Survival of the fittest [FINISHED]

[HighOctaneLove]

The eco run was marked as Round 0, which suggests it was for shits and giggles rather than an actual part of the competition

The point of the round 0 was to get the people who did not pay any attention and give a serious thought to their build out of it, so I would not have to process 20+ cars in round 1 manually doing a maths exam for a few hours, and only work with cars that have been built to spec. Note how 2 cars actually ran EXACT length of the round 0 on full tank. That is calculation, that shows that they did pay attention, and if you look closer to the results - people who thought more about it and actually played their strategy card well went straight into the final. Everybody who didn't, including me - did not. Everybody who did not care enough to do simple math got left on the hard shoulder.

it is insulting to suggest that I slapped together a shit-box and said "Fuck it, it'll do"

Get a stopwatch out and a calculator.
1) Weight of your car * 0.05
2) Consumption at 120kph * 40
3) If the result of 1 is less than result of 2 then your car isn't going to finish the run.

Help me out here, what am I supposed to think if you did not do this yourself? That you gave your build enough thought? Here's an approach that worked out with best economy as described by Madrias :

with spit-ball math for my fuel economy and then hope for the best on the rest.

IT WORKED

And what am I supposed to think about your competition construction skills if YOU can't make a car that qualifies for your own competition?

You take a casual swipe at others professionalism yet you're phoning-in your effort with a non-starter...

That being said, your eco round did work well as a crowd thinning tool, so it definitely did it's job, however I will contend that if you want less entrants then make the rules more complex, rather than having arbitrary and crude host-generated hurdles that serve no purpose other than to exclude contestants.

[squidhead]

I think you'll find that my car made it through round 0. I am guessing it means it qualified.

[Vri404]

@HighOctaneLove: You have a point, but, I do not believe that this is worthy of an argument. I was "Removed" in stage 0, but do you see me complaining, or many of the other contestants? No. Quit your Bitching, and calm the farm.

@Squidhead: Loved the challenge, despite being dropped in Stage 0. Hope you run this again, and I can make a more Fuel Efficient Car.

[HighOctaneLove]

I think you'll find that my car made it through round 0. I am guessing it means I can make a car that qualifies

My bad, I thought you meant yours didn't get past Round 0 either so I formally retract and apologise for any offense caused.

[squidhead]

@Squidhead: Loved the challenge, despite being dropped in Stage 0. Hope you run this again, and I can make a more Fuel Efficient Car.

Yeah, you needed 15 miles per gallon... not gallons per mile
I'll run this again at some point, right now I just want to make some cars, since you really can't during a competition.

[HighOctaneLove]

@HighOctaneLove: You have a point, but, I do not believe that this is worthy of an argument. I was "Removed" in stage 0, but do you see me complaining, or many of the other contestants? No. Quit your Bitching, and calm the farm.

I'm not bitching... I thought Squidhead wanted feedback so I gave it. If everyone else provided feedback then maybe we all could benefit from better run competitions (and competitors, in my case). I am only annoyed at being casually backhanded with an incompetence charge when I try to offer help.

[Madrias]

If I may make an additional note here:

Look at the variety we had in the cars that made it into the challenge. We wouldn't have that variety if we had, say, a fixed 24 MPG requirement. (to pull a random number from my ass while avoiding doing any math or opening Automation. Excuse: I have a headache, and no, it's not from facepalming myself into oblivion.)

Instead, by making fuel tanks and an eco run, we had (to note the extremes)

Koolkei with his Kei car, the smallest car.
RaduST with the land boat, the biggest car.
AirJordan and Koolkei, who arrived on fumes.
Myself, who had way too much gas left in my tank.

Engines were probably extremely varied between all of us.

Now, if we were told to meet a specific MPG, L/100km, km/l, etc., would we see land boats, turbo-V8's, and sleek sportscars? Possibly, but we'd see a lot more tiny little things.

Personally, I liked the very open rule set. I don't think I would have joined if it had a mile long list of restrictions (in fact, I know I wouldn't have. I looked at this one four times before I realized that the 'rules' were very simple, and the 'suggestions' were more 'calculations' for success.)

For a future run, I'll definitely keep in mind that I need to pay attention to my tracks a little more. Don't do a pure off-road dirt-eating-car unless there's so much dirt in the first half that I can win through sheer durability, and even then, keep it street friendly so I stand half a chance on a paved circuit. I'm not entirely sure the Envy will return (I think it did well enough, but the solid rear axle kinda killed it), but I'm sure I'll come up with something, and I'll make sure to switch my units for easier fuel calculations in the future.

[koolkei]

well this ended on quite a bitter end.

"Excuse: I have a headache, and no, it's not from facepalming myself into oblivion."
LIES

reliability part really gave me the scare there.
so much so, that i just decided to overpower the reliability rating, which ended up backfiring.

also airjordan ran out of fuel at the start line, my car probably still have like 120meters of range left. (40l out of a 40.005l fuel tank, 5ml left on the fuel lines, not the tank.)

anyway, thanks for squidwa.... squidhead for hosting this competition and congrats to airjordan.

[cpufreak101]

yeah, for stage 0, i have mixed feelings on it, because it does mean you can be immediately knocked out if your car has not enough weight or not enough efficiency or both (i lost out because the economy was there, the tank was just really tiny from my car being so lightweight, but then again it's what i get for using the communitasia as my base.
as for the good, i do like seeing it involving a minimum of fuel efficiency to even be allowed to enter the event, because fuel ain't infinite and nobody wanna pay for your 2MPG car for a week of hard racing

[Madrias]

The way I saw Stage 0 is that it was no worse than being told, "Hey, your car gets 7.4 MPG, the minimum was 7.5 MPG, you're not in it."

Plus, look at the work that had to be done on Squidhead's end of things. That's a lot of math. I don't blame anyone wanting to knock out the less serious competitors who weren't willing to do a little math of their own. Granted, it eliminated a lot of small cars, but it also eliminated the impractical ones.

As you said, fuel isn't infinite, and no one wants to pay for the 20 GPM car when everyone else is managing at least 17 MPG.

[TR8R]

well this ended on quite a bitter end.

"Excuse: I have a headache, and no, it's not from facepalming myself into oblivion."
LIES

reliability part really gave me the scare there.
so much so, that i just decided to overpower the reliability rating, which ended up backfiring.

also airjordan ran out of fuel at the start line, my car probably still have like 120meters of range left. (40l out of a 40.005l fuel tank, 5ml left on the fuel lines, not the tank.)

anyway, thanks for squidwa.... squidhead for hosting this competition and congrats to airjordan.

Dang, I congratualted AirJordan but didn't thank Squidhead for running this!

Thanks bud, it was a lot of fun.......




.......and another lesson in reading (and understanding) the rules fully!