Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 142: A Personal Dedication

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 142: A Personal Dedication

A little over a month ago, I was shocked and devastated to find out that one of my fellow Automationeers had passed away in real life after a brief illness. I had grown to know him ever since I started playing the game back in 2015, especially since he was one of the most respected forum members at the time, and remained so even after the game was relaunched in 2017, whereupon the original version (based on the Kee engine) was slowly phased out and gradually replaced by the Unreal Engine 4-based one in use today. Then, some time in 2020, it all went quiet, as far as he was concerned - I heard nothing from him again. From then on until his death, I held out some hope that he would return, but that is now long gone.

Since then, I have wanted to honor his memory in the best way I can, by hosting a challenge inspired by one that he hosted a few years ago - and after accepting hosting duties for the next QFC, I gave it a premise and rule set reminiscent of those used for one of my late friend's challenges - specifically, CSR33, to be exact. That challenge was themed around mid-sized executive cars, and was quite well-received - so much so that I decided on a similar rule set for QFC19, albeit taking place four years earlier (1994 instead of 1998).

This QFC had a modest turnout, with only 14 entrants, of which three had to be disqualified for rule violations (although to be fair, their submissions had at least one glaring problem that would have removed them for consideration early on). Of the remaining 11 contenders, there were several that also had fatal flaws, but the rest had only minor issues at worst, and a few were good enough to remain in contention for the final part of judging, where the top three would be decided.

In the end, I chose the FMC Kingfisher 250 as the winner, after finding it to be the best all-around choice of all the entrants. However, two other entries - the Primus Merit 250 Elegance and Jager D300 - gave it strong competition. As it turned out, the former had too much brake fade (due to a lack of brake cooling and undersized brake discs) and staggered tires (the latter of which made servicing more expensive than anticipated), and the latter had a lot of overdrive in its gearbox, but with the individual gears stacked as closely as possible.

Above, from top: The three highest-placed entries from QFC19 in ascending order - the Primus Merit 250 Elegance, the Jager D300 and FMC Kingfisher 250. All credit goes to their respective creators.

And so another QFC has concluded, with a worthy winner being crowned at the end. Here's hoping that the next QFC (and every subsequent one thereafter) maintains this enviable standard.