First Drive: Mosler Photon

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.