The Farm Truck Challenge (Results, 3rd Place Announced)

[Madrias]

Sadly, not quite as good as your 16. 13.3 MPG. Still, I don't think it's too bad. I built the big engine with fuel efficiency in mind, but I knew I was never going to get great efficiency.

[koolkei]

you guys going full steel?

[Madrias]

AHS + Corrosion Resistant. All steel pickup truck, as it should be.

[Sillyworld]

Steel, iron and lots of chrome

[koolkei]

let's be honest. how often do you use more than 300hp continously? and you do realise that you're wasting fuel for every second that you're not using it, right?
it's 2011. it's time for change, it's time for efficiency, it's time for

Komodo Puller

Car -16.png (176.38 KiB) Viewed 4359 times

with a 4.5l liter making a reasonable 252HP, and a peak of 406Nm, but it never goes down below 330Nm no matter where in the rev range. giving all the power you'll ever need. all of those while achieving 31% efficiency, a leader in the class, and with the body weighing just a touch over 2t. overall, giving you 21.26 MPG on average.

and you'll never feel uncomfortable no matter how long you stay on the road again, with the help of the latest generation of adaptive cruise control with sensors all over the truck, giving you reassurance that nothing will go wrong.

and this is not all of the Standard features that you will get. there's more, like the 4x4 system, electronically controlled center differential, electronic power steering, ABS, electronic stability assist. go to the nearest Komodo Dealer to get a test drive for free, right now



oh.... i just noticed something.

Auto Opening Electronically Dontrolled Doors!! never need a handle again!

*to be real. Kli, would you mind just putting a random handle there? so i dont have to resubmit again. my bad

[strop]

LOL yeah not sure how the truck drivers would feel about their cars having 'Tesla' door handles

So it seems that the mileage has an inverse relationship to the power figures so far. There's koolkei with 80% the output I have but 130% the mileage (and only 85% the mass of mine), and then there's madrias who has something like 160% the output of mine, but about 80% the fuel economy of mine. That's actually not half bad. If anything by that measure alone, I'm the one losing out!

I debated between AHS and corrosion resistant, and went with the latter because cheaper to tool and the greater mass does help the utility stat.

[koolkei]

actually i could eek out a bit more. that 30.78% efficiency is on an oversquared engine. 91,7 bore x 85,3 stroke.

i might try to see what i could get, turning that stroke up a little.

also, are you even getting the nearly the same sales price as madrias? or way lower?



edit: nah, stroking up to 4.8l only got me up to 30.85% efficiency, but quite a bit heavier, thus lower mileage. but it does increase both drivability, and a lil of sportyness, but it also hurts the utility and offroad?? which i dont understand.

edit2: wow corrossion resistant steel is $210m cheaper to tool..... and brought my sales price down about $2k. but it does hurt a lot of things, even if it's only slightly. maybe AHS is more suited for non trucks??

[strop]

My sales price is something like 34.2k @ 5%, and that was with me feeling like I was already abusing the sliders. I wonder whether the weight distribution matters as well, because the truck is so heavy, I did make a questionable decision to use, gasp, aluminimum block and heads So I get a 54:46 FR distribution. Could be worse (and when you load it all the way up, well, things obviously would change.)

[TheTom]

If it's a questionable decision to use aluminium block and head, what about AlSi then? Anyway I'm not expecting too much of my entry but if it actually turns out to be competitive I'll be happy.

[Matti]

This is my first entry to a challenge.

The Schack Repreni




The mid european motoring company Schack S.a.r.l. unveils its new pick-up truck, designed for tough jobs for the American market. The young genereration designers and engineers decided to give established forms a fresh look. In front sits a completly straight six pot engine. Refined with clever european technology, its turbocharged 3.7 litre pack a whoping 250 horses at 5500 revs and 280+ ft-lb of torque at an astonishing 1650 rpm and all up to 4000 rpm to get every job done. Traffic light drag races against boys with their riced Civic Si's included. Power is sent to all 4 wheels via an limited slip diff. It's AHS Steel / Alu body contributes to a low weight and mind blowing 26.2 mpg. With an advanced cat the low emissions will keep even the Californians happy for decades. The price you may wonder? Manufacturing and assembling the vehicle in the USA allows a uncompromising price under 25k $.

[koolkei]

My sales price is something like 34.2k @ 5%, and that was with me feeling like I was already abusing the sliders. I wonder whether the weight distribution matters as well, because the truck is so heavy, I did make a questionable decision to use, gasp, aluminimum block and heads So I get a 54:46 FR distribution. Could be worse (and when you load it all the way up, well, things obviously would change.)

the price's surprisingly similiar to mine..... is this gonna be like that other challenge again? where i beat you only by 0.05 points?

i didn't even look at the weight dist. i think somewhere near 60:40 would be ideal for a truck.

also, for me, when you have opened up the option of AlSi blocks, alumunium are just not worth it anymore.
it's the same reliability as alu, only slightly more expensive, but even lighter, less friction = more efficient = lower running cost.

[strop]

I don't know whether the price differential changes per years, as I'm under the impression that newer technology starts out with a penalty then becomes more cost-effective as it becomes more established. I never paid any attention to the difference between AlSi and Alu in 2011 as opposed to 2015.

So I just tried it out and funnily enough, when the math is done, there seems to be almost no difference to all the stats! The car's slightly cheaper and a couple of the stats move up by 0.1, down by 0.1 or so. And I save 20 bucks a year.

Conclusion: I should have used a bigger engine that was AlSi, but the difference at this stage wasn't huge.

[koolkei]

and the advantage grows....

really, no reason not to.

but i stuck to iron blocks because it's cheap, relatively efficient, and it's still more reliable.

my engine got a reliability rating of 81.8

[strop]

That's pretty impressive, wait, you're not using a turbo, that's why. Whack a turbo on, get a big spike in torque, reliability drops to like 74ish.

[koolkei]

not really. if im using turbo for eco purposes, im sticking to below 7psi. maybe it'll drop to 78-79