Erin

Erin is a German automobile company that makes cars for the masses. They are famous for making the König, one of the most successful vehicles ever made. The company is part of Erin FG.

History

Ferdinand Weisshaupt once had a dream, a dream to make his own car. Since he saw the Weiss-Grüber Motorwagen, made by Weiss-Grüber, Ferdinand wanted to make something similar. He decided to make his own company from scratch in 1901, called German Oligarchy Company (translated) and it started going his way, the first model under production to be released in 1902. Tragedy struck his personal life, as his wife Kris and his yet-to-be-born child died in an accident. His newborn was going to be named Erin so he decided to rename his company after his lost child.

As a businessman, Ferdinand was a disaster and had to be helped multiple times by the Weisshaupt family, especially his third degree cousin called Oliver Weisshaupt. He was the one to suggest that the company should be called Erin Motors instead of just Erin.

Things only started to look up for Erin Motors after Ferdinand had passed away in 1928 and Oliver took over completely in 1929. Since then, Erin exploded in popularity and capital, becoming the world’s biggest car brand. In 1948, the company was renamed to Erin Gruppe, as they made their first purchase: Winningen, initially an aftermarket company that tuned Erin cars.

With Oliver commanding Erin, they received many orders from the German government, who wanted to design a new car for the people. This eventually turned into the Erin Type 1, eventually named as the König, with the design being coined by Frank Vratislav, who worked together with Erin engineers.

In 1976, Erin created the Monarch, a hatchback of incredible name and popularity that continues to be sold to this day after several generations.

The company expanded to several markets, including North and South America, Africa and Australia, finding success in all of them.

The new era of acquisitions of Erin FG started in 1986, with the purchase of the Spanish CEDA S.A. After that, Erin acquired partial control of Plisen Works in 1994 and full control in 2000. Both CEDA and Plisen were folded into Winningen in 2003. In 1998, the company purchased Seconda. In 2009 Elina AG and Erin AG decided to merge, creating Erin Farhzeuge Gruppe, with Erin having complete ownership, as the board of directors of Elina was also most of the board of directors of Erin, with the purchase being completed in 2012.

In 2015, Erin was involved in a scandal, caused by masking the emissions of NO outputs of their cars, in all of their commercial vehicles, no matter the fuel used. The investigation led by the USA’s Emissions Protection Agency traced that cars from Erin sold from 2009 to 2015 were affected by this. This led to the scandal being called ‘Fuelgate’. Erin publicly apologized for the mistake, and offered a compensation package for owners affected by this but only from brand new car buyers from 2009 to 2015. Several lawsuits followed and Erin was told to pay about 1.3 billion USD in damages, which was fully paid by them in 2022.

Nevertheless, Erin remains the world’s most popular car brand in the world, with multiple generations of incredibly popular cars like the hatchback Monarch and its luxury sedan Queenborn.

GR

GR stands for Gran Racing. After the massive success of the Monarch Super, the label ‘Super’ was renamed into the label “Großes Rennen”, “Gran Racing” in English, using the now trademarked words “GR” in 1976.

Erin has offered the GR label for most of their vehicles as either the highest trim possible or a custom factory-tuned version of a vehicle they produced. All versions of the Monarch have carried the label, but it has since spilled to other vehicles, like the new version of the Konig, Coringa, Archduke, Rook, Queenborn and several others.

With the release of the fourth generation Monarch GR in 2003, the name “Großes Rennen” was officially changed to mean “Gran Racing” in English in anywhere else, however it was completely shortened to just use GR for the initials, an attempt to streamline their lineup.

Featured Vehicles In Project Redline

Regular

Coringa GR (1989)

A project that started in Brazil in late 1970s to replace the also very popular and locally made Erin Salvador, the Coringa was the result after many years of design and planning. A very successful car when it launched in 1980, it was eventually blessed by the GR branding in 1989, making it the fastest Coringa at the time. The Coringa was sold as the ‘Erin Jester’ in North America, but sadly didn’t make the same splash as it did in his home market. This version of the vehicle came with an electronic fuel injection, the very first Brazilian made car with the feature. The legacy of the Coringa lived on in Brazil for several decades, being the best-selling car in the country for 27 consecutive years, from 1987 to 2014.

Powering the Coringa GR is a 2.0L inline-4 engine with 5-speed manual transmission in a FF layout.

Monarch Super (1976)

The first generation Monarch was the first big effort from Erin to replace their previous best car, the König. After many false starts, the Monarch launched in 1974, and was an immediate success with the public. Two years later, the brand launched a high performance version of the vehicle. After its massive success, the ‘Super’ label was renamed into the label “Großes Rennen”, ‘Gran Racing’ in English, using the now trademarked words “GR”. Erin planned to sell only five thousand units of the car and it eventually sold four hundred and sixty-two thousand. It is described as the first ‘hot hatch’ created.

This version of the car came with a 1.6L inline-4 engine with a 4-speed manual transmission in a FF configuration.

Monarch 8 GR (2024)

The eighth generation Monarch GR is the latest release in the long-running Monarch line-up of vehicles. This version launched in 2024 with a new facelift, keeping the highest sold hot hatch updated and alive for many years. Its success made Erin continue to offer the Monarch despite the company’s commitment to make more EVs.

The new Monarch GR comes with a 2.0L turbocharged inline-4 engine in an AWD configuration.

Rook 8 GR (2022)

The eighth generation of the Rook launched in 2014 and it lasted until 2022, being replaced by the ninth generation in 2023. However this is the last model to include the saloon/sedan option and thus needs the recognition it deserves. The GR variant is the sporty model, with cosmetic changes to make it more aggressive.

Under the hood of the GR variant, the Rook comes with a 2.0L inline-4 turbocharged engine with a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission and a F4 layout.

Kingslayer Ros (2001)

A crazy one-off from Erin, the Kingslayer Ros is the third version of the Kingslayer supercar, made as a concept with a new engine with 12 cylinders in a W configuration. What stops the car from being a one-off is the fact that Erin produced it and sold it to a select few. However this remains the only supercar from the company to this day. “Ros” is a reference to Rosburg, next to Erin’s main offices and the track Rosburgring.

Powering this strange time capsule is the aforementioned 6.0L W12 engine, with a 6-speed manual transmission and a M4 layout.