I’m not sure if this Consulier GTP, photographed at Carlisle ’99, is right for this blog, as it’s sort of half way between kit car and limited production run vehicle (around fifty were made I think), but it’s a fiberglass car on a chassis cobbled together with bits from various vehicles — including a 2.2L four cylinder engine from a K-car. I remember their “$25,000 challenge” (later upped to $100,000) advertisements in the backs of all the kit car magazines of the time, in which Warren Mosler, head of the company, promised to pay the cash to anyone who could post a better lap time in a production car than what the GTP could do. The car’s performance was good, with a 5.2 second 0-60 time and a top speed approaching 150mph, but in the end, a stock ’91 Corvette was able to post a better time (which was disputed by GTP, as it had previously dominated top performers like the Ruf Porsche).
Ultimately the Consulier GTP, which Mosler described as “designed by the stopwatch” to excuse it’s award-winning ugliness (Time called it one of the “50 worst cars of all time”, on looks alone), was phased out — in part due to bad press — and Mosler now makes the also high performance but quite a bit more beautiful MT900 series, although GTP owners claim that it’s still the best performing vehicle in the Mosler/Consulier family.
Glad someone remembers, thanks!
That Corvette story came from Car and Driver who called me and said ‘you owe me 25,000.’ I said, ok, why? They said they had taken a yet to be released 92 corvette to the chrysler proving grounds with an older consulier ‘fresh’ from being a driver’s school car and that the corvette was a second faster. I asked them if the consulier still had the worn out general tires on it and they said yes, they were nearly bald. I asked how the brakes were since the car had been a full season at the driver’s school without a pad change and they said it was pulling badly and they were locking up. So I said fine, i’m pretty sure the consulier can beat the corvette, so let me send my driver with a set of brake pads and some new tires and let him run a lap. they refused and instead published the story that i renegged on my offer.
Mr. Mosler, I don’t care what anyone says, I think the Consulier is a beautiful car, second only to the 65 Corvair Corsa. Thank you for having the courage to make your mark, and a great car. Car and Driver is notorious for blustery, opinionated, “stacked-deck” comparos, etc. I haven’t paid for a C D in a decade, but I’d definitely buy a Consulier.
Hey I own the above car now, anyone have any more info on it?..
Pretty much all we have is what is posted plus the power of the machine known as google . A quick search came up with this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consulier_GTP
[…] Mosler, that’s not exactly how it went down. In a comment posted to the automotive blog PriceOfHisToys, Mosler explains his side of the story. The guys from Car and Driver had borrowed a 1988 Consulier […]
Love the looks!
For more about these cars……
http://www.consuliergtp.com