Fisker starts new car company

[mv]

another Pagani wannabe?

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=9730

[Fleischmann]

Good news. One thing we can be sure of, the cars will look gr8 and a production of 150 units will make these cars extremelly rare. But we all know this can change, just like with the F40, Enzo etc.

Nice find.

[mv]

Good news. One thing we can be sure of, the cars will look gr8 and a production of 150 units will make these cars extremelly rare. But we all know this can change, just like with the F40, Enzo etc.

Nice find.

I also have pretty high expectations...there is quite a similar project under development in Italy

www.italiaspeed.com/2005/cars/other/project_1221/01/0801.html

[adamwich]

I am looking forward to seeing their cars!

[findleybeast]

I think that is great news. Considering Fisker's portfolio, I don't think he'll have a problem producing an awesome car.

[aarhead]

im sure its going to be an amazing looking car, but wether it will run is another story. plus, its going to have to be way better than anything else in its market if its looking for customers who normally buy an aston or ferrari.

[adamk24]

I would love to think that they will be a huge success, but even though I know its not really the point of it all, I just cant get excited about a company that will make so few cars, I will most likely never see one, or ever consider owning one. With some of the best looking cars ever made under their belt, I know they will look stunning, but the real question is will they make something that is another drop in the supercar bucket, or something that truely stands out.

Like someone else said, I think the Pagani Zonda is a perfect example of a supercar that really fails to be ground breaking. I mean sure it looks great and has an exotic engine, one of the best interiors ever made, and fairly good practicallity. But being totaly honest, its not really that fast. In fact, it would get absolutely destroyed in a drag race with most other supercars of today. Also, I think its engine sounds rather dull. It lacks the grunty howl of a Ford GT, it doesnt have the shreaking high pitched scream of a Carrera GT, and after the price is tagged on...... I cant really see the automotive world benifiting from another play boys toy.

Sure it doesnt have the emotional appeal of staring a new super exotic, but making a new TVR like company that makes decently priced, well built sports cars, that really tag all the bases appeals to me alot more than a one off with production intentions. :?

[mv]

if its looking for customers who normally buy an aston or ferrari.

Considering the expected volume I wouldn't say it is intended for people buying regular ferraris or astons... rather Enzos and DB9Rs :)

[SPEEDCORE]

Like someone else said, I think the Pagani Zonda is a perfect example of a supercar that really fails to be ground breaking. I mean sure it looks great and has an exotic engine, one of the best interiors ever made, and fairly good practicallity. But being totaly honest, its not really that fast. In fact, it would get absolutely destroyed in a drag race with most other supercars of today. Also, I think its engine sounds rather dull. It lacks the grunty howl of a Ford GT, it doesnt have the shreaking high pitched scream of a Carrera GT, and after the price is tagged on...... I cant really see the automotive world benifiting from another play boys toy.

Im guessing this is from 1st hand experience driving the car??? :P
It made car of the year for EVO and CAR magazine. Best I have read about Ford GT, is thats its good, but not that good. Engine is rather dull??? Maybe you need to see the TopGear review..

Atleast Pagani created an AWESOME supercar from the ground up give him that, Ford best was copying something from 30yrs ago...

(thou i wouldnt be comparing a Ford GT to a Zonda, its more compared to a Ferrari 430).

If it wasnt for the Ferrari's the Lamborghini's the Porsche's the Pagani's starting these great companies, taking the risk, we wouldnt have all these great cars. soo I really hope he is a wannabe :P

[mv]

The very first scoop on their new product - a sleek 600bhp cab.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/56768/new_supercar_a_scorch_draw.html

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/picture_library/dir_39/car_portal_pic_19819.jpg

[Z3uS]

I love the DB9, and by judging through this concept on the last post i think it could be an awesome car

[Toronto]

Good news. One thing we can be sure of, the cars will look gr8 and a production of 150 units will make these cars extremelly rare. But we all know this can change, just like with the F40, Enzo etc.

Nice find.

I also have pretty high expectations...there is quite a similar project under development in Italy

www.italiaspeed.com/2005/cars/other/project_1221/01/0801.html

um one is a new car, the other is a modified mclaren f1?
tell me how it is similar?

[sads]

One thing id for sure the cars are going to be absolutly beautiful and the prices are going to be high but they will be worth it in my book

[sads]

One thing is for sure the cars are going to be absolutly beautiful with amazing build quality and performance, and the prices are going to be high but they will be worth it in my book.

[mv]

Good news. One thing we can be sure of, the cars will look gr8 and a production of 150 units will make these cars extremelly rare. But we all know this can change, just like with the F40, Enzo etc.

