In Progress Let's Play Automation Car Company Tycoon

[Burning Bridges]

The last episode in the old version ..

Before recounting new adventures in the world of automobiles, I will make one final episode with the old game version. And for this one I decided to go full retard and crank all quality sliders to the max. To see how fast it would go.

For the engine I chose a 2,9L V6. A bigger engine would always be faster but there is a point where more power results only in miniscule increments in speed.

If there is something that I learned: we are going for Power To Weight Ratio. Everything else is just masturbation. Love it! But there is more to learn from reasonably sized engines and it's also much more fun.

With it's Formula 1 rated construction the engine is pretty much in a league of it's own: 479hp/424Nm at just 95.5 kg.

That's a PWR rating of ~ 5:1 for the engine. the 1970s designs with basic quality had 3:1 at best. Though the comparison is unfair, it still shows how much is possible if you don't restrain yourself in the cost area.

How much this engine costs? Well, let's say if you order 3 they are yours for 1 million in advance and 10 for 3 million with 2 million in advance. And each individual engine takes about 1 month to make.


La Masturbatione

The engine was then put in the latest Folgore model, which was also cranked up to +15 Quality in all screens (actually some screens like interior go at -15 to save weight but that's a technical issue).

Cost for the car is unknown as only 1 is built. It would not be under 1 million so fuck off. Originally it meant to become a gift to Gianluigi Buffon when he wins either the CL, World Championship or European Championship. But at this moment the Patrone still keeps it to himself, until Buffon goes to Cosmos New York and competes for the Copa America.

It is destined though to establish Folgore as the fastest car on the racetrack.

With a full set of aero front and aft and some suspension tuning the car finally did a whopping 1:51,38. We could have made it a bit faster still, but at the end pasta and wine ended the day. We are not a company run by motherfucking Tedescos but by true artists.

But whoohoo that's 19 seconds faster than the fastest car we have seen before!! Of course, they had 1970s tech and no +15 quality faggotry. But still this is fucking insane and could probably compete in the threads at automation.com.

In celebration the Comentatore had the national anthem and Vangelis played for a whole day from loudspeakers.



At the next day people asked him to stop. Va fan culo!

Whatever. This is the Final Table of the old version before we continue with the new UE4 version.

Folgore F1 is in a league of it's own, and the 1960 Folgore V12s are unparalleled in pure profit per car. Noteworthy contenders on the racetrack are the Popamol Turbo (best Turbo car I ever made), and a bit surprisingly, the desperate BRC Tornado with his small bore 3L V12. The 1976 Popamol Large V6 was also a surprisingly fortuitious design, as it made up for it's large piston volume with excellent torque at low rpm, and almost closed the gap to crazier designs like Turbos and V12s.

Also, there was not a lot of tech from the 1990s onwards. But we have great plans and ideas for that. We learned quite a bit in those years and believe it can be used in modern times.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Vorwärts-Adlershof

Long ago I already mentioned a plan to bring sport cars out of the East German Democratic Republic.

This was not just an empty promise. Secretly the commies were working on the project, and they were working very hard.

New reform programs were begun every 5 years to finally overtake the West, but the East Germans specialists had to deal with special problems of their own. Metal was very precious in the GDR - especially "real" metal - so they had to work without it, or let's say: only very little was provided to them and it was not always of the best quality.

Of course when the plan had been announced to begin the development of a East German designed sports car the Politburo were all for it. But then everything in the Workers paradise had to be allocated to a plan. And no more than a 3 cylinder engine was allowed, smaller and more powerful than anything in the West.

The plan was of course hopeless, but that was the normal state in the country and they set the plan in motion. The task has been given to the Vorwärts VEB factory which so far has been famous for the first East German dildo. A product that was a huge success and also a export hit to other socialist countries.

It's also not like there was no talent. In fact this was a real East German design

But they used 2-stroke Wartburg engines, and work on the high perfomance engine was done in secret.

In 1970s the first race cars were developed and they sucked, but at least they were ours!

