Britain’s Noble is an excellent company. Every major supercar build they’ve done has been agile and surprisingly practical, solid track performers. Not bad for a group operating out of Leicester.

However, there’s another car from an even less prestigious town that can lock horns with almost anything they’ve produced. This company has a racing pedigree and obsessively cuts out weight, making cars that pack a lot of punch for their size. Their last car was the ultimate expression of their approach to design, and can still run with the best of them over a decade later.

The Mosler MT900S was a fitting automotive finale for one of America’s most capable automakers.

RELATED: Chevrolet Unveils New LS7-Based LS457/570 Crate Engine

Modest Moxie

Consulier GTP Ad
via: Car Styling

Anyone who says the US can’t or won’t build supercars is obviously wrong and was wrong in the early days. Mosler was putting together performance machines from 1985 and kept right on doing so until their closure in 2013. They got very little press from anyone. Even an endorsement from George Lucas, a man whose work is entirely overappreciated, wasn’t enough to put them on the map. Maybe they should have painted one to look like an X-wing.

They even had pedigree, maybe too much pedigree. Mosler was highly successful in racing, so much so that they had multiple cars banned. They even got their own racing series in the Netherlands.

Mosler Raptor At Speed
via: Car and Driver

Admittedly, Mosler’s production cars were a bit of a tough sell visually. Mosler made the Consulier GTP, a car as astoundingly fast as it was spectacularly ugly; it looked like a decapitated Ford Ranchero with a Porsche 935 head stitched onto its neck stump. Their subsequent cars, the Intruder and Raptor, were based on this platform and looked more like someone had dropped a piano on the head of a Lister Storm.

For its part, the MT900S did look a little bit like a McLaren F1 and a Saleen S7 had been fused together in a freakish house fire. Regardless, it was undoubtedly Mosler’s best-looking vehicle. All that remained was to make it good.

Made In Miami

Mosler Logo
via: Pinterest

Mosler had pedigree, but they also had anti-pedigree. Its founder, Warren Mosler, is a hedge fund manager who lives in the US Virgin Islands. He headquartered the company in Florida, the trashiest state in America. Specifically, he set up in West Palm Beach – where you can find Mar-A-Lago. To top it all off, the company also had perhaps the most supervillain-looking logo in all the automotive world.

Yes, the MT900S was essentially all-American, save for the Subaru steering wheel and excellent (optional) Porsche six-speed transmission on some versions. No Lotus or Delta Motorsport chassis sneaking in on this one, which means no anal-retentive qualifiers from enthusiasts in denial. They emphasized low weight in all of their builds, and it paid off. The 2003 MT900S ended up weighing a spry 2330 lbs (with a full 21-gallon tank, no less), less than Noble’s immortal M400.

Mosler’s Menagerie

Red Mosler MT900S
via: Motor Trend

The “T” in “MT900S” stood for designer Rob Trenne, who also worked on the C5 Corvette. Appropriately, at its heart was as patriotic a powerplant as you could hope for: the immortal LS6 V8 from a Corvette. (Incidentally, it used the taillights from the ‘Vette too.) In Mosler’s tune, it made 435 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque.

This was merely one of many different versions, though. Mosler built MT900 variants like the Wehrmacht built tanks; many different types, just to experiment as much as possible. Car and Driver alone tested two versions of the MT900S; one with 550 hp, and a supercharged version with 600 hp. The Truth About Cars explains that the 600 hp version was a tuned 427 cubic inch V8 (also from the Corvette) introduced in 2007 as the MT900S’ new powerplant.

The Monastic Monster

White Mosler MT900S
via: Fastestlaps.com

As you should expect from an American performance machine, it was extremely ascetic inside and out. There was no ABS, stability control, or power steering. There was a radio, but no noise insulation, so the car ended up extremely loud.

From a racing perspective, it was well-appointed, with ample room. The seating position was excellent, with comfortable bucket seats and an intuitive distance to the pedals. Bafflingly, the trunk is actually large enough to hold a set of golf clubs.

As you would hope, the performance was excellent. It managed 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, dropping to 3.1 with the 2007 power boost – and did 12-second or lower quarter miles. It could do anywhere from 179 to 206 mph depending on tune. Motor Trend raved about the transmission – smooth and very easy to use, with the power climbing neatly without jumps.

The handling was impeccable; steering was extremely responsive and it could pull nearly 1G on the skidpad. The car had virtually no body roll either. The suspension was highly adjustable but surprisingly soft; the car’s structural rigidity allowed less punishing springs. Motor Trend also noted that the Brembo brakes were excellent, stopping the car from 70 mph in 114 feet.

Almost all versions did well on the track. The 430hp version managed to be less than half a second slower than the Noble M400 around the Ring Knutstrop. It also lapped the Bedford Autodrome West Circuit nearly three seconds ahead of a Ferrari F40.

A 550hp version is one of the oldest cars on Car and Driver’s Lightning Lap – and it’s in the top 20 fastest, drawing equal with the McLaren 650S Spider and beating the Lamborghini Huracan. These are cars made almost a decade later by top-flight engineers, and they battle to keep up with a stockbroker’s side project.

A Motoring Monument

Mosler MT900 Forest
via: Pinterest

The MT900 is an underappreciated gem. An owner commented that it was surprisingly cheap to maintain and highly reliable. This was just as well because the purchase price was up to $350,000 on some models.

The MT900 is very much like the Ferrari F40 and the Vector W8: a car designed on the principles of one man. MT900S' could be temperamental like Vectors, but they did also actually work, like Ferraris. Mosler was eventually snapped up by Rossion, who make a modified M400 version, the Q1, after Noble discontinued it; we'd be delighted to see if they resurrect any of Mosler's catalog.

Orange Mosler MT900S
via: Car Advic

Sources: Autoblog, Autocar, Bonhams, Car and Driver, Fastestlaps.com, Karenable, Motor Trend, Supercars.net, Supercar World, Top Speed, Top Gear, The Truth About Cars

NEXT: 10 Greatest American Sports Cars That Aren't A Corvette