Nice find.

I also have pretty high expectations...there is quite a similar project under development in Italy

www.italiaspeed.com/2005/cars/other/project_1221/01/0801.html

um one is a new car, the other is a modified mclaren f1?
tell me how it is similar?

Modified McLaren F1 ? The MF1 is a completely new car, development of which is led by legendary Mauro Forghieri. It aims to be the fastest, most agile and still extremely usable supercar. Stats speak for themselves - power and the weight will be in 1000-1200 region (hp/kg) ( it will boast 1:1 power/weight ratio ), the engine is likely to be a turbocharged B12 (they want to achieve low centre of gravity), it's been confirmed it will rev more than 10 000 rpm. Another striking thing is that it will be both left and right hand drive - you'll easily be able to move the steering wheel along with the pedals - not sure what this will do with the interior styling though. :?

This and more : http://www.project1221.com/Updates.html

[Yablokov]

nice, pretty soon we can start looking up private partypricings for them in kbb.com >=D

i know i will!!:D

[ferrarif1fan89]

OHOH! look what I found!

Can a Dutch designer and a German businessman launch a new American car company - and in the process, revive the lost art of custom coachbuilding?



That's the ambitious goal of Henrik Fisker and Bernard Koehler, two former colleagues at BMW, and founders of Fisker Coachbuild, LLC. Setting up shop in the trendy Southern California community of Newport Beach , they've laid out admittedly "high-risk" plans to produce a new line of ultra-luxury cars.



Their first two products, the Latigo CS coupe and Tramonto roadster, will make a grand, global entrance at next month's Frankfurt Motor Show. TheCarConnection.com has gotten a sneak peek at the new vehicles, as well as an inside look at what Fisker and Koehler are planning with their new company.



As the name of the new firm would suggest, Henrik Fisker is the better known of the two aspiring auto executives. The Danish designer will have an unusually strong presence in Frankfurt this year. Not only will the Latigo and Tramonto make their debut, but so will the production version of the new V-8 Vantage, which he penned while working at Aston Martin.



Until early last year, Fisker served as the chief stylist at the British brand, a job that gave him an inside look at how to produce cars with a lean team and a miniscule budget. "I learned about doing a lot with a little," he explained, during a recent interview.



Fisker clearly wasn't comfortable when transferred to California and put in charge of advanced styling for Aston's parent, the Ford Motor Co. Looking to take advantage of what he'd learned in Britain , he turned to Koehler, with whom he'd worked at both BMW and Ford, and laid out plans for a very different kind of car company.



What they had in mind was taking the classic concept of coachbuilding into the digital era. In the "golden age" of the automobile, it was common for high-line manufacturers, like Rolls-Royce, Delage or Talbot-Lago, to produce only the chassis and powertrain of a new car. Customers would turn to outside design houses, to style and produce a body.



The so-called carrossiers faded away during the post-War years, in part, explained Koehler, "because hand labor became too expensive." But the two partners were convinced they could shave enough cost out of the process, and demand a high enough price, to make it possible to revive a modified version of coachbuilding.



To start with, Fisker Coachbuild makes extensive use of digital design and engineering software. In particular, Fisker hinted that his firm has come up with technology that makes the development process "incredibly fast. When we started the company, on January 15, I didn't even have a sketch." On average, he believes the firm will be able to go from concept to production in just seven months.



Where a conventional car company might need as many as 800 designers and engineers to develop a new product, the new firm hopes to get by with as few as fifteen, added Fisker. Right now, there are just three full-timers, though that figure is a bit misleading. Fisker Coachbuild takes to new extremes the concept of outsourcing.



"We're 95 percent about design," stressed Koehler. About a dozen closely allied parts manufacturers will take on the much of the engineering work for each new product. The powertrain of the new Latigo, for example, was developed by Kleemann, a German "tuner" specializing in high-performance cars.



Though Fisker and Koehler liken their company to a classic carrossier, there are some distinct differences. Most notably, they are not producing one-off designs. They intend to build limited batches, typically no more than 150 of any particular design. The goal is to roll out two new vehicles annually, and produce each product for no more than a year.



As with early generations of carrosiers, Fisker Coachbuild has no plan to produce cars from scratch. The Latigo CS, for example, starts out life as a BMW 6-Series coupe, the Tramonto as a Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG.



The obvious advantage is that these well-established automakers do most of the work. That includes safety engineering. By modifying existing products, Fisker Coachbuild will not have to subject its designs to costly and time-consuming crash tests.