"Turning Shit into Candy"

1989 the GDR was over. Our police have changed their uniform to federal green, and our race car was still not finished.

In 2018 several long-term unemployed engineers from East Berlin, Dessau and Dresden had the idea to form a new company, the Vorwärts-Adler Automobile GmbH. Shortly after they had came together a small sensation was discovered.

There was a rumor of an old hangar in the Erzgebirge, and when it was openen it was found to contain 100s of engine blocks and plans, all stored and conserved to be used one day!

The GDR engineers had bben working on a revolutionary new 3 cylinder engine. At first weight was so light that it could theoretically even fit into a motorbike. But then they learned of Popamol and realized that turbo was the only way to go. The turbo engine could not be realized (mostly because the old version of automation did not support 3 cylinder turbos). And it seemed that by 1989 they had almost succeeded in building the best turbo engines in the word.

Now as you probably know, 4 cylinder engines are particularly well suited for turbocharging (the reasons can not be discussed here). But the commies had realized that a 3 cylinder would be theoretically just as good if not better. It is small, saves weight and makes a unique sound, and the very few who understand the black magic of compressor size say it is a very favorable engine. Why? Well fuck it this is not an engineering course and if you want to learn that, go to university!

I just say as much that in 1984 BMW took a 4 cylinder engine of a street car that had 90 horsepower and turbocharged it to 1400 hp. We are severely limited here in that area, cam, boost and compressor and high rev performance do not allow such performance. But the principle is the same.

Now, as the old engine blocks were begun to be reassembled and restarted it began with this unturbocharged engine, an early prototype that had been the base for later research.

Even without the turbocharger this is possibly the best sound in possibly the best sound of all engines in Automation, and to the men of the new founded company this was like music.

I even made a small recording so you can hear what I mean

200 hp ain't shabby for a lightweight 1.7L 3 cylinder but also not very much power. But I promise this is not the end of it as the old turbochargers are currently being assembled and we will see the real potential.

Trabant 701

A new chassis was also found that was very well suited to the engine. It was once designed to be the successor of the Trabant but deemed as uneconomic and "too expensive" for the workers paradise.

But it fits a small engine perfectly. This is still one nice little car with 2 seats, a front engine and very lightweight. If it had a mid engine and 2 x pushrod suspension we could possibly break all records with it. As it is, it's just a super small and nimble little car that could be one hell of fun to drive.

Actually, one of the things we learned in the past is that there is an optimal engine for every chassis so finding this will the task. First preliminary test showed sub 2:10s but 200 hp is only the beginning, as the turbocharger will at least double that figure.

There is no money to go into production right away but the best way to attract investors is to go racing. So it was decided that a small loan was taken to build a race car, buy gasoline and then find an investor to develop a production version.

For the race car they had to get the old turbocharged engines running again, which is what will happen in the next episode.

But we can already reveal that there was some amazement ..

 

[Burning Bridges]

Der 3 Cylinder Turbo

A loan was taken and houses were sold. So thanks to Ostdeutsche KreditBank and several divorces a new race car was born.

For class homologation and weight reasons an even smaller version of the engine was chosen. The engine that was put on the dynamometer was a 1433 cm³ 3 cylinder Turbo.

More than enough to drive the small car, and it weighs just 94 kilo, which for a Turbo is nothing. With full race boost the little engine makes an incredible noise and glows like hot tungsten.

One thing we learned is that we no longer maximize peak power but want to have a nice powerband that gets up early and stays as high as possible. Another thing is that somehow high revs are good for laptimes. That means 500 rpm can be worth half a second if the revs go much higher than the maximum power output, even if power drops. Why this is is not clear to me but it could have to do with shifting and the little AI driver in the car or whatever. It's not good for the engines but it's good for racing so the engine was run to 10,000 rpm.

Now look at dat. isn't it fucking insane. This small engine has more power than a 5 litre car. It's not exactly street rated and very expensive but we could probably still squeeze out 450 hp from our production car if we leave all sliders a 0

5.75 : 1 is not only the best power to weight ratio that was seen so far for an engine, it leaves older technology far far behind (1976 Popamol turbo had a little over 2:1).

