CONSULIER GTP
A ONE MAN, ONE SUPERCAR VISION
STORY | Evan Griffey
PHOTOGRAPHY | Ian Wood
We’ve all been there … daydream doodling in our high school math class, letting the lines flow while sketching out the ultimate supercar. We had no limitations, no expectations, just a blank page on which to design our own supercar. In fact, many supercars are born from a single-minded visionary whose shapes and scribbles beat the odds and came to life. Historically these one-man car companies seem to come in waves. It started with Ford (Henry), Chevrolet (Louis), and Bugatti (Ettore) at turn of the twentieth century. In the 1930s and ‘40s there were Porsche (Ferdinand) and Ferrari (Enzo). The ‘60s saw Carroll Shelby and Ferruccio Lamborghini hit the scene.
RAD AND RARE
A new wave of daredevil visionaries swooped in during the 1980s. Among them were John DeLorean and his DeLorean Motor Company, Gerald Weigert and his Vector Aeromotive Corporation, and Consulier Industries, the brainchild of Warren Mosler.
Mosler was a hedge fund manager who saw the light and leaped into the supercar fray in 1985. Based in Riviera Beach, Florida, Consulier Industries morphed into Mosler Automotive in 1993. The company created the Consulier GTP. While outshined by the cinematic fame of DeLorean’s DMC-12, the Consulier’s superiority showed up at the racetrack.
The Consulier is one of those ahead-of-its-time stories. Built between 1985 and 1993, the GTP had the specs, the street cred of a supercar: it’s a mid-engine design featuring a composite monocoque chassis with an integrated carbon-Kevlar body that’s powered by a turbo-boosted engine. It tipped the scales at a scant 2,200 pounds. According to consulierGTP.com, 83 GTPs were built and, of those, 20 were straight-up racecars, eight were targas, and two were roadsters. Most of the road-going cars were registered between 1988 and 1991, which is considered the car’s heyday.
PARTS-BIN BADASS
The Consulier GTP is a parts-bin supercar that’s somehow greater than the sum of its parts. The Consulier is powered by a Chrysler 2.2-liter Turbo II four-cylinder that originally appeared in the 1985 Shelby Omni GLH-T hatchback. The turbocharged, intercooled powerplant, which also powered the ‘87 Shelby Charger GLH-S and ’87 Shelby Daytona coupe, sported a forged crankshaft and forged rods and produced 175 horsepower. A 555 Getrag five-speed manual from the Shelby cars handled gear selection while the taillights came compliments of 1979 to 1986 El Camino/Malibu wagons, and the door handles can trace their roots to a Dodge Caravan minivan by way of the Daytona sport coupe. The front brakes are Daytona stock, the rears were scavenged from a Pontiac Fiero, and the clutch slave cylinder has a part number that traces back to a 1981 Datsun 310. Series II cars from 1991 to 1993 were motivated by a Series III version of the Dodge 2.2-liter topped with a Lotus-derived 16-valve head. Fine tuning of this combination generated 224 horsepower.
MOTORSPORTS HERITAGE
The Consulier was all about pushing limits. To test its mettle Mosler raced the GTP from the beginning, enjoying its greatest success in the 1991 IMSA Bridgestone Potenza Supercar Championship. Mosler notched victories at Lime Rock and Laguna Seca, where Consuliers went 1-2 beating Porsche 911s, Corvettes, and Firebirds. The GTP was issued a weight penalty of 300 pounds and then strangely banned after the ’91 season, but this chapter of its story is murky as there is little documentation of the actual edicts that led to its banishment. As the accompanying chart reflects, Mosler was serious about racing, with five cars competing at both Lime Rock and Road Atlanta in 1991.
CONSULIER’S SUPERCAR SPECS
The Consulier GTP base model was called the Sport. The automaker offered the LX upgrade, which included Recaro seats, Fittipaldi wheels, a Euro-chic Alpine stereo system, air conditioning, power door locks, power mirrors, power windows, tilt steering column, and wool carpet. Other options were a sunroof, a car phone, and a security system. No doubt the car’s looks challenged the eyeballs but its price tag also made the jaw drop— around $60,000 for a LX—in mid-1980’s money no less! To put this into perspective a Ferrari 308 GTB Quattrovalvole started at around $56,000 and a base Porsche 930 had an MSRP of about $66,000.
It didn’t help that Mosler offered $25,000 for any street-legal car that could beat the GTP on the track, Car and Driver stepped up with a 1990 C4 Corvette and won. Mosler refused to pay up. He claimed it wasn’t a fair fight because the magazine borrowed a tired 1988-vintage driving school car with worn brake pads and less than ideal tires when Mosler planned to provide a car for comparison. The showdown was held at the Chrysler proving grounds in Michigan and the ‘Vette lapped a 1:21.01 and the Consulier clocked a 1:22.56. Mosler and the Consulier were slammed in the ensuing Car and Driver article and the media never embraced the Consulier after that. In a 2010 interview with Car and Driver Mosler is quoted, “you asked me earlier what my biggest regret is. Probably letting Car and Driver test our cars.”
