Please note that this is an old thread and is no longer used, the new Arion thread can be found here: New Arion Automotive thread
Arion Automotive & Racing Co. are my own personal brand I created for making my automation cars, I like to think of them as a luxury boutique car manufacturer. I mainly made the Arion brand as my own way to express my own style and creativity with cars, so I hope you enjoy!
I am currently creating a storyline & lore for the Arion brand. I’d love for some help or tips & guidance if anyone wants to drop me a DM!
Any and all constructive criticism would be awesome, as I’m very excited to know what the community thinks of my designs!
History:
Arion Automotive & Racing Co. are a British brand based just outside the North Yorkshire Moors. They are a rather abstract, unconventional and unique brand who create luxury boutique cars, generally in limited numbers due to their personalised and exotic nature.
Formed in 1930 by Aruna Arion Leone (20), with money from commissions earned by designing car blueprints, he went on to create the company Arion Automotive & Racing Co. as firstly an outside design/style company that did work for other brands.
It was 1945 when they created their first prototype for the Arion Bullet, a rather wild car with a huge in-house designed and built 6.8L V16, 4x4 drivetrain and elegant yet dominative styling. With funding from their outsourced styling, the company produced around 10 Bullets in 1946, tailoring each one uniquely with the buyer. Rather wealthy businesses loved the idea of the Bullet, and investors rose into the company, which helping it grow. At the end of the line in '51, 137 Bullets had been produced, further aiding the brand to what it is today.
Because of the company growing quite fast Aruna created the tag line “Future Driven” as their styling was out there, it was thought to be futuristic and strange, which he embraced.
An experimental Arion design department known as Cosmos was formed in 1959 to experiment with aerodynamics and more unconventional styling. They aid in work for Arion cars, even releasing special editions sometimes, which usually have increased sportiness, luxury, comfort and prestige.
In 1983 Aruna (73) stepped down as the chairman of Arion, giving the company to his son Aruna Jr. who would go on to run the company into the 80’s and beyond.
The company was doing very well in financial condition, having the complete muscle car lineup: Heron, Pelican and Shoebill all selling very well. The Starling and Pylades were also quite hot sellers, especially the lighter, cheaper Starling. Aruna Jr. decided and upgraded the one and only factory Arion cars had, being an expansive facility already located just on the outskirts of Richmond. Now it had plenty more room for more production as well as a larger design department incorporating Cosmos. As well as this, there was a separate department for the Arion Racing side, where they upgraded and modified customer cars as well as making full race cars for teams and their own racing division.
Now in the late 80’s, Arion begun really breaking the mould, forming their own luxury, industrial truck: The Dune, along with the Perseus and Spica which cut into the premium family & sports car market like a storm. With all their recent success, the company was growing extremely quickly, so much so that Aruna Jr. had almost gone bankrupt with his spending on his own personal hypercar project code named “Monoceros,” as well as his exotic, wild, expensive private life. Thankfully the lead team of Arion caught onto this and disallowed him of being chairman of the company. Still in ownership however Aruna Jr. swung his way to getting the Monoceros into production, with it featuring at the 1989 Frankfurt Auto Show the abstract styling and high end performance gave it on par recognition as the Lamborghini Countach, Mercedes SL and even the crazy Porsche Panamericana concept.
In 1995, Arion was doing extremely well in terms of sales thanks to their diverse lineup, from Aquilla to Spica, they were all gathering lots of money to the company and gaining a long line of new fans and returning buyers all the time, making a great impact into the economy. Because of this, the head managers of Arion and Aruna Jr. agreed to expand the company further, buying a new plot of land for further technologies as well as extra production lots. The old land in North Yorkshire was left for the more low-end production but high-end quality cars, as well as the Cosmos division of the company. Aruna Sr. now in his later years, accepted his son’s offer to open the new location of the firm by cutting a big Arion Classic Red coloured banner at a grand opening, which offered lots of new jobs as well as junior and apprentices’ roles to teach the youth to one day become the role models of the future. With this new investment, Arion reached out to companies across the world to expand their market and arranged more trade deals with Sisten. They also contacted IkaMagic, a rising Japanese firm who produced abstract boutique cars. IkaMagic and Arion had talks, they agreed to work together making cars for UK and Japanese markets sharing the same platform, but with different engines and styling.
