Thoughts on Van Uber and Tigron

[Thane Corrigan]

A little bit dissapointed with Van-Uber's lack of design throwbacks, but its not really surprising giving that its a scrapped model for Tigron that was retextured (Source is from the Omega Collection Digital Artbook, if anyone's interested).

Personally, this Van-Über looks pretty similar to the F9000/FX300 ones in basic design, considering the borderline Tri-Hull of Fusion and Pure. The central pod even looks inspired by one of those 1930s German cars, my guess is a Mercedes-Benz 770. It's just that the "arms" are unusually shaped, as well as the entire back area.

But yes indeed. From the evidence in the concept art book and the ships' design cues, it very much looks as if Van-Über would have been Tigron HD, and the Tigron we have now was intended to be Tigron Fury.

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As an aside, from a kooky conspiracy-theorist lore point of view and not including the Über/Tigron ship design, things seem a bit more interesting in the FX350.

The Tigron training team funded partially by Qirex was disbanded in order to remove any links back to the dark days of AG racing. Van-Über stays onboard after Pure (FX300) to do pre-season testing (Wipeout HD/FX350) for Pulse (FX400) with all the other constructors, with a bright future in pure racing with minimal combat.

Suddenly, "Tigron" returns for the FX350 with an unknown team director, unknown pilot and funding completely uncontrolled by Qirex. They sport an old F9000 combat chassis that was stolen from one of Tigron's factories, and dominate the race track, forcing Triakis and other teams linked with weapons and defense contracting to respond with their own battle-ready ships in order to keep them in check. To try and alleviate the problem, the Fury league is launched by the AG Racing Commission to reintroduce combat events without too much damage to the reputation of the racing league.

Nevertheless, Van-Über are horrified to see a return to the battlefield racing tactics of the F9000, and decide to withdraw entirely. Mysteriously, soon after Tigron withdraws too, but the seeds of the Fury/Pulse elimination league were planted.