The complete race car, incorporating carbon fibre and the latest technology weighs just a tad over 600 kg, resulting in a power to weoght ratio of 0.9!

Of course our later production versions will be heavier and have less power but the PWR will still be significant. In pure racing terms a front engined car is handicapped, acceleration for example seems to be 1 second slower by default. But this does not mean it cannot go as fast as most midengined cars.

The car was hastily setup and sent on a few laps (testing is expensive), but the time was an impressive 1:53,56 which means it can already compete with supercars. It clearly demonstrates that a small guy with a large prick can compete with much bigger guys.

Top speed is 314 km/h but that is more related to the gearing and aero used for the track. It could go even faster if we did not put an insane amount of aero on it.

The new car has been dubbed the Wildcat. Internally we call it Katze (cat), but that does not go well for international markets.

And what a beauty she is. The front is not ready but we can at least show her back.

Wowsers! I still can't get over the fact that this goes 10 seconds faster than many cars with much larger engines. Certainly this is just a prototype and much too expensive to produce but the design is extreme even with a 100 hp less and 100 kg heavier.

What next? After the car was shown, we immediately got requests and funding for a sizeable production run. We could go on a mass market car, either a turbo and/or a modest naturally aspirated version. We could also try to squeeze out extra seconds from the race car. We will certainly produce a car and then where we go next, nobody knows.

P.S. In real life the Nu Melkus filed insolvency after just 3 years, what a shame. The RS 2000 was such a beautiful car ..

 

[Burning Bridges]

ANOTHER NEW COMPANY

For a long time during career Former Formula 1 Champion Demon Hill has been talking that he wanted to get into making cars.

Not many people believed in him making much more than lip service, but as a Formula 1 racer, over the years, he had made many contacts, like his well known his friendship with Chollin Capman from BRC, Alan Rost the Frenchman, Lana Del Rey and a well as a reasonable fortune so that his plan suddenly looked more and more realistic.

As he needs both a new engine and a car, the project began with a rough sketch what he wants.

First of all this - as we find - strikingly beautiful chassis has been selected, which Demon designed alone, only with his 3 year old son and a few crayons.

It is a front engined roadster that while - not as dominant on the track as the Popamol Turbo - should excite potential customers. Or rather, it looks a hell lot better than all the other crap in the game right now.

Being a first rate driver, Demon tested the car himself with engines stripped from his road cars, and it quickly emanated that this car would be a bit of a dog if not paired with the right engine.

That means that larger engines will not benefit this design, the laptimes even got worse. Instead the key to a first rate performance lay in taking the smallest with the highest power to weight ratio, and that is kind of interesting in itself.

The new East German turbos have demonstrated that performance in the 2010s has taken huge strides, taking power to weight to almost 1:1
i.e. they are a good reference for a new engine and we may have found a new metric to judge engines for their performance.

5 : 1 to 6 : 1 PWR for the engine is the new yardstick for a first rate motor and we will see if this theory holds true.

Demon asked BRC to design something for him, and we will see what they come up with. he said, "make me the smallest engine, with the best power to weight ratio, and I will pay for the production"

He also sent them the chassis, his son as his stand and the work began.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Turbine madness

So as BRC set out to design the new engine, a new pattern began to emerge.

Let'S face it, Turbos used to be an exercise in frustration in this game. You spent hours to get a lot of power from them, power that was unheard of and then on the track they just plain and simply sucked.

Also, there seemed to be a golden rule that track performance could only be increased engines with larger engines, in smaller increments. That's why most threads about hotlap comps are full of 11 liter monsters with 3000+ hp.

I am quite surprised that I can now observe 2 unexpected developments:

• I generally get better results with small displacement engines, which resemble real world engines
  
• my new generation of Turbos performs better that n/a engines

The second observation is that turbos actually outperform n/a engines, through a long learning process. Maybe I got to the point where I finally understand how to make good turbos.

