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Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (Lilith prototype)

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Post Fri Dec 04, 2015 12:56 pm

NEW EVERYTHING!

The V12s and balance changes are here! The good news is that BROBOT in de-randomised form is also here, which means much more realistic times on all the tracks, which is like my Christmas come early as far as Automation is concerned (I can't thank Der Bayer enough for the work he has done on that, plus all the people who helped him organise and run the various challenges that refined the process).

As I mentioned previously, this does mean a big shakeup of the GG lineup, plus a revamped history to more realistically reflect the development cycle of even a manic company like GG. I'll be taking this opportunity to highlight how the cars already here will change, which ones can be rebuilt already, and which ones will need to wait for further game development. I'll also provide a bit of information on what will come in the future.

In a non-exhaustive, bare-bones chronology (prone to revision with ongoing changes to the spreadsheet calendar which Cen and I are developing):

Note that while some real-life companies and potentially real-life people will be referenced in this fiction, and this universe makes reference to real-life occurrences, unless otherwise specifically stated, fictional characters and companies do not in any way shape or form purport to have any likeness or event relating to these real companies or people

2011- Wretched Beginnings
  • A senior engineer (Hannah) from a major local Australian manufacturer (Holden) is made redundant after ongoing disputes with management. She impulsively decides to open a tuner shop with the promise to make all things wild. Her husband (Boden), resigns from his engineering role at a prominent Italian (German-owned) supercar manufacturer and flies across the world to support her. Mutual friend, burnt-out corporate lawyer and property magnate (Dan) provides the initial capital by sourcing them a garage. By the end of that year, a small group of about a half dozen have a cozy operation restoring and retuning cars (mainly GM/Holdens)... but it is a far cry from their original dreams of 'all things wild'.
2012- Enter Chaos
  • A disgruntled doctor (Strop), suspended from his posting in a non-patient-care related work incident, joins the group as a graphic designer. With virtually zero engineering background and knowledge, he immediately starts stirring the pot with wildly outlandish ideas and constant homages to the most superlative of performance vehicles. While he butts heads with Hannah, his ideas resonate, Dan encourages them to take up a big gamble, pursue their dreams and try to make an Australian supercar manufacturer that will actually survive, and commits the majority of her property portfolio as collateral. Gryphon Gear proper is born.
  • Nightfury, their first car, is born from the rebuilt body of an old rat racer, an expensive small volume order from a German engine manufacturer, and a lot of stolen intellectual property. It is disturbingly fast and makes waves on social media. It also causes an incident that leads to Strop impulsively hiring a troubled rookie racing driver (Kai) who suffered a clash of personalities in his first major professional racing gig and found himself suddenly jobless and stranded. Much to everybody's confusion and horror, racing division Team Ninja Horse is proposed and formed before the company is ready.
  • Many shenanigans follow. Some companies agree to sponsor TNH and some other outfits, intrigued by the Nightfury's growing performance credentials, start looking to GG for sponsorship. But as the company struggles to garner interest in their street-legal conversion of the Nightfury prototype, this is barely enough to keep them from imploding in a puddle of red ink. It doesn't help when Kai spectacularly crashes Nightfury at a local meet and ends up, after a very tense in-company standoff, 'on probation'.
2013- Do or Die
  • After the initial success of Nightfury, Strop naturally wanted to 'slap a turbo on it' to see what it could really do, and used its rebuilding as an excuse to do exactly that. With revamped (borrowed from a decommissioned F1 car) aero, it subsequently broke a number of time trial records. This was part of a plan for GG to move towards its trademark specialty: overboosted turbos, as epitomised by none other than-
  • Mephisto. That firebreathing >400km/h somehow-road-legal but never actually useable as a daily driver icon, and the anthem of GG's brute force approach to everything. Priced like a hypercar except even more potent, this was GG's first commercially successful car, coveted by the obscenely rich with a taste for exotica, numbed to everything except the constant threat of death. But being built mostly by hand, the company could only support a staff base enough to build 25 units a year, as part of their bid to be recognised as an OEM for automobiles to further their racing ambitions.
