1953 Burnside Special

also, i'm still not sure what's up with the burnside's 423. it shares all of its specs with the barstow's 423, but still uses the stock burnside mesh (though this can be put down to modelling effort, optimisation, etc.)
the really weird part is that it isn't called an "Ultra Thrust", like that of the bubu/barstow, rather, it's a "Megathrust".
the first ~427s in cars came out around 1962, so it's not going to be a factory engine option.

this naturally sugests it's an engine swap, but the only logical conclusion is either it's meant to either be called an "ultra thrust", and is meant to be identical to the bubu/barstow's, and is taken from one of them.
The other possibility is the name is intentional, and it's meant to be some sort of rebranded ultra thrust, or even a different big-block altogether, for an imaginary 60's burnside model?

 

It's also close to the '53 Dodge Coronet (5.12m) in length, but both of those vehicles had 3.05+ meter wheelbases, while the Burnside's wheelbase is only 2.93 meters. That's what I'm trying to understand. In my opinion, it's a...peculiar design decision to have a wheelbase of a low-buck Chevy on a Desoto/Oldsmobile-esque vehicle.

Devs, if you're reading this:

Please, when the Burnside is remastered, make it longer - much longer. Any changes to the body styling or the Jbeam will break all the mods for it. You might as well make it more distinct from the other large American cars. Making the vehicle as long and heavy as a '53 Imperial or Fleetwood could be a lot easier than redoing the suspension and making the car as thin as a Desoto or Dodge.

It would also give us a truly big car to play with for (comparatively) little development cost. It's already got the width, the power, the chrome, the front and rear end styling, the interior, and the suspension of a top-level luxury car - all it needs is to become longer and heavier.

Lots of people have always wanted a giant car in Beam, and this has the potential to be our truly big car. A bigger Burnside could be a nice end-game reward car for cruising around Belasco or Firwood.

It could also have a lot of bodystyles - coupes, sedans, limousines, and hardtops, just to name a few. Imagine how wild it would be to try to get a giant limo Burnside through the streets of Norte, or to obliterate a group of Piccolinas with 2.5 tons of early-'50s America.

 

I've said it before, but I really wish the Devs made a late '50s Burnside or Bluebuck variant. It's the most interesting era of automobile design ever, and the game skips it entirely. Fins, wrap around windshields, bomb-shaped bumpers, rocket tail lights, two and three tone exteriors, the "darrin dip" and "Sweep spear" side treatment, etc. A longer Burnside frame would be a good donor unless it's a GM product, then the X-frame from Bluebuck would work in a snap.

 

Admittedly, I was a little disappointed to not see the Bluebuck frame put in the 'common' parts folder - there's a lot of potential versatility in that thing.

But a late-fifties Burnside on a similar, possibly lengthened version of that platform? That's something I hadn't considered.

 

The thing is, putting parts in the common folder slows the game down more, as i believe it's always loaded for any vehicle. if the bluebuck's chassis/suspension was already used on another car officially, it would be worth it. but until then, it's not.

 

Honestly, I’d like to see more variety with the burnside models. Maybe different bodystyles?

 

So, I've been driving this thing around for weeks now, trying to figure out if it has anything special other than its age, styling, the lead sled configuration. I've tried straight-line racing, drifting, demo derbies, mountain pass racing, circuit racing, drag racing...everything except rallying. I've been trying to answer this question for a long while now:

Is the Burnside good enough to justify its rarity, lack of performance, and high price tag?

As someone who has liked the Burnside for a while, I would have to say...not really.

---

The Burnside is pretty nice, but it doesn't significantly stand out from the Bluebuck, Grand Marshal, and Moonhawk.

The Burnside's a fair drift car - but it's not good enough to compete with the Grand Marshal or Bluebuck. It does okay around a race track, and it's an okay drag car - but again, cars like the Marshal, Moonhawk, and Barstow are faster for cheaper. The Burnside's a boaty vehicle, and a nice car to cruise in - but I could get that boaty cruising experience in a Moonhawk or Marshal or Bluebuck for less money.

With 2,300 Burnsides left, finding parts and spares for it will be quite difficult and expensive in Career Mode. The only vehicle less common than the Burnside is the Bolide (269 units). Even the Pigeon (3,800 units) and Miramar (3,740 units) are more common.

At demo derbies, the Burnside does...okay. It's strong, but the Marshal's as strong if not stronger - and you can buy five Marshals for the price of one Burnside. With 71,000 Marshals and around 700,000 modern Gavril V8s around, parts and spare cars will be common and cheap.

The Burnside has covered rear wheels - which does help, as I've found out - but it doesn't help enough to beat the Marshal. You can win demo derbies with the Burnside, but the Marshal can do just as well if not better - for much cheaper. The Burnside's rear end angles downward after multiple impacts, whereas the Marshal and Bluebuck's rear ends angle upward. The Marshal's also got a much stronger rear than the Burnside, making it better for demo derbies.


With vehicles like the '96 Pessima and Pigeon, they have certain advantages that make them worth buying in career mode. The '96 Pessima is relatively cheap ($3,800 to start), very common (302,200 "demon blobs" in existence), and a good starter vehicle or beater. The Pigeon is the least expensive vehicle in the game, very economical, and a fun little boy to do your deliveries with. These cars can be viable start-game career mode choices. They're not the best options, but they can be great backup cars for when your main cars break down.

