Fulton Motor Company

Fulton Motor Company is a Hetvesian sports car manufacturer known for small, lightweight sports coupes and convertibles. Fulton is a unique manufacturer because it has rarely developed an engine in-house, instead relying on powertrains developed by other manufacturers, notably Moriana Motors. Since 1984, Fulton has served as a performance tuner for some Moriana vehicles.

Early History: 1963-1974
Fulton was founded by Hetvesian investor Jacques Fulton in 1962 with a stated goal to provide affordable yet high-performance sports cars for the masses. The next year, the company had released its first model, a small roadster known as the Fulton Rebel. The Rebel borrowed heavily from the Moriana Motors parts bin, including its appropriation of a tuned version of the Collegiate sedan's Moriana 604 inline four. The Rebel sold well, but company management envisioned a faster version of the car which could not be realized with the Moriana 604. Engineers targeted the Kodiak Comet small-block V8 for use in a modified Rebel, and by 1967 a tuned version of the engine was available in the Fulton Rebel Rocket. However, the Rocket was plagued by reliability issues, high cost and poor handling, thus it was a commercial failure. The Rocket was discontinued in early 1969 with fewer than 1000 units sold, but the steady sales of the four-cylinder Rebel kept the company afloat. By 1970 the Rebel was growing old and sales were starting to decline, so Fulton began work on a replacement model. This new sports car would enter production in 1972 as the Fulton Cutlass using a mid-mounted version of the Rebel's Moriana 604. Additionally, the Cutlass was crafted from aluminum rather than fiberglass, keeping costs down and enabling higher volume production. Consequently, the Cutlass far outsold the Rebel and set the stage for Fulton's expansion in the 1970s and 1980s. With the Cutlass selling thousands of units every year by the mid-1970s, Fulton looked to expand. By 1975 the company was developing a faster, more powerful version of the Cutlass as well as a large grand tourer with Moriana underpinnings. The former was realized in 1977 as the Fulton Cutlass 2105, borrowing its designation from that of its Moriana-sourced inline six. However, the Moriana 2105 powerplant was plagued by reliability issues and high service costs, resulting in its discontinuation in most cars by 1980. Despite these problems, the Cutlass 2105 thrived as its blistering performance won buyers over and it gained a following quickly.

Expansion Era: 1975-1987
Deeming the business unprofitable, Jaques Fulton put the company bearing his name up for sale in 1971. The next year, a sale was finalized to a group of investors led by racing legend and former Fulton Motorsport driver Eduardo Cuenca. With the Cutlass selling strongly, Fulton became financially stable for the first time in its history and Cuenca's ownership group turned its interests to expansion. In the late 1970s, the company began work on a grand tourer, larger than the Cutlass, which would serve as Fulton's flagship offering. In keeping with tradition a Moriana engine was again used, this time being the all-new T61 V8. Fulton engineers tuned the engine to produce as much as 247 horsepower. After an unusually quick development period the new car was released in 1980 as the Fulton Arrow. An upgraded version known as the Arrow S was also offered, which was heavily promoted as being tested by Eduardo Cuenca himself. The Arrow was exceptionally fast for the era, especially in S trim, which could reach 60 MPH in just 6.1 seconds on its way to a top speed near 170 MPH. At its release, Cuenca called the Arrow S "the finest grand tourer in the world" and critics agreed, as the coupe received universal acclaim including Auto Digest 's Car of the Year award and Hetvesian Consumer 's Domestic Car of the Year award.

Partnership with Moriana Motors
In 1984, Fulton announced that it had partnered with Moriana Motors, one of the largest manufacturers in Frunia. Under this agreement, Fulton would tune performance versions of two Moriana vehicles: the Vancouver compact sedan and the Paragon convertible. It was also rumored at the time that Fulton would tune the upcoming Shogun sports car, going so far as to see a tuned Shogun displayed by Fulton at the 1988 Hetvesia Motor Show, but a production car never materialized. As the second part of the deal, Moriana would sell Fulton cars in its dealerships, thus giving the company infrastructure it had long lacked. Fulton-tuned versions of the Paragon and Vancouver hit Moriana dealerships late in 1985 to widespread critical acclaim.

First "Golden Age": 1987-2000
Under Cuenca's leadership Fulton continued to thrive, replacing the aging Cutlass with an all-new light sports car known as the Taipan in 1984. The Taipan represented a return to Jaques Fulton's original vision of an affordable sports car, although it was a step down in performance from the outgoing Cutlass. However, Fulton began to cater to the supercar market during this time as well, releasing the mid-engine Javelin in 1987. This new Fulton, the most powerful in the company's history, was a massive sales success and became one of the most feared and respected supercars of its era, selling nearly 20,000 units in a production run which lasted until 2000. The Javelin backed its showroom success up on the track, winning the IES-GT endurance championship in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1997. Additionally, in 1991 Fulton released an AWD version of the car holmogated for Spec C rally, the Javelin XR600, which won Spec C championships in 1991, 1992, and 1994 before the series was canceled. Cuenca later pointed to the Javelin as the reason why Fulton never tuned the Moriana Shogun, saying in a 2006 interview that "the Javelin was the car we thought the Shogun should have been". In particular, the Javelin eschewed the Shogun's six-cylinder powerplant for a massive Moriana T61 V8, an upgraded version of the engine used on the Arrow grand tourer. A second-generation Arrow was released in 1993, and the company became more profitable than ever before as the new millennium approached.

Taipan Success, Management Change and "Speed Wars": 2001-2009
Through the early 2000s, Fulton relied heavily on the Taipan, which continued selling strongly during the decade. In 2004, now in its third generation, the one millionth Taipan left the factory, becoming Fulton's first million-seller. Citing his old age, Eduardo Cuenca retired as CEO of Fulton in 2008 at age 80. His granddaughter Nadine was appointed CEO, but the elder Cuenca retained ownership of the company. In 2000, Fulton released the Sidewinder supercar to replace the Javelin, using an in-house engine for the first time in a Fulton production car. The Sidewinder S had a top speed of some 265 MPH, igniting the "speed wars" in the hypercar world as several companies scrambled to build the world's fastest production car for much of the next two decades. By 2008, the definitive Sidewinder, the STR, had pushed the record to 270 miles per hour, but Fulton would replace the Sidewinder with the slower but more balanced Nemesis in 2010 and has not recaptured the record since.

Second "Golden Age": 2010-present
Although the Nemesis was slower than the Sidewinder at "only" 253 MPH and effectively conceded the Speed Wars, critics found it to be a much more balanced car and better overall than its precursor. In 2011, the evergreen Taipan was updated with a fourth generation, again selling stronger than ever as Fulton's main offering. A few years later, the unremarkable Arrow III grand tourer was replaced by the Arrow IV, which was widely considered the best Arrow to date. These cars launched another Golden Age, as Fulton's profits exploded and they again turned to expansion and refinement of their lineup. In 2018, the Taipan received a mid-cycle refresh and the company launched a new, track-focused light sports car called the Avenger, which produced 420 horsepower in its standard trim or as much as 610 in the Turbo variant. Additionally, the Nemesis was redesigned in 2020 with an all-new V12 engine, and a new grand tourer is set to replace the Arrow IV in 2022.