Discovering "The Barbie Car"
 
In 1993, I walked into a repair shop in Vancouver Washington. A large, outdated calendar hung on the wall, featuring the most unusual,
amazing car I had ever seen. Using all of my persuasion ability, I tried to convince the shop owner to give me that calendar. “No Way!!” 
Later, finding out anything more about this unique car was impossible. Who knew anything about the internet way back then?
I know a lot about cars, but had never heard of a search engine! The car, the poster, the colors and what the car looked like was
forgotten until 20 years later. 
Starting about a year ago, Grassroots Motorsports magazine had full page ads, featuring a shiny red Consulier, funny looking in a race car
kind of way. It had the same power plant as the Shelby GLHS I own, so that was cool! But way out of my price range. Later, the company
had a store of them in a warehouse, and marked them down because they wanted to clear some space, but still, my pockets weren’t that deep. 
Early in August 2013, a car guy I know contacted me saying he had bought one of the left over Consuliers and I had better call Mosler quick!
The cars were now priced to sell. Once selling for $58,000 to $70,000 in 1990, they were going for $15,000 and less. My friend thought
there was a chance they might have couple left. 
I called and was told there was only one left, the “Barbie” car. The what? He sent me a few photos of this crazy looking white car with pink dots. Instantly I thought, I want the car, I’ll just paint it. We made a deal (or rather I made a steal) and the car was mine.  
I went to the factory for a tour before having the car shipped across the county from Florida to Oregon. A new company has taken over since
Consulier/ Mosler was sold. I was introduced to a guy that had been working on these cars since the late 80’s. On his wall was “the calendar”
I remembered seeing in ’93. Oh my! It was MY car in the poster, the same exact car I had fallen in love with 20 years before. In that moment,
everything I had forgotten came flooding back into my memory. The poster car is the car I bought! 
I am the first owner of this car. It had always been a factory demo and promo car. The car was painted up “Miami Vice” colors for the Matco Tool calendar/poster from the very beginning and left that way. After I got the car, I found it had masking tape on it, like the factory was going to paint it. 
But they never did and it sat that way for the last 18 years in the warehouse. It had 29,000 miles on it. 
I guess it was sitting there just waiting for me, the guy who fell in love with it 20 years ago.