What this means is not to maximize the peak hp/torque output, this is only good for speed records. Instead I now use a very large compressor together with a very small turbine, and aim for early power that fills 2/3 of the power band, without caring too much for the maximum output,

Here (and this brings us back to the story) we see such a "new generation" turbo:

This looks very good with lots of power available from 5,000 rpm.

The compressor size is now always close to my favorite 62. This seems a magic number that always gives me the best results (at least as long as we are talking about 3 and 4 cylinder inline engines).

The turbine is by comparison really small. That means it picks up pressure earlier but has less of the peak that we don't need.

The result is of course:

+less of a turbo hole
+earlier low end power
ore drivability
+better acceleration

-less total peak power
-less top speed

BRC 1.7L Turbo

In past decades BRC had great success with feeble 12 cylinders and other harebrained ideas that somehow worked.

Now tasked with the challenge to design an new engine for a new British race car, they enthusiastically went to work.

Impressed with the latest developments, especially the East German superturbos, BRC decided turbocharging was also the way to go.

Unlike the East Germans they went with a 1,737cm³ 4 cylinder. The inline 4 being widely regarded as the best configuration for a turbocharged engine, and the displacement deemed "more than enough" for a small agile race car.

Bore stroke is 79.5 x 87.5 mm which meant that revs can go a little higher (the East Germans use a rather long stroke of 95 which puts extra stress on the conrod).

The bore is roughly the smallest possible to allow the magic 62 compressor, just as the Germans.

We did a lot of dyno tests until we reached optimal bore stroke and PWR. For comparison I have put 3 engines side by side, the new Folgore V6 (naturally aspirated), the East German Turbo and the new BRC Hill Turbo.

A significant improvement was achieved with a 6.39 PWR (or 4.59 respectively if the performance index is used). The East German 3 cyl had an (already sensational) 5.75 / 4.21.

The Folgore is a comparison between apples and grapes, but its good PWR shows that naturally aspirated engines always remain a threat.

BRC is delighted to have built an engine that delivers almost 700hp at a little over 100kg. It will now be put into the racecar and tested, where great results can be expected.

Here is the obligatory sound recording test if the engine sounds good.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Goodbye 1:50, Hello 1:40

A prototype was assembled with only Formula 1 rated parts.

That's of course a lot more extreme than the production version. But car developments nowadays begins now with a demonstration of the potential performance on the racetrack.

The car has a pretty good weight and power to weight ratio, and the engine is perfectly matched to the maximum tyres. That is all that matters right now.

And because the engine has more power than needed, we could put on a maximum amount of aero. It looks a bit experimental but allows cornering at 2.05g.

1:48.481

3 seconds faster than Folgore (old version)
5 seconds faster than 3 cylinder (Wildkatze)

It's noteworthy that the Folgore so far did not show the same level of performance in the current version and rather mucked around at 1:54. It's a point of future investigation but if it holds true then the new cars represent an even more significant development.

Here are the current 3 main contenders on the race track for the year 2018. All have maximized +15 sliders and are therefore not for sale, only single units made for the factory race departments.

A curious fact is how the fuel consumption has nearly doubled for the Hill. I have no idea how I managed to get the car to 42 liter / 100km, but maybe I pushed the car / aero very much to the limits.

 

[Burning Bridges]

La vendetta

Of course a new Italian car must not be missing in the new batch for 2010s motorsport.

in racing, Folgore were the first team to break the 2:00 barrier but it has yet to be shown that their design holds up in the new game version.

They will of course come back with something new, but it is not clear how they are going to approach it this time. Their modern, naturally aspirated V6 may have become too weak in comparison to the new turbos, and their preferred V12 seems complete overkill at this point.

What is known is that they have breathtaking car and that it shines in the top speed area (the car can go far beyond 400 km/h with ease). On the track it seems to struggle with corners though.

This is just the concept car. But it looks fast, even standing still. A car shaped dildo. It could probably be sold right away, without the engine.

But they have not yet decided what next. Turbo? The Patrone hates Turbos and so far not one Turbo has ever left the factory in 60 years of motorsport history.

