As The Crew Motorfest enters its second year, Ubisoft Ivory Tower marks the occasion with the debut of the Ogmios, a muscle car designed to capture the essence of raw power and modern performance. Steeped in muscle car heritage, the Ogmios blends aggressive styling with cutting-edge technology, offering players an exhilarating new ride. Alongside new events, challenges, and content in Year 2, the Ogmios takes center stage, including a special high-speed Chase Squad version built for thrilling pursuits. In this interview, we dive into its creation and inspiration with Jérémy Sachot, Senior Vehicle Designer Modeler, at Ubisoft Ivory Tower.
Why, after the Aezus, did you decide to create a brand-new muscle car?
The primary goal of the Aezus was to explore the HyperCar category, to see what Ivory Tower could offer in this ultimate vehicle class. It allowed us to establish the Ivory Tower brand - as an automobile manufacturer - in the minds of players. By placing our first car in this category, we ensured a certain impact during its presentation. The Aezus allowed us to truly launch the brand, serving as an introduction; we needed a second car, one that would confirm our presence. Creating another HyperCar would have been redundant. So, we turned to the category just below, Street Tier 2. It's a well-stocked category that includes several sub-groups of cars, including muscle cars. Given the long-standing affiliation between The Crew franchise and the United States, the choice naturally fell on this type of vehicle. Moreover, we had a need for a vehicle linked to the Chase Squad playlist: we needed a credible and high-performing American-styled police car, which also aligned with the idea of a Muscle Car created by Ivory Tower.
How do muscle cars fit into today's car culture?
Muscle cars are a true monument of the automotive world. It's a purely American tradition that has endured since the late 60s, so there's a very rich heritage to explore. Despite some crises in the automotive sector, notably the oil shocks of the 70s, muscle cars have managed to survive to this day because their recipe is simple, effective, and timeless: muscle cars are mass-produced sports cars, relatively affordable, practical, usually equipped with a characterful V8 engine, and they don't aim to push technological boundaries, making them accessible to enthusiasts. While fewer models are produced today than there were a few decades ago, modern muscle cars have successfully built on their historical legacy while modernizing, offering cars that are still popular, especially in the American automotive landscape.
What does the creation of a muscle car bring to the Ivory Tower brand lineup?
First of all, as we announced with the Aezus, the ultimate goal of the Ivory Tower brand is to offer at least one vehicle per category. The Muscle Car allows us to explore Street Tier 2 for the first time. Then, designing a car as deeply rooted in the collective imagination as a Muscle Car allows us to realize that, as a "virtual" brand, we don't have to limit ourselves to one type of automotive culture: for us, anything is possible, from creating a HyperCar meeting European standards, to designing a typically American muscle car, or even, why not, a Japanese-styled coupe, a French vintage car, or an English roadster motorcycle!
How did the creation of Ivory Tower's previous models influence the development of the Ogmios?
Every new model we create allows us to reinterpret our own design codes and adapt them to the specific brief. All our creations share what we call the visual identity pillars of Ivory Tower: recurring X-shaped forms (from our logo), interesting details highlighted in yellow, and the "layered design," which allows us to play with contrasts between the different materials used. With our SSV, our Alpha GP, and our HyperCar, we had the essential material to influence and guide the design of the Ogmios, while allowing us the flexibility to adapt our codes to the Muscle Car genre.
What was the inspiration behind the design of the Ogmios?
Before diving into the design process of the Ogmios, the first step was to analyze the history of muscle cars and their stylistic evolution over time. By looking closely at how these cars were designed, we noticed undeniable common traits among muscle cars from different eras and brands. This allowed us to define the rules to follow to be relevant and credible: a prominent front with a serious and menacing look, a long hood, a very high and marked beltline, a 2+2 cabin layout, muscular rear fenders, lots of horizontality in the rear, generous proportions, and a pragmatic but sporty interior. Of course, in addition to these stylistic codes, our own previous models, though fundamentally different, also greatly influenced us.
How does the Ogmios differentiate itself from traditional muscle cars? What were the biggest challenges in designing Ogmios?
I would say that designing a muscle car was more challenging than I expected. The difficulty lay in finding the right balance between the stylistic codes of muscle cars and the strong visual identity of the Ivory Tower brand, which wasn't necessarily designed for this type of vehicle. When I started drawing the Ogmios, I realized that trying to innovate too much by moving away from the classic muscle car codes quickly took us off course. But conversely, adhering too strictly to those codes led us to designs already offered by real American manufacturers in the market. This is a major difference compared to, for example, HyperCars: in terms of style, there are far more possibilities for a HyperCar, because as long as it respects a logical architecture (two-seater, long, low, rear-engine), people will recognize it as a HyperCar. For a Muscle Car, however, you need to respect both an architecture (2+2 coupe, front engine, fairly imposing size) and very strong stylistic codes, meaning a certain sense of déjà vu is both inevitable and necessary to ensure the project's relevance. Ultimately, the way we injected our Ivory Tower DNA into the heart of the Ogmios design (X-shaped work on the rear window, floating rear mask, yellow details, etc.) allows us to stand out just enough from our "competitors" already present in-game.
How do you balance raw power and aesthetics, as you did with the Aezus?
For the Aezus, the goal was primarily to design a HyperCar that was pleasant to drive and among the most performant in its category, without necessarily aiming to make it the meta vehicle. For the Ogmios, we decided that the car's behavior was an integral part of its personality. Unlike the Aezus, we didn't prioritize efficiency; the idea was more to give it a "bad" character, with a car that struggles to put all its power to the ground (it's the most powerful muscle car in the game) and that has a strong tendency for rear-end sliding. To me, that's also what makes muscle cars fun: they aren't completely exploitable by everyone, and it takes time to learn how to get the most performance out of them; that's exactly the experience we aimed for with the Ogmios.
What part of the Ogmios design are you most proud of?
I'm particularly proud of the overall exterior design of the Ogmios. As mentioned earlier, designing a muscle car with an Ivory Tower twist was quite a delicate challenge. I find the player's view particularly successful, with its rear mask directly referencing the Aezus, and the X disguised in the layers of the rear louver. I also really like the work on the engine hood, with a unique innovation for the Ogmios: when the player activates the boost, two large air intakes rise to feed fresh air to the big V8. Lastly, I'd also like to highlight the work done on the interior, as I find the overall impression it gives is both sporty and high-quality. We wanted a premium interior where you feel comfortable, realistic, and immersive. Special care was taken in choosing colors and materials. The icing on the cake is the digital dashboard, the most advanced we've ever created in the game, with dynamic and modern animations!
Can you tell us about the Chase Squad version of the Ogmios and how it differs from the standard model?
The Ogmios has the honor of being one of the seven vehicles specific to the Chase Squad playlist. These seven vehicles are connected by some of the most aggressive body kits we've made since the release of TCM, distinctively featuring front push bars, a custom-designed light bar, a massive diffuser, a wing that extends the wide rear kit, a widening of almost 20 cm compared to the base car, blue lights integrated on all sides of the vehicle, and a specific and emissive livery reflecting the playlist's Artistic Direction. The interior has also been adapted to meet the unique needs of pursuit cars.
Where does the name Ogmios come from?
As with our HyperCar, we decided to explore Gallic mythology for the name of our Muscle Car. Aezus is the god of the cosmos and craftsmanship; Ogmios is the god of physical strength, warriors, and eloquence, which fits quite well with what a Muscle Car should represent. Can you guess the name of our next creation?
