| Auricom | |
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| Type | Dual hull |
| Full Name | Auricom Research Industries |
| Japanese Name | オーリコム (Ōrikomu) |
| Established | 2046 |
| Location | 
/File:Flag of Canada.gif North America |
| Key People |
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| Livery |
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| First Appearance | Wipeout |
| Motto |
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| Known Pilots |
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Auricom Research Industries are an Anti-Gravity racing team based in the United States of America (North America). They are one of the only two teams to have been featured in every game in the series, 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 then-director of Qirex. Flaubert, a fervent follower of Pierre Belmondo's philosophy of the development of AG technology for the good of mankind, believed that the technology should be used to enforce a comradely competition so that the ultimate winners are the people of the Earth.
This was her side of the argument while she was still at odds with McQueen and, as such, Belmondo sympathized with her. Using Belmondo's name might have been considered an attempt to provoke McQueen, but whether this was true or not, 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.
Their rivalry with Qirex continued as time passed until the late 2140s, when the Russian industrial sector was suffering a downfall, leading Qirex to be taken over by Tigron Enterprises, which 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, the pilot champion Natasha Belmondo left them and joined Xios International. As a result, Auricom would also have a fierce rivalry with Xios throughout the League. This later proved true with the intense feud between their respective directors and pilots prior to 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 title, with their lead pilot Pascale Rouser claiming the pilot championship title. 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 societies. After witnessing the success of the amateur FX150 League, they returned to professional AG racing with the formation of the FX300 League in 2197 with a ship that was considerably faster and tougher than before, having developed their engine and shield technologies since their participation 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. Their performance was also somehow troublesome, as there were many technical tracks in the League, while their ship 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 to assumptions that Auricom could no longer keep up with the professional competition. However, the team openly denied the public speculations about them.
Auricom would make no mistake for their FX400 campaign. Their new ship had shown such great top speed, albeit with a few handling issues, and the team appeared to be still enjoying a substantial wealth of resources. Fundamentally, 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 & Stats
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Auricom Research Industries | |||||
| Wipeout (F3600) |
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| Thrust | Speed | Handling | |||
| 6/10 | 8/10 | 6/10 | |||
| Wipeout 2097/XL/64 (F5000) |
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| Thrust | Speed | Handling | Shield | ||
| 5/10 | 6/10 | 5/10 | 5/10 | ||
| Wipeout 3 (F7200) |
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| Thrust | Speed | Shield | Handling | ||
| 6/10 | 6/10 | 6/10 | 6/10 | ||
| Wipeout Fusion (F9000) |
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| Speed | Thrust | Handling | Shield | ||
| 7.5/10 | 5/10 | 6/10 | 8/10 | ||
| Wipeout Pure (FX300) |
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| Speed | Handling | Shield | Thrust | ||
| 8/10 | 6/10 | 8/10 | 4/10 | ||
| Wipeout Pulse (FX400) |
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| Speed | Thrust | Handling | Shield | ||
| 9/10 | 7/10 | 6/10 | 9/10 | ||
| Wipeout HD (FX350) |
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| Speed | Thrust | Handling | Shield | ||
| 9/10 | 7/10 | 6/10 | 9/10 | ||
| Wipeout HD Fury (FX350) |
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| Speed | Thrust | Handling | Shield | ||
| 9/10 | 7.5/10 | 7/10 | 9/10 | ||
| Wipeout 2048 (AGRC) |
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| Speed | |||||
| Speed | Handling | Health | Firepower | ||
| 9/10 | 5/10 | 6/10 | 7/10 | ||
| Fighter | |||||
| Speed | Handling | Health | Firepower | ||
| 5/10 | 5/10 | 10/10 | 9/10 | ||
| Agility | |||||
| Speed | Handling | Health | Firepower | ||
| 6/10 | 7/10 | 7/10 | 8/10 | ||
| NOTE: All data have been altered to show similar information for better comparison between ships (e.g. Wipeout Pure stats have been adjusted from 5 to 10) | |||||
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. 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 a great speed, and is also very robust. Despite this, the lack of thrust is the only problem. 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 on thrust.
Gallery
Trivia
- In Wipeout 3, it says that Auricom was established in 2025. However, this has now been retconned to 2046.
- The Auricom motto in the FX400 League is in part a pun on the phrase, "The American Way".
| Anti-Gravity Racing Teams in Wipeout |
|---|
| AG Systems • Assegai • Auricom • EG-X • FEISAR • Goteki 45 • Harimau • Icaras • Mirage • Piranha • Qirex • Triakis • Van-Über |
| Defunct/Former Teams: EG-R • G-Tech • Tigron • Xios |