They could have been working on it ever since 2016 and just finally got it to be good enough to show. They could have been doing it in a way that when it gets implemented it won't completely break old content somehow. Maybe even the vehicle remasters are linked to this and the new textures we have now are only placeholders for the new ones they had been working on, and maybe the texture cooker was made to speed up the process. Also I hope there will be an option to go back to the old rendering because my PC tends to struggle with render-heavy stuff (I can't render things properly in Blender) and many people I know have too weak PCs to possibly handle a change like this on full detail.
Hmm, 4 wheeled pigeon technically exists as the ibishu dove (still works, theres a hotfix on on of the last pages). 3 wheeled Wigeon, probably somebody will edit the model and jbeam a bit to make the pigeon stuff fit. Also, I hope the Cherrier inline 4 will be supported from, I think it was DaddelZeits mod, so, ye.
I'd guess so, since it seems weird to make a car inspired by the bond bug, based on a pigeon chassis, and not give it a 3-wheeled version. and considering the wigeon seems like an earlier car than the pigeon we've got (more 70s styling than 80s) it's possible the pigeon might be getting some facelift stuff as well. If so, I could see the pigeon being split into: -a 3-wheeled pre-facelift, spanning from the start of the 550cc kei car era in 1972 to 1980, and styled to look more like a mazda t1500, mitsubishi TM15, or daihatsu CM (since the 60's and 70's was a much more common time for 3 wheel trucks to exist, especially in japan) -and a facelift, with the styling we know, and mainly offered in 4-wheel guise, making it more like a midget II, but i'd expect it to also retain some variants to retain the "classic" 80s+3 wheel version, maybe under the guise of "export markets where it can still be sold as a motorbike". as far as the wigeon goes, I'd guess the 4-wheeled version is going to be a sort of "facelift" done in parallel with the pigeon, but lacking any major styling changes.
To distract y'all from the Pigeon & Wigeon, lemme drop a bombshell of a speculation. What if... the upcoming Bolide remaster would actually feature a new Civetta alongside it, like the suspected Pigeon remaster bringing the Wigeon with it? It would possibly be a supercar from the 2010's-ish, inspired by something like a Ferrari 458/488? We could even perhaps have the first ever GT3 config in BeamNG if that were the case
that's some speculation alright. I'm not so sure, since it seems whenever they release a new car alongside a remaster (charro with the pickup, wendover with the legran, wigeon with the pigeon, etc.) it has the benefit of a lot of assets being shared from one to the other; they make new mechanical parts for the wendover, then backport them onto the legran, etc. But with a modern civetta, basically nothing would be shared with the bolide other than trim levels and stuff, which makes the situation more like the bluebuck release/GM remaster, which was basically just them adding a few more quick parts to make the GM fit canonically with the bluebuck.
Hyper cars are too rare and unnecessary at this moment I think. Super car with civetta would probably work better with similiar year of production. Let's say lamborghini (countach for example) like civetta and actual reworked civetta. It could have this rival sense and possible mixed parts. But this is getting out of the speculation section imo.
id doubt the game's engine even being able to utilize the stats a hypercar has without having it flop around like a meshslap
The Cherrier time attack config has like 750 hp, there are torque vectoring diffs and stuff the only problem is that the engine has problems with light stiff beams bit that is something that could be improved
While a new Civetta would be awesome, I wanna think there's more to the truck tire teaser than just tires. Being released alongside the pigeon originally, it would be a cute callback, and there is one bodystyle change I'm sure a lot of people are waiting for; Cabover T-Series.
What about another civetta from a similar time period, like an F40 or something (ninety nine is a dev now so it's not a stretch,)?
That would be nice to have, but I don't think they would make another, very similiar car to the Bolide just to give it a slightly different styling. If anything, it would most likely be just body parts, like what 99 did with his Corse