Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 10: Back on Track

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 10: Back on Track

You may be wondering why I named this post "Back on Track". The reason is twofold. I originally planned to begin writing on Tuesday, but a suicide bombing in Manchester, combined with a few other well-known people passing away within the same 24-hour period, made me reconsider. So I gave myself some time to grieve, and it would be several days before I could muster the mental strength to continue.

On a more positive note, this post earned its name because, for two rounds in a row, CSR - the crown jewel of competitions on the official Automation forums - had a racing/track day theme. CSR39 was about building a relatively affordable, reliable car capable of dominating a track day at Circuit Zolder in Belgium; CSR40, on the other hand, was a challenge to supply a race team with a fast, reliable turbocharged touring car. Naturally, I jumped straight into both rounds. In fact, given that I started work on this post on the same day that the Monaco Grand Prix and Indianapolis 500 were held, the topic of this post is particularly fitting, as is its name.

My CSR39 entry, the 2000 Zorg ZS36, was quite straightforward - a front-engined, rear-drive coupe with double wishbones at each corner and powered by a 3-liter normally-aspirated straight-six. I set it up to oversteer, but not to the point that it felt unacceptably wayward. As befitting the track-day theme for CSR39, it came with a sports interior, a six-speed manual gearbox hooked up to a mechanical LSD, and vented disc brakes front and rear. And on top of that, it was finished in bright yellow, making it utterly unmissable.

Zorg ZS36 Coupe

When the time came to judge the entries the ZS36 was clearly a car to consider. The host's only complaint was that it oversteered slightly more than was preferable, but otherwise it was a strong contender. In the end, though, the win went instead to another yellow coupe - the Smooth Pretaco R. In hindsight, it was hard to see anything else winning the round; its light weight, combined with its free-revving engine, made it nigh-on unbeatable around the track.

Smooth Pretaco R

In the very next round, entrants were tasked with building a touring car powered by a turbocharged engine with a displacement of up to 2500 cc, preferably with 4 or 6 cylinders. Once again I made yet another rear-drive coupe - the 1985 SMG Taikan A-Spec. Finished in white and adorned with a prominent rear wing, its turbocharged all-alloy straight-six developed around 300 bhp, which I reckoned would be enough to make it competitive.

SMG Taikan A-Spec

Once again, it was difficult to determine the finalists, let alone the winner. Even so, anything with ineligible (or overly complicated) parts, or was too slow, unreliable, uncomfortable, undrivable and/or expensive would be rejected out of hand. My entry wasn't among the many cars to suffer this fate, though. However, it was ultimately eliminated later on due to concerns about engine reliability, presumably because it had an all-alloy engine. In the end, another coupe from Smooth took the win; this time, it was the blood-red, wedge-shaped, whale-tailed Duster SR, whose combination of simplicity, affordability, endurance, and outright pace was unmatched.

Smooth Duster SR

As this post is being written, CSR41 has just concluded, and ideas for CSR42 are being discussed. Thus, it would make sense for me to discuss either or both rounds in my next post. Meanwhile, with the UE4 version of Automation in open beta, I will soon have to decide whether or not to test it before it is publicly released...