"I enjoy being hands-on. Designing, of course, but also working with the modeler, smelling the clay, getting clay under my fingernails. I almost love the clay stage even more than doing the sketches. That's where the design starts becoming a car. I have a certain way of designing, and I just won't shake that out of my system. I love pure sculpture, I like the right stance, large wheels sitting really well in the body; low-slung, sexy, beautiful, sculptural cars. I'm trying to create timeless designs that will last long. This is about creating a sense of style in this segment. This is not about quick hits."
Given that a passing Bora lit his personal automotive spark, his hero should come as no surprise.
"The guy who influenced me most was Giorgetto Giugiaro. I remember the first time I saw the Maserati Boomerang concept on a magazine cover behind a window at a newsstand. I put my nose against the glass, and just said "wow!" He's the most amazing car designer in the world, and he may be that forever. Who else has been able to design so many cars, personally, from a Golf to a Maserati to whatever. A great inspiration." He prefers not to discuss his own designs. "That," he says pointedly, "is for others to judge."
Fisker's four-wheeled icons?
"For me, one of the most timeless is the Porsche 911. It captures a unique proportion. It's a pure shape with exactly the refined graphics that need to be there. Another, with even more beautiful proportions, is the Jaguar E-Type. When you see that car, something goes on in your stomach. It's so sexy, amazingly sexy. It almost doesn't matter how it drives."
There's more to long-term success as an automotive manufacturer than raising start-up capital and penning pretty shapes. Besides all the development, supplier, production, certification, and sales aspects, there are distribution, dealer, service, warranty issues. Fisker is reticent about these details so far, but since the company was just 100 days old as of this writing, it's likely this stuff is still being worked out.
Will Henrik Fisker follow in the footsteps of carmaking icons like Ford and Ferrari or end up in the Tucker/DeLorean category? Too soon to tell. This small but talented team is confident it can beat the odds and live the dream.
"It's just us; we do everything, and we can do it quickly. We're all hands-on and will have direct relationships with our customers. Now, we're not saying we'll have the biggest bakery chain in the world. But we think we can make really good bread. That bread will be made by hand, and you'll have my signature on it, 100 percent. I just want to create something fantastic."