  • The pressure was on for the race team (particularly its driver), and happily they delivered. TNH teamed up with Smolensk, DQE (soon to become AMW) and Strkyer to form a supergroup, developing a set of rally cars that took the Bavarian Rally by storm. Teaming up with sportscar manufacturer Dragotec, they contributed to a clean sweep of their respective classes at a 24h Le Mans event. From their own individual efforts, they managed second place overall in an international touring car series. The clientele of their tuning house took a turn for the upmarket, and with a decently improved inflow of cash and capital, things were looking much healthier for GG's bottom line, though their situation was still delicate and kept in the balance somewhat by Dan's collateral... and the investments of several of her connections and partners who made up the Board of Executives.
2014- Halcyon Days
  • As the automotive manufacturing industry sputters and gasps its last in Australia, GG continues its plans for world domi- I mean, expansion, looking to consolidate its position as a valuable community hub, both internationally as a racing shop and outfit, and locally, as an employer increasingly surrounded by town development. As such there were no new cars released, and much of the main company's efforts focused on building and updating their facilities. A separate warehouse was built for the purpose of production, the operations headed by Japanese auto-nerds (and coincidental twins) Luca and Isla.
  • In the meantime, Strop was transitioning from impromptu Team Principal of TNH (he was never really team principal material anyway, it was mainly because it was his idea and nobody else wanted to do it) to integrating the small but growing network of engineering and design expertise for their next major development projects: conquering hypercars on every given drivetrain and format: FR, MR, M-AWD and possibly even FF if they could manage it. This involved a lot of liaising with a couple of the more, er, interesting characters of the core group of GG, including the IT guru, shady hacktivist and inexplicable fan of Ponies (Waxwell - a.k.a the guy who did all of their illegal industrial espionage), the master electrician, a surly, ultra hipster snob (Noah), and the materials expert, an over-qualified, esoteric lives-in-the-basement neurotic terrified of the fact he has three degrees in the same thing and is still half a half-assed idea away from Centrelink benefits (Hunter)
  • The first fruit of these labours is the prototypical and controversially styled Sleipnir (no presentation available), the MR hypercar all about delivering tight track performance
  • Meanwhile, Kai finds his stride racing in GT and Touring Cars, in the Japanese Super GT and as a reserve driver to Australia's own V8 Supercars (incidentally his first job from which he was unceremoniously dumped in 2011)
  • Also, GG attempt to host a gumball rally for the lulz. Rumour has it that it turned into something much bigger and badder than that. Also, Kai's former teammate, perennial playboy and layabout dork Sam Neil, invited himself along and crashed their very expensive MR prototype Sleipnir, but somehow manages to get himself hired to be the TNH race team consultant the following year (after discovering that he had, in fact, fractured his spine while wrecking Sleipnir, and thus permanently lost his seat in V8 Supercars). This triggers flares of several cases of PTSD due to the disturbing parallels to 2012.
2015- Necessity is the Mother of All Evolution
  • The year started with so much promise (well actually it was kind of like a phoenix, rising from the ashes of yesteryear). Out of the PR disaster that was GG's rumoured afiiliation with 'terrorist organisations' (an unpleasant side-effect of the BSLL becoming the Most Wanted League), other riskier, like-minded companies approached and replaced the previous companies as sponsors and benefactors.
  • Giddy on rarefied fortunes, GG went on to debut a car they had been working on triple-time, the long-awaited substance to Strop's infamous boast in 2013 that he would beat Hennessey to not just the 300mph mile, but also the 500km/h mark while not going bankrupt. The version of Mercury, that made waves at Geneva was a mule, but also the first ever car that boasted not just a 1 hp:kg ratio, but DOUBLE that, and somehow still made it around corners. But that was the incomplete version with a fixed wing. The production version of Mercury was a car on the level of superlative exclusivity, like a McLaren F1 GTR, Lamborghini Veneno, Koeniggsegg CCX-R Trevita or Agera One:1. More than that, it was seen by many as the ultimate petrol hypercar ever, bridging both the worlds of ludicrous speed and track performance. It was immediately met with clamouring to ban it from every public road, to be barred from racing in any ratified codes, and naturally, pre-orders flooded in to the point the pre-orders were attempting to outbid each other for the bare two dozen to be built.