There are some big differences between coachbuilders past and Fisker. Once, a designer like LeBaron would establish a close working relationship with a Rolls or Packard. Fisker has no direct ties to BMW or Mercedes. Meanwhile, the auto industry has moved away from body-on-frame engineering, which allowed manufacturers to ship partially finished vehicles to a carrosier.



Today's unibody vehicles are essentially an integrated whole, so if a customer decides to contract Fisker, the process begins at the dealership, placing an order for a conventional Mercedes or BMW. The car is then shipped to a preparation center in Irvine, California , where the factory sheet metal is peeled off, almost like "using a can opener," Koehler noted. Then the interior is gutted.



Fisker Coachbuild's partners provide virtually complete exterior and interior modules that are bolted or welded back on. Other vendors, such as Kleemann, rebuild the powertrain. And within about six weeks, a customer takes delivery of a completely new Tramonto or Latigo.



The total price tag? For the Tramonto, figure $253,000 - plus any customized features you might want to add. For your money, you get a striking redesign with a bold nose that shows "a tiny bit of Aston," but according to Fisker was more directly influenced by the next-generation U.S. Air Force fighter jet, the FA-22 Raptor.



A hallmark of Fisker Coachbuild is its attention to details. The stock seat controls, for example, have been replaced with elegantly finished aluminum pieces, the same material used for the F1-style paddle shifters. The rear turn signals are LEDs that flash like lightning bolts. The interior is lavished in fine leather, a numbered plate for each vehicle mounted above the center stack.



The SL's stock folding hardtop remains untouched, but every other body panel has been replaced with either aluminum or carbon fiber pieces of Fisker design. The firm also substitutes larger, 20-inch wheels and tires.



Kleeman took the SL55's already powerful AMG V-8 from 490 to a jaw-dropping 610-horsepower. During a test drive, the Latigo proved incredibly responsive and blisteringly fast, Fisker claiming a 0-60 time of 3.6 seconds and a top speed of 202 mph. Special attention was paid to tuning the sound of the powertrain which, under hard acceleration sounds uncannily - and intentionally - like something out of NASCAR.



Final pricing for the BMW-based Latigo CS hasn't been decided yet. The second of Fisker's two planned products for 2006 is not as far along in development. But the company expects to come in somewhere just under $200,000 for the V-8 version and $235,000 with the V-10 BMW is getting ready to launch.



When Fisker Coachbuild finishes up, the modified car is slightly wider, a wee bit shorter, and about an inch lower than the BMW original. The nose bears a strong resemblance to the Tramanto, and the rear is decidedly more elegant than what began life as a BMW 6-Series. As with Fisker's other car, Latigo's interior is an elegant expression swathed in leather, machined aluminum, and carbon fiber. Even the iDrive knob has been refinished.



Fisker is still finalizing a deal with a powertrain tuner, so engine details won't be available for awhile.



There are plenty of parts on the market that allow an SL or 6-Series owner to customize their vehicle, but Fisker's focus on hand-finishing makes it clear these aren't a bunch of aftermarket bolt-ons. "We know we have to be leaner, faster, and higher quality than anyone else. Otherwise, we don't have a place in this business," Fisker said.



Whether the company can convince enough potential buyers remains to be seen, though Fisker insisted, "We don't have to sell 150 cars to be profitable. We can sell half that volume."



Longer-term, the two partners admit they'd like to explore the possibility of producing cars from the ground up. They also suggest their concept is scalable - that it could be used to produce far less expensive products in significantly higher volumes. That, Fisker said, could give a manufacturer a distinct advantage in an increasingly fast and fickle market. A maker that could respond to trends quickly and profitably would have a distinct advantage over the lumbering giants that dominate today's auto industry.

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/2638/fisker24vs.th.jpg (http://img368.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fisker24vs.jpg)http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/6346/fisker13mt.th.jpg (http://img368.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fisker13mt.jpg)

[SilviaEvo]

my god its beautiful :drool:

[Astonfan]

As with early generations of carrosiers, Fisker Coachbuild has no plan to produce cars from scratch. The Latigo CS, for example, starts out life as a BMW 6-Series coupe, the Tramonto as a Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG.

so wait, are they making a new car company or are they gonna be a tuner that takes two prexisting models every year and modify their design/performance? i cant wait to see their debut.

[ferrarif1fan89]

^^^^^its sorta like RUF, except they make their own powertrains and bodywork.

[SilviaEvo]

^^^^^its sorta like RUF, except they make their own powertrains and bodywork.
ahah! first thing i thought was 6-series maserati and aston martin all in one

[Astonfan]

^^^^^its sorta like RUF, except they make their own powertrains and bodywork.
oh, thanks for explaining it to me, should be cool to see their cars then.