IP Automotive LTD. (1982-92 Urbana)

Given its nature, 45000C as a metallic color works best on premium and luxury cars, especially those from the 1980s onward.

1991-95 IP ICARUS


Released in the early 60s, the IP Icarus were for many years the largest and most luxurious “regular” car from the brand. The Royalist was after all just hand built on special order.


In 1991, the eighth generation Icarus was introduced. The styling was a little less boxy and conservative, underneath the new, sleeker body the main news was the multilink suspension in the rear, replacing the semi trailing arms of its predecessor, and the optional 5 speed computer controlled automatic. The manual transmission option was dropped for this generation, meaning that the standard transmission was a 4 speed computer controlled automatic.


All the gasoline engines were the same 18 valve V6 that had been powering the Icarus since its sixth generation, the 4 cylinder engines had been dropped already at the launch of the seventh generation. In its base spec it had a displacement of 2 litres and was naturally aspirated. There were also a 3 litre N/A version and a 3 litre turbo version. Diesel versions all had a 95 hp 2.8 litre N/A inline six.


There were many equipment levels available, from the lowly “DX” models (mainly for fleet sales) to the ultra luxurious VIP. The model shown here is the “GLT”, a more sports oriented trim featuring the 3 litre turbo.


If 255 hp wasn’t enough, the turbo version could be equipped with a tuning kit from IMOS (IP Motorsports), like the car pictured here. 295 hp gave it a top speed of 271 km/h and a 0-100 time of 5.8 seconds, competitive with the best luxury sports sedans of the era.


Even on the inside, IP aimed to be competitive in the top segment. Choices of materials should be on par with the toughest competition, as well as the styling. As the first model from the company, all models except the DX featured a standard passenger side airbag to also keep safety on par with the best competitors.


Another new feature was the optional CD player. Depending on trim level, it could be had as a 4- or 5-seater, with the VIP having its rear seats individually adjustable. Velour or leather upholstery were available, the DX could be specially ordered with vinyl due to being aimed at the fleet market.


With the bar in this class being raised quickly, the eighth generation Icarus lived on until 1995.

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This is a Lexus GS/Mercedes E type car, right? Anyways it looks very nice, much more detailing than I put into my cars.

Yes, IRL they would absolutely be among the closest competitors.

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1993-97 IP ROYAL VAGANT


The IP Vagant was released in 1968, to fill the slot below the Icarus. In 1989, a new, slightly smaller, front wheel drive, V6 powered Vagant was introduced. Since there was fear that it would scare away some of the more conservative buyers, the inline six, RWD line was continued under the name “Royal Vagant”.


The second generation Royal Vagant was introduced in 1993. The news underneath was mostly a multilink rear suspension, like the one introduced in the 1991 Icarus, other than that it remained fairly traditional.


Only one bodystyle was available, a 4 door sedan. It could, however, be ordered in multiple trim levels, from the fleet oriented DX, via the more luxurious GLX, and the top of the line, turbocharged GLT.


Three gasoline engines were available, all of them inline sixes. 2 litre N/A, 2.5 litre N/A and 2.5 litre turbo. Also available was a 2.8 litre inline six N/A diesel.


For the gearbox, your choices were a 5 speed manual, 4 speed computer controlled automatic, or 5 speed computer controlled automatic.


For its time, the Royal Vagant in its GLX and GLT iterations had a fairly decent level of standard equipment. Safety was upgraded from the previous generation, featuring things like dual airbags and an optional traction control system.


Despite that, it was not a top seller. It squeezed into a quite tight segment, between the regular FWD Vagant, the more luxurious Icarus and the sportier Celestia models. What kept the model series alive was probably DX models for fleet markets in Asia.


That also means that there was only one more generation of the Royal Vagant released after this one got a replacement in 1997. In 2002, Royal Vagant production came to an end.

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I really like how you build a fleshed out lineup, with all the models having some logical reason and place to exist
 and stop existing. Do you have a timeline or sth showing how all of those models are positioned? TBH I’m lost in IP’s sedan offer, despite following the brand :smiley:

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Well, it kind of is trying to reflect how japanese manufacturers in the end had overcrowded model lineups in the 90s where in house models were each others worst competitors
 Now, for different reasons I didn’t want to make yet another japanese company so I put it in a fictive asian country, but you know that story already


There is some logic behind everything and some day I might give a better explanation, as you suggest, but if the Vagant - Royal Vagant relationship feels strange it could maybe be compared to Toyota Camry and Cressida, or Nissan Maxima and Laurel. Or maybe even a non-japanese example, Volvo 850/70-series and 900-series. In all three cases the more traditional model eventually had to bite the bullet.

