Fisker – High art or pricey kitsch?

Newly-established coach building company Fisker, named after its founding member, former Ford Advance Design Studio director Henrik Fisker, has unveiled the Mercedes SL-based Tramonto and BMW 6-Series-derived Latigo CS coupé.

Newly-established coach building company Fisker, named after its founding member, former Ford Advance Design Studio director Henrik Fisker, has unveiled the Mercedes SL-based Tramonto and BMW 6-Series-derived Latigo CS coupé.

CARtoday.com reported late last year that Fisker, 42, abruptly quit his high-profile job at Ford to realise his dream to revive the art of custom coach building with the help of Bernard Koehler, a 41-year-old German who also left the Blue Oval’s advance design team.

Fisker, who penned such modern classics as the Aston Martin Vanquish and BMW Z8, this week unveiled his initial creations – the R1,9-million Tramonto roadster and the R1,3 million at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Both models go into production in April.

Many of today’s most exclusive vintage cars were “coach-built” – customised down to the smallest details for wealthy customers. In the past, a chassis with a complete mechanical system would be bought from companies such as Duesenberg, Cadillac or Packard and shipped to master coach-builders like LeBaron, Derham or Fleetwood. There, one-of-a-kind bodies and special appointments were designed and hand-crafted.

“It’s just a lot harder to do today than it was in the auto industry’s early years,” said Fisker. “Because of all the prohibitively costly things like air bags, crash and emissions testing.”

By contrast, Fisker Coachbuild’s development process begins beyond the point where it would be responsible for meeting those standards. One-of-a-kind cars are out of the question, but batches of 150 (which will still guarantee high exclusivity) are not.

“It’s impossible to make money on a one-off anymore,” Fisker said in an interview. “But 300-off? We can do that. We learned about quality from BMW, how to do great things with very few people at Aston Martin, and from Ford how not to do things.”

To produce a Tramonto, Fisker Coachbuild will source a new Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG, or a BMW 645Ci – in the case of the Latigo. The cars’ exterior panels will be stripped and interiors will be completely dismantled before Fisker refits the cars with bespoke luxury interior trim and appointments, 20-inch custom wheels and tyres and graft new carbon-fibre body panels to the chassis.

Then aftermarket tuners will tweak the cars’ V8 engines for more performance. The Tramonto, for example, is intended to have 460 kW and more than 880 N.m of torque, though a buyer can skip the powertrain modifications and save the equivalent of R270 000, a recent report in the New York Times reported.

Fisker insists that Mercedes franchises will service the Tramonto and BMW outlets the Latigo and promises to address other service and warranty issues, although he says he expects a stellar product. Fisker has attracted start-up cash from 10 investors and aims to hold costs to a minimum. Fisker has only three full-time employees; subcontractors will carry out all work and nothing happens until a customer places an order and pays in full.

The Tramonto is apparently capable of vaulting from zero to 100 km/h in 3,6 seconds, going on to reach a top speed in excess of 300 km/h. Specifications for the Latigo are not as clearly defined, but Fisker hopes to use the BMW M6’s 5,0-litre V10 engine.

Koehler, who is in charge of mechanical modifications, has already contracted an undisclosed engine tuner to raise the BMW’s output. Fisker already has a deal with Kleemann, a specialist in supercharged engines, to enhance the AMG powerplant.

“When you consider the cost of a so-called supercar,” Fisker said, “our cars are a bargain.”

But will the public be willing to fork out the premium of around R500 000 for a re-bodied car with an unheralded badge on its bonnet?

Fisker answered with a question of his own: “Isn’t the Bentley Continental GT just a re-bodied VW Phaeton, which costs far less? Same principle, we think, only we offer far better execution.”