Saturday, September 23, 2023

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 162: Pain in the Tail Spoiler

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 162: Pain in the Tail Spoiler

After building, testing, and submitting my entries for the Powerful American Insanity Nationals described in the previous post in this series, I waited for another similar time trial challenge to be announced on the Automation Forums. Unsurprisingly, it would not be long before such a competition would be announced, so I decided to repurpose both of my PAIN entries for this one. However, whereas one of them lost power and weight, the other one gained power, but not weight. So here they are.

The first entry was a revised version of the original TSC Thunderwolf, with a lightweight interior, a track-friendly suspension tune, and a far more powerful flat-crank version of the standard car's V8 engine. It also came with a more aggressive aero kit, but to keep the file size low, I only included the textures, paints, and materials that had actually been fitted to it.


The modified TSC Thunderwolf (left) compared to the original version (right).

In addition to this, I also cloned the LVC LS40 to create a lighter, if slower, version that would meet all the rules of this new challenge. The resulting car, the LS20, had a 2.0-liter straight-four in place of a flat-crank V8, and fiberglass bodywork instead of aluminum. Most of its creature comforts were removed to save weight and cost.


The LVC LS20 - a lighter, four-cylinder relative of the LS40.

Both of these entries represent two very different approaches to the same problem. The Thunderwolf is heavier, but has a lot of power to compensate. The LS20, on the other hand, is nowhere near as powerful, but is much lighter. In fact, it doesn't even have an in-car entertainment system, but it doesn't need one for the purpose of time trials. With their immense potential, I expect these cars to do as well on the tight, winding road this challenge takes place on as their derivatives did on the more open route used for the earlier PAIN time trial.

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