Henrik Fisker, perhaps best known for his abortive effort to launch the plug-in hybrid Fisker Karma sports car, is back in the limelight, but turning his talents towards a very different direction. The Fisker Rocket revealed at the Los Angeles Motor Show is all about performance, the Danish-born designer dubbing the modified Mustang “the ultimate American muscle car.”
The Rocket is a 725-hp rework of the all-new pony car Ford Motor Co. Fisker and partner Galpin Auto Sports have not only upgraded the performance of the 2015 Mustang but made a number of exterior modifications that give it both a more sinister and exotic appearance.
“My jaw dropped. I got chills” when first shown the sketches former Aston Martin chief designer Fisker had in mind, said Beau Boeckmann, president of both Galpin Auto Sports and Galpin Motors, the world’s largest Ford dealer. For his part, Fisker explained that the Rocket is “really a program born out of passion.”
The Rocket gets a larger trapezoid grille than the stock Mustang GT, with a silver bar bearing the familiar pony logo. The Rocket is slightly wider, and the rear windows and quarter panels have been tweaked to give it a more exotic appearance. The modified Mustang rides on unique 21-inch wheels bearing the “HF” Fisker logo and shod in Pirelli P-Zero rubber.
With the exception of the hood and roof, every body panel has been replaced with lightweight carbon fiber to boost the performance factor even more.
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Despite launching the program in late summer, the former automotive executive said he followed some traditional industry practices, among other things developing a full-size clay model of the Rocket to help refine the most subtle details.
Launching the Rocket at the L.A. Auto Show gets it out in front of one of the world’s biggest performance car markets. And Fisker promised potential customers they’ll “actually be able to buy it after the beginning of next year.”
In a separate interview with TheDetroitBureau.com, he hinted that the partners still haven’t finished tweaking the muscle car. They’re hoping to eventually nudge the numbers up to around 800-hp, for one thing.
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Fisker has been largely off the radar since the collapse of his eponymously named plug-in hybrid company several years ago. But he said he couldn’t sit idle “when this opportunity came along. It was always a dream of mine, I’ve always loved the Mustang, since I first saw it as a kid.”
It helped that Ford has provided such a solid foundation for “tuners” to start with, he added. The all-new, 2015 Ford muscle car, for one thing, gets an independent rear suspension for the first time.
“It’s so good that when you add a few performance and appearance tweaks that we’ve made,” said Fisker, “it stands up against some very high-end products.”
Final pricing hasn’t been set yet, and the partners plan to use feedback from the L.A. show to get a sense of how many to build, though Fisker suggested that if the response is solid enough production could run into “the 100s.”
Now that he is back in the open, Fisker told TheDetroitBureau.com he is looking for other custom projects, and has “quite a big” one in the early development stage.
“I now have the freedom to do whatever I want” he said, “and I think it’s fun to do a project like this where you think outside the box.”
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Why do they have to go and f*** up a perfectly good design? The 2015 Mustang is gorgeous. Adding even bigger wheels, more bling, and more vents does not make it look hotter.
Even a mother could not love the face on that Mustang. What were they thinking? This isn’t a Mack truck ferchrissakes.