Reaching the 2000s now, Arion had been growing non-stop from producing well-received cars from the Buckingham IV, to Magnus, Cassiopeia, and the Wren, as well as a few others. This growth had their small workplace overworked, and so the team decided to expand on a global scale with help from IkaMagic and Sisten, Arion established two global HQs in America, Chicago and Japan, Yokohama. These new headquarters based at other ends of the globe produced specific modifications to Arion models to go with the law in places, and also have cars transported from new plants in each locations around to Oceania and the rest of Asia. Europe meanwhile got Arion cars sent to a few smaller salesrooms that were developed in France, Netherlands, and Spain. With this new expansion set in place, years to come were looking on the up for Arion. However, Aruna Sr. shortly passed on (89yrs). It was a tragic day in 1999, in the early hours he had died from lung cancer. A funeral was held by his son Aruna Jr, and the day was not forgotten by Arion as a company, giving a short statement about their loss of the company founder and how they will never forget him.
Lineup:
Arion Arargte
Cosmos ['59 - '62]
GT1 Road car ['94 - '94]
GT1-R ['94 - '94]
Arargte ['93 - '97]
GL ['93 - '97]
La Elegance ['93 - '97]
Arion Apus
Apus ['03 - '07]
GL ['03 - '07]
Arion Aquila
2+2 ['55 - '57]
2 seater ['55 - '57]
LM ['55 – 57]
2+2 ['93 - '97]
GT ['93 - '97]
GL '93 - '97
Arion Buckingham
Buckingham ['47 - '54]
GL ['65 - '71]
Buckingham ['75 - '79]
IV ['99 - '06]
Supersport IV ['99 - '06]
V ['06 - '11]
Arion Bullet
V16 ['46 - '51]
B2 ['62 - '69]
B2 GT ['62 - '69]
III Concept ['75]
III ['75 - '79]
R III ['75 - '79]
IV ['93 - '98]
V ['04 - '07]
Arion Caelum
TwinTurbo ['91 - '97]
Arion Canis
Canis ['96 - '00]
Estate ['96 - '00]
Alltrack ['96 - '00]
Alltrack Estate ['96 - '00]
Canis ['06 - '10]
Arion Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia ['99 - '02]
GT1 ['99 - '02]
Arion Cetus
Cetus ['70 - '76]
Azure ['70 - '76]
TwinTurbo ['85 - '89]
TwinTurbo S ['85 - '89]
Azure ['86 - '89]
Cetus ['02 - '06]
Arion Charmeleon
Concept ['02]
Arion Cormorant
Cormorant ['90 - '94]
Coupe ['90 - '94]
Sport ['90 - '94]
Sport Coupe ['90 - '94]
v1.1 facelift ['95 - '01]
Coupe v1.1 facelift ['95 - '01]
Sport v1.1 facelift ['95 - '01]
Sport Coupe v1.1 facelift ['95 - '01]
Arion Concept
2000 ['00]
Arion Cygnus
2+2 ['89 - '94]
GT ['89 - '94]
S500 ['90 - '93]
S500 Auto ['90 - '93]
2+2 v1.1 facelift ['95 - '00]
GT v1.1 facelift ['95 - '00]
Arion Dune
Dune ['88 - '97]
Dual Cab ['88 - '97]
Dual Cab GL ['88 - '97]
SUV GL ['88 - '97]
Industrial ['88 - '97]
V2 ['97 - '00]
V2 SUV ['97 - '00]
Arion EEC
Concept Type-C ['93]
Type-R Cosmos ['94 - '94]
