Custom Cars Going Mainstream

The New York Times has an article detailing the success of custom car designer Chip Foose. Not just your typical designer, Mr. Foose actually has his designs being built by the major US car companies. His design work in 1989 led to the Plymouth Prowler. And some of his other work is now being built by Ford Motors as a "limited build" car manufactured by Ford and sold through their dealers.

THE Detroit auto show next month will be a coming-out party, of sorts, for the car customizer Chip Foose.

“I’ve been to the show before, many times of course,” said Mr. Foose, in an interview from Foose Design, his company here in this beachside community. “But my role has never been publicly announced. This time it will be.”

Mr. Foose will be in Detroit to unveil a special edition Ford F-150 pickup for which he had free rein to reinterpret the design. This follows the recent debut of a similarly conceived Foose Mustang. The Mustang, which is being manufactured at a rate of 80 a month, has been sold out at Ford dealerships, he said.

Mr. Foose, the rare customizer actually commissioned by a manufacturer to produce a special edition model to sell at its dealerships, likens himself to others who have put their stamp on cars, like the performance maestro Carroll Shelby, who created the new Ford Shelby GT500, and the Eddie Bauer retail company, which put its name on Ford S.U.V.’s.

The Mustang’s initial success seems to have given him the opportunity to do more with Ford. He was in Detroit last week meeting with the company to discuss developing more products.

Mr. Foose’s contribution has been in design only, but he said future Foose vehicles would be likely to have performance modifications (that retain Ford’s warranty coverage) as well.

“There are a lot of opportunities there, too,” he added.

Here are some pictures of the "Foose Stallion" Mustangs. Foose sees there being a market for these special limited build vehicles well into the future.