1990 - The roundening Pt 1: The Mk3 Klinos
Over are the years in which the almighty flagship Klinos shared its chassis and most of its body with the lesser Foreia.
The Mk4 Foreia, which had its fascia refreshed in 1987, will stay on sale for two more years, its own replacement not ready yet. The Klinos, however…
Uh oh, it seems like someone at FAAL ordered a big, meaty bucket of
PRESTANCE. Hide yo kids. Hide yo wife. Hide yo Renault 25 Baccara because this is the face of French luxury now.
The FAAL Stemma concept from the 1988 Paris auto show has been honoured with two more doors. Apart from that, very few designs tweaks can be noticed. On the side, we can see some actual door handles, for example.
The headlights and grille are literally the same. The bumper integrates a variation of the concept car’s triangular foglights made into a foglight, a deflector and the blinker, the whole thing being fitted on a meatier front bumper because safety rules are a thing. The headlight mounted blinker disappeared, replaced by smaller parking lights. USDM versions had that parking light be amber, though.
There is, however, a clear change in the rear taillight ensemble design. They have been made smaller in order to maximize the boot opening, and the license plate moved from the rear bumper to said boot. The trunk latch is hidden, right above the license plate, and is actually one of the first electronic trunk latches of the car industry. Not flagship for nothing, eh.
Just like the previous model, the chassis is galvanized, and it’s sitting on a double wishbone all around suspension system. Just like the previous model, it has standard hydropneumatic suspension.
Unlike the previous model, though, aluminium was used in the body panels to reduce weight. Also, TETRA AWD was not standard. Since the Klinos was now its own model, FAAL thought that they could tone it down a bit to broaden its appeal to uppermarket Foreia buyers that were more about image than about comfort and driving experience. That wasn’t all done at the car’s very early release though, because not everything was ready. Indeed, FAAL was working on new ways to cast piston rings in order to make them way more precise, and therefore more efficient that they currently were, for maximizing fuel economy. Unfortunately, that technology wasn’t quite ready yet, so FAAL didn’t release the Klinos with all of its planned engine range yet.
Guess what was ready though. The 408R engine block from the Stemma concept car. The French V8 has arrived! And so has the electronically controlled S-Tronic gearbox, though amputated from one speed, leaving only 4.
Engines available in 1990:
- 2.5L 150hp inline 5 255R25Mpi Euro 1, available with FWD 5 speed manual, TETRA 5 speed manual, TETRA S-Tronic.
- 2.1L 200hp turbo inline 5 255R21MpiT Euro 1, available with TETRA 5 speed manual or S-Tronic
- 4.0L 260hp V8 408R40 Euro 1, only available with TETRA S-Tronic
By 1991, the development of the new piston rings was done, which added two more engines to the lower spectrum of the car, which had a much better fuel consumption than their upper end counterparts:
- 2.1L 130hp inline 5 255R21Mpi Euro 1, available with FWD 5 speed manual, TETRA 5 speed manual.
- 2.5L 120hp Turbo Diesel inline 5 255P25TD3, available with FWD 5 speed manual, TETRA 5 speed manual.
In previsions of the new European Emissions Standards about to be put in place, all engines except diesels were fitted with a catalytic converter.
As for the trims:
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GL: Base trim, body coloured everything. Cloth seats. Power locks. Front power windows, AC, cloth seats. Four speaker cassette radio. Standard 16’ wheels. Optional Climate Control, rear power windows, 8 speaker radio. Available with 2.1L N/A, 2.5L and 2.5L Turbo Diesel engines.
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GLS: Mid trim. Chrome grille. Cloth seats. Power locks. Front and rear power windows. Climate control. 8 speaker radio. Standard 17" wheels. Optional remote locking, subwoofer, leather seats, wood trim. Available with 2.5L, 2.1L Turbo and 2.5L Turbo Diesel engines.
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Kerasion: Exclusive trim. Chrome everything. Leather half bucket seats, black or creme. Climate control. 8 speaker cassette radio + subwoofer. Remote locking. Power everything. Standard 18’ BBW wheels. Standard heated seats, optional heated steering wheel and mirrors. Optional phone. Three different types of wood trim. Available originally only with the V8 engine, but later with the 2.1L Turbo.
The name “Kerasion” comes from the greek κεράσι (kerási), meaning “Cherry.” This car was, just like the Klinos altogether, the cherry on top of the FAAL lineup, all smooth and juicy and appealing.
…
That was before the guys from Derrickson came along and decided to turn the Klinos into the absolute ultimate epitome of French luxury, laughing in the face of the germans. Since they were already making performance parts for the 204R 4 cylinder engine family which the 408R V8 is the offspring of, they decided to slap two of their turbo kits originally meant for said 204R on the V8, making the power rise to 370hp. Great! Now the car is unstable! So they had to enlarge the body in order to fit wider tires on three piece BBW wheels similar to the ones the original car was on. They also had to fit an aero kit (a lip and a wing) in order to keep the car stable at the amazing 263km top speed it was now capable of. But why stop here?
Derrickson also subcontracted a fully hand made leather interior. Seats, door panels, dashboard, everything. As well as a more powerful sound system. There was really nothing left for the car to have… And you could feel that in the bonkers price of 485000 francs! (112000€ adjusted from inflation).
The high price comes from Derrickson having to buy Klinos Kerasions V8 at full price before the conversion. Because of this, very few have been sold, despite the package being a factory approved aftermarket option. An estimation of about 167 Klinos Kerasion Derrickson have been made between 1991 and 1993.
Okay, the flagship’s out. Now for the rest of the nineties. Coming next: Growing up - The 1991 Mesaia