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NEWS
LA MOTOR SHOW: Fisker-crafted Rocket
Designer famed for his defunct plug-in luxury cars bounces back in LA with a mutant MustangHenrik Fisker refuses to be erased. He's seen his design career peak at Aston Martin, and of course his ambition lead him to become a major influence in creating an automotive marque that shared his name.
The ashes of Fisker Automotive have settled, and Henrik is again in the studio back to his beginnings designing cars. This time he's working from a basic shape of a current-production Ford Mustang. His partner in the venture is Beau Boeckmann, president of Galpin Ford Premier Collection which is the largest Ford dealership in North America selling about 8000 new cars this year.
Fisker claims he's always wanted to 'do' a Mustang, and Boeckmann claims he's always wanted to be involved in creating a unique muscle car. One brings design talent and the other brings a network of dealerships and hard cold cash. They're both talking limited production volumes in the hundreds not thousands. About pricing, Fisker describes the Mustang as being an accessible muscle car not a supercar, so he's anticipating pricing in the $100k when production begins early in 2015.
The Rocket is not a recreation of a Mustang but a modification of the Mustang. Fisker claims he wants the Rocket to be recognisable as a Mustang in the sense of a Shelby or special performance variants like the Cobra. He reinforces the reasons for using a Mustang as the donor: low maintenance costs, available parts, and serviceability.
Fisker has reworked in full-sized clay the exterior panels – retaining the Mustang's original roof, doors and glass area – which were then produced in carbon fibre. The reason he used carbon fibre wasn't to save weight; although that's a result, but because carbon is tough and can be formed with low-cost tooling.
A supercharged 5.0-litre V8 produces 540kW. Other specifications are not known, and Boeckmann admits this display car was finished just prior to the show. Will the Rocket fly in Australia? Boeckmann responds: "I've done a lot of business with Australians and we've built a lot of cars for Australians. It's possible.
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Written byTodd Hallenbeck
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