So this might not be a real discussion thread but more "fan fiction" or "fan lore". We recently discussed in a discord what brands there are in LFS and what cars they produce. It was more an effort to sort them into categories rather then anything else.

So basically we have the following fictitious brands:

• FX - FXO Turbo & FXO GTR
  
• FZ - FZ 50 & FZ 50 GTR
  
• RB - RB4 GT
  
• LX - LX4 & LX6
  
• UF - UF 1000 & UF GTR
  
• XF - XF GTI & XF GTR
  
• XR - XR GT, XR GT Turbo, XR GTR & Formula XR
  
• ?? (unbranded) - Formula V8
  

What do you think? What kind of companies are those and what might be their history? Is there "official lore" i never came across?

I'm looking forward to your answers and hope for a good discussion.

Similar to beamNG, i love the idea, maybe add a fictional logo for each car? Official race skin (10 or 12 per cars)? Career mode like "BTCC"? Maybe an XF 1600 (like Peugeot 306 Maxi) and change some details for each version of cars?

[Each car company has its own intelligence. Consequently, cars are developed in a unique way. Each company develops a path to their own; you can't make up different companies from one single intelligence.

Companies such as Vauxhall, Peugeot, or Toyota originate from completely unique intelligences. Vauxhall is British; Peugeot is French and Toyota is Japanese. So in order to make up a story for LFS car companies, you will have to think like those people who live in France, or Italy or Japan, etc. with unique, authentic POV on life.

What makes a PC game great is authenticity. Either copy and remake the above-mentioned car companies (just like devs did with the cars in LFS) or create new authentic vehicles from your native intelligence.

There is japan cars in America for example, The mini for example is not created by one Company, but the "intention" (small car, easy to repair, van version,...) is the same from 1959 to 2001! look here, yes this is a mini ! https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocenti_Mini_Bertone

Old versions might be nice! Like an old "porsche" for FZ company?

Modified Citroen logo for XFG. Now the company name and a bit of history. Maybe each car company originates from an LFS track (South City, Kyoto, etc.).

I'm gonna go with a really boring answer and say the devs didn't think about that too much. All the fictitional cars following the same naming schemes doesn't give the impression of several distinct brands.

I don't know if the devs ever made their mind up about this for the future, but I like the path Rockstar have taken with GTA's cars. They started with simple names like Cheetah or Sabre and by the time they spawned the HD universe, starting with GTA IV, they had come up with entire brands structured around a few different models each.

----------------------
(GTA story time
A good example of how that changed things is the name Blista. In GTA III (2001) the Blista is a bubble-shaped, Chrysler Voyager type minivan. However in GTA Vice City (set in '86) there was the Blista Compact, which resembled a boxy Honda CRX. Obviously those are very different cars, but Rockstar just went with it and those cars wouldn't interfere with each other in their respective time periods.

Then came GTA IV with a complete overhaul for the entire franchise. For some reason they decided to bring first-gen CRXs into 2007 NYC, but Chrysler Voyagers as well. Also graphics had advanced to the point where it forced them to come up with badges and letterings for each car. So they thought about brands and re-structured things.

The Blista Compact now had a manufacturer, making it the Dinka Blista Compact. They also created the Dinka Hakumai (80s Honda Accord) and Dinka Perennial (Honda Oddysey). The car formerly known as the Blista was now revived as the Vapid Minivan. And by the time GTA V launched, wherein the Blista Compact still existed, they had also introduced the Dinka Blista which resembled a then-modern Honda Civic.
----------------------

The point is we can speculate about brands and stuff, but it's not going to be anything beyond fan fiction. As someone who enjoys realism and wants to see LFS evolve, I can't help but think about the grand scheme of things. So IMO pondering about brands and models would have to take into account where this game aims to go, content-wise. Currently cars of the same class belong to different eras (80s XR, 90s RB4, 00s FXO) and too many cars' names contain Xs. TBO class in action looks more like a public track day rather than legitimate racing. So at some point there needs to be modernisation and expansion. Maybe you could get away with the XF and XR being from the same brand (for example calling them the Xeres Flimso GTi and the Xeres Ryscan GT Turbo etc.) but there'd have to be sacrifices to keep things plausible (FXO).
Speaking of which, it's interesting how in S1 the FXO looked more like a BTCC contender, and for S2 they homogenised it with the other TBOs. In hindsight I would've preferred if they went the other way, gave it slicks and turned it into a proper touring car.

Generally this kind of stuff opens a can of worms, since a lack of design was carried through years and years of development in other aspects of the game. If and when the day comes and we finally get user-created, dev-approved content, I would really like to see that stuff being able to merge seemlessly into the existing "lore". But that would require some clarification from Eric and Scawen.

What bothers me the more, is to not know :
- what means the "O" in FXO
- what means the "50" in FZ50
...

Quote from NENE87 :

There is japan cars in America for example, The mini for example is not created by one Company, but the "intention" (small car, easy to repair, van version,...) is the same from 1959 to 2001! look here, yes this is a mini ! https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocenti_Mini_Bertone

Old versions might be nice! Like an old "porsche" for FZ company?

