All three of these cars succeeded in bringing the brand up to date for the 21st century - and for good reason. They not only looked the part, but had the performance and dynamics to back up their panache - and had sumptuous interiors to boot.
My favorite among these first few 2000s Arions is the Fortuna. It would not look out of place in Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec or Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 - not just for the way it looks, but also for the way it drives. And I actually like the bug-eyed front end you gave it, which reminds me of an Alpine A110 or Mercedes CLK, but with slightly better proportions.
And by 2006, it may well have experienced an uptick in sales due to a whole section of Palmont City (the setting of Need for Speed: Carbon) being named after it. Considering that Fortuna is one of the city’s wealthier districts, it’s only fitting.
Happy 201th post! I’ve came a long way with my Arion brand. I’m quite happy with the progress I’ve made, having a look back at my previous build recently, I have improved with detailing quite a lot! I hope everyone continues to enjoy and love my creations too, as I’m glad to embrace creating every build! Thank you everyone!
Arion Charmeleon Concept '02
A new concept sports car was revealed by Arion at Geneva Motor Show March 2002: The Charmeleon. It was a rather strangle, unique looking car in Arion’s special iridescent paint with the 3 circular lights either side on front and back. It featured a hard top that was detachable.
Charmeleon in Superb Starling Blue & Sterling Silver IV Stripes
It was rather show-off, as such being an Arion was, but this car had the fancy Mythos 350-Eco powerplant motor in it, which amazed the crowds with it’s low emissions and high MPGs along with performance figures. The exposed glass engine bay cover got a lot of attention with it’s overall looks not missed either: The side-doors having glass all the way to the trim piece that flowed along the side like silk.
The Chameleon looks as jaw-dropping as I thought it would be, and deserves to go into production or at least influence the aesthetics and/or engineering of the regular Arion lineup. It would be the right kind of car for GT Concept Tokyo-Geneva for that reason - and while I’m at it, I’d suggest a harder-core trim with at least 100 extra horsepower to really frighten other contemporary supercars.
Just a quick out of character note, my laptop recently died, so I will be gone for a while. In the mean time I will be drawing and sketching my ideas for future Arions until I get a new laptop.
Part II:
Coming back onto the game I feel so disconnected from not having my paints and so on. I’m going to take a bit of a break I think before continuing this thread.
Revival of the Arion Cetus came about in 2002, featuring the unique 3 seater layout, the driver in the centre and passengers at the sides. The extravagant and low slung sexy lines of the Cetus made it become a stand out, eye-catcher of a supercar. Also attracting attention was the new concept of electromagnetic valve phasing of Arion’s own. A special top end valvetrain with electronically controlled valves which doesn’t use a camshaft at all for reduced weight and improved performance output from how quick the action is.
A great reputation from Arion’s Electromagnetic technology lead to a complete success with the Cetus, it was comfortable inside, and had good feeling between the road through advancements in the electronics in the suspension. This however did not impact the performance but only aided it. Even with the OEM soft setup, it could drive like a supercar and be treated like one.
The advancement in tech didn’t stop at the new top end on Arion’s V16, but the exterior of the Cetus was advanced in aerodynamics, having active frontal vents, and an active wing that was raised at above 60mph, as well as an aeroblade beneath which gave the engine more cooling and downforce.
Cetus came in many colours, from the Sparkling White Adder, to fiery Hellfire II, and more exotic colours like Autumn Adder as well as newly released Emerald Adder & Zeus Solar. The more expensive iridescents added onto the base price around £2-5,000 more.
The performance and overall styling of the new Cetus brought in a large profit for the brand, which would go onto further development in their new electromagnetic research lab located in central Leeds. There was rumors the new Bullet V would use such technologies…
As the technological and design flagship of the Arion line, the reborn Cetus would have been one of the flashiest and most sought-after supercars of the early-mid 2000s, when the economy was at its strongest for quite some time and nobody suspected a near-total collapse.
Coming into the 2000s, the Heron made a comeback to the lineup again in it’s forth form. The updated body and looks were similar to that of other current Arions, having very sleek and curvy lines, whiteout taillights, and the signature flowing side bullet insignia. The new Heron broke the chain of having a V8 standard, now having a sporty 3.1L I6 Turbocharged powerplant. It forced quite a bit of the weight up front, but the AWD system helped it manage that heft quite fine, in fact most people loved the strong sport feeling from it, on the other side safe, controlled driving feel too.
The new Heron featured quite a few styling traits from the Fortuna and Mythos, which made it quite desirable from it’s similar yet lower cost but space and comforts, including an extra middle rear seat.