But whatever your beliefs, sometimes it's time to change your mind. What is the best way? Go for top speed, or track performance?

Who knows.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Ah and we looking for good names. They should be Italian, and begin with an "f".

Already used in previous cars were: "Fulmine" , "Furetto" and "Freccia"

For the next car we are trending towards "Fantasma", maybe "Fucile" or "Fascia"

 

[Burning Bridges]

The Folgore turned more into a test if the performance has changed dramatically between versions, and it apparently has not.

A turbocharged 6 cylinder as well as V10 were begun, but it was quickly realized that this chassis is already at its limit and putting in bigger, more powerful engines does not produce any noticeable benefits. It became an exercise in frustration, so the project was cancelled.

Whatever it is, this chassis has bad acceleration and the tyres are limited. It does have a very good top speed though and could be used for speed records, as it is estimated that it could reach 450 km/h with a modest engine.

For this years racing season, a normal spirated engine was chosen. A very similar V6 to the old one, with 3355 cm³. This resulted in a good balanced car, with normal performance. It does not smoke this years competition but confirms the good performance shown by the previous model.

The lap times are respectable, 1:50,33 is absolutely competitive and in a field of mostly turbos, saves the honor of the normal aspirated engines.

I could perhaps torture this to a little under 1:50 but it is enough. This car should also do better be on high speed tracks, because with its modest acceleration it is really not suited for the slow corners on the Automation track.

A good car. For a normal aspirated car this is pretty much top of the line.

Not a dominant force in motorsport either. It does it's job. And you cannot always win.

The decision was made to regard this as a learning year and come up with a better chassis, and wait and see about turbos.

Boxer engines are going to come soon, as well as 5 cyinder inlines. And I expect major new discoveries only from those new configuration, as the 6 cylinder V is pretty much sucked dry at this point. At least I could not get any comparable performance from any V turbo, mabye my inline turbos have become too good.

And unless I want to make "yet another" straight 4 turbo Ferrari Folgore (which I find disgusting) this is what it is.

5 cylinder Turbo is Quattro territory, and I feel this could take the cake in the turbo field.

But boxers could be really interesting, altough they are heavy, and this goes against my philosophy.

 

[agris]

needs more screenshots of excel tables

 

[Burning Bridges]

King of the Turbos

looming behind the corner however, was the Popamol RS 2300 Turbo

Popamol is more of an engine maker and their Proll chassis has not changed since the 1970s.

but why should it. With it's mid engined, dual pushrod layout, an optimal wheelbase, low weight and massive tyres, it has an inherent advantage that is worth seconds

possibly the best chassis in the game right now

Popamol have studied the latest designs came up with a large, firebreathing turbo of their own that has a massive powerband.

It doesn't even matter that it does not have the best PWR. Unlike the other chassis, the RS2300 can actually bring much of that horsepower on the road ..

1:44,56

and this could probably be improved with further tuning.

Hardly have the 1:50m been cracked, the Popamol is already half on the way to 1:40m

The Popamol is the undisputed king of the racetrack!

it's a shame that programming is such crap, I would like to recreate this

 

[Burning Bridges]

needs more screenshots of excel tables

They are a bit unwieldy right now and badly need formatting

Spoiler

 

[Burning Bridges]

Der Kaiser was born

There is not better time to accelerate your program than when you're already in the lead.

So even though the RS 2300 were already 4 seconds ahead, Popamol Racing decided to fully realize the remaining potential and create yet another, greatly improved version.

A large effort was put into aerodynamic refinement, an improved engine with more power, and suspension improvement. This has resulted in what many consider the ultimate race car.

The laptime is historic.

1:39,56

so finally someone has done it, and broke the magic 1:40

The car has improved everything. The engine was increased in displacement to 2,464cm³ and the turbo has been upgraded to Full Retard mode, delivering over 900 horsepower.

This could mark the ultimate development of the 4 cylinder inline Turbo.

PWR is off the scale, HP/KG is completely unprecedented 1.13:1 as wells as a performance index of 665 PWR of 0,81.

