Let’s bring one of our historical vehicles:
1982-1987 Airborne Persephone
Named after Greek-mythology goddess of underground world and wife of Hades, Persephone was the thing that post-1973 Airborne needed since presentation of A27; reliable, fairly cheap, competitive compact. After announcing in 1982 and selling first cars it became instant hit; in first year there were 150.000 units sold.
First variant released in 1982 was 3-door hatchback. At the time it was one of cheaper Airborne vehicles, costing 5.130 $ (hatch variant). It featured nothing special, but at the time was considered as one of perfect first cars for young drivers. RWD, hatchback line, pop-ups - everything that company needed to attract young buyer with. It wasn’t the most comfortable option but hey, it was cheap to maintain and that was the hit!
In 1982 World also saw another Persephone variant oriented to those who needed more trunk space; Persephone wagon. Technically it wasn’t differing from hatchback except for stiffness tweaks. In comparison to hatchback variant, wagon had better weight balance (F/R), was slightly lighter, had slightly bigger fuel mileage and costed 5.210 $.
1983 for Persie (coloquially nicknamed from Persephone) was the performance year. In this year three trims appeared: Coupe, Coupe Stage I (or Coupe S1, as another name), and the most powerful, Coupe Stage II. But back to “basic” coupe, this variant has altered rear lights, shorter rear than it’s hatchback/wagon counterparts and overall it was set up for sport. In comparison to hatchback variant (considered to 1987 as a base variant) it had lower top speed, but better acceleration due to gearbox setup that has been suited more for twisty tracks than straights. Persie Coupe has been also lighter and slightly better in turns. It was priced for 5.160 $.
Coupe Stage I, massivelly offered sportier variant of Persie was way less uneconomical than it’s “civil” counterpart due to excessive power boost and gearbox setups. Suspension was also changed to provide more sporty feel. Engine got almost 30 hp more power and redline moved to 6500 RPM. Aero-wise the car had also some changes; rear wing and hood scoop got installed for better aero efficiency and downforce providement. In 1990s and 2000s tuners and racers from Japan found Persephone Coupe S1 as great alternative for Toyota AE86 for drift championships, because it could be easily tweaked to perform epic drifts.
In 1983 it was 5.260 $ retail (without additional fees and taxes, like everything we sold xD).
OOPS. WILL PROVIDE PERFORMANCE DATA LATER.
In the same year Airborne Automotive was preparing entry for A-group championship, however due to costs of entry and team it has been cancelled and the project was released instead. Due to no official presentation, Stage II wasn’t very known and only few people actually bought the car (441 units are known to be made and sold). Persephone S2 was built on S1 coupe, but got more altered to be street-legal race car. By installing turbocharging system engine car got heavier, but also more powerful - reliable 160 hp from 1.6 I4 was almost unbelievable for fact that it was de-tuned race engine (race variant had almost 250 hp). Exterior-wise car got better, more reliable rimsInterior was stripped out of unnecessary equipment leaving only bucket seats, gauges and stuff necessary to drive and control the car. In 1990s every possible unit was raced or drifted to death due to potential even bigger than in Persie S1.
This resulted in fact that currently all over the world are only 33 Persies Stage 2 left, other cars have been destroyed.
It has been priced in 1983 for 6.920 $ and sales stopped in February 1984 when magazine with parts of the car got empty.
In 1984 last variant of Persephone was released - Delivery van. In comparison to wagon, it has been set up to be more efficient or reliable resulting in quite boring result. It has also 2 seats instead of 4 from Wagon. It got also AWD.
It was priced at 5.430 $.