automationgame.com

28th of June 1986

The statesmen were pleased by the Top 10 results of the last Race, they were amazed how much performance the manufactors got out of their tight budget. But they want to gather more about the real track performance and planned to head to a world famous race track in germany - more precisely the Nordschleife. That also was quite a challenge for the cars, as they had to drive about 3000km, pass 3 borders and get heavily checked on the Inner German border in Eisenach. Also the convoy started to split up after the 2nd fuel stop in 3 different groups as some drivers were too annoyed about the often re-fuel stops on the journey. The Sabre GT, Austin and Polmot grouped up while the ZSD was the lone wolf far behind.

Yes the ZSD... the statemen were pleased by the trackperformance, and one decided to join the driver of the ZSD on the journey to the Nordschleife. The poor guy had to put on ear protection and take some pillows from the hotel to have altest some comfort in that car. On the 2nd fuel stop, which was -thanks to the ZSD- just after 520km, the statemen decided to take a ride with the Prolewagon and changed to the Z220 while they were checked up in Eisenach.

Upon arriving in the nice village of Müllenbach , which is next to the Norschleife, the soviet politician stated, that both the Prolewagon and Z220 were pretty good cars, while the Z220 was more comfortable, it lacked the nice sound of the V6 engine, but also complained that Belford decided to put in this complex V6 inside of their car, he was a real fan of the small OHV Pushrod, as he is able to fix it with almost any tool he has in his tool bag. Which only contains hammers, one spanner and a single screwdriver.
But he noticed that 3 cars were still missing... the FIL Perestroika, ZSD Vroom and Strom Travill. They decided to postpone the race 2 days after their arrival, IF they ever arrive. And they did arrive, in the middle of the night and woke up everyone. As all 3 of them were on a truck-trailer as they broke down on the Journey or ran out of fuel... The statemen were really angry at the driver of the ZSD, as he apparently forgot to stop for fuel and not using his brain. Also they were not pleased that he Perestroika and Travill were delayed by a small mechanical problem, because that leads to bad reputation of reliable and good soviet products.

On the following morning they decided to repair the cars and top-up the fuel on everyone car and make a footwalk around the track.
And today is the race-day... after a in total 7 day journey, which consisted 2 days of driving and 5 days or preparing and waiting they finally can race again.

Here they are - the results!



Standings after R2:

I know you're all laughing about the tracktimes of my car but I will show you!

"Apparently mud all over the intercooler is not good for the engine's performance. That, and the lifter slap in the engine, it's fine if you don't redline it too much. She's not built entirely for the track, and the automatic likes to prove that, but she'll go just the same." he said, making light of the fact that his car had broken down on the trip there.

After Nordschleife, however, the automatic quickly became the reason for many curses flung about inside the cab of the Travill. "Don't downshift at the redline, you stupid transmission! That's not good!" He was quickly growing tired of seeing the tach pointing in the red, knowing that was what caused the ticky-lifters and was likely to cause more problems. However, he had to admit, the 30 miles per gallon seemed to be holding up rather well, despite the transmission trying defiantly to trash the engine.

"Maybe the mechanical oil pump wasn't the best idea. Maybe I should have used fuel injection instead of the trusty four-barrel. Should I have used pushrods? Did I try too hard to make the car efficient and not enough of a race car. Or worse, what if I made it too much of a race car and I'm going to kill it when it comes time for the reviews. That'd be just like Storm Automotive, to try to build the perfect compromise and get the worst of both worlds." he grumbled to himself, masked by the noise in the cabin as he limped the car off of the track, making another note to clean the intercooler and the radiator before the next trip. Oh, and check the oil and coolant levels to make sure they're full this time. And it wouldn't hurt to fix that dodgy headlight, either.

(Yes, I do know nothing I do here can influence the events in the story, but it'd be something likely done by anyone who had a significant enough breakdown to need a tow truck.)

P10 baby, oooo yeah!!!

Not a bad result, for a 135hpish car that is clearly lacking in the speed department.

That being said, Leo's results are a bit funny. I'm fairly sure he should have 30 points and be 3rd in the standings!

You're right Strop. I've got a great song for this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpA6TCWApfk

Uppsala, Hoppla, Oops and many other oopses... excel forked something a bit up
I correct it.

Also:

The soviet engineers, that were driving there with the statemen, put the cars on some dynoes and scales and came up with the following results:

I think my car might have fudged up the averages here

MIGHT?!?! ROFLOL!!! I am surprised how well my car is doing, I didnt do ANY track testing on it.

Again, I feel the need to comment on the diversity of this challenge. It is a red line throughout all challenges.

Of course, in reality, there were indeed a few sporty cars made in the Soviet Union, but they never really made it out of prototype status.

I am really looking forward to the next races and to see where we all end up.

I think I already know where my PC86 ends up in every race!

AFAIK this isnt ALWAYS about racing.

Yeah, the racing is only a small part of this competition. The goals were practical, economical, THEN fast.

My car must be so bad if you can keep up with my 200HP xd

No, not really, it's just that whenever a race is involved, I automatically tune the suspension for maximum track speed, which, often, also happens to improve drivability. Also, my car is ridiculously light thanks to being FWD, and because most of the weight is over the front wheels, it has heaps of grip off the line, and actually gets from 0-100km/h in 7 seconds LOL. (Also the true figure, I just checked, is 143hp)