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.
Introduced in 2006, the second generation Canis became a rather competitive entry level premium saloon to the market. It’s smooth yet striking looks and interesting quirks gave it a rather unique appeal.
Interestingly the engine chosen was a newly developed 1.4L Inline 4, with only 90hp to pull the 1329kg car, it gave it some dramatic performance problems, but this was made up for with extremely high MPGs and low emissions ratings.
The high focus on economy was slowly followed by comfort factor, the Canis featured full premium insides and a silky 7 speed advanced computerised automatic transmission. These components paired to a very soft suspension setup gave the Canis a very premium feel in ride considering it is one of the least expensive Arion models.
2006 brought along facelifted versions of older Arions, bringing them up to date. The more popular of the bunch: Mythos and Pelican were re-released with updated styling all around. As well as performance upgrades and new 7 speed electronic automatic gearboxes.
Mythos in Sapphire Pearl & Pelican III (ME) in Sterling Silver IV
In late 2006, Arion’s highly prestigious Buckingham IV was replaced by the new Buckingham V. The latest model was a drastic change up from the previous, now being a 3.5m wheelbase, 6.43m long, monster of a car. The outlandish size of the car was comparable to the engine, having a 13L V16 with AWD. This combination lead to an extremely unique one-of-a-kind machine, the Buckingham V had many fans as well as it did enemies.
Despite the Buckingham V weighing 2824kg, it actually managed an incredible mileage of almost 40mpgs average. As well as the high mileage, it only produced 93.2 emissions. The greatness didn’t stop there either, thanks to the electromagnetic suspension which acted like air suspension, only much smoother with almost no feedback to the road, the driver and passengers could experience peace and tranquillity over any sort of bump in the road.
The Buckingham V redefined luxury car interiors, it featured the plushest of seats using highest quality Napa leather, making for stylish and comfortable lounger to go along with the elegantly smooth electronically adjusted suspension. Whilst enjoying the cushy journeys in the Buckingham V, the driver and passengers can embrace the euphoric surround sound system and even watch their favourite programs or even play videogames on the multifunctional TV screens fitted to the rear of the front seats, the screens featured the latest technology of HDMI for highest viewing quality.
Along with this release, many new Iridescent and Pearlescent colours were added to Arion’s colour lineup. These new hues were all very deep and luxurious, as well as this a first for Arion: Mystic Topaz is their one and only colourshift paint, having a mix of dark purple and golden rays of sunny gold over it.