FIRST FOOSE COUPE SOLD FOR ONLY $5,000 OVER STICKER?

The Foose Coupe was conceived back in 1990 when Chip Foose was still a student at the Art Center College of Design, long before his designs became famous. The prototype Foose Coupe debuted at the 2006 SEMA show and caused such a sensation that a limited edition run of 50 coupes are to be built by MetalCrafters, each one tailored to the exact requirements of the customer, with prices starting at US$298,000. The mid-engined 550 bhp Mopar Hemi V8 engine Foose Coupe has a carbon fiber monocoque cabin mated to a modular steel space frame and planted to the pavement with a suspension by Hotchkis, Koni coil-over shock absorbers and a 6-piston Baer Brake system. Now the rights to the first production unit are to be sold at auction.

Well, we've been covering the story of Chip Foose's Foose Coupe since before SEMA, and it all finally culminated over the weekend at Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach, where the first customer car brought $300,000 when the gavel fell. That would ultimately be the top sale recorded over the weekend. The winning bidder gets to work directly with Foose to pick out the color schemes, wheel design, and in this particular case, even the motor -- either a Ford GT unit or the 392 HEMI crate engine as seen in the green prototype. Only 50 cars will be built, and the top bidder actually scored a little bit of a deal. You see, each Foose Coupe has a base price of $295,000 anyway, so the extra one-on-one personalization experience with Chip only added an additional $5,000 to the price for the first-ever customer car. Expectations were surely higher, so even though this was the top seller, dollarwise, the number it brought must have been a disappointment.