With typical concision, Mosler wrote back: "Let's do it.". Yes, that Mosler, he of the Consulier, Intruder, and Raptor, those super-fast, lightweight, mid-engined sports cars that are routinely banned from endurance racing for being unbeatable, and whose visages are themselves a test of endurance. In this way Mosler was able to produce a running prototype for only about $500,000. Mosler insisted that the MT900 have a split windshield with two flat facets, like the piteously unsexy Raptor. With three inches of suspension travel on both ends, the Mosler isn't a supple touring car, for sure. As will surprise no one who has driven a Mosler car, the interior design has gotten short shrift so far. Trenne, a salaried employee of Unigraphics, got marquee billing: MT900 stands for "Mosler Trenne" and 900 kilograms, the target weight (which, unfortunately, the car misses by 600-odd pounds). I believe the pictures are of the MT900 S, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosler_MT900R#MT900R, http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2006-mosler-mt900s-road-test, (You must log in or sign up to reply here. Financial independence is a beautiful thing. Mosler's cars have been, heretofore, just ugly. The doors fit into cutouts in the roof to make it easier to get in and out. Headroom is now exceptionally good. Go play GTR2, it'll surpass the GT1 cars in the corners while nearly keeping up with them on the straights even though they have a 150 hp deficit between them. Once in third, the LS1's natural tractability takes over, dishing up loads of good-natured torque from corner to corner, from entry to exit. To know a Mosler MT900 S, we need to puncture deep, all a approach behind to 1985, when sidestep account manager Warren Mosler founded Consulier Industries. "But I'd need a budget to do that, wouldn't I?". All Rights Reserved, Introducing the $1000 TopSpeed Student Scholarship. It is poignant that Mosler—a person in whose presence you know, finally, that you are not the smartest guy in the room—doubts his instincts on this score. Unfortunately, specifics of the vehicle are very thin as far as its listing goes. Be careful grabbing that second gear, though. After seven major styling overhauls in virtual reality, Trenne e-mailed the body's math data to UCAR Composites in Irvine, California, where the numbers were fed into a toolmaking machine. Mosler Automotive would take one more victory that season. We were a little apprehensive about hot-lapping the only MT900, but the car turned out to be a pussycat. Considering the car has a five-speed manual, and most sources say the car was built with a six-speed, I’m not so sure that is a stock transmission. Mosler estimates its current output is 350 hp at 5600 rpm, up from 345 due to the slightly less restrictive Corsa exhaust used in the MT. To free up more room, the seats had to be lowered. In the late 1990s Mosler teamed up with car designer Rod Trenne and the result was the MT900. Mosler and Trenne shared common carbuilding values: lightweight, mid-engined monocoque design and heavy reliance on pre-engineered parts and performance from the OEMs to save costs. "Tony Affuso [UGS V-P of products and operations] said, 'You come to work for us and we'll help you with your car.'" An air-gathering lip of some kind may be retrofitted. Only days from the toolmaking stage, Trenne put his foot down, practically boycotting until he got a curved windshield. With the right wetware at the helm, Unigraphics can produce a whole car design, right down to the cigarette lighter, in less time than it used to take GM just to design that lighter. This humility—and, likely, his economist's need to make a business case for his perennially money-losing enterprise, Mosler Automotive—made him receptive when Rod Trenne came calling. All Rights Reserved, � Copyright TopSpeed. Even Mosler has warned that it’s not uncommon for aftermarket parts to be used as replacement parts, which dramatically decreases the overall value of the car. "It was an image thing.". Outside of the transmission discrepancy, this is a fine example. Derived from the original MT900, the MT900S is the road-going variant of that beautiful race car. Revising the pedal assembly is high on the honey-do list. Under the skin, the monocoque tub is fashioned out of one-inch honeycombed aluminum with a resin laminate. But he doesn't know if the Mosler MT900 will sell. No one doubts that Mosler can build fast cars. Hummer Is Back with a 1000-HP Electric Pickup, Hummer EV Starts at $112K, Cheaper Models to Come, GMC's 2022 Hummer EV's Competitors Are Few, Once Notorious, the Hummer Brand Aims for Glory. Shortening them has thrown their leverage out of whack, and it now takes huge thigh pressure to clutch. Because Mosler produced so few MT900s, the FIA rejected Rollcentre's homologation, meaning the MT900s it built for the GT3 class wasn't legal for competition. Compared with the Cuisinart-inspired Saleen, the Mosler displays a certain lack of surface excitement -- in fact, there are areas of outright dullness, particularly in the nose of the car. However, Mosler and Trenne saw the skin quite differently. Meanwhile, the brake arm angles over the clutch, making it easy to get your feet tangled among the pedals. They have now been allowed to return, but with handicaps if I recall correctly. Robert has been an auto enthusiast his entire life. The decklid behind the louvers is slightly concave (for a measure of downforce at speed, says Trenne, but he's not sure how much, how fast). So it's entirely possible the burgeoning supercar market is about to get a cramp. The power-steering boost is set on "parallel parking" mode, so it was hard to judge the car's turn-in or steering feel through this watery and numb linkage to the front wheels. MT900 GT3 Launched in late 2006, the Mosler MT900 GT3 was an attempt by Rollcentre Racing to adapt the MT900R for compliance