Imagine a new WipEout team....

[Airrider]

(I'm on a Fury kick and dammit, I'm gonna make the most of it! This is my personal case for a Zone team...)


Velos Escudo

Base of Operations: Airborne facilities near Sol 2

Team Manager: Dr. Helmut Van Derwesten

Team Bio: Dr. Van Derwesten was the mastermind behind the worldwide energy drink phenomenon known as Escudo in 2287, and after more than a decade of success, the good Doctor decided the best way to celebrate was with an AG racing team. However, his corporate advisors told him creating a team from the ground-up was going to be a drain of resources from his recent diversifying into other properties such as Escudo-branded candies, apparel, and other merchandise, so he needed a way to make a good team quickly and uniquely.
Enter Alicia Norn, a friend of his from the AG Racing administration very closely tied to the workings of competition in Zone and its sister competitions in the current league, who found him connections leading to a concept twin-hull Zone ship design that greatly resembled the more-practical current Zone design, narrower and with rear fins and, radically, tiny canards at the front of each hull. The Zone commission needed a way to get rid of a craft that was essentially a bunch of dead weight and a rather faded memory for them, and miss Norn decided the best way was to put the design to work as a racing vehicle. With fine-tuning, some design changes here and there and a spiffy new paintjob, Dr. Van Derwesten had a team to be proud of without having to break the bank.

Ship Bio: The VR-500Z v.2.3 is Velos Escudo's competition craft. Designed with speed in mind because of its tight connections to Zone's development, this craft is fast and nimble, but its shielding is still quite deficient. Dr. Van Derwesten specified in his pilot search that he wanted thrillseeking types who already had experience in dangerous situations to avoid having pilots who fell back on shielding and tried to use their ships as battering rams like he had seen in previous leagues, and if at all possible, to help advertising for the Escudo corporation, anyone who could live "The Escudo Lifestyle," which is an active life associated with extreme sports and modern culture. While the craft and the team were mocked during their debut at an offseason exhibition race in Metropia as being "the next Icaras," a bunch of paper dragsters that would crash more than they would finish, their strong 1-and-3 finish quickly silenced any naysayers.
It would seem that winning, too, is part of The Escudo Lifestyle.

Lead Pilot: Maria Cristabella
Secondary Pilot: Tetsuo "Momo" Domo

Ship Stats:
Thrust: 9
Top Speed: 10
Shield: 5.5
Handling: 7.5