[Boxer]

Views on the latest limited edition?

Article on the Photon:

http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/driven/1106_m...


Hovering one notch above Lamborghini and Ferrari on the automotive specialness chart is a gaggle of companies whose exotic names could just as easily be typos. Koenigsegg. Pagani. Gumpert. Spyker. Donkervoort. They come from faraway places like Sweden, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands and produce all-conquering, supercar-slaying hyperexotics that generate far more horsepower, carbon dioxide, and attention than they do sales.


Concerned with show as much as they are with go, hyperexotics are a braggart's dream come true, and they act as high-octane patriotic fuel for their country of origin. So who's representing the good ol' U.S. of A.? Well, there's SSC, which likely infuriated half of Germany and France when its Ultimate Aero proved even faster than the world-champ Bugatti Veyron. And then there's Mosler -- the other American supercar company without a crazy, unpronounceable name. If you don't recognize the Mosler moniker, it might be because some of their past products weren't exactly sexy. The Consulier was a visual train wreck, and the twin-engine, long-wheelbase Cadillac Eldorado, as cool as it was, was also pretty. Pretty flippin' ugly, that is.


When you hear the name Mosler, you should instead immediately think of the MT900S, the supercar that the company began selling here at the end of 2006. The MT900S is indeed quite nice to look at, but this car's ace in the hole lies hidden on a spreadsheet. Buried in the specifications for the track-focused but street-legal variant of the MT900S, the Photon, is one astonishing measurement: its curb weight is a scant 2394 pounds. This is a car as long as a Toyota Camry and as wide as a 4Runner, but it weighs about 50 pounds less than a Mazda Miata -- and that's despite having a 7.0-liter V-8 engine.


While mainstream exoticar makers (now there's an oxymoron!) like Lamborghini are just now starting to get serious about lightweight construction methods, Mosler has been quietly building featherweight monsters crafted from carbon fiber and Kevlar for years. This kind of cutting-edge engineering isn't what you'd normally expect from a tiny, low-volume manufacturer from Florida, but it's the result of founder Warren Mosler's clear mission: to build amazing cars, not to sell them. Mosler doesn't seem to care if people buy his cars. "I want to do something great because I can," he says. "If we sell some, great. There will be some happy owners." And during a recent visit to Palm Beach International Raceway, Mosler Automotive made sure there was at least one happy journalist.


Director of engineering J. Todd Wagner surprised us by showing up and handing over the keys to a $394,500 Photon. At the time, we knew basically nothing about the car. As we were strapping ourselves in, every eye in the paddock was on the orange thing with the exhaust note so violent it could set off air-raid alarms. Wagner yelled over the exhaust, rattling off a ludicrous horsepower number (550), that ridiculous curb weight, and explaining that the Photon -- which has a custom Hewland sequential-manual racing gearbox -- uses a flywheel with about as much rotational inertia as a spinning, dying housefly. It'll stall if you look at it sideways. No pressure.


Having never once been around PBIR's track, and not even knowing if the Photon had antilock brakes (it doesn't, we would learn), we begged for a pace car. When a volunteer stepped forward, he hopped into his track-prepped Porsche 911 GT3 on slicks. When we were told that he was the local Porsche club's fastest instructor, we asked him to take it easy.


He didn't bother -- and we're glad he didn't. The Mosler's vast, curved windshield provided a first-class, front-row view of the rear-engine Porsche scrambling its way around corners, oversteering, understeering, and countersteering. The Photon followed along happily, nowhere near its limits, with a big-block scream from the General Motors LS7 easily drowning out the 911's flat-six wail -- but only for a second at a time. Any longer wide-open-throttle blasts and the Porsche would have had a whole car shoved up its engine-filled arse. In steady-state corners, the Photon might understeer and its steering might not transmit much information about what the front tires are doing, but at the g-forces it generates, your author's spinal cord wasn't transmitting much useful information, either.


We had time for only a few laps, but the Photon's speed, cornering, and composure is dramatic. The Photon is clearly more than a big engine strapped into a light car -- indeed, a decade-long relationship with Siemens has given Mosler access to supercomputers for seriously advanced engineering. Mosler has just announced a new partnership with Santa Fe Digital Media that will allow it to perform computational fluid dynamics and structural engineering on an ORCA supercomputer capable of five petaflops. That's computer-geek-speak for five quadrillion calculations per second -- or the computing power of something like a billion and a half iPhone 4s.