to the newFIA GT3 category used in various championships. The greenhouse swells from a more or less flat deck, with radiused shoulders falling off to nearly flat sides. When it was discovered the lever arms were too long, they were cut down. Back in Riviera Beach, Mosler's workers produced the panels, and when they bolted them onto the chassis, "everything fit perfectly," says Mosler. It currently produces the MT900R racer and the street-legal MT900S, as well as several unique project vehicles.. History. In which case Mosler, filthy-rich bugger that he is, just won't build them. Robert continued working on cars in his free time and learned as much as he could about engines, transmissions, and car electrical systems, something that only fed his curiosity more and eventually led him to earn a bachelors degree in automotive technology with a primary focus on engine performance and transmission rebuilding. Yes, that Mosler, he of the Consulier, Intruder, and Raptor, those super-fast, lightweight, mid-engined sports cars that are routinely banned from … He understands securities and bond trading. ... Mosler is a DOT certified builder and these cars are 50 state emissions legal. Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display. "I told him I had this package that will fit his engineering." the bazillionaire entrepreneur/economist and oft-doubted carbuilder asks, standing by the first copy of his creation. Derived from the original MT900, the MT900S is the road-going variant of that beautiful race car. The engine breathes through a roof-mounted intake and . Although this was done to improve outward visibility, it also puts the driver's data-gathering bum very near the car's center of gravity. Mosler's stylistic sense is thus governed by his engineering determinism, for which he has no off switch. Since 1985, Mosler has produced vehicles with such a performance difference from their competitors that the Mosler cars have often been banned from competition. The MT900 set a new 0-100-0 mph record with a time of 10.98; the McLaren F1 LM held the previous record time of 11.15 seconds. The Corvette pedals were tortured somewhat to fit the Mosler foot box. "Ideally, I would do an interior that surpasses the design style of something like an Audi TT," says Harrison. Proof that every silver lining comes with a dark cloud, the wraps are coming off Mosler's MT900 at the same time Steve Saleen is rolling out his new supercar, the S7, a wildly aggressive, damnably attractive $375,000 exotic with more gills than the San Diego aquarium. Two-way adjustable Penske coil-over shocks and adjustable-blade anti-roll bars stabilize the wheels, which brandish 14-inch-disc Brembos and dual-pot calipers. This is one of the MT900 … 67. Mosler's first car was the Intruder, a re-bodied Consulier GTP, which proved as successful on the race track as its immediate forebear and likewise ended up being banned by the sport's authorities. The down-on-power, unsorted prototype we tested at Sebring during its first weekend of shakedown laps does in fact accelerate quicker, brake harder, and corner sharper than a Ferrari 360 Modena; likewise, it slaps around a Lamborghini Diablo 6.0, then asks for some $136,000 in change. This latest MT900S has also benefitted from the numerous lessons learned from its competition-only cousin, the MT900R, class winner at the Daytona 24-hour endurance race. Looking at the photos, the car is very clean, and the orange paint finish really fits the car with the black spoiler, rear window louvers, window tint, and black wheels. Mid-engined cars are inherently neutral and reactive, but in the Mosler, owing to the ultra-low seat height (a mere two inches above the 5.5-inch ride height) and the nearly centered driver's position, all the roll, pitch, dive, and yaw data come in at cable-modem speeds. But more important is rebound. "What do you think?" Mosler, slightly anguished and bemused, doesn't understand it. Nonetheless, we got out of the car amazed that it is so nearly right, so early. The biggest disagreement involved the canopy. Dave Hill and the C5 team had purchased a Mosler to crash-test the sandwich composite in the monocoque. If you’re looking to purchase another supercar for your collection, we found one that you just might be interested in. The prototype was running a little hot at Sebring. The MT900 takes a hit and just swallows it, staying planted and settled, with little heaving around in corners. If you are interested in looking at this vehicle, I suggest you take the time to have it inspected and verified. The car has presence, even menace, particularly when crouched on its 20-inch, five-spoke HSE aluminum alloy wheels that are wrapped with 40-series Dunlop SP9000s (although our testing was conducted with 18-inch shaved radials from Hoosier). My cars are designed by the stopwatch.". That's actually not too far off what Mosler's are like IRL, since they were banned from all FIA sanctioned racing for being too good for quite a while. The prototype MT900 is no rough draft, either. "Whether it was aerodynamic or not didn't matter," says Trenne. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, 2021 Toyota Camry XLE Hybrid Fixes a Few Flaws, 2022 VW Taos Previews an Important New Engine, AMG GT Black Series Targets a Higher Realm, 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 Electrifies VW's SUV Lineup, XC40 Recharge P8 Puts Volvo in the EV Game. Let's run the numbers: 2590 pounds, 350 horsepower, 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds, 70 mph to a standstill in 149 feet, 12 seconds flat in the quarter-mile, 1.02 g on the skidpad, and on the hand-lettered, gilt-edged sticker is the $163,840 bottom line, should the car ever come to market. In a less agile mind, this inability to tell a beautiful car from a stack of pancakes might be a tragic flaw.

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