  • On top of this, in a shock-and-awe tactic of sheer bravado, the design team worked quadruple time to announce yet another prospective lineup, this time, the FR hypercar, Daeva. After this, Strop was forced to go on a holiday as he had become extremely difficult to work with.
  • But then reality set in. The costs and demands on the Mephisto Maintenance and Repair unit skyrocketed out of proportion. Australia's financial outlook as a whole crashed and burned into a pile of smouldering ashes atop the ruins of the mismanaged mining boom. Suddenly, high risk automotive investments weren't sexy anymore. And with the already unavoidable and imminent doom of Australia's auto manufacturing sector closer than ever, GG had to urgently look for ways to stabilise their assets and secure their output, or, more crucially, become more cost effective. This would require frantic soul-searching over how GG could stay true to their ideal of ultimate performance while delivering more for less instead of more for... more. The most bitter pill to swallow was the reality that they could no longer afford to occupy the ivory tower of impossible cars and expect to remain alive until they had more clearly established themselves.
  • Thanks largely to the entrepreneurial work of Dan, a multi-stage plan was enacted. Salvation came in the form of the unexpected partnership with European car giant Znopresk, famous mainly for its efficient, cost-effective eco-boxes and family cars, but looking to impress with their homegrown supercar on a budget, the Zeus. In a flurry of frantic redevelopment, a Zeus GG Tune was well-received and went on to make not only production, but GG was commissioned also to make a limited edition, with an engine supplied from Znopresk subsidiary, BMMA, to run in a Znopresk-supported factory team in the upcoming AMWEC. The payout from the sales of the Zeus alone went on to cover the engineering costs for 2016 and then some, a company-saving achievement given their other measures taken to limit tooling costs as a result of the Zeus phase.
  • Following this, GG also entered a limited run partnership to tune an edgier supercar, the Rennen Kusanagi (pictured in the teaser above. With carbon fiber panels and a M-AWD layout compared to Znopresk's polymer and MR, this car would introduce a new kind of philosophy and performance focus to GG, adding a layer of subtlety and challenging them to find the maximum out of tighter restrictions. The result was a car that would excel on the tight and technical, a car more enjoyable to drive on public roads, heralding the possibility for GG to develop cars that were more accessible, while surpassing the performance of even a hypercar on tight, technical tracks.
  • As gruelling as the development work was, so too were the race commitments, with Kai signed up for multiple exhibition appearances as well as a full season seat in WEC, in the GTPro class, on top of his already doubled testing schedule. This year was particularly unkind to him, and went largely unnoticed for most of the year due to his unique position of reporting to multiple departments. This, plus a general sense of fatigue among the staff, eventuated in a company wide review of workplace practices and workflow at the conclusion of the year.
2016- What Next?
  • Now that TNH will be joining Znopresk for the forseeable future (though details on who reports to whom etc. are still to be clarified), they have the best opportunity yet to develop their skills as a racing team and work with extensive factory support. Their main involvement will be, as mentioned, racing the Zeus in GT/WEC type races (for the purposes of this fiction, I've therefore prospectively earmarked Sillyworld's AMWEC as taking place across a whole season in 2016 as it seemed more realistic from a world-consistency perspective). This will also mean much less in the way of single and reserve driver type commitments, considerably freeing up Kai's calendar but with prospects of greater earnings and reputation in higher stakes challenges.
  • Mephisto's production run has, for now, drawn to a close, and that production line has switched predominantly to honouring the pre-orders of Mercury.
  • Rumour has it that major supplements and energy drink company, Scarlet Ox (lol, geddit?) approached GG last year with a view to organising an official exhibition gumball rally in 2015, but the plans were scuppered in the face of increasing financial instability. But in 2016, might we see... a return of the BSLL???
  • The development unit must make a decision- they have two prospects, with the potential for a rich legacy, but it is difficult to decide which one to choose... (more on this below)

