Rara Avis: The Elysien Eagle Is The Concept Car of Handguns

Photos by Iain Harrison and Muneki Samejina

Concept cars push the boundaries of design and engineering. In the early days of the automotive industry, automakers used concept cars to generate attention. These were the days before internet marketing, so companies had to take a more hands-on approach with gauging public opinion. 

This was a good way for carmakers to show what they could do and get ahead of the competition. Today, concept cars are still used to showcase what designers and engineers can accomplish when they put their minds to it. These cars contrast the practical-minded commonplace and offer a no-holds-barred example of what is possible when creative minds are set loose.

These cars are not just for show, but their features often trickle down to the production line. Ideas like electric powertrains, anti-lock brakes, advanced material usage, not to mention styling and design elements all had origins in concept cars. 

These cars are mostly considered prototypes that never see the light of day. However, a select few cars have made it into collectors’ hands. These collector cars are in high demand because of their limited availability. Owning such a rare and unique item gives the air of status.

Thinking outside the box to push the envelope of what’s possible has also made its way to the gun industry. Creapeiron is a company you’ve probably never heard of — they’re a boutique gun maker focused on giving their firearms a soul. 

The Elysien Eagle is Creapeiron’s idea of what a firearm is supposed to be. The inventor and designer Jan Lysak is quoted as saying this is the gun he envisioned in his head as having all the characteristics he was looking for in a pistol. 

The gun started out as more of an art project than an engineering assignment. We’ve never heard the golden ratio come up when describing a pistol, but it was a core ideal for the Elysien, as the guys behind this gun are more artists than gun makers. Rank and file guns are about functionality with maybe some aesthetics sprinkled in. The Elysien puts the focus on aesthetics with functionality in a close second place. An artistic gun is a refreshing take on a standard way of doing things. 

To make things better (or worse depending on your perspective), Creapeiron is only producing a limited run of Elysien Eagles for the United States. Fifty guns are to be imported by CZ Custom of Mesa, Arizona. The artistry is there, now we have the exclusivity, so it checks all the boxes of being a true collectors’ gun. With a price tag of $12,000, it is the definition of a showpiece.

TECHNICAL SPECS

The Elysien Eagle is a single-action semi-auto hammer fired 9mm pistol. The gun is made in the Czech Republic, and you can definitely see the Ceska zbrojovka (CZ) influence. The slide features an external extractor and many slide lightening treatments disguised as aesthetics, and there’s the time-proven Browning-style barrel lockup. Sounds pretty normal so far.

While there is a strong CZ influence, there are just as many original ideas to make the Eagle one of a kind. There are magnets everywhere. The grip panels are dovetailed in and held on with strong magnets. This seemed like a flimsy idea but didn’t affect the grip of the gun during live fire. The magnetic trigger regulator is used to adjust trigger overtravel and can be used to lock the trigger — again — strictly with the use of magnets. Even the sight plates are held in place with magnets. Using magnets in a handgun might not seem like a solid idea, but they definitely work in the Elysien. 

The front of the slide lets you know there’s something different going on. The triangular shaped self-locking barrel is supposed to aid in a stable lockup. This might be an answer to a problem that didn’t exist but, hey, it looks cool. A theme that’s a common thread in this gun.

The slide sits inside the frame versus over the frame like most other guns — yet another cue taken from the CZ-75. This is a good thing as it helps get the bore axis lower to the shooter’s hand, in turn making it easier to mitigate recoil. There are front and rear slide serrations that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing. 

The front sight features a fiber-optic insert similar to those found on most practical competition pistols, and there are three rear sight options on the Elysien. You can have a standard notched rear sight, you can mount a red dot in place of the rear sight, or you can opt for a frame-mounted red dot. Frame mounting an optic is a feature you don’t find on too many pistols outside the competition arena, specifically Open division USPSA and IPSC guns. 

A frame-mounted RDS makes it just a bit easier to track the dot, as it doesn’t reciprocate with the slide.

There’s further proof of influence from CZ, as the Eagle uses 19-round magazines from the CZ Shadow 2. This is definitely a plus. There’s no need for proprietary magazines to go with the proprietary everything else, as they’re high-quality, proven, and just plain work. This also gives the Elysien a familiar grip angle, mimicking one of the best production guns in the business. 

