Athena Motors - Luxury vehicles since 1913

[TheTom]

Athena is a luxury car manufacturer founded in 1913 by two Brits and an Austrian. The name comes from the greek goddess of wisdom, who was also the patron of arts and craftsmanship.
The brand was purchased by AMW in 1990, but had been independent before then. However, early cars were plagued with reliability issues, specifically oil leakage and improper cooling management. The few that actually ran fine were destroyed in the war. We do not have records or images of the pre-war cars, unfortunately.

The war brought many changes to the world. Athena saw the end of the war as an opportunity to start over and put more effort than ever before into making their cars more robust, as the cars were expensive and people were expecting more of them.
This is when they also came up with a nomenclature system for the models they would build. It would consist of 3 (later 4) digits for the car series, and 5 (later 6) digits for the specific model. The first digit would always describe the type of the car (e…g S for sedan, C for coupe/convertible, X for SUV). The second digit would refer to the car’s size, based on wheelbase. S for small, M for medium, L for large. The third digit would be the generation of the car, for example SL7 would be the 7th generation large sedan.
That would round it up for the car series, and the individual models got 2 more digits referring to the engine capacity, devided by 100 and rounded up.

The first model they built after the war was launched in late 1947. It was called the SL136, following their new nomenclature, as it was a large sedan and the first of its type. The main rival was Jaguar’s MkIV 3.5L.

To compete with the Jaguar, the SL136 had a 3.6L Inline 6 engine making 122hp. This engine, coupled with a 4-speed gearbox, allowed the car to accelerate from 0-100km/h in 12 seconds, and reach a top speed of 175km/h. Which meant it was fast, very fast for its time in fact.

On the inside, you would get fine leather on all 4 seats, a steering wheel made from mahogany wood and aluminium spokes, and polished aluminium pedals. The dashboard was made from mainly mahogany, with some polished aluminium elements. The gear lever was polished aluminium wrapped in leather, so was the handbrake. Of course, the car had one of the best AM radios available, too.

All of this, along with the detail-rich exterior and the big powerful engine, meant that the car wasn’t cheap, as is often the case with luxury cars. This one was sold for 1.885$ in 1947, which equates to roughly 21.350$ today. Sure, in today’s economy, 21.350$ doesn’t even buy you a basic BMW 3-series, let alone an actual luxury car. But in 1947, that was a lot of money.

Athena had big plans, but they all hinged on the success of this car.

What do you guys think?

(by the way, if any of the modders is reading this, would it be possible to make this into a badge in Automation?)

[TheTom]

The SL1 was doing well. Yes, it was expensive, but people with enough money bought it. Mainly because it had striking looks while also, finally, being a properly made luxury car. People also liked the wood dashboard, which was basically one large piece of mahogany, carved into shape and bolted directly onto the chassis and body wherever it connects, and fitted with some polished aluminium elements.

Since Athena was, at this point, still a small British manufacturer who made their high-end luxury cars somewhere near Cambridge, and Brits loved their sports cars, they decided to make a sleek coupe as well. With a 2.6m wheelbase, they called it the CL136.

They took many elements from the SL1 which was still being made alongside of the CL1, such as the spaceframe chassis, the double-wishbone suspension on all corners, the interior style and also the base engine. They took all of that, put it into a sporty looking coupe shell made from aluminium, and threw some sharper cams at the engine so it now produced 140hp. This allowed the car to go from 0-100km/h in just 10.4 seconds, and the top speed was just shy of 200km/h.

Then engine got a name, too. It was called the Thebes, named after city in ancient greece. It also powered the convertible version of the CL136, called the CL136 Open Air.

Due to the extra weight from being a convertible, as well as the worse weight distribution from missing the rear seats, it was a little bit slower in acceleration (11.1s) and top speed. However, it sat lower to compensate for the higher weight and allowed for better cornering, while carrying over the same springs, dampers and sway bars from the coupe which allowed for good comfort.

Since both versions cost roughly the same to produce, they were both sold for 2.250$ in 1951. You could have three colors, the blue that you saw on the SL1, red like depicted here on the coupe, and british racing green like on the convertible. Frank Sinatra had a racing-green CL136 coupe, actually.

[TheTom]

The CL1 quickly became popular as one of the ultimate high-end coupes. It had everything a driver would desire in a car, from striking looks to a custom and unique interior, a manual gearbox and great engine noise. Rumor has it that, out of the 2173 coupes and 756 convertibles sold, about 500 of them are still on the roads. Not what you’d be expecting, given the brand’s pre-war reputation.

Because the CL1 did so well, and because the SL1 which also did fine, was already getting a bit old and needed an update, Athena introduced the second generation of their large sedan in 1955, the SL2.

They had realized how large the luxury car market was in America, compared to Europe. Because of that, they based the new car on a new, much larger platform. They put a revised version of the Thebes I6 into it and the resulting performance of the SL236 was fine with an acceleration of 11.3 seconds from 0-100km/h. But especially in the US, the horsepower war had already begun, and with just 140hp the Inline 6 was lagging behind some of the competition a little bit.

That is why they had spent the last few years developing a second engine as well. They called it the Olympus V12, a 6.4L machine with Dual Overhead cams and 24 valves. The result was 275hp and 480Nm of torque. This engine was powerful and smooth, it had great torque and was also quiet, thanks to the two reverse-flow mufflers.
However, with great power comes great responsibility, which is why the SL264 got 225mm sports tyres as opposed to the 205mm medium compound tyres that the SL236 came with. It got bigger rims to accomodate larger brakes, too.

All of this meant that the SL264 weighed 1700kg, but with this much power and good tyres, it was able to do 0-100km/h in a jawdropping 7.6 seconds (6.7 seconds in BeamNG), and achieving a phenomenal top speed of 233km/h, putting Athena right up there with the very best in the segment.

The price was also right up there, though. In 1955, you would pay 3.300$ for a SL236, and the SL264 would set you back a whopping 4.850$. However, few could compete in terms of elegance, comfort and performance. And the ones that could were no cheaper.