The suspension has become so hard that drivability and sportiness have dropped to a solid 0,0. But that doesn't matter as this is a race car only. It does exactly what it is supposed to: turn 1 liter of fuel per 2 kilometers into the fastest times ever.

Wether any of the other teams can answer is uncertain. With a gap of 9 seconds it looks like they must accept the total supremacy of the Popamol and can only compete for second place.

But it's expected that times of all cars will improve by a few seconds studying the aerodynamic improvements and simply copying them.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Meanwhile Nu Trabi has received a more distinct face.

The motorsport version also recorded better laptimes, 1:49.29 due to aerodynamic and suspension improvements. Which is pretty remarkable, because it has 250 less hp compared to the Hill Turbo and still laps in about the same time.

This is of course testimony of the super lightweight construction and the superiority of socialism.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Finale Furioso

Most motorsport teams have given up competing against the Popamol RS, but Folgore in Italy are willing to fight back.

A radical new prototype has been sighted in Florence.

Great advancements have been made in aerodynamics, and there is hope that this can offset the weight disadvantage. Weight has also been stripped as much as possible, but the car still weighs over 1100 kg.

The car has one big advantage, that engine space is vast.

Nothing is know about the engine yet, but it is specualted that this could have a turbo. This would be the first ever in the companies long history.

 

[Burning Bridges]

http://pmd.cdn.turner.com/tcm/big/t...66_beforeyoubecamereckless_FC_640x360_800.mp4

This was not easy.

The Popamol "Porsche" chassis is such a difficult chassis to compete with, and I was not expecting any more improvement from another chassis. When I realized there is a way it was actually the most rewarding thing in a long time.

Florence Italia 2018, at the Folgore factory

The Patrone was very unhappy with our position and been brooding for a while.

Eventually, as we were still over 10 seconds per lap behind the Tedescos,he came back with new vigor and said we were going to study the Popamol design and see what we could learn from it.

Popamol penalty

The first big shock was that our prototype has ca 125-150 kilogram weight penalty. That means with the same engine, we are roughly that much heavier.

Above is our chassis, with mid engined layout, dual pushrod suspension. So far so good-

But for comparison, below is the Popamol with their incredibly powerful 4 cylinder (930 hp), and look how compact everything is

It should be easy to see that the Popamol is much shorter and agile. Our prototype also has smaller tyres (375 vs 395), which means we can forget about matching their acceleration (2.3s) and wheelspin.

The Popamol has much smaller tyre diameter than what we were using (620 vs our 720) and this turned out to be an interesting find. It seems we can gain a good deal of cornering performance by following this trend.

On the plus side, we have a larger engine bay and lower drag. That means with regards to top speed, we can defintely beat the Tedescos, but that does not magically turn out better times in the curves.

Wit the large engine bay we can of course have more horsepower, but that also needs to be controlled. As has been shown many times before the key is to make the car with the most power but the smallest possible engine.

Since the Popamol is lighter and has totally exhausted the 4 cylinder potential, we must find a new spot for our engine.

We experimented a little bit with different engines and timed them on our test track.

Our company has been said to be "married to the V12" but this is not something we realistically considered. It was tested with a V12 and even a 7 liter version could not get us anywhere near where we wanted.

A V10 seemed a good alternative. The 10 cylinder has most of the advantages of the V12 while being a lot smaller. We tested a V10 but it also was heavy and we saw potential.

V8 is currently not in our plans. The Yankee engine sounds like a lawn mower, and we totally hate it.

We tested 6 cylinders but it offered too little performance.

But then the boss had changed his mind. What he was going to say would be a shock. He wanted us to make a turbocharged engine, for the first time ever. And he wants it to be something really special.

Turbocompressore

First a V10 turbo was built and it showed promise. It has tons of power.

It did not look so great to our drivers, times were not improving greatly and it crashed the game.

The V10 looks like the most complex, brute force solution to the problem we have. We were not 100% convinced this would work out. But we think we may come back to it in the future. as it seems to hold untapped potential.