Type-R ['94 - '96]
Arion Fortuna
(ME) ['01 - '06]
(Budget) ['01 - '06]
(Budget-Turbo) ['01 - '06]
(Sport) ['01 - '06]
Arion Hercules
Hercules ['97 - '00]
SUV ['97 - '00]
Arion Heron
A ['70 - '75]
Great Egret A ['71 - '75]
B ['81 - '87]
Sport B ['81 - '87]
C ['94 - '98]
C Auto ['94 - '98]
C Spyder ['94 - '98]
C Spyder Auto ['94 - '98]
C Great Egret ['94 - '98]
C Great Egret Spyder ['94 - '98]
S ['02 - '10]
SL ['02 - '10]
SL (ME) ['02 - '10]
Arion Galaxy
Galaxy ['49 – 59]
Galaxy ['88 - '93]
Galaxy GL ['88 - '93]
Galaxy Sport ['88 - '93]
Galaxy Cosmos SuperSport ['88 - '93]
Galaxy GL (Limo) ['88 - '93]
Galaxy ['95 - '99]
Galaxy GL ['95 - '99]
Arion LAB
LAB ['84 - '87]
J-Spec ['96 - '00]
Kei-Sport J-Spec ['96 - '00]
UK-Spec ['96 - '00]
Kei-Sport UK-Spec ['96 - '00]
Arion Luxury Lane
Luxury Lane ['55 - '56]
Arion Magnus
Magnus ['99 - '02]
Sport ['99 - '02]
GL ['99 - '02]
Cosmos ['99 - '02]
GT2 Road car ['99 - '02]
GT2 ['99 - '02]
Arion Monoceros
1507A ['89 - '94]
Arion Mythos
Mythos ['80 - '87]
Cosmos ['80 - '87]
Cosmos SuperSport ['81 - '87]
BTCC ['82 - '87]
Mythos ['01 - '06]
(Sequential) ['01 - '06]
(GL) ['01 - '06]
(Sport) ['01 - '06]
(Police) ['01 - '06]
Mythos facelift ['06 - '10]
(Sequential) facelift ['06 - '10]
Arion Pelican
Pelican ['70 - '78]
Pelican ['83 - '88]
III ['02 - '06]
III (ME) ['02 - '06]
III facelift ['06 - '10]
III (ME) facelift ['06 - '10]
Arion Perseus
Perseus ['88 - '93]
GL ['88 - '93]
Sport ['88 - '93]
Spyder ['90 - '93]
Spyder GL ['90 - '93]
Spyder Sport ['90 - '93]
Spyder Cosmos ['90 - '93]
Arion Pisces
Concept ['02]
Arion Polaris
(ME) ['01 - '08]
(Budget) ['01 - '08]
(Budget-Turbo) ['01 - '08]
(GL) ['01 - '08]
(GL-L) ['01 - '08]
Arion Project
214 Road Version ['76 - '81]
Project 214 ['76 - '81]
Arion Pylades
Pylades ['66 - '72]
Supersport ['69 - '75]
II “51” ['81 - '86]
II ['81 - '88]
III Concept ['96]
III ['97 - '00]
Arion Shoebill
Shoebill ['71 - '76]
Shoebill ['82 - '88]
S ['82 - '88]
SL ['82 - '88]
GT ['95 - '98]
GT Drophead ['95 - '98]
Arion Speedster
Concept ['00]
Arion Starling
Starling ['83 - '88]
TwinTurbo ['90 - '93]
TwinTurbo Auto ['90 - '93]
TwinTurbo Sport ['93 - '97]
TwinTurbo GL ['93 - '97]
Arion Spica
Spica ['87 - '89]
Cosmos ['87 - '89]
GL ['87 - '89]
Sport ['87 - '89]
Facelift ['90 - '95]
GL Facelift ['90 - '95]
Sport Facelift ['90 - '95]
Spica ['00 - '05]
Sport ['00 - '05]
GL ['00 - '05]
Sport S2000 ['00 - '05]
Arion Taygeta
V12 TwinTurbo ['77 - '82]
V12 Cosmos ['78 - '79]
Facelift ['82 - '89]
Facelift Hatchback ['82 - '89]
Group B ['82 - '89]
Group B Road Version ['82 - '89]
Arion Trackstyle
TwinTurbo ['86 - '90]
Arion Virgo
Virgo ['96 - '00]
Estate ['96 - '00]
Arion Wren
Kei-Sport ['98 - '01]
Targa Kei-Sport ['98 - '01]