1991 Mara Irena Kabriolet Freedom Edition
The late 1980s were years of political and economical upheaval in Archana, and by the time 1990 rolled around, Archanan people (and companies) could enjoy a substantially higher level of freedom in their lives. The opening up of global markets brought their own challenges to the Archanan automotive industry, however, and Mara was among the automakers caught out with a model range with roots in the 60s and 70s. Changes over the years had been incremental at best, and development of entirely new models had been discouraged if the old one still sold well on the - less than demanding - home market.
Luckily, those constraints had not stopped Mara from trying new things within the space they had, and one such idea was adding an affordable convertible to the Irena line-up. As a convenient means to keep the development low-profile (and having learned from the endless saga to get the Kanyon off-roader certified for the NA market), Mara contracted out the development of the convertible to Mayster.
Mayster were of the very few Archanan boutique car manufacturers that had emerged over the years and still was in business in the 1980s. Mayster’s sole product had been a spaceframe & fibreglass 2-seater sports coupe / roadster built in low but steady numbers since the early 1960s. Keeping up with the export regulations for Fruinia - one of Mayster’s main export markets - had also given them considerable expertise in how to sufficiently strengthen convertible bodies to meet increasing safety regulations. The resulting Irena convertible emphasised sturdiness over user-friendliness and appeared first on the Archanan market in the mid-1980s.
The Irena convertible’s rollover bar could be easily removed as well, but only in the ADM (Archanan domestic market) version
Mara’s first development project to finish after the sweeping changes in their home country was a quick Irena facelift just in time for the global market liberalisation in 1990. And there were quite a few new things at least under the Irenas’ hood: fuel injected engines with three-way catalysts as standard, an optional automatic gearbox, optional power steering (both based on what had already been available in the Kavaler), and a thoroughly revised interior to keep up with increased international expectations, including cassette players as standard.
To celebrate the occasion, the red and the yellow from the Archanan national flag were available as special colours for the Irena range in 1990. Black was omitted due to historical connotations to the black Irena V8 interceptor models in the 1960s and 1970s.
Meanwhile in NA, Maxsim Bricklov had been facing ever-dwindling sales numbers over the 1980s (and the safety saga around the Kanyon’s introduction certainly had not helped), and he even had considered closing the import business entirely late in the decade. However, news of entirely new Mara models being finally in development had kept his hopes up. Hope alone, however, was not going to keep his business afloat until then, so he was looking for something to sell NOW, instead of in a few years. Hence, the idea of a special Freedom edition for the most recent facelift of the Irena convertible was born, in order to celebrate the sweeping changes in Archana.
Love or hate it, but Maxsim Bricklov’s ad campaign for the Irena Kabriolet certainly did not go unnoticed in NA
And yes, Maxsim indeed had to have the ad campaign’s tagline changed slightly, after failing to sign a certain then-famous singer for the TV campaign…
Car lore post: Mara Motors Company Thread (now up to date till 2000) - #2 by AndiD
Some background on Mayster (chapter 2 has the Irena reference): Mayster & AMM Company Thread (Mara performance division)