The Final Days of Mosler
#1
11-15-2012, 12:41 PM
The Final Days of Mosler 
The Final Days of Mosler: One Supercar Left to Move, Company for Sale
Warren Mosler, starved of orders and staff, is quitting the supercar business and trying to sell his company. In 26 years, Mosler sold fewer than 200 cars and now is down to two employees and one remaining car at his southern Florida headquarters. He hasn’t sold a car for the past two years.
“I don’t have the energy to do another car or anything else,” said Mosler, speaking from St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he lives most of the year. “There’s a whole pile of stuff, good inventory, and [I’m] looking for somebody else with a car disease that wants to live the lifestyle.”
So far, Mosler has had trouble finding a reliable buyer.
“There’s always one or two people buzzing around but nothing ever happens,” he said. In the meantime, Mosler has listed all of his company assets for sale, including the automaker’s 45,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Riviera Beach, Florida, replete with shop equipment and a working paint booth for $3.375 million. In the company’s best years, Mosler said he sold “10 or 12” cars a year, employing up to 40 employees at a time.
More here: The Final Days of Mosler
#5
11-15-2012, 06:22 PM
Very sad to hear this.
Warren Mosler was one of the few builders who really championed the idea that weight is the enemy of performance. The name of the MT900S paid homage to its target weight of 900kg, which it barely missed, coming in at a still very impressive 2200 pounds. With either the LS1 or the later LS7 engine, we're still talking about a lot of power-to-weight ratio, folks. To say nothing of the handling advantages.
In the spring of 2011 I was in Florida for vacation and made a side trip to the Mosler plant, where I was given a full tour. Mosler did all their carbon work in-house; I was shown the bulk rolls of material, and the ovens. The monocoque was made in the exact same sandwhich technique as Koenigsegg uses. At the time there were still cars under construction. I sat in one finished example with clear coated carbon in many spots, and while I may not be the best judge of such work, what I saw looked flawless.
A Mosler MT900S was as close as you were ever going to get to a fully street legal prototype racer. They would trim the interior as plush as you wanted, but sitting in one regardless of the appointments could only give you the sense of being in a purpose built race car. In that sense, in my eyes it could never be what people expect a Ferrari or even a Koenigsegg to be, but rather a completely unique car for the people that really got it. Apparently there were unfortunately a few too many of those, at that price point.
Too bad, because the odds of someone turning out a fully DOT- and EPA-certified car this purely raw ever again are not that good. That a company Mosler's size was able to do so speaks of the tenacity of those building it. Yes there were some minor Corvette pieces on it (door handles, taillights, instruments) in order to make it simpler to build, but anybody who calls a Mosler a kit car is sadly mistaken.
Yes I call myself a Mosler fanboy, but it would have been impossible not to be after having talked to the people who built them. At the time of my visit the certification process of the 2012 turbo car was well underway (which it did achieve), and there were high hopes for it. Which makes the ugly split and the story around that car today even harder for me to hear.
With the right lottery numbers, I would have taken mine in black. And I would have driven the wheels off the thing at track days.
Who knows, maybe in the 11th hour someone swoops in and buys the whole works, to turn out a few more. In spite of common sense, I sure hope so.
Warren Mosler was one of the few builders who really championed the idea that weight is the enemy of performance. The name of the MT900S paid homage to its target weight of 900kg, which it barely missed, coming in at a still very impressive 2200 pounds. With either the LS1 or the later LS7 engine, we're still talking about a lot of power-to-weight ratio, folks. To say nothing of the handling advantages.
In the spring of 2011 I was in Florida for vacation and made a side trip to the Mosler plant, where I was given a full tour. Mosler did all their carbon work in-house; I was shown the bulk rolls of material, and the ovens. The monocoque was made in the exact same sandwhich technique as Koenigsegg uses. At the time there were still cars under construction. I sat in one finished example with clear coated carbon in many spots, and while I may not be the best judge of such work, what I saw looked flawless.
A Mosler MT900S was as close as you were ever going to get to a fully street legal prototype racer. They would trim the interior as plush as you wanted, but sitting in one regardless of the appointments could only give you the sense of being in a purpose built race car. In that sense, in my eyes it could never be what people expect a Ferrari or even a Koenigsegg to be, but rather a completely unique car for the people that really got it. Apparently there were unfortunately a few too many of those, at that price point.
Too bad, because the odds of someone turning out a fully DOT- and EPA-certified car this purely raw ever again are not that good. That a company Mosler's size was able to do so speaks of the tenacity of those building it. Yes there were some minor Corvette pieces on it (door handles, taillights, instruments) in order to make it simpler to build, but anybody who calls a Mosler a kit car is sadly mistaken.
Yes I call myself a Mosler fanboy, but it would have been impossible not to be after having talked to the people who built them. At the time of my visit the certification process of the 2012 turbo car was well underway (which it did achieve), and there were high hopes for it. Which makes the ugly split and the story around that car today even harder for me to hear.
With the right lottery numbers, I would have taken mine in black. And I would have driven the wheels off the thing at track days.
Who knows, maybe in the 11th hour someone swoops in and buys the whole works, to turn out a few more. In spite of common sense, I sure hope so.
#6
11-15-2012, 06:27 PM
Hi,
Quite a candid and obviously frustrated recount of events. Mosler has soul and purpose, but nobody is spending any money these days.
I hope someone takes on the challenge.
Cheers,
Nik
Quite a candid and obviously frustrated recount of events. Mosler has soul and purpose, but nobody is spending any money these days.
I hope someone takes on the challenge.
Cheers,
Nik
#8
11-15-2012, 07:29 PM
As long as we're talking Mosler today...
Back a bit on one of the more colorful Koenigsegg threads here, was a bit of "discussion" about who was the first to build a carbon monocoque road car.
You could make a compelling arguement that it was Mosler, with the 1900lb carbon/kevlar Consulier GTP, way back in 1988.
Back a bit on one of the more colorful Koenigsegg threads here, was a bit of "discussion" about who was the first to build a carbon monocoque road car.
You could make a compelling arguement that it was Mosler, with the 1900lb carbon/kevlar Consulier GTP, way back in 1988.
