Sigma AU Lore: Kimetto (car manufacturer)

History
Kim Limetto started her business selling total conversion kits and hacked ECU firmwares for Japanese import cars because Factory Five wasn't responding to her business partnership requests. As it turned out, she had addressed them wrong and found out about her mistake when it was too late.

Vehicles
Kim started selling total conversion kits for the Mitsubishi 3000GT. Her first kit included new body parts, a 6 cylinder magnesium block that required pistons from another engine, and a hacked ECU firmware that controlled different aspects of the then-revolutionary Mitsubishi ECU. Once she found financial success she offered the car in its pre-modified form and registered as an official car manufacturer.

Rocket 1993
The Rocket 1993 was the first vehicle Kim offered. Only two were sold before Mitsubishi filed a Cease and Desist against her for hacking their ECU firmware. She continued to sell the bodykits and engine parts without the firmware until the next 3000GT was released.

Rocket 1994
The Rocket 1994 was born after Kim signed a commercial Body in White contract with Mitsubishi for their 1994 3000GT frames. She manufactured her own body panels at a rented plant in San Jose, California. It saw limited success after news of the previous year's C&D disaster had spread, as most people were after her hacked ECU firmwares that significantly altered the performance of her V6 block. Kim secretly started reverse engineering Mitsubishi's engine around this time with plans to build her own.

Rocket 1996
The 1996 Rocket was Kim's first foray into making her own car. It sold poorly despite having good performance and safety ratings, mostly due to its high price tag. After only 6 months, production was halted. This was when Kim started working on a standard platform that every car her company produced would use. She designed a V6 engine based off of Toyota's 2JZ engine, but instead of an inline engine, it was redesigned to be a 90-degree V6.

Rocket 1999
The 1999 model of Kim's Rocket was born after her Mitsubishi contract ended and Kim signed a new contract with Honda for their NSX bodies. This was Kim's first massive success and she outperformed Honda's own sales figure so much that they preemptively terminated her contract. Kim then sued Honda for breach of contract, but the case was dismissed due to differences in Japanese and American laws. It used a modified version of her 1996 Rocket's V6 engine.

Rally Sport
At the turn of the century, there was a surge in demand for "hot hatches", which are performance-oriented hatchback sedans. Kim recognized the trend and immediately designed a hatchback, signing a contract in 2002 with Subaru for their WRX platform. The Rally Sport was such a huge success in the hatchback community that Kimetto models wholly outsold Subaru and nearly drove Subaru into bankruptcy. Subaru stopped making their WRX chassis, thus cutting off supply for Kimetto as well. The Rally Sport initially used the standard Kimetto V6.

Rally Sport II
The Rally Sport II was Kim's second attempt at making her own car. Starting in 2004 her and her company began making their own chassis. Despite financial difficulty with plant renovations, Kim saw great success due to the increasing popularity of sport drifting. Her Rally Sport II has nearly a perfect 50/50 weight distribution and was so well engineered that her car was the first domestic American car to place first in the Nürburgring trials, even after completely losing one of its rear wheels. The driver continued driving, not even realizing that one of the wheels was completely gone. The Rally Sport II's ECU was so advanced that the car had the best handling out of any car on the market, and its sales figures reflected this. On top of that, the car had the best safety rating out of any car of that year. It outsold the 2004 Corolla, which prompted Toyota to change their design for the 2005 and 2006 models. The RSII used Kim's typical V6 block with a few minor updates.
Due to its amazing performance figures from its relatively small V6 engine and its weight distribution, the Rally Sport II's official motto became "Meant to go Sideways". Kim later adopted this as the official company slogan.

Rocket 2006 Prototype
The Rocket made its return, albeit not to dealerships. Kim developed breast cancer and her Rocket project was put on hold indefinitely. Only one year 2006 Rocket was built, and it was sold to a private collector due to Kim's refusal to use company funds to pay for her cancer treatment. The Rocket 2006 has an encrypted ECU firmware, a custom built 3.2L V6 based on Toyota's 2JZ engine, AWD, a fiberglass and partial aluminum body, a tube frame chassis, and retains the classic looks of the original 1993 Rocket with an updated mid-2000s aesthetic. The prototype's frame even featured mounts for Porsche's upcoming 4.0L Boxer engines. 

caldera
Angry at her situation, Kim refused to allow her illness to stop her. She designed the Caldera (stylized without capitalization) while hospitalized. Due to company financial hardships in her absence, she licensed Porsche's 2008 Carrera chassis. She included many aesthetic features from her 2006 Rocket, including the design of the front bumper.
Intended for middle- and upper-middle-class Americans, the Caldera had a very sporty appearance, with bright, head-turning color options. It saw decent success, and was popular among average drivers and track drivers. It featured a 600HP 6-cylinder, naturally aspirated Boxer engine. This design choice stemmed from an idea she had previously with her 2006 Rocket prototype to make a boxer engine with the cylinder dimensions from the 2JZ.

