LEMON FANTOMAS

The Lemon Fantomas is a fictional futuristic sedan made in France between 1955 and 1975, which replaced the older Adieu models. Equipped with a front wheel drive, a monocoque body, front disc brakes, a hydraulic power-steering and a completely unique self-leveling hydropneumatic suspension, the Lemon Fantomas was the most advanced car of its era and did not have any direct competition in terms of comfort, safety and handling. Despite of being under-powered and heavy, the car became very successful in rallying. Flying through the snowy Monte Carlo and endless safari rallyes, the car excelled with a stock suspension, where others struggled to finish with strengthened springs.

Through bullets
Cars with power-steering did not have any steering feedback, but were stable even if one of the tires exploded. During an assault on a French president, an unarmored presidential car was pierced by machine guns. Two tires were shot at 100kph, but the driver was still able to get president and his wife safely to the airport.

Motorsport and tuning
This particular Lemon was built in 1965 and enhanced for rallying. The suspension remained stock, but the original 75bhp were increased to 125bhp using a twin-carburetor conversion in combination with an increased compression ratio. This enables player to setup multiple stock and racing vehicles using the voluntary intake restrictions for both realistic cruise and racing. The car is equipped with 180 HR 15 XAS tires on all four wheels.

Basic stock versions:

• 1957 - 1962 basic version (65 bhp) (max 5000 rpm)
  
• 1962 - 1966 basic version (75 bhp) (max 5000 rpm)
  

Luxury stock versions (with power-steering and an automatic clutch):

• For realistic luxury versions an in-game automatic clutch must be used and the force-feedback strength must be zero
  
• 1965 - 1968 luxury version (82 bhp) (max 5000 rpm)
  
• 1965 - 1968 2.1-litre luxury version (107bhp) (max 5500 rpm)
  

Racing versions:

• 1963 British sport version with twin-carburetors and 8.5:1 compression ratio
  
• For the 1959 racing versions (competitive with UF 1000 cars) with twin-carburetors and 8.2:1 compression ratio use 17% voluntary intake restrictions
  
• For the fastest racing versions with twin-carburetors and 9.2:1 compression ratio use less than 17% voluntary intake restrictions
  

Driving tips
The mod is ideal for cruises, vintage twisty races and some rally-cross on rough surfaces. It is not suitable for faster tracks. Requires smooth driving (and a bit of practice), as it does not have a common force feedback and the suspension is extremely soft. The rally setup is easily controllable using the left foot braking. The car can be effectively rotated using the brakes and consequently stabilized with the accelerator. However, the front tires can be overcooked quickly when using less than 29% voluntary intake restriction. An additional beacon lights can be toggled using the following command:

Realism note
The mod chassis is tuned closely according to the technical drawings. The main problem was a realistic approximation of the suspension travel, because the current LFS engine does not support hydropneumatics. To keep the suspension "floatiness" as close to the reality as possible, the suspension travel had to be slightly extended. To correctly approximate the suspension self-leveling feature, which fully compensates changes of load between the front and the rear axle (but not the body roll during cornering), the fuel tank had to be moved to the middle of the mod. Unfortunately the mod still leans a little during braking but it is nicely minimized (considering the soft suspension).