Rare Rides: 2007 Mosler MT900S - a Purp Drank Consulier Sibling
On the last edition of Rare Rides we took a look at the Consulier GTP — a purpose-built race car that could also be driven on the road. After a name change and a couple of interim V8 updates on the original GTP, the company now known as Mosler Automotive released a new car, and then promptly modified it.
Presenting the MT900S.
After changing its name to Mosler in 1993, the company formerly known as Consulier started producing cars with V8 engines. But they didn’t actually have a new car design — just the old GTP. They fitted a regular LT1 V8 here, and a 6.3-liter Lingenfelter V8 there. By then it was the late 1990s and the GTP from 1985 was still living, branded as the Intruder and Raptor. Time for a change.
Development complete, Mosler’s brand new model started production in 2001. Designed by a man who worked on the C5 Corvette, the new car used a Corvette engine and some parts from the Corvette bin, as well. The 900 in the name was to stand for the target weight of the new car — 900 kilos. It actually ended up at 1,175 kilos, but that number didn’t look as good in marketing materials.
Equipped with a 5.7-liter LS1 V8, the 2,590-pound MT900 accelerated from 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds and featured a top speed of 150 miles an hour. The standard road car version of the MT900 asked $164,000. But the company didn’t stop there.
Immediately, Mosler developed a racing version known as the MT900R. Intended for use internationally at various motorsports events, the R made its debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2001. It competed again at Daytona in 2002, and between 2002 and 2005 competed internationally at GT races, with limited success. Around 30 MT900Rs were produced during the 2000s decade. And Mosler still wasn’t finished with the MT900.
A final version entered development, promising more power, more speed, and better overall dynamics. The MT900S went into production in 2003, powered by an LS6 V8 that produced 435 horsepower. The MT900S was not available in the United States at the time, as Mosler had not cleared EPA and CARB certification requirements. That changed in mid-2005, when the company received the government’s rubber stamp and shipped an MT900S to the first US customer — George Lucas.
Mosler switched things up for the S in 2007, when it dumped the LS6 in favor of an LS7 V8 (7.0L). Adding a supercharger upped the power output to 600, and dropped the 0-60 time to 3.1 seconds. Production continued through 2010, with 20 total MT900S cars produced. Since then, Mosler has not produced any other road cars, and its factory shut down in May of 2011.
Today’s Rare Ride is located in Iowa, and seems to be the same car shown in the Wikipedia entry for the MT900S. In sparkling Purp Drank paint, this incredibly rare car asks $220,000.
[Images: seller]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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The low top speed wasn't so much a feature as an indication of the massive downforce. I always found this car interesting, along with the Saleen S7. Basically a street-legal prototype race car. It's arguable that the Mosler MT900S was the fastest car ever tested at Car and Driver's Lightning Lap event up until 2018, when the 720S, ZR1, and 911 GT2 RS W appeared with massive power and downforce, along with the barely street-legal, super sticky dry-only track tires that have become popular on high end sports cars in the last few years. There were six others that were faster up until then, but none until 2015, when the track got about 3 seconds faster with some repaving and modifications. The MT900S was still within 3 seconds of the times of those six cars.
Cool car! Thanks for the article, Corey.