2008 Mosler MT900

NEWS & REVIEWS If you thought the only wild things in Florida were Category 5 hurricanes and spring break in Fort Lauderdale, think again. Over at Riviera Beach, Warren Mosler, the financial whiz turned car builder, has been building wild Chevy-powered supercars since 1991. Anyone remember the crazy-fast Consulier? But it took until last year to get his first truly street-legal, EPA/DOT-certified car into production—the MT900s. Imagine taking a 200-mph Le Mans racer and adding cup holders and that’s pretty much what the MT is. The road car is powered by a tuned version of the last generation Corvette Z06 V-8, packing 435 bhp. But for an extra $19 grand, you can get a Magnuson-supercharged version that delivers an attention-grabbing 600 bhp. Couple that with something that tips the scales at just 2,500 pounds, and the results are explosive. Zero-to-60 mph? That would be 3.1 seconds. Downsides include the no frills interior, eyeball-jiggling ride, and a $189-grand base sticker. PHOTOS: click photos to enlarge

2007 Mosler MT900S

NEWS & REVIEWS Imagine taking a 200-mph Le Mans racecar, peeling off all those pesky sponsor stickers, and making it street legal. That’s pretty much what a Mosler MT900s is. And like a true racecar, the Florida-built Mosler is light and blisteringly fast. Fast, as in zero-to-60-mph acceleration in 3.1 seconds. Zero-to-100 mph in 6.6. Plus the staggering ability to circle a 200-foot skid pan, pulling 1.08 g. In the rarified world of ultimate supercars, it’s the man. Sadly, there’s no Ferrari flat 12 or Porsche turbo motor under the Mosler’s rear deck. It uses a supercharged 5.7-liter small-block Corvette V-8, which cranks out an impressive 400 bhp. The secret here is that the big horsepower motor is mounted in a carbon-aluminum, honeycomb body structure, which weighs nothing. That’s the good news. The less good news is that it rides like a wooden-wheeled buckboard, the cabin is as basic as a room at the Motel 6, and it’s seriously noisy. PHOTOS: click photos to enlarge

2006 Mosler MT900S

NEWS & REVIEWS Those pesky Federal emissions and crash-test regs have kept the wild Mosler MT900s super-car away from U.S. soil, even though the car is partly built in Florida (final assembly is in the UK). That changes in early 2006, when the Corvette-engined MT900s finally goes on sale through Corvette Mike’s, in Anaheim, California. A thinly disguised racer for the road, the Mosler tips the scales at a featherweight 2,300 pounds, yet it packs a meaty 435 bhp from its 5.7-liter small-block Corvette LS6 V-8. Light the fuse and it’ll run zero-to-60 miles per hour in 3.1 seconds, zero-to-190 in 7.1, and level out at 190 miles per hour. The body structure is made of carbon-aluminum hon-eycomb structural board, which is the same stuff aircraft floors and bulkheads are made of. There’s not much subtlety here: no power steering, no ABS brakes, bare carbon fiber throughout the cabin. For $189,000, you’ve really got to want one. PHOTOS: click photos to enlarge