Aston Martin Launches Force 1 Super Car

Aston Martin Launches Force 1 Super Car - Tuesday at the Detroit auto show. Auto design legend Henrik Fisker showed off his new "super car" despite legal threats from his former employer, uber-luxury maker Aston Martin. Joint venture of manufacturer Gilbert Villarreal, auto engineering titan Bob Lutz and Fisker unveiled the $268,500, 10-cylinder, 8.4-liter Force 1 at the North American International Auto Show. The reveal came after Aston Martin last week sent a letter to Fisker demanding that he withdraw the Force 1 from the auto show or tweak his design to differentiate it from his past designs.

But Fisker filed a lawsuit against Aston Martin, accusing the automaker of "trying to intimidate me to prop up their own flailing company" and seeking $100 million in damages. A spokesman for Aston Martin, which has said it does not comment on pending litigation, declined to comment. Asked by a reporter at the Detroit auto show to address the Aston Martin accusations, Fisker quickly pointed to the car and suggested, without mentioning Aston Martin by name, that the Force 1 is unique.

The Force 1 is "something a little extreme and different," he said. With production starting in Auburn Hills, Mich., in April, the Force 1 has 745 horsepower and can travel 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds. It has 21-inch Pirelli tires, Brembo brakes, in-car Wi-Fi and a luxurious interior fitted with a Champagne holder.

Lutz, the former vice chairman of General Motors, Chrysler executive and BMW engineer known for rhetorical flourishes and quips, is chairman of VLF. VLF is also making the Destino, a derivative of the Fisker Automotive electric car stuffed with an 8-cylinder Corvette engine. Lutz said VLF plans to make no more than 100 units of the Force 1 in 2016 but that the car will be profitable. The fledgling company does not plan to make mass-market vehicles, he said, adding that it would never grow to the size of exotic-car maker McLaren, by comparison.