It also sounds fantastic. We made a sound recording on the test track:



As it is we were looking into a another direction, as we wanted something much smaller and less complex.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Just to illustrate the power densities that have already been reached in 2018, and which we have to compete with.

Our competors have raised the bar to incredible heights, especially the Popamol with over 7:1 horsepower per kilo or 5 :1 perfermance index per kilo

This reflects in the laptimes where Popamol has over 10 seconds advantage over the competition!

The VEB Kombinat Trabant looks to be upper limited by its small size, although it is super nimble and fast.

Even the Hill BRC is ahead of us, and we always consider the British as bunglers when it comes to engines.

Popamol Turbo is currently unassailable, providing more horsepower (922) than the total weight of the car (817 kg)!! How are we going to match such an uber chassis/engine?



As I wrote, this was not going to be easy at all ..

 

[agris]

Burning Bridges Are you a retired day trader or investor?

 

[Burning Bridges]

While the engine department (that makes up 90% of the company) looked for the best configuration we turned to our car and an important area, aerodyamics

Much of the Popamole's secreat had been a vastly improved aero setup that allowed cornering > 2g, and if we wanted to be even remotely in a position to compete, we needed something radical

Our prototype received air spoilers on the sides and a wing package.

Together with the underside of the car it provides massive downforce.

We tried to balance this to the weight distribution. This is not scientifically proven but should be a rough estimate in the dark.

The results are more than we hoped for. In the 200m radius test we could even reach 3g, which seems excessive as no car can go so fast.

Or so we think.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Burning Bridges Are you a retired day trader or investor?

retired w-w-window cleaner and pacifist, and head of Gestapo for 10 years



no seriously, I just have no more work for the rest of the month and like to test my scientific method to this game.

 

[Burning Bridges]

We already said that V8 is against the company philosophy.

A V6 Turbo was briefly tested but strangely does not deliver anywhere near the performance we expected. There is something with all bi-turbo engines that is seriously off right now. That means all V-engines are dissapointing when turbocharged. And V6 was the worst and was quickly discarded.

So whith all V6, 8, 10 and V12 out of the equation, what remains?

It is known that a straight 4 is ideal but this has already peaked with the RS 2500. Our research eventually centers on the straight 6. It has 50% more displacement and it´s a straight engine, so why should this not work?

Well, because this has been tried many times before and always ended with dissapointment.

But we are covering completely new ground here.

We solved a fundamental problem by going oversquare. oversquare means the bore is much larger than the stroke, at 103 mm to 85 mmm

This is highly unusual as all high performance engines in this LP were undersquare, with a few being square.

Normally an oversquare engine is pointless in this game, as it's only heavier and as the engines are limited above 9000 rpm, undersquare designs reach the same rpm. So there are only disadvantages to oversquare, ie less torque and more weight.

But as we now reach the limits of turbo design, we realized there is something important to be gained here:

the bore determines the compressor size which in turn determines the maximum performance

3 and 4 cylinder engines could get away with ~ 62 mm compressors. The Popamol used a 70 mm compressor, which was about the upper end for a 4 cylinder, before the engine got into extreme turbo lag.

But for 2 extra cylinders, we need a larger compressor and our unusually high bore (103mm) allows for a compressor of ca 85 mm. Which is significant.

This turned out to be the key to get at the potential power that no one before got out of the elusive straight 6.

While we did not reach the massive PWR of the RS 2500, we could realize a big 4.35 liter turbo engine with roughly the same power density as the smaller 4 cylinders.

That means for the first time power scales up and for 2 extra cylinders we get proportionally ~50% more power (a bit less due to volumetric performance and turbo limits, but this is negligible)

All together this results in ansolutely impressive 1367 hp and a performance index of almost 1000.

For comparison, the Popamol has 929 hp and 664 performance index.

So to sum up: while our car turned out to have ca 300 kg extra, we have ca 480 horsepower to make up for it. And we have a better Power To Weight ratio than even the Popamol.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Our mid engine, transverse 6 cylinder inline turbo. Which we are mighty proud of!!

