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MPV: Band Wagon

This article appeared in the February 2013 issue of the magazine.

 

Vehicle TL Skill Agility Speed Range Crew/Psgrs Cargo Open? Hull Struct Cost (Lv) Ship Size
Hoondy 1000 Ground Car 9 Drive (Wheeled) 0 160 400 1/7 1 N 3 3 25,600 2.5

 

Armor Front, Rear, Left, Right, Top, Bottom: 3 each
Other Equipment Two rows of triple capacity seating behind driver and front seat passenger. Navigation (Std) (TL9) Lv.10,000. Entertainment system (TL9) Lv.2000

This Core World MPV is designed to carry up to eight people and a small amount of luggage, or a larger amount of luggage and five people, or an almost van-like amount of cargo and just two people. There are two rows of seating behind the driver and front seat passenger; each row can seat three adults (cramped), or be removed to add more cargo capacity. Called ‘The Beast’ by those more used to traditional family cars, it’s perfectly capable of allowing a family of six to travel to a holiday destination with all their clobber; acting as a base vehicle for a windsurfer and companion; or carrying a small band and their gear to gigs. There’s plenty of headroom, a surprising amount of legroom; one indication of its size is that in Amaterasu it may be sold as a ten-seater.

Powered by a Gorman Systems Ltd class 2 fuel cell, this car can reach speeds of 160kph (unladen) and has a theoretical range of 400km although in practice purchasers have tended to find this figure slightly optimistic. Generally the vehicle has good mechanical reliability. It may not have high performance handling, but it drives very smoothly when not on the automatic control of TrafCon. It is available in a variety of colours and has a tantalum anti-corrosion finish as standard.

The vehicle is fitted with TrafCon links as standard, has a Microtechnica Computers ‘Discovery 10’ unit which gives a +2 to navigation, and as standard, a Vannoccio entertainment system with separate feeds to each of the seats.