"Just wait until you see the 2012 Raptor," says a giddy Wagner. "It's going to blow your mind. It gets a massive injection of sex appeal -- in fact, I designed the nose after the face of the most beautiful, exotic woman I've ever seen. The powerplant adds another level of exotic to the surface, featuring twin Garrett turbos as an integral part of the exterior design. With 100 more horses and weighing 500 pounds less [than the Photon], the Raptor is going to whip the Pagani Huayra. And with the turbos just inches from the atmosphere, it sounds like you're driving a fighter jet."

[Killer58]

Originally Posted by Boxer

Views on the latest limited edition?

Hovering one notch above Lamborghini and Ferrari on the automotive specialness chart....

Boxer, I think that claim is pure hyperbole. They're all nice cars to be sure, the Mosler more so than the others. But I wouldn't trade my Spider for all of them combined. To me, nothing short of a Phantom jet matches the "specialness" of a Ferrari.

[cribbj]

Originally Posted by Killer58

Boxer, I think that claim is pure hyperbole. They're all nice cars to be sure, the Mosler more so than the others. But I wouldn't trade my Spider for all of them combined. To me, nothing short of a Phantom jet matches the "specialness" of a Ferrari.

+1 and apologies in advance to Boxer……

For me the definition of an exotic car must begin with a requirement for it to have an exotic engine. Not one which is so closely related to the most mass produced V8 in the world that it’s virtually indistinguishable.

[Boxer]

Originally Posted by cribbj

+1 and apologies in advance to Boxer……

For me the definition of an exotic car must begin with a requirement for it to have an exotic engine. Not one which is so closely related to the most mass produced V8 in the world that it’s virtually indistinguishable.

I would tend to agree with you on the engine.

[wetpet]

V8 miata. yummy

[Jimmy Chen Shiba DDS]

So, Boxer,...now we know the truth,...that you are a braggart !

Cannot even begin to imagine the driving sensations of these monsters. How is the drive/ steering feel, I wonder. w/ smiles Jimmy

[Boxer]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Chen Shiba DDS

So, Boxer,...now we know the truth,...that you are a braggart !

Jimmy, I have never actually seen or much less driven the Photon.

[Jimmy Chen Shiba DDS]

Originally Posted by Boxer

Jimmy, I have never actually seen or much less driven the Photon.

Seems to me it is a matter of time for the inevitable. w/ smiles Jimmy

[Boxer]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Chen Shiba DDS

Seems to me it is a matter of time for the inevitable. w/ smiles Jimmy

I think you may know me too well

[Jimmy Chen Shiba DDS]

Originally Posted by Boxer

I think you may know me too well

Call it clairvoyance or whatever the phrase, and we have never met in person yet. Happy searching. w/ smiles Jimmy

PS. These so called hyperexotics are simply mind blowing machines, I'm sure.

[JazzyO]

The guy who wrote the article doesn't seem very well informed. I like my country's car makers, but in no way shape or form can Donkervoort or Spyker claim to be a notch above Ferrari or Lamborghini. And the Netherlands are not far away at all!

But it was a fun article to read, for sure, and I'm sure I have no real idea about how fun and terrifying this car will be to drive.

I have to be honest, I don't think she's very pretty. But I'm sure she'll put a smile on your face. Mo certainly has on mine, and I've never even sat in Mo!


Onno

[Boxer]

I am supposted to go see the Photon on Monday.

[Boxer]

From earler this week:

[wetpet]

Did you drive it?

[Boxer]

Originally Posted by wetpet

Did you drive it?

It is phenomenal.

[wetpet]

you are the man!

[brettgagnon]

Is it just me or does the back end look like a modified corvette bum?

[Boxer]

Originally Posted by brettgagnon

Is it just me or does the back end look like a modified corvette bum?

The designer happened to be a Corvette fan so not surprising that there are some similarities.

[JazzyO]

This question came up in the canteen at CERN: if you crash two Photons into each other, will you discover the missing Higgs Boson?


Onno

[Boxer]

Originally Posted by JazzyO

This question came up in the canteen at CERN: if you crash two Photons into each other, will you discover the missing Higgs Boson? Onno

Only thing you will discover are two pairs of soiled underwear.