Not long ago, Henrik Fisker was dashing up Interstate 5 to San Francisco when a highway patrolman clocked his Aston Martin roadster -- a car that Fisker himself designed -- going 97 mph.
He protested. ("It was 90 at the most.") He got a ticket and set the cruise control at 70. For the next four hours, "I was overtaken by every grandmother," he said. Running late, he pressed down the pedal.
This time, the radar gun caught him going 88 mph.
"How long since your last ticket?" the officer asked. Fisker paused, but decided to fess up. "Well, actually, not that long ago," he replied.
Over the last two decades, Fisker has designed some of the sexiest cars on the road: sleek BMWs and Aston Martins that accelerate from 0 to 60 in the time it takes to count the fingers on one hand.
Now the Danish designer has his own Irvine-based car company and a half-billion-dollar loan from the U.S. government to build gas-electric hybrid cars that plug into a home outlet, go 50 miles without a drop of gas and don't look a bit eco-friendly.
Oh, and they'll also be fast.
"People feel very emotional about cars, and I don't want them to feel bad about driving a fast car," said Fisker, as he steered his growling roadster through rush-hour traffic on Sunset Boulevard. "We're building beautiful and fast cars that you can drive without having a bad conscience or ruining the environment."
Many auto industry analysts are skeptical. History is scattered with the wreckage of car companies started by big dreamers, Preston Tucker and John DeLorean among them. Building eco-friendly cars, even eco-chic cars, is one thing, analysts say. Selling them to a fickle public, with pump prices below $3 a gallon, is another.
But Fisker, one of the world's most highly regarded designers of luxury automobiles, likes his chances. And he's a focus group of one.
"As a car lover, I ask myself: What am I going to be buying in the future?" he said. "Will it be a boring, underpowered, dorky car because the government tells me I shouldn't pollute? Or do I come up with a cool-looking, sexy dream car that is also part of the future?"
Tall and fit, tanned and blond, Fisker, 46, is a dream front-man for a car maker, with a resume that few designers can match. He is best known for designing the BMW Z8 and the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage, vehicles with six-figure sticker prices and ageless silhouettes.
