Chassis supplier system - plain English guide
The easiest way to think about chassis suppliers is this:
A normal supplier is something you buy from. A chassis supplier is more like a player-run development partner. The customer chooses which parts of the car they want help with, and the supplier improves those parts over time by racing, earning Chassis Data, and upgrading their tech tree.
1. Customer vs supplier
There are two sides to the system.
As a customer, you sign with one chassis supplier and choose two chassis component areas. Those two areas give you extra design bonuses when you race, depending on how developed the supplier is and how good the supplied batch is for that race.
As a supplier, you create your own chassis brand, accept customers, earn Chassis Data when you race in a league, upgrade your tech tree, place supply hubs, and pay supplier-side supply/delivery costs.
You cannot be both a chassis supplier and a customer of another chassis supplier at the same time. You also cannot have multiple chassis suppliers at once as a customer.
2. What do customers choose?
Customers choose
two component areas. Each component helps different car design stats:
- Front wing - downforce and handling
- Middle - handling, reliability, cooling and fuel economy
- Suspension - tyre economy, handling and braking
- Rear - acceleration and downforce
- Drivetrain - acceleration, tyre economy and reliability
- Electronics - cooling, fuel economy, tyre economy and reliability
So if your car is weak in tyre economy, for example, you would look at suspension, drivetrain, or electronics. If you need downforce, front wing or rear are the obvious choices.
3. Does the supplier control my research?
No. Your normal car research is still yours.
The chassis system adds bonuses on top of the normal car design/research flow. As a customer, you still research and develop your own car. The chassis supplier gives extra help in the two component areas you selected.
The supplier does have their own supplier-only research bonus from supply hubs, but that is for the supplier. It does not mean they take over your research choices.
4. What is Chassis Data?
Chassis Data is the supplier's development currency. Suppliers use it to upgrade the chassis tech tree.
A supplier earns Chassis Data when they race in a league. The current rule is:
- +2 Chassis Data per hub
- +1 Chassis Data per active customer
- capped at 10 Chassis Data per supplier race
The supplier's HQ counts as a hub. Chassis Data can also be bought by an active chassis supplier.
5. What does the tech tree do?
The chassis tech tree has three broad purposes:
- Performance upgrades improve the bonuses customers can receive in selected areas.
- Production upgrades reduce the supplier's running costs and can unlock more hub capacity.
- Quality upgrades reduce the chance of bad batches and can improve bonus strength.
There is also a batch-quality element. A normal batch gives the expected bonus; a bad batch is weaker for that next race. So the supplier's tech matters, but there is still a quality roll built into the system.
6. What does it cost the customer?
Customers pay a supply fee when they race in a league. Since customers select two components, the race cost is based on two component charges.
The current per-component brackets are:
- Level 1-5: $250k per component
- Level 6-10: $300k per component
- Level 11-15: $350k per component
- Level 16-20: $400k per component
- Level 21-25: $450k per component
- Level 26-30: $500k per component
Because you select two components, double the above figure for the usual customer race charge. For example, at level 26-30 that is $1m per race.
7. What does it cost the supplier?
There are two main supplier costs.
First, creating the chassis supplier is expensive. The current startup cost is $100m cash.
Second, the supplier has running costs when they race. The base supplier-side cost is $500k per active customer, before production and delivery adjustments. Production upgrades reduce this by $50k per production level, up to $200k total reduction. There is also a delivery cost based on how close the customer is to the supplier's HQ or nearest hub:
- same coverage region: $10k
- nearby region: $50k
- distant region: $100k
This is why hubs matter. Placing hubs near customers reduces supplier delivery costs and also helps the supplier's research bonus.
8. Does the supplier make money from customers?
Not really in the simple "customers pay me, I get rich" sense.
The chassis supplier system is mainly a long-term development system, not a cash-profit business. The supplier's main benefits are:
- earning Chassis Data from racing with hubs/customers
- upgrading the tech tree
- supplier-only research bonuses from hubs
- +1% reliability on their own car per active external customer, capped at +10%
So the supplier is paying to build a stronger chassis ecosystem. The reward is long-term performance/development value, not easy cash.
9. Is it worth becoming a supplier as soon as it unlocks?
Usually: only if you can afford it and you are ready to treat it as a long-term project.
It is worth considering if:
- you have spare cash after normal car/team/facility needs
- you race regularly in a league
- you can attract active customers
- you are prepared to invest Chassis Data into the tech tree over time
- you understand that the first few upgrades may feel slow
It may be better to wait if:
- the startup cost would leave your team short of cash
- you do not have likely customers
- you are still catching up on core development
- you expect instant race pace from it
For many managers, being a customer of a good existing chassis supplier will be the better short-term option. Becoming a supplier is more of a late-game management challenge: expensive at first, stronger once you have customers, hubs, Chassis Data and tech upgrades working together.
Short version
Customers pick one supplier and two component areas, pay a race fee, and get bonus design performance in those areas. Suppliers pay a big startup cost, accept up to 10 customers, earn Chassis Data when they race, upgrade the tech tree, and manage hubs/costs. It is not mainly a money-maker; it is a long-term development system.
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