Very interesting! I was wondering if we would get a more evolutionary or revolutionary design but I guess that came with the mark three. Love the single strip taillight very of its time. 
Canât wait for the GT stuff nice to see the Scarlet getting into the racing scene. The refreshed and mildly facelifted NRZ-986 finally arrived in the west in 1992 and would have found the Scarlet a steep competition although itâs cheaper price may have somewhat levelled things.
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Ooh! So we have European Vs American performance cars with the Envy Mk 2 and European vs Asian prices with the NRZ-986âŚexcllent 
By the way, is the NRZ name badge similar to the 911âs in that NRZ is just a general term for the type of car, and the numbers that follow are the particular model year/model name?
Shite. So this is the Scarlet mk2, eh? Youâll have to wait until after-UE to get a competitor from Cavallera, but it looks like that wonât happen either if there are no new bodies as practically all the competing cars shown in this thread use just three or four bodies.
We just need to be [humanism]unique[/humanism], fuck conformism 
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Well, since you askedâŚ
Coming soon to a company thread near you!
Not really a direct competitor to the Scarlet, since it cost only $14000 (+30%) 
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@ramthecowy Yeah, itâs a bit of an issue body wise. But, waiting til UE4 will mean all new rendering engine so
@phale Cheaper and lighter. I look forward to it
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It is a happy coincidence actually since the general naming system was 9XX for all vehicles in the state-controlled era and the year following that. Although all NRZ models ended up following the sixth year of the decade for uniformity.
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Hm, do you think a body like the first gen Lexus SC would fare well as a base for a competitor to the Scarlet?
@Rk38 Nice! Youâd have thought that a Communist regime wouldnât know shit about naming a sports car but it actually sounds really good!
@ramthecowy Certainly the entry level trim. Those kinds of cars tend to be softer so the Lex trim would probably be in the same league as those.
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Nah but you can have sportier trims based off the body. And it is a mod Iâve planned to do, so it checks out
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Mods eh? Keep me updated!
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#Overstaying His Welcome - The Nedala Story
Time for another story from the Erin history books, this time looking at a problematic car that would bring the company to its knees. Read the whole thing or look at the pretty pictures, I donât mind, though any feedback/thoughts on the cars would be most appreciated 
#1972 Erin Nedala (Mk 1)
One of the defining characteristicâs of Erinâs 70s period was their slightly exuberant approach to making cars. They didnât have a formalised set of vehicles designed to compete in specific markets against certain competitors; rather, they just made cars as they liked.
A great example of this was the Nedala. Having begun life as a GT coupe, it morphed into a kind of luxury GT-saloon, a car between defined types. Marco Erin had requested a high-end luxury vehicle âof some sortsâ, and this was how his designers had responded. Launched in 1972, the Nedala was pretty unique in its area of the market - bigger and slower than actual GT rivals, but also sportier and more precise than rival luxury saloons. It bridged the gap between these two markets.
Available in just one trim, the GTL, and powered by a choice of an i6 or the same 3.6l V8 from the Tegale, it offered just about everything one could desire from a luxury car. Despite the plush interior and excellent comfort, it was hardly a slouch - 0-60 in 8.2 seconds was competitive for such a car, although the soft suspension did compromise on the handling.
Aside from that, however, there wasnât much else to this car. Erin didnât seem to have a purpose for it (it wasnât even particularly innovative), taking the form of a car theyâd just made for the hell of it. That wasnât to suggest that it didnât have love and passion put into it - it was built in an entirely new factory for one thing. Sales however, were mixed, particularly in the climate of the Seventies oil crises. Exports to America were a major part of this cars sales, as US buyers looked for a luxury car that didnât do 8 mpg.
The car sort of just loomed in the background until 1977, when a replacement for it started to be discussed. At this point, however, everything would go berserk, and this once unassuming part of the Erin range would become the most significant for all the wrong reasons.
#Decision time
1977 was the last great year for Erin before their massive economic failure, and many have attributed it to the Mk 2 Nedala. A conflict arose at the Q3 meeting of that year that put CEO Marco Erin into a tricky position - a clash between his chief design team and his board of directors. This was made worse by the fact that tensions between these two groups had been frosty due to their different interests.
