What are we looking at?
Remember Henrik Fisker? Designer of the BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9 and, of course, the Fisker Karma? Well he is back with the Galpin-Fisker Rocket, a 725hp carbon bodied Ford Mustang developed in conjunction with Galpin Auto Sports (GAS), builders of last year's Ford GT-based GTR1 and stars of a later series of Pimp my Ride.
What's the best thing about it?
You have to love America. Only in land of the free and the home of the brave could you get away with adding a supercharger to the V8 engine and slapping on some carbon fibre panels before dispensing with the manufacturer's name and slapping your own on. Yes kit car builders do it all the time but this is not a kit car - it still looks like a Ford Mustang, even retaining the pony badges Ford applied to it in Dearborn.
Still, the Rocket is an impressive looking creation. Every exterior panel bar the roof and doors have been reimagined and replaced in carbon fibre. As the roof and doors are constructed of aluminium anyway there was probably little point in changing them, certainly not from a weight saving perspective. Though when you consider the bonnet stripes are the result of stripping away paint to reveal the naked carbon fibre below, thereby saving a whopping 10 grams, you have to wonder why they didn't try.
Show stopper or filler?
In an LA Auto Show sense, a filler. A re-bodied Mustang might have worked at SEMA but not here. Especially as the 'exotics' hall it was revealed in was a bit dark and dingy.