Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 138: Wild Card Wonder

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 138: Wild Card Wonder

Every now and then, in various Automation challenges held on either the Discourse forums or the official Discord servers, someone submits an entry that doesn't seem too promising on paper, but sometimes performs better than expected in practice. Such an entry is often referred to as a wild card, and that's exactly what I entered for QFC 18. On that occasion, the brief was for a comfortable SUV from the mid-2000s with good off-road capabilities and reasonable running costs. With this in mind, I came up with the 2006 SVM Caracal - a mid-sized SUV with a 4x4 drivetrain, an off-road skid tray, and all-terrain tires as standard.

It may be a unibody SUV with no live axles, but the SVM Caracal can still cut the mustard in the rough stuff.

Built on a high-strength steel monocoque chassis, clad in treated steel bodywork, with fully independent suspension throughout (strut front/multilink rear), and powered by a torquey normally aspirated straight-six sending its power to the wheels via a six-speed advanced automatic transmission and a manually lockable differential, the Caracal was a proper off-roader that was more livable than most on tarmac, thanks to its unitized construction and premium interior with standard-fit sat-nav. All told, the Caracal had an estimated price of $21,200 AMU.

As it turned out, the Caracal was a great all-rounder. It may have ranked last in terms of offroad score (due mainly to it not having any live axles, although 50.5 isn't too bad for an all-independent setup), but it had the second-highest drivability score (67.2) and had the highest safety rating (66.3). Even so, it didn't seem like a recipe for a podium finisher, but the Caracal defied my expectations by finishing an impressive 3rd overall. And with neither of the top two entrants willing (or able) to host the next QFC, I .decided to take over hosting duties in their place. As for the next QFC, expect that to be the subject of a future post in this series.