Eventually we timed our car and achieved an unbelievable 1:39,83s on the Automation track. this is within 3 tenths of the Popamol, and we have not started detail tuning yet.

We then timed the car on the Airfield track, where it also lapped within 3 tenths of the Popamol.

That means we caught up with the Popamol - reminder: we started with -10.5 seconds - and are now practically equal. The remaining difference is within 3 tenths and depends on the setup for one or the other team, or the driver.

We never really expected to compete for first places so soon, but motorsport has two kings now.

On a straight our car has a massive advantage in top speed of 384 km/h, and is the fastest car in the world. We think we could also easily attack the land speed record which is currently at ca 450 km/h, if we completely remove aero.

It's the first car that almost reaches 400 km/h on the Automation track, and can hold this through the Slingshot, which is the key to our laptimes.

We also have better reliability, as the Popamol seems to cheat a little and runs a bit beyond sane torque limits (their excessively long 99 mm stroke vs our 87 makes a huge difference and is a big advantage for us in reliability). We think they must nerf their car a bit or they wont finish the race.

Current best Laptimes (Automation UE4 version)

Current Best Engines (Automation UE4 version)

small correction: the new car will probably be called Fancazzo, not Fanculo

 

[Burning Bridges]

Racing

The times and cars had to be corrected and results of this round finalized.

Popamol was forced to revise their engine, because they had too much of a reliability problem (14.5)

The 99 mm stroke had to go, as well as the excessive rpm. In the end they found a gtood solution, more low end power and rediscovered their old favorite 90x92.5 mm bore/stroke. The revision could maintain their laptimes while reaching the same reliability as other cars. The engine develops roughly the same performance but due to the vastly increased reliability, is definitely better.

Aerodynamics and setup was left unchanged because we ran into motivation trouble. The design has a little bit of rooom left, and could maybe still go 0.5 to 1 seconds faster.

The red beast of Folgore has been dubbed the FR6 Turbo and went through final track setup. During the process more power and >1 extra second was found, so the red car overtook the Popamol and snatched Place #1.

1:38.66 s

I checked this is one of the fastest laps ever recorded with Automation.

There is a guy on steam who claims 1:37s but with a pretty overdone setting, 3500 hp and all wheel drive. Compared to that my car is almost reasonable, with 4.4L and 2.5L Turbos and reasonable power, reliability and so on. I would say my cars are still comparable to NASCARs, with slighly more unrestricted engines. But not 12 liter dragsters to run perhaps 1 second faster.

End of Rine (as far as this version goes)

Ok. so with the latest development Folgore have taken #1 with Popamol a close #2. Times are absolutely competition worthy.

I dont think I will sperg hundredths of seconds to be able to claim to be #1 in the world. Also I know there are some guys on automation.com (betatesters and some absolute magicians) who I know keep their settings secret and they usually operate a bit higher than you would think.

So, that was a 1 week

journey into the world of motorsport with Automation.

If anyone should be interested int the detailed settings of the developed engines, I am willing to share all information.

Absolutely happy with what was achieved this round.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Evolutione

The teams have concentrated on engines again.

In a race to get even more power, Popamol and Folgore have increased capacity even further.

The Folgore now reached 5 liter, which seems close to the limit of the inline 6 because now the exhaust is the limiting factor (it cannot be further increased)

Here a look into the huge cylinder bores. Eventually the bore has reached 106 mm.

Volumetric performance is no longer optimal in this region, but it's the only way to get the largest possible compressor, without changing the outside dimensions much.

Power has gone up and up and up. Compressor size is 87.5 or even 88 mm

a novelty is that the engine now runs at a modest 9000 rpm, greatly improving reliability and cost.

The laptime has also greatly improved considering that we are operating near the limits of the game

1:38,16

very close of the 1:37

 

[Burning Bridges]

Popamol are also working on a 3,000 cm³ inline 4 with over 1100 horsepower, but the new car is not completed yet.

It is expected to have similar track performance to the Italians, at least a 1:38 time.

The car gets heavier but as long as power can be increased even more (proportinally) there should be an improvement.