RYAN WILD’S CONSULIER GTP
Having worked as a Senior Business Consultant for Ceramic PRO for the past seven years, Ryan Wild is no stranger to cool cars. His long road to Consulier ownership started with a drive in a friend’s Lotus S3 Esprit Turbo. But pursuing vintage Lotus ownership presented some hurdles. Ryan didn’t fit in the car very well, had no garage space for it, the nearest Esprit mechanic was three hours away, and the car had a notoriously weak transmission. But he says the emotion he felt after driving the Lotus changed the course of his automotive pursuits.
“I was absolutely smitten,” says Ryan, “and I decided after a long run with BMW E30s I really wanted an ‘80s mid-engine supercar and it was time to start seriously working toward that goal. I’d wanted a supercar since I was eight-years old, ogling supercar posters at the Scholastic book fair (yellow Ferrari 348 and red Diablo).” The search took four years.
One day while innocently trolling an obscure cars group, Ryan saw a picture of a Consulier and did a deep dive of research and proper drooling. “I soon realized that the Consulier solved every pitfall that Lotus ownership presented,” quips Ryan. “The body and chassis were crazy, exotic, and 25 years ahead of their time—the next sub-$100k carbon chassis production car was the BMW i3 in 2013.”
“Shortly after deciding the Consulier was for me, car #17 popped up on a Bring a Trailer but I was outbid by someone with deeper pockets,” Ryan recounts. “I found the owner’s group for Consuliers and poked them for the next eight months until one of the owner’s wives wanted a horse and my networking paid off. The car, a 1990 LX, came to me with only 2,400 miles so it required a significant amount of sorting to make it roadworthy as cars hate to sit for 25 years. I have tripled the mileage in three years.”
LIVING WITH THE CONSULIER
“The best part is that the car is actually less expensive to maintain than an E30, extremely reliable, and gets over 30 mpg on the freeway. My air filters are $1.49, PCV valve $6, and a charge pipe is $27. Remember, this car was designed to be run and maintained by privateer race teams and track enthusiasts, which is exactly what Warren Mosler was. There are even plenty of parts in the local junkyard and a bevy of aftermarket suppliers that modded the Shelby Turbos for drag racing.”
Ryan likes the boldness of the one-man car company. “I have an affinity for entrepreneurs that want to defy the status quo and bring a consumer product to market that is groundbreaking with a vision so steadfast that they refuse to make concessions to make their company sustainable. That’s what makes the GTP so special—it was a street-legal race car built from a clean slate, not a powertrain shoved in a chassis with widened fenders and wings tacked on to an existing design. A car free from compromise, free from capitalism. Warren Mosler built the Consulier to prove that composite cars were safer, more fuel efficient, more space efficient, and stiffer than metal cars. He even built an electric version, yet 30 years later we are still driving metal cars because the status quo is profitable.”
Ryan says his favorite modification is a fully functioning and period-correct G-Analyst by Valentine Research g-force meter. “I found it very fitting as the Consulier was the first street-legal production car to break 1.0g on the skidpad on street tires. Speaking of tires—sticky modern tires, urethane bushings, and advanced brake pad compound technology are the three elements that transform both the performance and the driver interface of any classic car and the Consulier is no exception. The brake pedal feel on the original 30-year-old pad compounds is extremely hard to modulate. It’s too soft, lacking bite right up until the brakes lock-up sans ABS, something Doug DeMuro commented on in his review of the Consulier GTP—saying, ‘this “wooden” pedal feel makes the car very difficult to drive consistently at the limit, which hampers a driver’s lap times.’” Ryan is quick to point out that people flock to the car. “I always say, it gets 30 miles per gallon, two pictures per mile, five pictures per stoplight, and one conversation per gas station.”
Mosler developed the Intruder and Raptor in the ‘90s, and introduced his MT900 in 2001. The MT900 addressed the styling shortfalls of the GTP while retaining its performance, but like all the other Mosler creations, it never struck a nerve in the open market. Mosler ceased car manufacturing operations in 2013.
For sure the ‘80s landscape of one-man car companies is littered with carcasses. While the automakers were losers, the cars were authentic, often eclectic, and in some cases collectible. They were good enough to keep the dream alive for Horacio Pagani (1992) and Christian von Koenigsegg (1994), who in turn kept the one-man, one-supercar fires burning bright for Elon Musk’s Tesla and R.J. Scaringe’s Rivian. Where will these companies be in 10 years and who will pick up the torch next?
