Driver's Notebook: Empty Streets
August 1, 2008
Born of the unconventional imagination of Warren Mosler—a former bond trader who gained his reputation in the 1980s with the advanced composite Consulier GTP and a dual-engined Cadillac Eldorado called the Twinstar—the MT900S is a finely engineered, lovingly crafted, Corvette-powered monster. "It’s an extreme sports car, built for the most demanding drivers," says Mosler. "Our road cars deliver a combination of acceleration, cornering, braking, and handling far beyond any other car certified for American roads."
Mosler has utilized Chevrolet power in the mid-engined MT900 since its 2004 debut. This year, the LS7 V-8 from the current Corvette Z06 replaces the LS6 engine. Thanks to a freer-breathing intake and notably unrestrictive titanium exhaust system, the 7-liter normally aspirated engine delivers 550 hp and 515 ft lbs of torque through a Getrag 6-speed manual transaxle.
Those drivetrain components conspire to provide stupefying performance stats. Mosler asserts that the LS7-equipped car will reach 60 mph in 2.9 seconds, pull more than 1 g on the skidpad, and surpass 200 mph before aerodynamic drag halts its advance. However, unlike most cars in this rarefied domain, the MT900S accomplishes its feats of athleticism without all-wheel drive, an adaptive suspension, active aerodynamic aides, or any sort of traction control system beyond common sense and experience.
The car accelerates with such violence, changes direction so instantaneously, and stops with such frantic urgency that cardiac arrest—or at least dislodged retinas—could result. Although raw power is hardly in short supply, the true secret to the MT900S’ speed and agility is its feathery curb weight.
"With every decision we make, we look at the weight and ask:
‘Is there any other way we can accomplish the same goal with less?’" says Todd
Wagner, Mosler’s director of engineering. As such, the $329,900 MT900S is a
study in exotic materials: A carbon-
fiber skin (a good deal of it unpainted
and polished to show off the weave pattern) conceals a rigid monocoque tub of
composite material and aluminum honeycomb, with chromoly tube-steel subframes
fore and aft. Mosler has even begun offering 19-inch front and 20-inch rear
Dymag wheels featuring carbon-fiber rims around nine-spoke magnesium hubs, which
lower unsprung mass by 42 pounds. The finished car weighs in at 2,450
pounds—some 700 pounds less than the Corvette Z06 and almost a full ton less
than a Bugatti Veyron.
Computer designed and wind-tunnel refined, the MT900 has proven the validity of its shape on tracks throughout Europe—where the MT900R GT3 racer has cultivated a reputation as a giant killer. "In order to compete with established brands such as Ferrari, we have to be a bit more special and appeal to a niche that is somewhat outside the typical sphere," says Jill Wagner, Mosler’s vice-president of global operations.
Part of that atypical appeal is delivered by the car’s gill-crazy body—the work of Rod Trenne, who was part of the team that created the fifth-generation Corvette. The MT900S name evokes Mosler, Trenne, the original (and highly optimistic) 900-kilogram target weight, with the S providing a reminder that the car is, in fact, street-legal.
Mosler Automotive, www.moslerauto.com
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