Tdudrivetime

Phil Bradley wrote:Henrik Fisker is an ex-designer for Aston Martin and was one of the founders of Fisker Automotive, from which he resigned in 2013.

Fisker also was involved with the initial designing of the Tesla Model S. Safe to say, Mr. Fisker certainly has a strong automotive design background.

Fisker appears to be making a scene within the supercar industry again, with his latest design of the ‘Thunderbolt’, based on Aston Martin Vanquish.

The Thunderbolt has a carbon fibre body, and has retained the Vanquish’s overall shape, however Fisker has added a larger Aston Martin Grille, and re-designed the rear of the car to look like a Jaguar XK with thin LED stripped rear lights and a wrap-around rear window. The height of the supercar has been lowered by 15mm according to the press release, and the designer has fitted 21-inch wheels on it.

Performance wise, Fisker has sadly not tweaked the performance from the V12 engine in the original Vanquish.

This means the Thunderbolt will feature approximately 561 horsepower, capable of doing 201 mph and a 0-60 mph time in approximately 3.6 seconds.

Aston Martin have said sales of the vehicle will be extremely limited. We can expect that the Thunderbolt will not be for sale to the general public.

The automotive group have said however, that they will take limited orders for a modified version of the Thunderbolt, featuring more Aston Martin technologies. No rumours on prices yet, but we can certainly expect the price to be sky high with its severe limited availability!

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Jeff Glucker wrote:Aston Martin Will Sue Henrik Fisker Over The Thunderbolt

Remember the special Henrik Fisker-designed Thunderbolt we recently showed you? Apparently it’s not as special or different as Aston Martin perhaps expected it to be, and the British automaker has filed suit related to design-based intellectual property of the Vanquish-based machine.

It seems that there are design elements of Fisker’s Thunderbolt that Aston Martin feel are too close to, or even taken from, existing design elements. That’s not a total shock, considering Henrik Fisker is a former Design Director for Aston Martin, and helped create the shapes of some of their beautiful, timeless machines.

“We want to protect the Aston Martin brand and our intellectual property; Aston Martin’s Crown Jewels. Our customers and the public want to know that if they see an Aston Martin trademark, they’re getting the genuine article. Henrik Fisker’s Project Thunderbolt infringes our intellectual property rights and is being marketed in a misleading manner.”
-Matthew Clarke, Aston Martin PR & Brand Communications Manager

You don’t mess with intellectual property. If a company feels that’s happening to them, they’re absolutely going to take action. Aston Martin sees various aspects of its own property in the exaggerated styling of the Thunderbolt, which means they’re right to create the suit and try to shut this down.

Fisker has stated the Thunderbolt is a one-off design study. Those words have been carefully chosen, we imagine. Still, it’s been said that if there is enough interest that the Thunderbolt would be made available through Galpin Aston Martin. I don’t think Galpin is interested in stepping on its relationship with the mothership, so it won’t be surprising to see the Thunderbolt fade away.

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Steven J. Ewing wrote:Aston Martin drops Fisker lawsuit, Thunderbolt will not be produced

If you were perhaps looking forward to getting your hands on one of Henrik Fisker's Project Thunderbolt cars, you're out of luck. In order to quickly resolve a lawsuit from Aston Martin, Fisker has agreed to not produce his one-off take on the Vanquish coupe.

Fisker made a splash at this year's Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance when he showed Project Thunderbolt. It was Henrik's own take on the already pretty Aston Martin Vanquish coupe, and apparently, the guys and gals in Gaydon didn't take too kindly to Fisker's creation, issuing a lawsuit that "centres on Henrik Fisker's creation and promotion of automobiles that Aston Martin contends infringes Aston Martin's rights, by an improper and unauthorised attempt to exploit and free-ride off them," according to a statement obtained by Autoblog last month.

In a new statement issued Wednesday, the two parties have agreed to resolve their differences. Aston Martin has agreed to drop the lawsuit so long as Fisker does not produce his Project Thunderbolt coupe. So, sorry, Fisker fans. The official statement is pasted below.

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/08/asto ... -followup/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On March 26, 2015, Aston Martin filed a lawsuit against Henrik Fisker and other parties alleging various infringements by "Project Thunderbolt" of Aston Martin's intellectual property rights. The parties are pleased to report that they have been able to swiftly and amicably resolve their differences.

The terms of the resolution are confidential except that the Parties wish to confirm 3 points:

1. Henrik Fisker has decided that "Project Thunderbolt" will not be produced;

2. Aston Martin will withdraw the lawsuit; and

3. In view of some apparent misunderstandings surrounding reports of the case, the Parties wish to expressly confirm that the contentions made by AML were those, and only those, made in the lawsuit. The Parties confirm that that they have amicably resolved those matters, as well as any attendant misunderstandings.

The Parties will not be commenting further.