DB9 designer goes it alone
Aston's Henrik Fisker starts new car company
Aston Martin's ex-design director, Henrik Fisker, who was responsible for the design of the gorgeous DB9, has teamed up with Bernhard Koehler to start a new luxury car company. Koehler was head of Ford's design studio and also held responsibility for designs and concepts, including the AM DB9 and the Vantage.
The new company, to be called Fisker Coachbuild, will be based in south California and "will build cars to appeal to the global market".
They've stated their objective is "to combine beautiful design with existing world-class engineering. The focus will be on designing and manufacturing exclusive high-end sports cars, which will be limited to 150 units per design and sold under the Fisker brand name.
"These high-end sports cars will be designed and produced in south California with world-wide distribution. The designs will boast all of Fisker’s creative efforts over the past 15 years in the auto industry and will incorporate a number of dynamic elements. Koehler’s 25 years of expertise in 3D development and product quality will guarantee a smooth stream between the design and manufacturing process."
Expect the new designs to be made public towards the end of 2005, with production to start towards the middle of next year.
“We are excited to finally be able to practice and apply our expertise and car design knowledge with finely engineered product,” said Henrik Fisker, now the CEO of Fisker Coachbuild, and who started his automotive design career at BMW. “We hope to bring a unique addition to the luxury sports car market by providing distinctive sports cars through our designs. For Fisker Coachbuild it is all about emotion and design excellence”.
Fisker Coachbuild is a privately owned company with the majority of shares held by founders Fisker and Koehler (Chief Operating Officer). Financial support was received through a group of international investors.
PH interviewed Fisker last February: www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=52&i=7957
Simon Saunders (formerly design lecturer at Coventry Uni) has gone his own way the Ariel Atom too, true enterprise, confidence and rebellion against the system - surely its worth taking these risks in life otherwise why live?
Enzo started off young and it now seems impossible to imagine someone starting off Ferrari today, products often can become far more than the sum of its parts, and then outlive the originators life ten-fold.
Of course there are hundreds of people for whom the product is more important to them than anyone else. I hope that this ex Aston Martin designer can create something more than just a car for himself and that he doesn't loose sight of the bigger picture of why he's doing it.
Ferrari is to cars what Coca-Cola is to fizzy drinks.
Ask 100 people on the street what a Pagani is, then ask the same 100 what a Ferrari is. Everyone knows Ferrari, no-one knows Pagani. So Pagani maybe a better car, better looking and all that technically but its not the brand. Brands last, Ferrari will be about in 500 years, I give Pagani 50 at the most. Besides you'd have to be a geek to be passionate about Pagani, it's normal to be passionate about Ferrari.
Did you know Ferrari make as much from merchanise as they do from selling the actual cars?
will ferrari said:
Pagani vs Ferrari ! hardly a competition I'm afraid
Ferrari is to cars what Coca-Cola is to fizzy drinks.
Ask 100 people on the street what a Pagani is, then ask the same 100 what a Ferrari is. Everyone knows Ferrari, no-one knows Pagani. So Pagani maybe a better car, better looking and all that technically but its not the brand. Brands last, Ferrari will be about in 500 years, I give Pagani 50 at the most. Besides you'd have to be a geek to be passionate about Pagani, it's normal to be passionate about Ferrari.
Did you know Ferrari make as much from merchanise as they do from selling the actual cars?
Oh purleeese, Pagani has been around for a fraction of the time Ferrari has. As for being well known, how about Fiat? You seem to advocate individualism on one hand then criticise it on the other
>> Edited by apache on Monday 17th January 16:10
will ferrari said:
Besides you'd have to be a geek to be passionate about Pagani, it's normal to be passionate about Ferrari.
You would have to be enthused enough about cars to find out about Pagani, indicating that people who like Pagani are true enthusiasts.
You just have to watch bad movies to see that all cool people (who don't exist because it's a movie) drive Ferrari's, so people who drive Ferrari's are just obsessed with Ferrari's image, which as you pointed out, is a huge selling point.
Now to fuel you all with more anger towards Ferrari, (which by the way is probably the car company that got most pistonheaders enthralled by cars in the 1st place) I have some more things to say.
I've recently been watching Chris Rea's La Passioné film about a young boy obsessed with Ferrari's from age 10. I say recently, because I've been trying to get it for 5 years and now I've seen it 5 times in one week. The film explains that the beauty of Ferrari is the dreaming, the wanting, the desiring. This is where the majority of people live and these are the people who feel more emotion toward the car,for example: most men enjoy chasing women more than being with one for 10 years.
Mr Pagani's customers started off craving the Ferrari in their youth and have moved on beyond their pinnancle of a Ferrari to a more distant goal of Pagani, fair enougth, but for many of us the goal will always be Ferrari.
Now, if your still reading this you might want to know more about the film - so here is my longer view:
La Passioné rekindles your love, your passion of red cars. You realise it's not the owning that's important, it's the dream of owning that you feel inside, something that you can never lose, like your soul, and like your yearning to do more with your life than sit at a computer 24/7.
Watching the film is as refreshing as hiking up Snowdon, having no distractions, breathing the air and looking into the distance and wonder, what if? I'm sitting here now listening to Chris Rea on my Walkman, dreaming of images of red Ferraris screeching around corners. It's about the mind, not the body, and the film elaborates on this with fanatical self-absorption.
All of us geeks will openly sympathise deeper with the story as the film unravels. One also feels the personal feelings of the creator, Chris Rea, as if it was our film, as we are pushed deeper into the plot as we try to find deeper meaning in all that we see. But, life is not supposed to be about that - it's about getting out there and doing and it takes years of staying in to realise this.
One watches knowing what the whole film is about and wanting it to be better than it is, then you realise it's not about entertainment, La Passioné is about coming to terms with your reason for being.
Good luck to him. Its always a brave move to go it alone, especially in a market so flooded with sports cars, and the carcasses of failed enterprised trying to break into the market.
Gotta take your hats of to people who put money into making new cars though. As a sector it consistently has some of the worst returns on investment possible, unless your name is Porsche, and they've been to the wire many times!
What about a joint venture with these fellas here? 
Ingenious said:
The thing that I really dont understand is that the 'gorgeous DB9' was actually designed by Ian Callum and yet the kudos goes to Fisker ?!
A similar thing could be said for the ONE other vehicle in his portfolio!
wonder if they mean the vantage that became the vanquish or the db7 vantage, not that i suppose it matters since they were styled by the same person.
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