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Auricom Research Industries are an Anti-Gravity racing team based in the United States of America. They are one of the only two teams to have featured in every game in the series so far, the other being FEISAR.

History[]

Auricom Research Industries was founded in 2046 by Delia Flaubert, who previously worked for AG Systems before she was dismissed along with Holst McQueen, the future founder of the AG division of Qirex. A fervent believer in Pierre Belmondo's philosophy of the development of AG technology for the good of mankind, Flaubert insisted that the technology should be used to enforce a fair and friendly competition so that the ultimate winners are the people of the Earth.

This was Flaubert's side of the argument while she was still at odds with McQueen, causing Belmondo himself to sympathize with her. Using Belmondo's name may have been considered an attempt to provoke McQueen, but whether or not this was true, Auricom and Qirex have always had a fierce rivalry since the beginning. This was particularly evident with the rivalries between their pilots in the F3600 League.

The Auricom team's rivalry with Qirex continued as time passed until the late 2140s, when the Russian industrial sector was suffering a downfall, leading to the hostile takeover of Qirex by Tigron Enterprises, who targeted Auricom as a matter of principle. This, coupled with Auricom's belief that they were the only remaining guardians of Belmondo's ideals following AG Systems' unfortunate demise, made the Auricom-Tigron rivalry so volatile that it was even rumoured that the cost of replacing destroyed craft for both teams over a few seasons ran into billions.

Shortly after the inaugural season of the F9000 League ended, Auricom's championship-winning pilot Natasha Belmondo announced her switch to Xios International. As a result, the Auricom team would also have a bitter rivalry with Xios throughout the League, which all started with a mean-spirited mockery on Xios' part over the pilot transfer. This later proved true with the intense feud between their respective directors and pilots on the eve of the 2160 season.

Auricom withdrew from the F9000 at the end of the 2168 season because of the increasing corruption and danger of the competition, switching its attention to civil programmes, including public transport. This was not before Auricom won that year's League championship title, with their lead pilot Pascale Rouser also claiming the pilots' championship title – the team wanted to let the F9000 International Federation know that they would not leave quietly. At least, this way Auricom had survived the fall of the F9000 League.

During the post-fall depression, Auricom continued their civil programmes by making all their efforts to aid the recovery of American society. After witnessing the success of the amateur FX150 League, they returned to professional AG racing following the announcement of the FX300 League in 2197, with a craft that was considerably faster and tougher than before, having developed their engine and shield technologies ever since they competed in the F9000 League.

While in the League, however, the Auricom team struggled to keep up with fellow veterans, not to mention the newcomers Triakis, who had emerged as one of the top teams of the time. Their performance was also said to have fallen far short of their expectations, as they had only been able to achieve a handful of podium finishes. This was likely because their craft left something to be desired, especially the thrusters.

As a result, Auricom had been muted in their preparation for the FX400 League. They unusually became a late entry, and they did not even release any pre-season test data, leading Auricom to be accused of being unable to stomach the current competition, especially when it comes to their historic rivalry with Qirex. However, the team openly denied the public speculations about them.

In fact, Auricom had assured that they would do well in the FX400 League. Their new craft had exhibited such great top speed, albeit with a few "handling issues", and the team appeared to be still enjoying a substantial wealth of resources. And most importantly, Auricom would not want to give the Qirex team an easy shot at the League. Since Qirex had been in the League earlier, Auricom definitely had no choice but to catch up with them.

FX300 Background[]

Up until its shock withdrawal from the F9000 League in 2168, the Auricom organisation had competed in each evolution of anti-gravity racing since its inception.

Eager to escape the fate of the corrupted league, Auricom would turn its attention to a US government mass transport contract instead, developing the Anti-Gravity Bus fleet to ease the escalating congestion and pollution endured by the country. Now, 29 years after it left the scene, Auricom's FX300 entry appears to be both strong and fast – in the best traditions of this historic team.

FX400 Background[]

Auricom have been muted in their preparation for the inaugural season of the FX400 Racing League, with little being seen of their new ship outside of private testing. Their entry has also been uncharacteristically late, and nothing is known of their pilot roster for the 2207 campaign.

Could the American team be sandbagging or are they running scared?

It would be foolish to assume the latter – Auricom still enjoy a wealth of resources, and rumour has it that the new ship has an incredible top end speed, but that test pilots have reported "handling issues".

Quite how that will affect one of the longest standing teams in AG Racing will be revealed soon enough. One thing is for sure, Auricom have never resisted the temptation to race against their bitter rivals, Qirex. Come the first race, they'll be ready.

FX400 Message[]

Statement by Auricom PR

At Auricom we are deep in preparation for the FX400 Racing League.

Our development programme remains on schedule and we intend to reveal our racing package at Talon's Junction for the first event of the season.

Appearance, Evolution and Stats[]

Auricom may have sported the heaviest craft in the original Wipeout, but it was also supported by good top speed, and balanced thrust and handling. As such, it was well suited on long tracks with a large amount of weapons used, as its weight allowed the craft to withstand weapon fire better than any other machine.

In 2097 and Wipeout 3, the Auricom craft was average in every way, though not quite up to the FEISAR standard. By contrast to the original single hulled craft, the F5000 and F7200 models adopted a dual hulled design, which would become a signature feature of most Auricom craft in later games. In 2097, the Auricom craft is a good step up from the AG Systems craft, but still handles well enough to be very useful in the faster speed classes. However, despite the superior shields compared to AG Systems, they are still outmatched by some of the other teams.

However, from their appearance in Fusion and on, Auricom ships have considerably better speed and shield than their predecessors, having improved these two traits since that game. On the other hand, it all comes at the expense of thrust and handling.

Auricom, as it is in Pure, has great speed and is also very robust, though it has comparatively low thrust. However, thanks to its good handling, Auricom has the tightest turning compared to the other heavyweight ships.

The Auricom ship in Pulse is slightly different from the Pure model, but retains the traits from Pure, albeit with a slight improvement on thrust at the cost of handling. While the handling is an issue, the ship is considerably more reliable. The Auricom ship model in HD is also slightly different from the previous games, though it is statistically identical to that of Pulse. The Auricom Fury ship, at least has the handling problem solved thanks to the enhancement on this. Along with this, the ship has been given a slight increase in thrust.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • The team name is a reference to the 1994 rail shooter video game Novastorm, also made by Psygnosis.
    • This is in reference to the manufacturer of the generic enemy ships in said game, Auricom Systems.
  • In Wipeout 3, it says that Auricom was established in 2025. However, this has since been retconned to 2046.
  • The Auricom motto in the FX400 League is in part a pun on the phrase, "The American Way".
  • Auricom are the pioneers of dual-hulled ship designs, as seen with their prototype during the AGRC, and have been accustomed to this design since the F5000.
    • This later led to Qirex using a similar dual-hulled chassis starting with the F5000 era, and later on, the chassis layout became popular with newer teams in future Leagues.
  • If the track map in the Wipeout Rush mobile game is any indication, then Auricom's headquarters are located in New York.
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