Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 244: A Fiery Love Letter to Horsepower

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 244: A Fiery Love Letter to Horsepower

The Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year long weekend has come and gone, and to celebrate I made a new trim of something I'd previously cooked up for a BeamNG-based Discord challenge: the Parana P600. In its original, Beam-friendly form, it had 580 horsepower from a 6.0-liter naturally aspirated V12 driving all four wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox and a luxury interior/CD stereo. However, the lore-accurate version is strictly rear-wheel drive, with 650 horsepower and a fully hand-built interior to better reflect its bespoke nature. Essentially, it's what my LVC LS60 (which follows a similar retro-futuristic aesthetic) would've been if it had an engine closer in size and RPM limit to what its chief rival, the AMS Archangel (another one of my original '90s hypercar designs), was fitted with, and was a true hand-built product in the vein of the WM Amadeus (which competes with both the LS60 and Archangel, despite making its debut five years before both of those cars did, according to my lore).

Since 2026 is the year of the Horse, or more specifically the Fire Horse, here's a set of screenshots showing the P600 with a red exterior and silver wheels (the Discord submission had a blue exterior and gold wheels of a different design), which fits the theme best (and also goes well with the Valentine's Day weekend that began three days before the official Chinese New Year celebrations) considering the topic of this post:

Above, from top: What if the LVC LS60 came out earlier, utilized an engine more like that of its chief rival (the AMS Archangel), and was fitted with a hand-built interior to match what the WM Amadeus had? The Parana P600 would've been the answer to that question.

This was my first fully detailed build to be based on any of the '88 Copy Cat body sets, but when revising the interior for the original version, I replaced the dashboard, center console, and door cards, while some of the other interior fixtures either had to be removed entirely. or were resized and repositioned to accommodate the constraints of the new interior fixtures.

In short, the P600 combines all the best aspects of all three of my favorite '90s V12 hypercar designs into a single build, while also incorporating lessons learned during their development.

Update (2:20 pm, Monday, March 9, 2026): I have revised the P600 with a scoop fixture on the rear deck between the vents, as follows:

Above: Both trims of the P600 Lusso after the latest revision, with the text on the rear bodywork moved very slightly upward, and a subtle scoop fixture between the vents on the engine cover.

In addition, the text has been moved slightly upward on both sides for a more harmonious look.

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 243: Resolution Fulfilled

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 243: Resolution Fulfilled

Having previously stated in my list of 2026 New Year's Resolutions that I had wanted to conclude the challenge I'd commenced at the end of the previous year, I managed to do just that. Admittedly, I took longer than expected, but still managed to do so without stirring up too much controversy. So here's how it went down.

In the Discourse QFC (Quickfire Challenge) prior to the one I recently hosted, I secured a top-5 finish on the strength of my engineering skills, even if my entry's exterior design was average at best. So, I decided to make plans for hosting the next round, just in case I got the chance - and I did, after the rest of the top 5 finishers passed on that responsibility. Looking to previous QFCs for inspiration, I eventually settled on a late 2000s setting, with the premise being that, having dreamt of driving through the European Alps in an open-topped supercar for a few decades, you, the client, had finally saved enough cash to buy one yourself and live that dream.

I started by defining a rule set with that particular premise in mind, before listing the client's priorities in descending order of importance. Exterior design, overall sportiness, and prestige sat at the top of the list, with safety, purchase price, overall running costs, and environmental resistance at the bottom, while I placed drivability, comfort, and reliability between these two extremes. In addition, I limited rear seating to +2 (if fitted), and made AWD an extra-cost option ($2500 across the board, except for advanced AWD, which costs $5000). With all the requirements and objectives set, I launched the round - but not before I adjusted its ruleset in response to user feedback.

Above, from top: All 24 cars I received and reviewed for QFC67, arranged into three groups of eight, with the best-placed car in each group qualifying for the final stage.

Over the next two weeks, I received two dozen cars, and the quality of entries was... a mixed bag, to say the least. Some were outright horrid and had no chance of reaching the top 3 (with one even being dismissed right off the bat due to rule violations, although in fairness, it would still have placed at the bottom anyway); others were decidedly average or turned out to be too inconsistent for further consideration. Within the top 8, however, the competition was particularly intense. It took a while, but I finally narrowed it down to three: the Mancini 538 Evo, the Bovos XBC Veloce Spider, and the Montiel Satra. As the highest-placed cars in each of their respective groups of 8 entries, they would face each other in the final stage of judging.

Above: The top three cars from left to right - the Bovos XBC Veloce Spider (orange), Mancini 538 Evo (cream), and Montiel Satra (purple) - emerged as the best entries in each group by fulfilling the brief better than their competitors. But which of those three would take the crown?

The Bovos claimed the bronze medal, being a strong contender in isolation but lacking the visceral appeal of the Mancini and the everyday usability of the Montiel. The Montiel, with the lowest base price among the top 3 cars, made a very strong case for itself, but with the heart ruling the head (rather than vice versa), I put the Mancini on the top step by a whisker. Even if the Montiel had a lot more quality and/or advanced technology invested into it (with a commensurate increase in price), it still wouldn't have finished first overall.

Above: A different spec of the winning car (the Mancini 538 Evo), with a blue exterior in place of the cream one the original entry had.

In the aftermath of the round's conclusion, I made (and shared) an Excel spreadsheet file (compressed to meet Discourse file size requirements) containing all the cars' vital stats. By that time, however, I'd already fulfilled my most important New Year's resolution for 2026: to show the Automation community that I could still host a Discourse challenge, and handle it better than I had ever done before. In short, this challenge was as enjoyable as I had hoped it to be - considering the next QFC didn't even have a third of the number of entries this one had (and the QFC after that one had exactly half as many as the one that's the topic of this post), that's saying something.