The original Caldera suffered from brake fade on its front discs and was very unstable at high speed due to being rear-engine, and was not meant to be driven hard or on a track. Despite this, people kept asking Kimetto for a track-ready version of the car.

caldera R/T
Due to Kimetto's heritage with electronic performance enhancement and proficiency in body design, Kim decided to listen to her followers and released a new, up-to-date Caldera performance package in 2010. Stylized in badging as caldeRa, the package was sold independently to dealers as well as pre-installed on the 2010 Caldera base model. It featured up-to-date suspension to alleviate track stability issues, bigger, better brakes, and a new 970HP twin-turbo Boxer engine.
Sales of the package and ready-made Caldera Rs soared, and a few high-profile racecar drivers asked Kimetto for an even faster version of the Caldera.

Caldera DTO concept
Due to constant pestering from enthusiasts and motorsport corporations alike, in 2012 Kim designed a dry-track-only version of the Caldera. It came with a monstrous 1400HP Boxer engine, which in reality only produced 1390HP. It shared the same over-engineered 4L B6 engine block as the two previous Caldera releases.
In 2013, a working concept was produced. It had a full-carbon body and chassis, and weighed only 988.9kg. Unfortunately it shared the same high-speed stability issues as the original Caldera and one of the test drivers was killed in an accident that destroyed the only functional DTO concept.

2015 Caldera DTO
After working hard for another two years trying to fix the stability problem, Kim finally solved the issue. An overflow bug in the ECU's electronic stability control code was causing errors at speeds over 135MPH, which then caused the ECU to reboot itself endlessly until speed dropped.
The car still suffered from instability due to weight distribution, and was twitchy at any speed, but was stable enough that experienced and professional drivers could handle it relatively well. However, news of the 2013 crash had scared away many potential buyers and sales were poor despite the car having astronomically impressive performance metrics.

Caldera GT20
In 2020, Kimetto released another version of the Caldera. It was an improvement over every vehicle her company had ever made. Her manufacturing process had a 1:20 margin of profit by this point and despite having a severely limited lineup currently consisting of only the Rally Sport II and the Caldera, Kimetto's cars had become "The Name" in motorsport.
The GT20 saw reduced power figures at only 1200HP, however, it was safer and significantly more stable at high speeds due to breakthroughs Kimetto had made in aerodynamics. The engine revved to a massive 10,000RPM, higher than any other B6 on the market, all while maintaining power without loss.

Caldera GT23
In 2022, Kimetto released the final version of the Caldera. It was a facelift of the older Caldera R, but with an updated aero package for increased downforce. Despite heavy oversteer, the car was popular among enthusiasts and collectors.

Kim's Passing
Kim later passed in 2023 of a heart attack unrelated to her breast cancer. Her company board voted to keep production running and hired a new designer. Unfortunately, after Kim passed, corruption within the company ran rampant, and the company filed for bankruptcy in 2035.

Legacy
All unsold vehicles were put in an underground storage facility by liquidators for sale, however, an economic downturn that eventually led to WWIII prevented any of the vehicles from being sold. After the rise of Sigma City, the cars were discovered, leading to the wealthy purchasing them for collections. More and more warehouses filled with unsold Kimetto cars caused prices to plummet, making Kimetto cars, including older Rocket models, common once again. Aftermarket companies in Sigma City as well as in other large post-WW3 settlements in the US continue to make replacement parts despite Kimetto being a dead company for half a century.

Legacy of the Rocket
The 2006 Rocket prototype stayed in the same family of collectors well through WW3, being stored in a bunker-type warehouse with automated security.
It was believed that this family was responsible for the founding of Sigma City, but their names have been forgotten and stricken from the history books. The entire car collection owned by the family, including the modified Rocket, sits in the underground facility about 50 miles outside of Sigma City.
Zola, one of the secondary characters would end up discovering the facility, and plan a heist to steal the 2006 Rocket prototype after learning about street racing.