The absolute holy grail of Turbo Dodge performance, this Shelby-upgraded 2.2-liter turbo featherweight track car remains the best car to ever be built in Florida. Weighing just under 1900 pounds and flaunting over 225 horsepower thanks to a rare 16-valve Shelby cylinder head, a big T3 turbo, and a fifth fuel injector, this Consulier GTP has an incredible power to weight ratio. The design is a turn off to many, but it’s hard to argue with the analog performance provided by lightweight construction.
While it’s never quite had the following of the Shelby Cobra or the Ford GT, the Consulier GTP is an American-built supercar that took on its contemporaries, the best the world had to offer, and beat them. The car was conceived in 1985, and produced through 1996 to little fanfare, which is likely due to the fact that only 83 examples were built. It was incredibly expensive, in addition to its polarizing looks, which contributed to the car’s lack of commercial success.
With the benefit of hindsight, the car’s visual appearance isn’t quite as bad as it was given ire for in its day. It’s certainly unorthodox, but it blends race car simplicity with upright cockpit visibility. If you look at it hard enough, it kind of looks like a proto-Saleen S7 with rectangle sealed-beam headlamps.
Given the rarity of the Consulier in general, the fact that this example is allegedly the last 2.2 Turbo powered example built, plus the cool factor of that pumped-up engine, and the low mileage, the huge $120,000 asking price makes sense. Just imagine if Dodge themselves had built a carbon-kevlar-bodied mid-engine turbocharged supercar in the early 1990s. Every Mopar or No Car fanatic would be clamoring over each other for the privilege of paying six-figures for a car like that.
The original owner of this car looked to the famed Troy Lee Designs for a custom livery, and the current paint scheme was mapped out in full House of Kolor paint, and laid down by the factory, as was fashionable in the 1990s. It’s a good look that has aged from straight up cool, through weird, and gently eased into nostalgically cool again.
If you think you have what it takes to drive a tricky lightweight turbo track toy, and don’t care about catching side-eye from haters, check out the full listing on eBay for more photos and information.