The Heron’s aim was to capture sporty essence and forge it into a GT Coupe, but with more space and usability. This aim was found with efficiency from more eco-engines, the 310I6 and 350-Eco gave it a range of 46-61mpg depending on the model and spec.
The highest trim, SL with the Mythos engine was more extreme, having a racy bonnet for more cooling, an active rear wing and twin exhausts on the back. Although it weighed a lot more, the engine was much more efficient, despite this, it had less power which caused it to be quite a strange highest trim.
Heron '02 colour lineup:
Zeus Solar, Sapphire Pearl, Amethyst Starling Iridescent
Around the middle of 2002, Arion unveiled a new concept at Paris Motor Show. It featured a striking style with very round yet edged and carved lines. Other technologies such as active aero panels and the electromagnetic parts were displayed on the Pisces. It’s styling and name came from it looking inspired by a shark or fish.
The electromagnetic suspension and engine components were very expensive to produce, but it seemed to gather attention from being quite an original idea, that with the Pisces striking looks attracted quite a crowd at the event.
Although it gathered positive feedback from the show, the concept wasn’t planned for production, as currently the Cetus was on sale with essentially the same components.
Introduced in the later half of 2002, the third generation Pelican was introduced. Put underneath the Buckingham and Mythos, but slightly above the Heron: This muscular yes curvy premium saloon had changed quite a lot over the years, especially now.
The styling compared to the previous two generations had finally been cut, no more boxyness and sharp full taillights on the rear, it had been completely overhauled. It still retained it’s massive size, but no longer came with a V12. This struck fans of previous Pelicans directly to the heart. It now came stock with an I6, the same 3.1L Turbo that was found in Heron, as well as the rather commonly known, revolutionary Mythos 3.5L Twinturbo V8 powerplant in the “ME” edition for a much greater price.
The Pelican ME was much better received than the base model, it was a lot more powerful and had extra glitz like the bonnet badge and fancy sporty alloys over the base type.
With the expansion of the company, it wasn’t long before a new type of Arion was revealed: A full size MPV named the Apus. It was quite a sight, sharing similar features to the Cetus supercar and Mythos sports car. Overall it was what was expected from Arion though, very plush and comfortable interior with rather unique styling flair.
The main attraction was the ICE it featured: Such as small TV monitors on the back seat rows as extras, as well as a specialised DVD GPS navigation program that linked to the Apus’ ECU, allowing the cruise control to adjust accordingly. The combination of technology and efficiency, as the Apus could do 42-44mpg (72-73mpg average), and had less than 200 emissions, it was very competitive in the market, selling extremely well.
However, it was more competitive in some locations than others, in Japan it was not as popular as say a Nissan Elgrand or Toyota Alphard was, mainly down to size. But in the rest of the world it did fine and stayed top of the market in areas. The stylish lines made it rather attractive to younger families too, as a life-long car.
Alongside the standard, the luxurious Apus GL was offered. It came with a panoramic sunroof as standard, and optional “Arion DLT” Iridescent colours. However it only featured 5 seats, with more luggage space made. This made it great as a high end luxury company car, and was rather commonly bought for this purpose as a commuter car, but more often it was bought by rich families looking for an exquisite school-run cruiser.
After the 2002 Pisces concept, in 2004, the Arion Bullet was re-incarnated into it’s fifth form. Having similar style to the Pisces and Cetus, with new dramatic design features such as a glass targa roof, and active front and rear aero both hidden into the body work to keep a silky smooth style.
Bullet V in White Shine IV Pearlescent & Sterling Silver IV Stripes
The performance was astounding, with a 0-60 in almost under 4 seconds from it’s RWD, mid longitudinal V16 TwinTurbo mounted to the mostly Carbon Fibre weight of 1446kg. Top speed was hit at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground of 211mph, not world record breaking but astounding as it stood. The pure speed it could hit made it rather hard to drive, but thankfully all the driver aids helped it be worthwhile on the road as well as it’s rather nice 36.3 MPG average.
Bullet V in Hellfire II Pearlescent & Sterling Silver IV Stripes
The new Bullet V came with a variety of colours and also was purchasable from factory with twin stripes. One such scheme, was the England stripes, which was a limited edition of only 75 over the production run, showing pride in the country and for the company’s 75th anniversary. The England coloured ones had special stitching on the passenger side of the dashboard: “Bullet V - 75th Anniversary”
Bullet V in White Shine IV Pearlescent & Hellfire II Stripes (England colours)
The active aerodynamics bound to the advanced body and engine made the Bullet V a stand out supercar. It sold extremely well, and gathered many more fans of the brand.