How Will the Cars Change?

Nightfury
  • Remains an F-AWD NA
  • Will still have fixed aero at high downforce configuration
  • But instead gets a Lamborghini inspired but absolutely giant V12
Mephisto
  • Will also remain a F-AWD forced induction
  • But will, when the game engine allows, have an ultra-elongated engine bay in which I hope to fit a V16
  • Will still require a top speed of at least 400km/h, if not 438km/h
  • And will still need to lap Green Hell in under 7 minutes
  • Will probably still come with semi-slicks approximating the performance of Trofeo Rs, due to POWAAAAAAA
Mercury
  • Will remain MR
  • Depending on how the engine bay pans out, should have either a multi-turbo V10 or a V12 (if the V12 block from Nightfury fits)
  • Will still have a goal top speed of 500km/h
  • Though will also have a hard limit on fuel economy capped at about 26l/100km
  • Will also need to lap Green Hell in under 7 minutes
Daeva
  • It is uncertain whether this car will actually make production
  • If so, these cars are likely to ship with sports compound tyres (again, P-Zero sizes)
  • These will be the first GG cars to actually feature any kind of radio
  • The Aesma version will keep its i6 turbo, but hopefully the turbo will feature variable geometry
  • The Indra version will have block from the Mercury, except naturally aspirated
  • This will still aim to be the first FR hypercar that laps Green Hell in <7 minutes

So what were the possible 2016 cars?

Orphiel

Ascension - Orphiel-4.png
Ascension - Orphiel-4.png (404.87 KiB) Viewed 10395 times

  • Mephisto's little cousin (the "redeeming" side of Mephisto)
  • F-AWD, every bit the spiritual successor
  • May get a bi-turbo V8, but may need something with more cylinders than that. Maybe a detuned version of the V10 from Mercury
  • Will have a 1:1 power to weight ratio
  • Will have a radio (but pretty basic)
  • Actually runs sports tyres (again, P-Zero level) in similar dimensions (i.e. max width 345 rears)
  • Still needs to get around Green Hell in under 7 minutes, and generally it does not need to be said that it will still be batshit fast
  • But needs better fuel economy than the Mephisto, however
  • Will have an Automation MRSP of about 250000

Salamander

Salamander test 2 - Car Trim 1-2.png
Salamander test 2 - Car Trim 1-2.png (276.05 KiB) Viewed 10395 times

Mule model only, design as yet incomplete

  • GG's first M-AWD car, cunningly adapted from work done on the Kusanagi
  • Many firsts for GG, this is also the first engine not to be sourced from a certain magnesium specialist, as it's AlSi. In fact, it's the Australian produced Holden 3.6L block, with DOHC 4 valve VVL/VVT technology, except reforged, blueprinted, port and polish, rebalanced etc. to GG standards, to pay homage to the Australian manufacturing last hurrah (and they're honestly not bad improvements, but unfortunately too little, far too late). This v6, however, has some Borgwarner-sized turbos strapped to it, and will develop 800bhp while maintaining excellent reliability (like, 77)
  • This will therefore be the first GG car to not have >1000hp or a hp:kg ratio (thus making it ineligible for BSLL style contests)
  • The engine will be mounted transversely, which lowers engineering and service costs
  • As usual for GG's more accessible rides, P-Zeros
  • Has SIX SPEAKER radio, handsfree connectivity and standard trimmings :shock:
  • 0-100 in 2.4s onto a top speed of >350km/h. Think Aventador SV minus the Lambo obesity
  • Still gets around Green Hell in under 7 minutes (and Airfield in 1:08!!!)
  • Has a mixed fuel economy of 11.6L/100km (i.e. better than the hybrid hypercars, and less than half the fuel an Aventador SV consumes, and the best a GG car has ever done by a very long margin!!!!!!!!!)
  • Considerably cheaper at MRSP 165000 Automation units, but also generally weaker as a hypercar due to lower prestige (except still CF because like hell does GG spend all that time setting up a premium CF pipeline then stop using it, geez)
So, what do you think? If you had to choose: Orphiel, or Salamander? Is Orphiel still too old-school and more of the same, or is Salamander... not GG enough?
Last edited by strop on Wed Dec 09, 2015 11:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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JasonPoland