This leads to the IP sedan lineup being heavily reduced in the early 00s.

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So, I was bored and curious


All the info comes from this thread only. Grey ones you’ve presented here, yellow ones were mentioned with their production years defined or inferred from other info, orange ones are the same just without exact generations defined.

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You’re on the right track. What did you use to make this overview?

Google Sheets, I use it for all my timelines :smiley: (that’s why I had a pre-made template with years)

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I was guessing that, just double checked to be sure. I might use that to put up some improved timelines then.


OK, not as flashy, but here is an overview of what once upon a time could be called the “regular” lineup, the ones where the “base” for the model is either a sedan or hatchback, some of them may or may not be able in other bodystyles, like coupĂ©, convertible, wagon, etc., and also, where the cars are designed for ICEs from the start - I start here since that was what you found a bit confusing.

1940s
Lily and nothing more, a rather basic and small car at the time. :laughing:

1950s
Lily is still the baseline in the model programme. A few Royalist luxury limousines is hand built every year, mostly for the home market, starting in 1955.

1960s
For buyers wanting to move upmarket (hint when trying to follow this, Royalist is NEVER a viable alternative for the masses, think of it like a Toyota Century but with less retro quirkiness in later years), the Icarus is introduced in 1960, more of a large and roomy family car than an outright luxury car at the introduction.

Since there is still a decent gap in the model programme, the Celestia is filling up the gap between the small and economical Lily and the large Icarus from 1963 on, a family sedan that while being practical also put some emphasis on sportiness (which has been part of its image since then) with lower weight than the Icarus and more powerful engines than the Lily.

Still, the Lily had moved slightly upmarket, and was no longer the small economy car it had been at its release, and hence, the Commuter was introduced in 1966 to fill the slot below it.

The Icarus moved a bit closer towards the luxury segment by the introduction of the second generation in 1967, and the Vagant filled up the gap that was created between the Celestia and the Icarus. It also had a more traditional, less sporty, family car image than the Celestia.

1970s
Front wheel drive city cars were the future. The Mini paved the way, Autobianchi followed behind and IP caught up with the Colibri, released in 1970. Not much smaller than the Commuter, but using a fully modern concept instead of leaf sprung solid axle RWD. When the Lily appeared in a new generation in 1973, it grew significantly and moved more upmarket. Even more upmarket was the six cylinder Lily introduced as a flirt with the US market. Having an image of just being a “broughamized” Lily rather than its own model, it wasn’t cannibalizing that much on the sporty Celestia or larger Vagant as it sounds like
at least in theory.

Moving the Lily upmarket, however, created a gap down to the Commuter, that was filled up with the Warbler the same year. A compact car really being close to the 1968-72 Lily in size. No six cylinder engines available and no hint of broughamizing.

1980s
The decade of front wheel drive. The Commuter and Warbler both switched for 1982, and the Lily followed in 1985. Since the Colibri also had grown a bit and now was closer to a car sized like Golf, Alfasud etc. the Urbana was introduced as a model a step below the Colibri. In 1989, the six cylinder Lily models were dropped and spun off into their own model series, the Vagant, renaming the traditional model series the Royal Vagant.

1990s
More or less nothing happened, but tight model changes and model series cannibalizing each other made the lineup a mess. The Commuter was eating into both the Colibri and the Warbler, as well as the Vagant, Royal Vagant and Celestia overlapping each other pretty much, despite being aimed at different customer bases, hence something had to be done.

2000s
First car to be axed was the Royal Vagant after 2002, since it was very difficult to find any rational reason to keep it in production. The Commuter, Warbler and Lily was combined into one model series from 2005 on, the Dryad. Maybe less important, the name Icarus was dropped and replaced by “Bolero”, so this really was a decade of killing off the darlings.

2010s
Again, not much happened, but with SUVs and crossovers eating into the sedan market, as well as a switchover to EVs being in the horizon, the future for many models seemed gloomy.

