Friday, October 18, 2013

Omega 60 - Div60 Pickup (Retool)

As stated here, I wanted to update the cars from the AADA Car Guide vol. 3 (see first attempt here).  Even with my untrained eye, I knew the designs were problematic.  But that was just about the *ideas* behind the car.  Since then, I've read that every design is actually against the rules.  Here's another example:

Original (as Claimed in the Book):  Camper, X-Hvy. Ch., Heavy Sus., 450 cid IC (VP), 15-gal. Duelling tank, 6 Plasticore Tires, driver, MFR (B) 2 AP MRs (F) 4 FCD (2U.1R, 1L) 2TLs (1F, 1B), ramplate, Spoiler (no airdam), Safety seat, 3 Links (FCD R-FCD L. MFR-MRs. 2 U FCDs), HRTC. LGL (8 rockets), HD brakes, ABS. Overdrive, No-paint windshield, 5 Blow-through concealments (MRs. TLs. and MFR), 4 fake WG/WH, 169 pts FP plastic armor: F65 (Ram) R30 L30 B30 T6 U8; HC: 2 (3), Acc 20, Top 132.5, 7,797 lbs, $59,449 

Problems:  From a design perspective: A ramcar with HC 2?  Medium Rockets, in a pickup?  No wheelguards?? Why not put 1 TL in a zero space turret?  Who needs the BTC?  Top and U armor is laughable for div60.

But from a factual perspective, according to my calculations,  the car is 255 lbs overweight, does not have enough gas (it needs a 16 gal tank, which adds 16 lbs and 1 space).  It's total weight is 8055 lbs, $58,943.  It also has 1 space left (maybe for the tank?  I added it).  To make it legal without changing the whole essence, you'd need to take away 20 pts armor. That's leave: 7791 lbs, $57,808.  Put another way:
Camper, X-Hvy. Ch., Heavy Sus., 450 cid IC (VP), 16-gal. Duelling tank, 6 Plasticore Tires, driver, MFR (B) 2 AP MRs (F) 4 FCD (2U.1R, 1L) 2TLs (1F, 1B), ramplate, Spoiler (no airdam), Safety seat, 3 Links (FCD R-FCD L. MFR-MRs. 2 U FCDs), HRTC. LGL (8 rockets), HD brakes, ABS. Overdrive, No-paint windshield, 5 Blow-through concealments (MRs. TLs. and MFR), 4 fake WG/WH, 149 pts FP plastic armor: F65 (Ram) R25 L25 B20 T6 U8; HC: 2, Acc 20, Top 132.5, 7791 lbs, $57,808

And this is without redesigning this turkey.  Here's a set of attempted updates:

First Attempt:  Camper, X-Hvy. Ch., Heavy Sus., 300 cid IC (Blue/VP/Spr), 10-gal. Duelling tank, 6 Plasticore Tires, driver, MFR (B) 2 AP MRs (F) 4 FCD (2U.1R, 1L) 2TLs (1F, 1B), ramplate, Spoiler & Airdam, Safety seat, 3 Links (FCD R-FCD L. MFR-MRs. 2 U FCDs), HRTC. LGL (8 rockets), HD brakes, ABS. Overdrive, No-paint windshield, 5 Blow-through concealments (MRs. TLs. and MFR), 4 fake WG/WH, 9 pts LRFP Component Armor each around (a) driver, (b) engine (c) gas tank; 157 pts FP plastic armor: F45 (Ram) R30, L30. B30, T7, U15 HC: 2 (3), Acc 20, Top 112.5 (overdrive 132.5), 7,800 lbs, $61,623

  • First Attempt Notes: Originally, I changed the 2 TLs to 1 in a zero-space turret. Except that the original needed to have idiotic blow-thru-concealment! So what would be better: (1) a zero-space pop-up turret for 1 TL (my first fix) but this is 1 more space, 100 more pounds than just 2 TL!  (2) a zero-space turret with a fake turret on top.  But that is also an unnecssary 50 lbs! so (3) I just kept the 2 stupid lasers, and used the space I saved by shrinking the engine on a spliff-load of component armor.

Second Attempt: Pickup , Heavy. Ch., Heavy Sus., 300 cid IC (Tubes/Blue/VP), 10-gal. Duelling tank, 4 Plasticore Tires, driver, MFR (B) 2 AP MRs (F) 4 FCD (2U.1R, 1L) 2TLs (1F, 1B), ramplate, active suspension, Spoiler & Airdam, Safety seat, 3 Links (FCD R-FCD L. MFR-MRs. 2 U FCDs), HRTC. LGL (8 rockets), HD brakes, ABS. Overdrive, No-paint windshield, 5 Blow-through concealments (MRs. TLs. and MFR), 39 points FP WG/WH; 195 pts FP plastic armor: F65 (Ram) R35, L35, B35, T10, U15; HC: 3 (4), Acc 15, Top 105 (overdrive 125), 7,148.5 lbs, $59,530

  • Second Attempt Notes: After making the first version, I realized that after shrinking the engine to a manageable size, I had a lot of room left over.  While I love Component Armor, I thought if I reduced this to a regular pickup, there's be more regular armor.  When I did that, I needed to toss the supercharger, and then I had a HUGE amount of weight left over.  Even after raising the ramplate back to 65, and adding active suspension and full wheelguards, I  had so much weight left over that I didn't think I could make the div60 cutoff.  So I made the chassis Heavy - which not only changed the cost, but allowed me to drop 2 tires.

Third Attempt: Pickup , Extra Heavy Chassis, Heavy Sus., 300 cid IC (Tubes/Blue/VP), 10-gal. Duelling tank, 6 Steelbelted-Radial-FP Solid Tires, driver, MFR (B) 2 AP MRs (F) 4 FCD (2U.1R, 1L) 2TLs (1F, 1B), ramplate, active suspension, Spoiler & Airdam, Safety seat, 3 Links (FCD R-FCD L. MFR-MRs. 2 U FCDs), HRTC. LGL (8 rockets), HD brakes, ABS. Overdrive, No-paint windshield, 5 Blow-through concealments (MRs. TLs. and MFR), 38 points FP WG/WH; 111 pts composite Armor (36 LR Metal/75 reg Plastic armor): F13/10 (Ram) R8/13, L8/13, B7/13, T0/10, U0/16; HC: 4 (5), Acc. 15, Top 100 (overdrive 120), 7,799.5 lbs, $59,997.75

  • Third Attempt Notes:  Since I had so much weight left over in the second attempt, I decided to see what metal armor would allow with an extra-heavy chassis, especially if it allowed me to change tires to the best available. I dropped the plastic FP armor to save some money, especially as the tires were FP.

That's all I'm willing to polish this turkey.

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