So, I have to ask - what does the Burnside have over the other vehicles that would make it worth its price? I don't think anyone other than hardcore fans of the Burnside would pick it in career mode when they could have a Bluebuck or Marshal instead.

 

I've often wondered if the Burnside Special would be better at demoltion derbies if the trunk latch was stronger - once that trunk lid unlatches and starts swinging around in the air (and it almost invariably does), the rear end loses a lot of its integrity and things really begin to go south in a hurry.

 

just a nitpick, i don't think the population numbers are actually the amount of them that exist in the world canonically, it's more just a coefficient of how frequenttly they spawn in traffic.

 

It's the closest I have to getting the canonical numbers that exist in the world. If a "common" vehicle ('96 Pessima, D15) spawns more frequently than a "rare" car (Burnside, Bolide), then I assume there are more '96 Pessimas and D15s in the world than there are Burnsides and Bolides.

There could be more than 269 Bolides or 2300 Burnsides, but I'm going to assume that are less Burnsides or Bolides than Bluebucks (11,130 "units") and Autobellos (10,680 "units").

I think it has less to do with the trunk, and more to do with the frame structure.

Here's a list of (most of) the light vehicle frames in the game:


And here is what their rear sections look like:
Marshal:


Hopper (standard):


Pigeon:


D-Series:


Bluebuck:


Moonhawk:


The rear sections on these vehicles are all quite thick, and are either straight or curved slightly upwards. The Hopper has a really short rear section, which doesn't make it a good derby car, but that section still is thick and straight.

This is the Burnside frame:


The rear section here is thin and curves down. This means that when this section takes an impact, it will bend down instead of staying straight, leading to these situations.


The straighter and thicker frame of a Grand Marshal or D-Series will take more smashes from the rear and still hold up fine.

 

Did I miss something? Is there a career mode now? Where are you getting the info on cost and population?

 

Vehicle config info files contain information about the vehicles in-universe.

 

No career mode, unfortunately; vehicle value data has been around since 0.6, and you can find the prices of each configuration in the Overview tab:


Here's the file pathway that'll get you into the vehicle files to find other data:


You want to go into the PC files to find population data, which will look like this (in WordPad, at least):


*For part value data, you want to go into the JBEAM files, which will look like this:

 

Thanks for taking the time to walk me through that!

 

So, I've found that the Burnside's a pretty nice rally car. I've managed to get the base manual version into the 2:03s around JRI's Dirt Stage 1 (which is very good for a classic car).


I've found that it's rather stable around corners, and its 3-speed manual is rather nicely geared for low-speed applications. It could be a decent training vehicle if you want to go faster...but I still wouldn't pick it for career mode.

Not when most of the following vehicles can go quite a bit faster - for far less.

The $2,250 LeGran Base manual can run 2:03s, as well - consistently. This is honestly one of the best rally training vehicles you could buy for any price. It's not quick, but it's so stable that you can maintain speed through any corner very nicely.


The quickest classic vehicles I found in rallying were the Bluebuck 291 V8 4-Door Sedan manual ($22,000) and the Barstow 232 I6 manual ($15,000). The Bluebuck is quite hard to drive, I will admit - but the Barstow isn't. Compared to the Burnside, the straight-six Barstow handles like a Covet. It's that nice to drive.


The Grand Marshal base - a large $5,000 automatic barge - can run 2:01s quite easily. It's not going to be the best vehicle for the job, and it is a bit twitchy, but you can run it with moderate success.


The Covet DXi manual ($3,500) and Vivace 150d DCT ($25,500) can run 1:59s and 1:55s, respectively. The Vivace's power, torque, and modern tech help it around the course, but the Covet's independent rear suspension really helps over the bumps.


A stock '96 Pessima 2.7 LX V6 auto - a basic FWD sedan for $7,500 - can run low 1:53s on a rather scruffy run. I ran a little wide in some areas, but I still managed to get the Pessima into Covet Rally territory. The Pessima is so nice to drive through trails, and it's very competitive, as well.


I found something that the Burnside's good at...but it's still not good enough at it to justify its price. And that sums up everything about the Burnside - it's constantly stuck in that odd zone where it's far more expensive and less customizable than cars like the Bluebuck, Piccolina, or Miramar, while not having their performance or reliability. The Burnside is just there as a bookend for BeamNG's car year range, and a really weak bookend at that.

At this point, a low-end Formula car, classic Le Mans racer, or late-model stock car would serve more purpose in Career Mode than the Burnside, as those three vehicles would at least look, perform, and deform significantly differently from other cars.

 

Weren't you going to say something?

 

I was, but I accidentally pressed the wrong button and posted it by mistake. I've edited that post now to say what I wanted to say.

 

This game has so many vehicles from the 1980s & 1990s. I hope they flesh out the early Post War era. They have the building blocks with the Burnside and Bluebuck. It wouldn't take much to make something from the late 1950s. Hopefully a family of vehicles based on the same basic parts (station wagon, two doors, four doors, pillarless hard tops, and a convertible).

 

Its fine...

 

And congrats on 1000 (and one) messages!