Rivelta (Japanese: リヴェルタ) was an Italian sports car manufacturer that appeared in Ridge Racer V. Rivelta was the series' counterpart of Ferrari, with hints of Lamborghini and De Tomaso in its lore, producing high performance sports cars. Rivelta only appeared in one game before it was bought out and absorbed by Soldat, a French car brand. Although the Rivelta brand was soon retired, their former staff carried their legacy and with Soldat as their new parent company, they retained use of Rivelta development facilities prior to their shutdown sometime during Ridge Racer 7; they also continued the development of the infamous Crinale.
Cars[]
- Rivelta Mercurio: The cover car of Ridge Racer V, a four-wheel drive grand tourer car powered by a turbocharged V6 engine, with pop-up headlights (in Standard class only), with design influences from the Mitsubishi GTO/3000GT, with design elements of the Ferrari 360 Modena, Mazda RX-7 (FD), and Chevrolet Corvette (C5).
- Rivelta Solare: Based on the RT Solvalou and RT Xevious cars in early games, the Solare is a pure Italian sports car, resembling both Ferrari 512TR and Lamborghini Diablo. The Soldat Raggio carried some resemblances to the Solare.
- Rivelta Crinale: The original "13th Racing" car, resembling a Porsche Schuppan 962CR, with the front end resembling a Mosler Consulier GTP. The development of the car resumed under it's new owner, Soldat, where the Crinale would later on resemble a futuristic and thinned-out Bugatti Veyron in Ridge Racer (PSP), 7 and 3D, and a Peugeot 908 HDi FAP in Ridge Racer 6 and Vita.
- Lizard-Rivelta 13th Racing Kid: a car made as a variant of the Rivelta Crinale that's shared between Rivelta and Lizard. While it resembles a Lotus Europa in its first appearance, a second version was soon built which resembled a Lotus Elise. It is likely that it uses a Lizard engine, with a bespoke bodywork designed in-house.
Trivia[]
- According to the back of Ridge Racer V: Official Bootleg with DVD, Rivelta was the winner of the 2000 Ridge State Grand Prix, suggesting that they are the canon winners of Ridge Racer V. However, it says that Rivelta won in it' debut of the Ridge State Grand Prix, despite the Solare having been in since the first game (although this was likely due to the car names was just being used in Ridge Racer V).
- The joint partnership of the brand with Lizard for their 13th Racing Kid may likely reference the likes of either De Tomaso or Iso Rivolta, being two Italian manufacturers known to partner with American manufacturers (Ford and Chevrolet, respectively), albeit just for their engines.
- Excluding retroactive appearances, Rivelta is the manufacturer with least appearance in the series (currently tied with Zihua), only appearing once.
- Rivelta is probably the corruption of the word liberta, meaning freedom in Italian. It may also be a corruption of rivolta, which is Italian for "revolt".
- The name may even reference Iso Rivolta, a long-defunct Italian sports car brand known for using American engines, as stated above.
- The logo of Rivelta is a subtle reference to Lamborghini (with their "bull and shield device"), through a shield, with the Rivelta text on top, and on the bottom, with a curved "R".
- In the description of the Soldat Rauna in Ridge Racer Vita, it is likely that the Raggio was once a Rivelta product before the takeover by Soldat, and had been a supercar from the 1970s, referencing the Lamborghini Countach. Its designer, Giancarlo Zomegnan, may also reference Marcello Gandini, the original designer of the Countach under Bertone.
- Rivelta may likely be considered as one of the rivals of Assoluto, which is ironically, Ridge Racer's equivalent of Ferrari, although this is never stated in the series' lore.
- It may be possible that during Rivelta's absorption by Soldat, they became their in-house design department, which were responsible for the much later Raggio models, and contributed in designing the Meltfire from the ground up, before being phased out entirely during Ridge Racer 7's timeline. This is a similar reference (and foreshadows) Pininfarina being the long-time designer for Ferrari until both Pininfarina and Ferrari parted ways, starting with the Ferrari LaFerrari.
- The last mentioning of Rivelta by then would be when the player unlocks the Crinale, stating that former Rivelta employees delivered it to the player in secret, without its parent company disclosing any information about its whereabouts.
- Rivelta's acquisition by Soldat may reference the Italian ownership of Bugatti from 1987 until 1998, albeit in reverse, as the latter, being a French brand, acquired the former.
Manufacturers in the Ridge Racer series | ||
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Active | Âge · Assoluto · Danver · Gnade · Himmel · Kamata · Lucky & Wild · Sinseong · Soldat · Terrazi · Zihua | |
Defunct | Lizard · Rivelta |