How do I get started with Sports and other fast cars?

[BanDHMO]

My real-life knowledge of sporty cars is absolute zero, and even less so if we are talking 1900s. I'll take a high-clearance 4x4 truck over a Lamborgini any day. But since half of the game vehicles seem to be in some way "fast" types of cars, I'd better learn how to build them.

Obviously, my smooth luxury vehicles engine and gearbox will not do here, and the frame should be optimized to fit the new engine, so all three components need new designs. But I'm not sure what exactly I should be shooting for. I can certainly make a big, powerful and stupidly expensive engine, but cost has to be optimized too for commercial success.

Could anyone share a ballpark of what kind of numbers in engine/transmission/chassis I should be shooting for to make a half-decent design for late 1900s and into 1910s? What budget for each component, and what kind of hp/torque/chassis size would be reasonable?

I tried looking at competitor designs, but they are all over the map, first, and I can't see all the details of their components, second.

Thank you.

[Eric.B]

Model your vehicles after real life vehicles and you should find some success. Two good resources are Wikipedia and Carfolio[www.carfolio.com]

For early 1900s, the Blitzen Benz would be a good sports car to model your vehicle after. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzen_Benz https://www.carfolio.com/specifications/models/car/?car=93280 Although you'll want to use a smaller engine if you want it sell-able.

The golden rule of the old days, there is no replacement for displacement...

So grab your favorite race and look at the specs of the entries. 1911 Indy 500 for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1911_Indianapolis_500#Race_results is mostly I4 (some v6's) at around 4-9L. That'll at least give you some companies to look at in Carfolio, like Marmon: https://www.carfolio.com/specifications/models/car/?car=204721

As for the ratings in game, performance and power ratings are obviously the most important things for performance vehicles. Ratings wise, use the advance designer to see how important the various ratings are.

Also note, profitability and sports cars rarely go hand in hand. Just like luxury car manufacturers, nearly every one of them went out of business and were acquired by other companies.

[BanDHMO]

Thanks, Eric. That should give me a reference point. I was imagining, though, that production-line models would be quite different from what took part in races. Like you said, that 21.5-liter insanity would've bankrupted anybody in a second.

What I'm a bit unsure about is that it seems performance and power require a big expensive engine, so a high-rating sports car would be much more expensive than a high-rating luxury car. So if I want it to be profitable, it shouldn't be all that good. But how good is good enough? Not to win races, but to make money.

I can certainly experiment. That's part of the fun. But so far I ended up not producing anything in the performance-related categories because the stuff I tried to design ended up either something I'm not proud of or something that costs way too much.

[Eric.B]

The thing is with consumers is that there are many different demographics in each vehicle type. You could make a cheap sports car like a base model Ford Mustang or a Mitsubishi Starion all the way up to near super car performance vehicles like Dodge Vipers and Corvettes. They can be luxurious like Bentley or spartan like an Alfa 4C. So there really is no right or wrong.

Better rated vehicles sell better, but they're more expensive. The more expensive you make something, the fewer people that can buy it. That's why Ford has sold ~9 Million Mustangs over 60 years where as Bentley Continental GT's sales are in the tens of thousands after 15 years of production. Despite the Bentley being a better vehicle all around. (Technically it would be a Touring car in our game. But they would be classified as the same in an EU classification system. Example used mainly to point out extremes.) If the inital costs and the cost of ownership were the same, the Bentley would sell more than the Mustang because it's a better car.