Meet the Rezvani Beast, an American-built road and track attacker

The custom supercar game sports a lot of players and not much success; for every Koenigsegg or Pagani who've managed to build a real business, there's a dozen one-name outfits that show off a design or two then never get off the bench. The latest entry comes from an American designer, who's targeting a more realistic goal rather than reinventing the carbon-fiber wheel.

It's called the Rezvani Beast, designed by California builder Fardees Rezvani. Based on the chassis of the Ariel Atom, the Beast wraps a lightweight and stylish carbon-fiber body around the bare-bones track car, along with an interior that makes the Beast a more comfortable place to spend time on the road. (There's even an optional windshield, something traditional Atom buyers consider a buzzkill.)

"We wanted to get back to the basics," Fardees Rezvani told Yahoo Autos. "We wanted to get back to a raw feel, a car with real tactile feedback, with a lightweight chassis." And while the Atom is popular with people who want a track toy, Rezvani said it held little appeal elsewhere. "The Atom is fast up to 80 mph, but then it would hit a wall because of wind and aerodynamics. We can give this car a world-class design, but keep it ultralight and streamlined — make it appealing to road drivers."