Mini as in originally created by austin in the UK, that company had been sold before the release of the first phase and was bought by the British Leyand Company which was a major uk car company in the day

I've whined about something like this before. Only I was thinking of different year models of the same cars. But if they did go that route of actually branding the cars, I'd imagine that there would have to be more car models. Cause what they have now is basically a line-up of a single brand. How many different Toyotas are there for 2021? BMW? GM? And out of those, how many models could/would be converted to racing? What? Maybe three or four? The more I think about it, maybe this sort of thing should be modded after the game is finished. Great. Another issue. We have the TBO's the LX4(?) and the road cars in different classes. shouldn't there be some sort of parameters established to keep modded cars in those classes? There are cars in real life that don't quite fit in any of those classes They are more like somewhere in between. But going back to branding the cars? Would the guys that made the FXO also make the RB4 and the econobox GT? Man, that's a lot of crap to think about.

Guess XR is a Japanese brand, though it seems kinda obvious

I wonder what the text at the bottom says.

Quote from fatalunfair :

Guess XR is a Japanese brand, though it seems kinda obvious

I wonder what the text at the bottom says.

This is what I got lol https://prnt.sc/wmnzr0

Quote from fatalunfair :

Guess XR is a Japanese brand, though it seems kinda obvious

I wonder what the text at the bottom says.

I'm willing to help a bit.


自動車に乘ること。競爭運転者。
"Riding in a car. Competitive driver."

TAKAI means"tall/high"高い.


*EDIT: had rethought during night.

Actually it looks weird. No idea what translation tool it used.
こと has some kind of admonish mood. 競爭運転者 is okay but not commonly used.


Japanese on Banner:
BTW as I'm a Chinese, if in Chinese it will look like this:
“坐进车，成为车手！”

*EDIT2: Seen new kotyo changed.

Quote from kagurazakayukari :

*snip*

Cool!

LFS Iceberg: How deep does it go?

Nice info kagurazakayukari
We know that Eric has to come back to Kyoto to fix some holes, but I guess you may have motivated him to fix the Japaneese texts, knowing is aim for perfection

Quote :

Formula V8
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

After the 2005 season, F1 was in a tough spot:
Costs were exploding and the cars kept getting uglier.
Every other season the rules regarding refueling and tires were changed, in attempt to bring back excitment into the racing.
However, deep inside some people know what the real problem was:
The cars had gotten too reliant on electronics. Also, the costs of developing and running a car were so high that basically money was deciding the races.
Finally several teams and a few rich fans had enough. They were fed up with Mr. Ecclestone.
So they bought some F3000 frames and several engines that were left over from the 2004 series.

Based on that they forged a new formular:
The series would feature a spec car that every team was to use.
It would feature minimal electronics, more robust aero parts to allow harder racing, and lower costs. This way drivers could afford to crash more without ruining their teams financial reserves. And crash they did. This was mostly due to the rich millionaires, youtubers, rockstars and actors who had helped to fund the series. Despite their lack of talent in the cockpit, they put a clause demanding that 25% of starting places would be reserved for them. The mix of top-notch drivers plus choatic wanna-be-racers in hardly controllable openwheel-cars quickly made the series a hit with spectators.
Most important the cars were powered by 3.0L V8 engines - given the series their name and trademark sound.

+1. Haven't thought about this before and now seeing it being suggested, I gotta admit, it would look really cool, the details are always important!

Quote from TFalke55 :

• FX - FXO Turbo & FXO GTR - Honda - Civic
  
• FZ - FZ 50 & FZ 50 GTR - Porsche - 911
  
• RB - RB4 GT - Toyota - Celic
  
• LX - LX4 & LX6 - Caterham - GT
  
• UF - UF 1000 & UF GTR - Mini - Mini
  
• XF - XF GTI & XF GTR - Citroen - ??
  
• XR - XR GT, XR GT Turbo, XR GTR & Formula XR - Mitsubishi - Starion
  
• ?? (unbranded) - Formula V8 - Dallara - Dallara V8
  

If I'm not mistaken

Quote from Gutholz :

didn't know that the FO8 is literally an F3000 car, it's uncanny

XF is VW Golf 3 to me, with the rear lights of a Citroen AX

Quote from THE WIZARD DK :

Formula V8 ideas :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Series_Formula_V8_3.5

Personally i think it would fit perfectly with :
"Formula Renault 3.5" as Renault is the one car brand that has been around forever but never really gets true attention. and it competes well with forexample BMW made cars which there is a few of in LFS.

The FO8 is probably the last car inside LFS to require a brand or backstory for immersion. And why are you talking about Renault? The topic is about ficticious manufacturers and the Lola F3000 chassis, of which the FO8 is very clearly a direct copy, does probably not use a single street legal part outside of nuts and bolts.

Oh and LFS does not contain "BMW made cars".

FXR GT looks like the fictional Mitsubishi EVO GT3 though...

Yes, but have you seen the astra (also the manual says it's similar to an astra)

Quote from KevinRacer :

Yes, but have you seen the astra (also the manual says it's similar to an astra)

Quote from KevinRacer :

Yes, but have you seen the astra (also the manual says it's similar to an astra)

Eh, yeah. That seems more on point actually