Built to showcase Galpin Auto Sports’ extensive customizing capabilities, the Scythe is as much a throwback to old-school hot-rodding as it is a testbed for advanced technology. Finished in a color-shifting shade of purple with deep blue undertones, the twin-supercharged, thousand-horsepower extreme machine created a sensation at the 2008 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, looking very much like a real-life version of an outrageous Hot Wheels fantasy car.

Though impossible to tell from its radically altered proportions and bespoke composite bodywork, it started out as a 2007 Ford Mustang GT Convertible. Noted custom-car builder Ed Newton is said to have helped create the aggressive look, with its pincer-like front end, gaping open grille, and custom, purple-tinted headlights and taillights. The most inventive design feature is perhaps the roof, which appears to float above wraparound side and rear windows, supported by two machined aluminum buttresses sprouting from behind the seats inside the cabin. Meanwhile, the Scythe does Lamborghini and Koenigsegg one better with rear-hinged scissor doors that operate via voice command. An onboard XPC Shuttle mini-computer provides functionality for this and other capabilities that were cutting edge in the day, including exterior cameras giving a nearly 360-degree view around the car.

At first glance, the highly stylized interior seems to lack a steering wheel but there are, in fact, two onboard. Redundant controls on both sides of the vehicle allow it to be configured for either right- or left-hand drive. Buttons on the center console activate the gas and brake pedal on the desired side, along with the steering wheel, which automatically extends toward the driver from its resting position, flush with the dashboard.

Roof-mounted ignition and starter switches fire up the highly modified 5.0-liter V-8, with gleaming dual Magnuson superchargers on full display above the rakish hood. The three-rotor units force air through a custom manifold into ported 24-valve cylinder heads with performance camshafts. Running on methanol fuel with an 11.5:1 compression ratio, the engine reportedly produces more than 1,000 horsepower and sounds every bit as if it does. A Ford Mustang five-speed automatic enhanced with TCI internal components and a shift kit feeds power to the rear wheels. Other impressive hardware includes a custom air suspension, ultra-wide, two-spoke polished wheels with low-profile Pirelli tires, and Wilwood disc brakes featuring 16.5-inch cross-drilled rotors and six-piston calipers.

Driven little and shown extensively, including on display at Galpin Ford in Los Angeles, this one-of-a-kind experimental fantasy-turned-reality car is now offered to a new owner who will certainly create the biggest sensation wherever the Scythe is shown or driven.