 20,000rpm. Preserving tumble, and having a combustion chamber that doesn't look like a 3d ink blot test are really quite hard at that point.

.... not that I'm sure the game simulates that :-) I'm still doing the tutorials.

Race Pace Magazine, 1990 Geneva Motor Show special edition posted:

There's a curse well known among people doing any sort of journalism. You come into it bright-eyed and ready to make your mark, looking down on the chainsmoking old men in your workplace. You think they're uninspired or lack passion. But over the years you realise that the longer you cover a subject, the more jaded you become. That's true of motor shows as well. A major publication cannot miss one, and we need to cover the glitzy parts of it, but when the glamour fades you start exploring further. You look for the weird things tucked away in a corner, you search for the fascinating characters who try to run a boutique manufacturer. You always hope to find something others missed, something actually quite brilliant.

This year in Geneva, I found just that.



The ridiculous wheel arches made me do a double take. So did the exhausts being right there on the bonnet, and, you know, the fact it had a wing on the front. This was either a disaster or something special, and I needed to know.

"It's time for us to look West" said Dimitri Kozlov, the head of the brand-new motorsports programme of the People's Automotive Design Bureau. With a name like that, you might ask yourself how come that they're making a race car? "With the thawing of relations, we believe that export markets will soon open up. Motorsport is a great opportunity to make a name for ourselves, to gain experience and develop new technology, and form key supplier partnerships. We thought that the SASC series would be a good venue to begin with. You can expect to see more of us in the coming years."

That's enough background, let's get to the car. I can't talk about specs, but let me assure you, it's no Trabant. This is a serious bit of kit. The body might appear retro, but inside there's no quirky touches; it's modern and all business. In fact, all of the design choices that baffled me have a reason. "We chose to enter Group A because it's the closest to a consumer-grade car." That's right. All the compromises exist because of Group A rules and homologation. Dimitri told me that they had to severely detune the engine, and having seen the block I believe it. There, too, one can find an example of Russian pragmatism. Far from an F1 engine, this beast had it's origins in heavy military and construction trucks. Bear with me. Remember, they see motorsport as the key to launching themselves (presumably under a more elegant brand name) into worldwide commerce. They could have developed a whole new design, but they're also sitting on a whole warehouse of these engines, all shrink wrapped and ready to sell. "We're under no illusions that we'll be the fastest in our first year. What we hope for is for people to take notice." It's use in racing is meant to show the engine's engineering credentials, with potential customers being secure in the knowledge that it isn't a high revving magnesium diva but a workhorse with millions of collective hours of use in inhospitable environment. The block, although not that big by American standards, nonetheless produces a mountain of torque needed to move tons of equipment through Siberian mud. The race version actually had to be de-bored, de-stroked and detuned to fit within the rules - and it is this version, with minor changes, that Dimitri hopes will one day sit under the bonnets of police pursuit vehicles worldwide.

With the time of the next press conference fast approaching, my time with the car was shorter than I hoped. I just had to ask Dimitry a few more questions, though.

"-What are you most proud of with this machine?
-We're extremely proud that after the Balance of Performance process, the FIA decided to take action and give us a smaller fuel tank than other teams. We don't know how it'll end up working out on track, but to me it's a great vote of confidence in the car and it's engineering team.
-That must have been a bittersweet pill though, yes? That actually brings me to the second question. What's most disappointing?
-Some of the compromises we had to make to conform to the homologation requirements. I personally championed the use of Duraplast due to it's superiority over regular fibreglass, but the FIA did not allow it as they're not familiar with the material."

Although my interaction with the car was far too brief and I did have to take a lot of things on faith, I really look forward to seeing how it does. This might just be the team to watch over the next few years. As I was leaving, Dimitri offered a sneak peek exclusively for our readers: they intend a second entry in SASC, in the prototype class. Watch this space.

De tuf tuf club posted:

De tuf tuf club, a small Netherlands engine manufacturer and motor vehicle enthusiast club, has released a press statement announcing it's intention to join the SASC '90 racing championship. The announcement comes as yet another surprising turn in the club/company hybrid's history. De tuf tuf club started out as a gentlemanly motorist club in the early 1900's with as it's defining feature a private garage and manufacturing shop with professional staff for it's members. In the 1920's the club took a turn to the dark, as several members took the view that "the road is for motorists", and they began a campaign of terror to get all other road users off the road. Antics included speeding, dangerous driving, tailgating, and outright vehicular manslaughter while the perpetrators wore white hooded robes similar to those worn by the KKK. Some would even compete for points; 1 point for every elderly person killed or maimed, 3 for every adult, 5 for every child, and a full 10 for every infant. Dutch police, not equipped with cars throughout the 1920's, was initially powerless to stop them. However, by 1925 an official policy was adopted "to shoot any white hooded indivual seen driving an automobile on sight". Due to this policy and vigilante action, by 1926 two dozen Tuf tuf club members were killed, some had been arrested and trialed, the club lost most of its membership and disappeared out of the public eye.

However in the fifties, with the previous incidents out of mind due to time and the war, and reconstruction well underway, de tuf tuf club had a resurgence. It is now the countries' largest motorist club for the well-to-do. The club busies itself with social gatherings, grand tours, historic car events, the awkward campaign to remove all speed limits from the nation's highways, races and it now maintains a racing team. The garage and manufacturing shop now mostly assist members with personal projects and the club's racing endeavours, and have designed and built the club's entries into the SASC series. The entries are as follows:



The group A and B entries. The club is willing to divulge that the two entries share a heavily modified Loto Spirito body, and the same engine block, a self built 4.7L V8. They tell us that they originally didn't plan to run a group B entry, but that after testing their group A engine, they were confident they could uprate it to be competitive in group B, so they went and did just that. They also tell us they had the group B bodies specially made out of a lighter, more expensive type of steel.


The group C entry. A 'personal project'. A club member insisted that one of the entries should have "a bigass V12." He had a 7.2L V12 designed and built, and brought in a custom-built carbon fibre racing chassis from BVR, and the manufacturing team went with it.

The club president says that he is honored to compete with companies such FISH, CMW and Automurdermotive. And that the competition is sure to be fierce, though that he is confident his team will give a good showing.

Zeppelin Insanity posted:

Dance Officer posted:

mekilljoydammit posted:

That's... uh, a background.

Dance Officer posted:

I adapted it from a Suske & Wiske comic called De tuf-tuf club. Basic premise is they go back in time(staple of the series) and run into a gang of white hooded fellas trying to run over people in their bumper cart sized model T lookalike cars. Turns out a witch put them under a mind control spell to made them do that, for reasons I forgot. In the current day de tuf-tuf club is also a lobbying group that wants to remove all speed limits and speedtraps. What the name stands for should give you an idea of how much of an rear end in a top hat the current president of the club is.