Ambidextrous-ish safeties can be engaged with either the hammer forward or back, but the weak side safety is more of a nub than a full safety. The slide stop is contoured to hold the weak-side thumb in place for right-handed shooters. Wrong-handed shooters were probably not invited to the party.  

The quality of the Eagle is clearly on the high end. Attention has been paid to every part. The detail is unmatched. Artistic patterns also function as texture. There are no machining marks or imperfections that we can see — it’s a high-end luxury gun in all aspects. 

Creapeiron was thoughtful enough to include a custom holster in the package, and as you’d expect at this price point, it’s a quality piece that has the Elysien logo machined into the show side. This way, there’s no doubt everyone will know what you are carrying. 

You can’t have a custom gun without custom packaging, and, unsurprisingly, you won’t find a plastic clamshell with the Elysien. Its case is CNC’d aluminum, and the stainless steel lid slides snugly in place with a detent to hold it in. Magnets (of course) hold two extra magazines in place for a total of three magazines with the gun. The takedown tool is on par with everything else meticulously designed, made with care, and, of course, incorporating a magnet. This ingenious takedown tool is all you need to strip the Elysien down to bare metal, and there are spare screws and magnets hidden in the side foam panels in case you lose one. The overall design of the packaging is like nothing we have ever come across. Not many people will take the time and effort to custom machine the box, but this is what exclusivity brings. 

ROUNDS DOWNRANGE

When we were tasked to take the Elysien for a test drive, things got a little tense; at the time of writing, this was the only example in the United States. We wanted to be careful with the sample but still get a feel for the capabilities of the Elysien. It’s not often you get to take a Rolls-Royce out for a test drive in the desert. Targets were set at varying distances to see how the gun performs on the street. 

The Eagle is a plump bird at over 40 ounces, but that’s a good thing where recoil management is concerned. We tried stepping on the gas with fast splits to see how the gun reacts. The Eagle comes quickly back on target. It soaks up recoil impulse better than most guns we have tested and is a cushy ride for sure. 

We set a target at 20 yards to test for accuracy. We couldn’t fill the tank with regular gas so only good ammo for this jewel. We shot 115-grain SIG Sauer hollow point, 124-grain Sierra, and 147-grain Hornady critical defense ammo. The Elysien liked the heavier bullets. The 147-grain netted a .76-inch group, the 124-grain came in at .85 inch and the 115-grain SIG ammo was just under an inch. Tight groups — not amazing, but tight. The triangle barrel is supposed to have better lockup than a standard round barrel, but we didn’t see any major advantage on target. It does get points for style though.

The gun performed as it should. You can feel the quality in the weight of this gun, and it still wants to go fast. It’s like a luxury sedan that will spin the tires on demand, but we must admit our range session was a bit anticlimactic. We expected the wheel to be reinvented, but this just wasn’t the case. Don’t get it wrong; this is an awesome performing gun, but just not the on the same level as the aesthetics.

WRAP-UP

The Elysien has many interesting features that can’t be found on any other pistol, but it doesn’t shoot that much better than what’s available now. On paper, the Elysien Eagle isn’t much different than other high-end guns, but what it does do is give you something that nothing else can, namely character, exclusivity, and bragging rights. That’s the allure. This is a treasure to be coveted, not a tool for manual labor.

Given its hefty price tag, we thought that the importer would be left holding a lot of very expensive inventory, but at the time of this article most of the 50 allocated to the U.S. market have been spoken for in pre-order sales, about three months after its debut. Not everyone gets it, but evidently there are enough people who do. When you think about collector cars that sell for tens of millions of dollars, the Elysien Eagle is a comparative steal at only $12,000 — just the thing to throw in your Lambo’s glove box.

The Elysien Eagle is not everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s the point. There are many different versions of gun guys/gals. Competitors, tactical Timmys, hunters, collectors, etc. This gun is aimed at a select few who are willing to pay the price of admission and will gladly pay for the exclusivity. As a competitive shooter, I did not fully understand the Elysien but I was looking at it from a strictly utilitarian point of view. For those who feel like a gun should be used as a tool, the Elysien is not for you. 

The Elysien Eagle is an exotic car that you take out on the weekends because you enjoy the way it makes you feel to own one. It is rare to see a concept car in the wild, and we have never heard of one being driven to the corner store. This is not their purpose. These cars are made to be coveted, and the Elysien Eagle is exactly that kind of rare bird.