The board wanted a replacement for the Nedala, and wanted it to be turned into a luxury limousine much like the Jaguar XJ. His chief designers, however, disagreed; Howard Forgely, the man who had styled most of Erinâs cars for the past 17 years, suggested a proper GT car would be a much better move, given that the Nedala had never been a big seller and the limousine market didnât feel appropriate for Erin, and this was backed by Marcoâs main advisor Arnold Clark
The arguments got heated; should Marco trust the people who had stood by him and his father ever since they were first employed, or his board of directors, who had experience in the financial world and had slowly been corporatising the company since theyâd arrived?
He chose the latter, and the replacement for the Nedala was turned into a luxury saloon.
#1978 Erin Nedala (Mk 2)
If this car were a song, itâd be Station to Station by David Bowie.
When the Mk 2 Nedala launched in September 1978, it was heralded as a major achievement for the company. Highly advanced luxury technologies, stunning abstract design and an incredibly fast top-end trim. Amazingy too was how the Board of Directors had managed to develop the entire car without almost a single word of influence from the Designers; Marco had entrusted them to pull this car off.
Inside, they had packed the car with such features as electric seats, air con, rear window curtains, a champagne cooler, in-car telephone, optional custom interior design, specialist lighting and the most expensive audio system ever fitted into a car, courtesy of Marantz. The comfort was even better, as coupled to all of these features was a brilliant suspension setup that could absorb bumps with exceptional ease.
The styling also set a new standard for Erin. Forgeley had reluctanctly styled the car after a lot of arguing with Marco, and had turned this massive 5.5m long aircraft carrier of a car into an understated beauty. It would be the only Erin to feature such abstract design.
Far more impressive though was the performance. Two trims were available, one an âentry levelâ one powered by an enlarged version of the V8 in the previous one, increased to 4.0l and now featured mechanical fuel injection. The top end trim, called the GT-12, was the real star of the show; it had a 5.0l V12 under the bonnet that produced 404 hp, allowing this thing to accelerate to 60 in just 6.5 seconds and top out at 150 mph. In itâs short span of existence, then, it spent much of that time being one of the fastest 4 door cars in the world.
But Erin had been incredibly arrogant. Or rather the Board of Directors, whoâd forced the Mk 2âs birth, had been arrogant. They had no idea what this market was looking for, and the simple fact was that most customers in this region couldnât care less how feature packed the Nedala was when the entry level trim of this car cost almost as much as a top-of-the-range Jaguar XJ. Spend a little more, and you could have had the prestigious XJ12, which was very nearly as fast.
That wasnât the worst bit with of the price however; that issue was to be found in the GT-12 trim, which cost the equivalent of ÂŁ180,000. There wasnât a market in the world where people were going to spend that much money on a car like this.
Unsurprisingly, this car flopped. The first few months of sales were good, but come 1979, and everything fell apart. Erin ended up with around 160 GT-12s sitting around their warehouses with no one wanting to buy them before production of that trim was stopped in January. By this point, the conflict between the Board and the Designers was making the news, seriously damaging Erinâs image as Marco appeared to do nothing. Itâs no surprise then that, when Erin slashed the price of the GT-12 to just 60% of the original asking price, meaning they would make a loss on every one they sold, journalists started criticizing the company heavily.
Even then, they barely shifted. Worse still, the Mk 2 Comprida, launched the year before, was now flopping due to the car not even looking like other Erinâs and not really being a fully finished car. The Q1 earnings reports were dire, showing massive lack of sales across the board, and nothing that Marco tried could seem to resolve this. Further cuts to the Nedalaâs price tag only led to the company gaining a bad reputation.
He was forced to make some very serious decisions in August of that year, and chose to cut production of the Nedala and Comprida. They would be followed later in the year by the Tegale and Civera. Harold Forgely and Arnold Clark resigned along with the whole of the chief design team in September of that year, leaving Marco with no other allies nor advisers in his company. In his anger, Marco also dissolved the Board of Directors, who were fired for making such a massive cock-up with this car. It made losses in the region of ÂŁ150 million, which was simply too much to bare for the mid-sized car maker to bear.
Yet, the Mk 2âs story was more of a tragedy than anything else. The car itself was sublime, and many of its features have become luxury vehicle standards in the years since. It was also phenomenal to drive, and remains just about the most comfortable car Erin has ever made.