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Post Mon Dec 07, 2015 7:25 pm

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

:shock: Sweet mother of Henry Ford, what is this thingus on the back of Orphiel, my windowshill or what? My vote is on Salamander (unless you'll change this panelling thingus on Orphiel)
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TheTom

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Post Tue Dec 08, 2015 4:02 am

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

my vote in on the Salamander, but it still needs headlights. Of course, if you need help with those, PM me ;)
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strop

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Post Tue Dec 08, 2015 4:37 am

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

@JasonPoland: what is it about the rear that you dislike in particular?

@Tom: I may do this, when I even start thinking about the headlights! (And tail lights). I've put it on the backburner for the time being since it's a car for next year and there are other things going on currently.
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nialloftara

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Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 4:31 am

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

I think someone is being inspired by your Mephisto in real life... http://jalopnik.com/the-devel-sixteens- ... 9588903691
Chief designer and CEO, Centauri motor works, Centauri Performance Vehicles (CPV)
"Centauri: The Stars Are Within Your Reach."
Centauri engines Centauri cars
CPV engines CPV cars
Company ID: 1943047
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strop

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Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 12:00 pm

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

looooool oh god yes. While the Jalopniks seem to hate on it quite a lot, and I do agree that it's completely daft, I really want to find out what the heck that thing would be able to do when it comes out.
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squidhead

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Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 12:14 pm

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

I came here for the company story.
I wasn't disappointed
I want another Barely Street Legal League to take place
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strop

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Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 12:58 pm

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

I can tell you now that I tentatively plan for another BSLL to take place in the latter half of 2016. The reasons for this are two-fold:

1) Almost all the core content in game with finalised balance changes should have taken place by this point, though the exact timing of a stable build remains to be seen

2) I have some major hurdle exams to sit, first in February, then in July/August if I pass the ones in Feb. My career advancement cannot continue until I pass these exams, they're expensive, and failing drastically reduces my chances of staying employed, so I really need to pass!!! First BSLL took 3 months and several all-nighters, I obviously can't do that and study at the same time.
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Post Wed Dec 09, 2015 11:14 pm

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

Personally, I like the Orphiel a lot more. But... I've never really been a big fan of mid-engine cars to start with. To me, they're oddly-proportioned ugly things.

Not really a fan of the double-stack wing on the Orphiel, though. One or the other would be good, but not both.

As for the BSLL, well, I look forward to it. It may be a way off, but I can wait for it. The way I see it, what little of the first BSLL leaked into public knowledge was enough to start my character's descent into crazy cars, and drastic actions to be able to drive them, so participation in BSLL 2 is something he wouldn't miss, not for all the precious metal in the world. As for me, well, it caused me to start pushing performance limits, seeing what I could do, and made me develop several prototypes, refine my ability to tune without quality slider abuse (too much, at least), and design some fast cars, instead of mundane and boring sedans.

Though I do admit, I admire the well defined story so far. Every car has a story behind it, and even being out of date by a few versions, they still pack a lot of inspiration for insanity.
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Post Fri Apr 01, 2016 12:04 am

Thoughts on Model Lineups

Been a while since I updated this thread, as usual. Due to the change in focus of the development process, I've hit a bit of a wall when it comes to the design and rebuilding of my cars, as mentioned earlier. I've also had a massive slump in motivation in the last few months due to real life stuff and work etc.

