Thought I’d finally get around to a showcase thread for my brands. It’s not like I’m two to three years behind or anything…
Anyway, this is going to be a collected thread for all three rather than clutter it up with multiple threads, to make it easer for everyone to keep track of. Especially the idiot behind the keyboard posting this stuff.
Starting at the bottom of the price tier, Airman is my Chevy/Ford counterpart. Entry level pricing (If I can pull it off) and broad appeal. Style–wise, think more Saab inspired; not like they’re using it or anything. This one came about initially because with Ibis not coming into existence until the 70’s I needed a brand to fill in for the preceding years. Eventually I got tired of fighting stats with Ibis figured Airman would work better at the bottom of the ladder than Ibis.
Ibis is next up the ladder, and it’s what I consider a “premium” brand. It’s one of those brands that’s there when you’re too cheap for the good stuff, but to good for the cheap stuff. Throw in some rear wheel drive and sportier leanings, and that’s the whole gist of it. As far as basic lore, it came about in the late 60’s, early 70’s when the founder had a disagreement with the executives at a major brand over development and engineering—he wanted to focus on small & fun cars and the execs said “No thanks.”
Kerberos is my luxury brand, and the basic premise is What if Cadillac never made a car smaller than the Seville? Or went front wheel drive? The smallest car or SUV it’ll put out is 5 Series/E Class. For smaller & more affordable stuff it ended up buying out a competitor (Hydrion) in the early 90’s and making them the front drive and 3 Series/C Class stuff. For the Rolls/Bentley/Ferrari competitors they have the Spartan CoachWorks, which is an in–house coachbuilding arm; like what if AMG did more than sports cars.
Now that introductions are out of the way let’s get to the actual cars, shall we?
After numerous retcons and internal debates, meet the new first production Ibis—the 1972 Ibis Kestrel. It’s got a boxer 6 with DAOHC heads, five speed, rear wheel drive, and a two–way catalytic converter. It’ll get to 60MPH eventually, top out at 103MPH (tomorrow, maybe), and get 20MPG.
So with CSR152 my initial entry was what I ended up submitting, but for a hot minute I thought about doing a mid–engined two seater to try and differentiate the entry from everyone else’s. Thus, the '05 Ibis Raptor GT8. It’s got a 348hp flat plane V8 at 269 cubic inches. It’ll get it to 100kph in 4.4 with a top speed of 186. Total cost is $43 800.
Back at it again, and trying to climb out of a funk establish some basic lore to build on, even if it changes as needed. Also I still want to try and stay sharp taking a break from competitions.
With all the Ibis love off camera (per se) I figured it was time to start nailing down some Airman basics. I’ve seen Airman as a domestic also–ran similar to AMC, where they can’t quite field a full lineup. With the gas crisis and the auto–pocalypse in the late 70’s early 80’s they knew they had one last chance to stay relevant. So they put all their chips on a front drive full sizer packing a one size fits all, fuel injected I5 in various displacements. And it worked. This, however isn’t that car.
This car is the victory lap. After 20 years of focusing on their passenger car lineup and nailing down the basics it was time to have some fun. This car is a 2002 mid–engine, 422hp 5.2L DOHC V8 in an all aluminium wrapper putting the power to the rear wheels through a automated sequential shift manual with six speeds. Top speed runs about 195mph with a 4.1 second sprint to 62mph. The price runs about what you’d spend on a Corvette for the era. I’m calling it the Blackbird.
Doing some experimenting with fixtures and looks, so I thought I’d circle back around to Ibis and make another “canon” sports car. This particular effort is a 2015 aluminium/carbon unibody called the Jaeger GTS and is something of a budget supercar, comparatively at about AMU$63k. It uses a 6.2L DOHC 4v V8 with aluminium block and AlSi heads and a dual clutch six speed pushing to the rears. It’s got a 50/50 balance, and my internal justification is it uses a rear mount transaxle. It’ll get to 62 in 3.8 seconds with a top speed of 197MPH and 17MPG. Another personal justification is that the Ford GT–esque fins are part of the whole rear wing setup (and there’s actually a modular wing mirrored and buried in the fin); as per usual the front wing is disguised as the front spoiler. Probably the biggest personal hurdle for me was making the '05 Aston body look modern–ish, and I’m not too disappointed with the efforts.
Still working on differentiating my different brands, and I think I’m starting to get a handle on it. I’ve settled on Airman as Saab-rolet, Ibis as Ponti-Alfa Romeo, Hydrion as Not-Buick/Not-Opel, and Kerberos so far as Jag-illac.
As a frame of reference, shown here is the Mako from QFC27 (at 190" long) with the Ibis Osprey (at 192" long). I was trying to channel some Alfaesque dramatic fender flares on a fancy-ish family sedan for AMU$30k. I’m not a total fan, but given most of my designs I end up fighting the engine I’m not displeased with it.