But it also came to represent everything that was wrong with Erin in the late 70s. The Board of Directors, whoâd wanted to turn Erin into a more common European brand with rivals to German makers had taken the heart away from the company, whoâd built themselves on their experimentation, simply choosing to make a car because they wanted to.
The Mk 1 Nedala was the embodiment of this spirit - it only ever sold because of its unusualness, not because it was a good car. The Mk 2, however advanced, showed that if Erin wanted to be corporate, it had to be in their heart and not just in their actions.
893 Nedalaâs sold in the end, of which just 172 were GT-12âs.
You can continue the story here.
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#2017 Erin X-iMOTiOn Crosstrek
Cheers to @Rk38 for the âcrosstrekâ bit
Yep, thatâs right. The economic conditions these days are tough. The automotive markets are changing. Desperate times call for desperate measures. After iffy Q1 sales reports in our lower-mid market range, the time has come to take action.
That action comes in the form of the first ever crossover from Erin. Meet the X-iMOTiOn Crosstrek!
Designed to compete with premium mini-suv offerings and offset our own mid-range estateâs like the Merna Touring and Tauga Touring, this is the start of a whole new era for the company to say the least. For now, the X-iMOTiOn Crosstrek will go on sale with a range of i4 and i6 engines, but a sportier X Tuned version will be making an appearance within the next 12 months.
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#Of course Erin isnât making a crossover. Ever. Never. Not even for an April Foolâs Day joke.
That car didnât even progress past the âDrive Typeâ selection panel
However, this is a good time to announce some changes that will be coming to Erin when the UE4 update is released.
Firstly, the story is going to be updated a bit.
Bits and bob in the lore will change and adapt, and I intend to put more focus on Erinâs engineering innovations. They will likely get their own posts and will basically be more fleshed out. Proper details on the history of Erin engines will also be included.
To help this, a new thread will be made.
This current thread will become the âErin Historicalâ thread, concerning everything that isnât related to the current range, while the new thread will be specifically for new cars. This means Iâll be able to go lore-crazy in this thread and then present the whole Erin line-up in one neat little package in the other.
Thirdly, weâre ditching the current trim naming scheme.
Why? Because itâs getting dull. And because a few months back, when I was desiging the Merna Mk 1 and Mk 2, I remembered how cool older trim names used to be. So, itâs goodbye âVox 3.5â or whatever, and hello â350LSâ and â140SEâ etc.
Fourthly, the current Erin line-up will be remade and reworked
Just to bring all the cars up to date with the current design style and to ensure they fit the engineering lore. The whole âaluminium bodyâ stuff is going to replaced by âpartial aluminium bodyâ for the sake of realness, while trims are also going to be redesigned and everything is going to be generally updated. Each car will then get a proper full release with stats and whatnot. Itâs going to be beautiful.
And yeah, thatâs about it. Just thought Iâd shared this with you guys because itâs as good a time as ever for an announcement. And happy April Fools Day
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Hmmph. I liked the Vox name 
But the rest sounds good 
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Wow, thatâs a nice CUV canât wait for the X-iMotion Crosstrek X Tuned version. Maybe thatâll finally give me an excuse to create an ST-R version of my CUVs. 
But still looking forward to the Maesima MQX-4 vs Erin X-iMotion Crosstrek comparison review 
But Iâd agree with @szafirowy01 I rather liked the Vox trim name they seemed quite unique compared to the older style ways.
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Ekhm⌠Balthazar Kilimanjaro RS? 
######Or, being immodest and aiming at something more expensive⌠Zavir Avventura Sportivo - yes, it will be a thing, and will have well over 400hp :>
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Thatâs true and well, I may have in fact already createdâŚUmm I mean âtestedâ ST-R versions of a certain CUVs. So they are definitely on the cards.
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@ramthecowy @szafirowy01 Interesting! I guess Iâve just become a bit bored of it? They still exist in the old universe thoughâŚ
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As far as April Foolâs Day jokes go the X-iMOTiOn is up there with the very best; that said, if Erin actually had to enter the crossover market, it would have been exactly what they would build - sharp looking and great to drive (for a crossover, anyway), as Erins have always been.
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