On the plus side I have a few things coming up: an announcement, a story, and some new designs. Before that, I'll explain what GG is going to be up to in 2016:

  • GG has hit its stride in the professional racing scene, partnering with giants Znopresk with great success in the touring car/endurance scene. The money, sponsorships and positive publicity are all very welcome.
  • We'll also be bolstering our company profile, staff roster and development program quite significantly thanks to a surprise merger. More on the details in a separate post, and more on why this is so significant later on in this post.
  • At the end of last year and the start of this year, the seeds were sown for the GG design to be taken in new directions, namely, building cars for the real world, for real world markets. Accessibility was a word previously scorned by GG, but the reality of their clientele and the costs incurred by building the most superlative of machines, as well as the reliability issues and maintenance almost killed the company. At the same time, it is very important that GG doesn't abandon its vision, which is superior performance by all means.
  • Therefore with the expansion of the company plus our heightened profile at higher tiers of motorsport competition, we plan to use our newly increased leverage to further rebuild a manufacturing network and push research in environmentally friendly and emissions reducing technologies, a plan that was heralded by our 2020 design concept, Kelpie

Kelpie's an important milestone of sorts. It's our way of declaring that hypercar performance from an ICE is entirely possible on 40mpg and better. It means that we have to make some changes to our focus in the way we engineer things, as well as encourage larger development programs to push in this direction. Our main contribution to improving mileage is in furthering research on mass production of magnesium blocks, as well as continuing to collate ongoing research into automotive aerodynamics and manifest them in our evolving models.

If Kelpie is the milestone, we have a number of steps to get there first. It's thus been decided that Salamander will be the first step along this path, as something more liveable, cheaper, more reliable, less thirsty, but delivering hypercar performance. Of course, we borrowed the engineering of the powerplant from Holden/GM, as we aren't accustomed to working with 4 valve systems, but we'll be working from there. And with 800hp powering 1234kg and only achieving 20mpg, we do have a ways to go yet. As to how Salamander is received, we have a couple of reviewers testing the car as I write this, and I guess we shall find out what they say soon. Nonetheless, the die is cast and our path set, so we'll be looking mainly to continue to improve, provided we capture enough interest to see the 400 or so examples we plan to build. A proper reveal will follow post the release of the first review.

After this, our major hopes rest on ongoing racing and sales success plus relative reduced costs of maintenance from the newer models (out of the 80 or so Mephistos and 25 Mercuries we've sold since 2013, a quarter of them have been totalled beyond repair and a third of them have required extensive rebuilding). Should we have enough cash flow for opening up production further, we plan to increase the range and diversity of the lines that we build. In 2012, we were building prototypes and tuning individual cars. In 2013, we were able to open a single pilot, low volume production line. This was improved upon in 2014 and in 2015 we split the one factory into two lines. For 2016 and beyond, we plan to run three lines after a small second factory is built. Supposing this starts well, we may even be able to refurbish our original main office in 2017-2018. But that's slightly speculation at the moment.

How is this going to work? As you now see, the cars GG builds are all hypercars, but even within this class of car there are tiers of "GG-ness":

  • Nightfury, Mephisto and Mercury are all gas-guzzling, tarmac incinerating, eardrum shattering over-powered, testosterone-fuelled God tier "fuck you" machines designed to break the limits of human driving and test the limits of speed. They often utilised the latest and greatest in experimental racing technology and were also accessible only to people who did not know the word 'budget'.
  • The revealed but not yet released to public Daeva was designed to a budget, to slay the memory of the Lexus LFA by being a 1000+ bhp FR and yet somehow also being drivable. The technologies it employed were considerable in order to achieve its aims, but not quite as maximal as the first tier, for the purpose of replication of parts. One might even call this tier "the real world hypercar" tier, as it was designed to compete against the hypercar trio and the models from other companies that would challenge them. Had Sleipnir been built past prototype phase, it would likely have become the template for cars of this tier, but that was delayed by the prototype getting trashed when the BSLL got out of hand. At any rate, better late than never, this tier is being reestablished.
  • The new tier of cars is the tier that's working towards achieving the vision of Kelpie: the eco-hypercar. Think of these cars as being almost as habitable as your daily eco-car runabout in terms of comfort and fuel consumption, not to mention vastly superior emissions ratings, but will also somehow smoke the hell out of any car up to and including a hypercar like the Aventador SV. Salamander is the start of this tier, though hardly its best representative.
  • As our prototype garages are in good order, we'll also still have plenty of fun one-off "what the hell were you smoking" builds, including, for example, a real FWD hyper hatch.

