I’m going to skip the 1946-1961 years since cars made in Penrose’s shop weren’t strictly Adenine, but I may revisit them later!
After more than a decade of building bespoke luxury cars and sports cars from the shop in Pittsburgh, Penrose had built up a decent sum of cash and a local reputation in the Pennsylvania region. Penrose had always enjoyed the freedom and challenge of building a new car for each customer, but he yearned for greater recognition. Once his team had finished building a car, Penrose would often never see it again. That is, unless some bumbling idiot had screwed up a component he had spent weeks designing and testing.
Penrose had spent enough time building cars for the wealthy - now he wanted to make cars for the masses. He wanted to be able to see common folk driving cars he designed on the streets. Penrose knew that a small startup could not compete with giants like Ford or Chrysler by simply building the same cars they did. His cars had to be something different, something unique, and he had some ideas for how to do it. From his time in the factory, he had recognized that the big automakers were very much entrenched in tradition and resistant to radical new ideas. And so, in 1962, Adenine Automotive was officially established.
Also in 1962, Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the molecular structure of DNA. Penrose was a big fan of Watson and Crick and felt proud to be both British and American. After reading about their discovery, Penrose took a liking to the name “adenine” and thought it was very pretty. It was a strange name for a car company, to be sure, but he decided that its importance in DNA and the human body gave it a strong meaning.
One of the things that always annoyed Penrose about traditional American cars was the big, bulky transmission tunnel. Neither of his personal cars - a Citroen DS and a Porsche 356 - had a tunnel, and he greatly appreciated the improved interior space. Another thing he liked about his European cars was their unibody construction, which made them lightweight and gave them superior handling to American body-on-frame cars.
Back home in Britain, the BMC Mini had just been released and was sweeping the nation. Penrose immediately recognized the advantages of its transverse engine mounting and unibody construction - it was a logical step forward from the longitudinal FWD layout of the DS. However, another part of the Mini intrigued him - the stubby, space-efficient two-box body style. It reminded him of the jeeps he built in the factory during WWII and the postwar Land Rovers which were inspired by them.
And so, in 1962, Penrose drew up plans for a radical new vehicle which would combine innovations from the DS, the jeep, and the Mini. With the money made from the custom shop, and some help from his father, Penrose bought the Pittsburgh factory he and his friends had worked in and retooled it for the new car. Named the Adenine Advent, it would prove to be unlike anything anyone had ever seen.
Yes, this the vehicle KOTH1 was based on
The 1965 Adenine Advent was a front wheel drive, unibody SUV. With a high ride height and tall roof, its external appearance was that of a rugged off-road vehicle, but on the inside, it was a comfortable and easy-to-drive car. By most accounts, the Advent was the world’s first crossover vehicle, predating cars like the AMC Eagle and the Jeep Cherokee SJ by nearly two decades.
Although it was officially marketed as a wagon, it soon became clear that the Advent was in a class of its own. The high ride height offered a commanding position of the road; the tall roof and front-drive configuration gave it unmatched interior space for its size. Light weight and fully independent suspension meant it was nimble and easy to handle.
But Adenine’s primary audience, suburban families, didn’t recognize the Advent’s numerous advantages. They saw the Advent’s simplistic, utilitarian looks, and balked. It didn’t have the beautiful flowing lines of a Valiant or a Fairlane. It didn’t even have the cutesy appeal of a Beetle. The Advent looked like the kind of car to go rock climbing, not like the kind of car to take to see your relatives. Penrose couldn’t help it; the factory had been designed to build jeeps and Penrose needed to minimize the costs to retool it.
Furthermore, at that point Adenine lacked the capabilities to produce anything other than the single 2.2L I4 engine, marketed at 120hp (SAE gross). With a 0-60 time in the 15 second range, the Advent could outpace similar cars like the Falcon or the Bronco equipped with their base engines, largely due to its light weight. But once small- and big-block V8s came into the picture, the Advent quickly fell far behind. Americans wanted power, and Adenine couldn’t deliver.
The few customers that did gamble on the weird-looking car from the unknown company were mostly suburban commuters who often traveled into the city or northern families who were worried about winter performance. These customers quickly became Adenine fans for life. With its flat floor and tall roof, the Advent offered superior interior space to even the largest of American sedans, at a fraction of the cost. The high ride height and FWD meant better performance in the snow, and even allowed drivers to look down at the big sedans on the road. Despite the high ride height and soft suspension, body roll was kept in check due to the wide track and light weight.
The Adenine Advent was a revolutionary concept that was simply too far ahead of its time. A few decades later, Penrose would be proven right, as unibody crossovers exploded onto the SUV market. But the Advent itself was doomed to an early death, as production would end in 1970. However, Penrose remained confident. Even before the Advent went into production, he had planned out designs for two new vehicles, which would be more conventional in nature but would still have that Adenine flair. The Advent was a commercial failure, but Penrose was sure that the engineering principles behind it were sound. Now it was just a matter of learning from his mistakes and shifting production towards the two new vehicles: the Veranda and Reverence.
I’m interested in upping my photoshop game, especially for when Unreal comes out!
And yes, I plan to use all the turbo goodness as early as possible