I started modeling a Renault Clio Cup, as I found it interesting that the car basically drove on 3 wheels in some corners, since the inside rear wheel tends to lift. I'm happy to see that it is also possible in LFS (and while tweaking the suspensions, I realized the XFR also exhibited this behavior to some extent), although more work is needed as it likes to flip as well.

Anyway, here's the current progress in Blender, I'm satisfied with the overall shape despite the low mesh resolution and some questionable topology, but now I'll have to properly plug all the holes and refine the shapes.

The custom logo fits in the Renault rhombus, but is modified to make the letters L and T (first and last from Laurent, which is basically Renault with the letters rearranged). Hope it's okay this way.

Reworked the geometry around the pillars and roof, still need to tweak the volume. I turned on the subdivision modifier to start hunting bad curves and topology (which is still a big mess for the most part).

Added the top intake and "rear wing", drafted the roll cage as I came across a figure describing it in the Clio Cup technical rulebook.

Also added the rough shape of the central brake light to work on it later, as its support helps close the rear window.

Quote from Bokujishin :

I started modeling a Renault Clio Cup, as I found it interesting that the car...

One of the vehicles I wanted to add to the game the most. but I didn't have enough time for it. Please share the 1.3tce stock version except the cup model for Cruise.

Yeah, I think I will do both normal and cup versions, the cup version only differs visually in the added spoiler and roof intake, the removed front daytime running lights and the interior being almost entirely stripped, as far as I know. The road version will certainly be based on the TCe 140bhp engine of pre-2023 though, as after that it's either 90bhp or hybrid.

Back to Blender, I ended up purchasing the blueprint I was using for reference, instead of using just the low-resolution preview, so I'm revisiting the entire thing to fix the shapes that were sometimes off quite a bit. I'm also using this as an opportunity to model cars in more detail, not just for LFS, so I'm going for a high resolution model, from which I will make the LFS geometry.

The screenshots show the overall shape of the car, it's now a single mesh with much cleaner topology, but I'm still missing some of the front bumper and door details, and still fixing the trunk and rear fender shapes around the tail lights and the C pillar. And of course, I'm now extending the mesh over the lights and will have to cut them out properly.

Once I'm done with this overall mesh, I will start making the various panels again - I've made the hood already (quick and dirty test), just because it looks so different with the guide mesh extending toward the front grill. I'll probably try to make a low-poly version of the hood pretty soon, to get an idea of how many triangles I can get away with.

Progress on the overall mesh is slow as I spend some time modeling more detailed parts, such as the bottom part of the rear bumper and its fake grills, as well as the side mirrors.
I also improved the front bumper, and added details I was missing before; I'm not satisfied with the bumper's blade part yet though, so it's not included here.

More progress on the front, now only missing the upper grill and headlights.

Front is now done on the Cup version, with headlights modeled and working. I will need to adjust the slight overlap between the headlights and the hood. On the road version, day lights are modeled and working, front grilles still need work.

In other news, since I own an actual Clio 5 (though pre-facelift), I went ahead and took pictures of my car on a cold frosty morning to make a photogrammetry model, the results are pretty nice but unfortunately still quite noisy in the doors area, even though the frost helped reduce reflections, but after scaling and rotating the result, I managed to fit the blueprints quite nicely, and will be able to adjust some overall shapes using this. This should help me finish the general exterior model so I can then move on to cutting the panels and modelling the rear lights properly.

Decided to venture into rim modeling for a bit, so I made both the cup rim and the Esprit Alpine road version's "La Flèche" rim (this one was a huge pain, shapes are all over the place and the spokes-hub transition is different for every single spoke...).

Rear bumper is also finished, I started working on the trunk and tail lights, not sure how much time I will have in the next few weeks with end of year festivities approaching.

Quote from Bokujishin :

...the Esprit Alpine road version's "La Flèche" rim (this one was a huge pain...

Alpine + pain = el pain !


Aite, that's all for me tonight, bye!




(Anyway more seriously, as said on LFS France's discord, great work!)

Back to bodywork, front fender and doors are done.
Screenshots are from Blender as I messed up smoothing groups when importing the doors into the editor.
I also fixed the roof's missing recess and adjusted shapes here and there, so I should be able to complete the bodywork soon.

Last update of the year: bodywork is more or less finished \o/ (just need to cut the space for the fuel door).

I also added the radio antenna for the road version, now I need to finish the tail lights as well as the front grilles of the road version. Then windows and the various plastic parts to finish the exterior.