This custom-built is a special one. There is no such bike around, and I doubt there will be another one out any time soon.

Jack Rousch recently used the P51 warbird theme for Ford's P51 Mustang, but his body design stripped the P51 theme from about everything the warbird is. Ford produced a sleek, sanitized car, when only the line of the real P51 is sleek.

Check out pictures of the legendary warbird, and you'll see for yourself. The Mustang P51 is a rugged bird, the opposite of smooth. Its body panels are riveted, and far from being uniform in color. They are more a patchwork of aluminum plates of various ages and origins, which bear the marks of the strains they are subjected to in flight and fight.  

We deliberately steered clear of the shiny chromes of airshow P51s. To obtain the look and feel of the bike we wanted to build, we carefully examined over 700 pictures of P51s. We had to get the diamond-in-the-rough look, the feel of the plane which has gone through a baptism of fire.

We started on this project in August 2008. We're about halfway through, and it's already the end of November 2008. What a trip.