One of the main issues I had with Schism for a Todd Perkins Design company project was, to satisfy the immediate needs of the Inhaler Project, it became heavily biased towards hand fabrication. While that's great for marketing the Inhaler Project's ability to mentor and develop incredibly skilled individuals, it was kind of crippling for my (typically CAD based) design work. I do develop a lot of the patterns for Schism in CAD, but that's not the ultimate expression of my work I was seeking to showcase with the project.
To make sure that doesn't happen again, I am basing everything on design with Pistachio. The actual car is a tangible expression of creative design, and this is not a case of design work merely being a support mechanism for a physical car. This art rendering will evolve and grow with the project, but the most important thing was to set the tone for the project, to try and maintain my focus.
"Abarth-Ninja" and "old meets new" are the key themes in the concept. I replaced the Italian flag colors with U.S. colors in the badge's banner section, then replaced the scorpion with a Ninja "action figure" silhouette, over the upholstery and paint colors; narrowed the lower band of the ralleye stripe, and added the Ninja script. The second step in setting the tone for the body (and project) was to incorporate the new style rag top. Now I start to smooth out and detail the body to guide my CAD work.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I was thinking this morning that something like this has to be a blast to rip around autocross and short road courses in. IIRC, the original Mini was a formidable competition and I'll have a little more power, a little more tire... 
Hybrid Mode