The current question I'm grappling with is a new design study. Keeping in the theme of "reptilian myths and sea monsters", somewhere in between Salamander and Kelpie comes Ouroboros:

Image
Image
Image
Image

As you can see, I've used vmo's new Huracan side intake in weird and unexpected places, and combined other fixtures (corvette6317's circular window, necron's Megane lip) also in somewhat unexpected ways. I'm not sure the design is coherent (I'm quite sure it is not, actually), so things will probably change.

My current question: should I make this a tier eco-hypercar, or a tier regular GG-style hypercar? (GG style means 1hp:kg, of course). I've already decided that M-AWD isn't really worth it when it comes to combining performance and economy, plus the added weight, so it'll be MR. It's just a matter of deciding whether to use a 690hp powerplant in a 1130kg car with a fuel economy of 6.8L/100km, or whether to use a 1220hp powerplant in a 1220kg car with a fuel economy of 10.3L/100km. We're talking times of 6:59 versus 6:45 around Nordschleife, on sports tyres, as it is.
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Post Fri Apr 01, 2016 3:28 am

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

Image
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Post Fri Apr 01, 2016 3:33 am

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

That is so awesome. WAIT... I'm supposed to go against this in the hypercar battle?
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Post Fri Apr 01, 2016 3:40 am

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

squidhead wrote:That is so awesome. WAIT... I'm supposed to go against this in the hypercar battle?


The moment you realize, you have lost the competition before it even started.

I feel the same way. :P
"I don't care how fat I am, I am getting in that car and I am going to win" -Speedemon
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strop

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Post Fri Apr 01, 2016 4:20 am

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

Ehh, you may or may not be up against something that might look a little like this in the upcoming contest, but the next stable build is still quite a distance away and I definitely don't like some of the things in this design. But as I asked in my previous post, I'm still not sure whether this design lends itself to 'something eco but fast' or 'something plain fast'.

The other problem I have is now that we (beta testers) have been working with killrob (actually, I'm not doing very much except asking questions, killrob's doing most of the work) to iron out the drag issues, we've now noticed that not every mod body necessarily has an appropriate Cd. thecarlover mentioned very briefly when making their bodies that the Cd of each body ought to be calculated based not on the car's actual effective area but on the body without any vents or aerodynamically significant fixtures (since vents and wings etc. will add to your effective area significantly).

Having gone over some spreadsheets, and looking at the files, for example, I see that vmo's Huracan body.lua stipulates Cd = 0.24. I can't help but feel that this is a bit high. Consider that the MP4-12C body (which is vanilla), I think, has a body only Cd = 0.17. I'm of the humble opinion that at least the Huracan bodies should also have a similar value, if not even lower. This goes a long way to explaining why some of the awesome 1500-2200hp cars of late have somewhat disappointing top speeds.

The other part is that in the process of ironing out these calculations, we tested the cars running maybe 80-90% of their required ventilation, not 100%. The requirements go up very significantly with high boost (though this has been reduced slightly in the process of retweaking).
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Post Fri Apr 01, 2016 4:52 am

Re: Gryphon Gear: Rare Beasts of the Track (revamped story!)

Speedemon wrote:The moment you realize, you have lost the competition before it even started.


More like "Now where did I put them big boy pants"
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