2020s
The Urbana and Bolero was dropped after 2022, the Vagant after 2023. This means that the remaining “regular” lines of ICE cars now are the Colibri, Dryad and Celestia, with the Royalist still holding its special position. The Colibri being a compact “bread and butter” FWD hatchback, the Dryad a somewhat larger and somewhat nicer FWD sedan, and the Celestia a RWD sports sedan, a bit larger but still rather compact. It should be said, though
being quite long in the tooth with no updates
should the Celestia maybe fear the worst soon? To be continued



Yes, I didn’t move the models too much size wise here, what Hshan did with the Lily and Warbler in 1973 is probably right, as an example. But I guess it might clear things up a bit.

(OOPS! I see now that I jumped the Celestia generation count a bit, oh well, you can see the fault I guess)

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Hoo boy, you got everything fleshed out and then some! Dare I say you’d make a great car company executive.

Meanwhile I just make up whatever pops into my mind :woozy_face:

This is inspiring! So, just getting things straight in my head, the late 70s/early 80s IP models were like this, right?-

Colibri- Tercel/Startlet/Polo/Fiesta/Cherry
Commuter- Corrola/Golf/Escort/Sunny
Warbler- Inbetweener?
Lily- Corona/Skyline/Bluebird/Cortina/Passat
Celestia- Chaser/Skyline
Vagant- Mark II/Laurel
Icarus- Crown/Cedric/Gloria/Granada

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The IP Royal Vagant is thought out to the smallest detail. However, he had some oddities.
First, I find it odd what model inscription closing all entire the back panel, because at that time, in 1993, was a much more modest capitalism,
And secondly, the suspension is rather understated, not a common vehicle at all.
What unambiguously succeeded is the interior: just boring and austere, as it should be in 1993. All in all, it is a masterpiece.

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Yes, you have gotten it quite right. The Warbler could be seen as the Nissan Violet or Toyota Carina of IP then. A little bit smaller, a little bit more “youthful” than the Lily (or Corona/Bluebird).

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OK, I stopped doing stuff like this because people didn’t seem interested, but since it seemed to spark a bit of interest now, here comes part 2, the sports cars/coupĂ©s. Vehicles built as such ones from the ground up, there is lots of models from part 1 that got coupĂ© variations in rather sporty versions too, but since they are already covered in part 1


1960s
The Flaire was released in 1963, a roadster drawing much inspiration from Britain, borrowing lots of mechanical components from the Icarus. In 1969, it turned into a more upmarket and more GT kind of affair, with a coupé body, IRS and a six cylinder engine.

1970s
In 1975, the Flaire got a little brother in form of the Pandora, a smaller, cheaper coupé, still with a backseat slightly more useful than the Flaire, which in its first generation was borrowing mechanical components from the Commuter and Warbler models.

1980s
The 1980 Ocelot was spun off as a replacement for the Vagant Starglider coupé. Like the Vagant was a less sporty, more luxurious, more traditional alternative to the Celestia sedans, the Ocelot was kind of the personal luxury car alternative to the more sporty Celestia coupés (see info in last post about the Celestia). In the same way, the 1982 Florette was a replacement to the coupé version of the IP Colibri, being heavily based on that car it also was front wheel drive unlike the other IP sports coupés.

1990s
With personal luxury coupĂ©s falling out of fashion, the Ocelot lasted only for two generations and was axed in 1992. The same thing goes for the Florette, that didn’t get a replacement after third generation production ended in 1997.

2000s
The Pandora was the next model to be axed in 2003, leaving the Flaire as the only sports car left in the lineup.

2010s
The Cedesca, being a competitor in the supercar segment, was added for the 2010 model year. (The name might sound like nonsense, but will get an explanation if I put up a post about the car, too long to write here.)

2020s
Nothing to write about, at least yet.

So, to use @Restomod 's comparision from last time, using the same brands


Florette- Paseo/EXA/NX
Pandora- Celica/AE86/Scirocco/Capri/Silvia
Flaire- Supra/Fairlady
Ocelot- Soarer/Leopard
Cedeca- GTR

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Allright, I will wait for your explanation about Ocelot (interesting and boring sedan?) and Cedesca.

Hmm, I don’t quite get the positioning of the Celestia Coupe (BTW, Celestia is probably my favourite both as a name and as the kind of car) compared to the Ocelot and the Flaire. I’m waiting for the SUV/utility part, and in the meantime making my own brand’s timeline inspired by this :grin: (so far I’ve got some edge puzzles and no middle ones)

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this timeline idea is brilliant, it gives the whole thing a bit of a “wikipedia” vibe to how the cars all run

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