Steve Saleen is in fast company, like Carroll Shelby in the 1960s and maybe–with the S7 supercar–even Enzo Ferrari.
After 18 years building highly prized, high-performance Ford Mustangs, Saleen has joined the big leagues. The S7 went from CAD/CAM computer drawing board to the street in nine months, without a full-size model.
Actually, Saleen has not so much joined the big leagues as he is leading the fast leagues, the low-built leagues and the supercar leagues.
The mid-engine S7 coupe has a zero-to-60 speed of less than four seconds and a top speed exceeding 200 m.p.h. (one estimate puts it at 217 m.p.h.). Its aluminum 7-liter, single-cam V-8 cranks out 550 horsepower, which means everything else is in your television-style rearview mirror (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
“We joked about what makes a supercar when we were designing it,” said Steve Saleen in a break from testing at Willow Springs Raceway in Southern California. “We came to the conclusion it has to have at least 50 openings or vents. We have 64, so we knew we qualified.”
The S7 also has all-wheel-drive. Power and weight distribution are split 40 percent to 60 percent front-to-back. The honeycomb aluminum chassis is clad in carbon-fiber body panels, and the S7R racing version is lighter and quicker, naturally.
Overall height is 41 inches (a McLaren F1 is 45 inches and a Lamborghini Diablo is 43 inches). That’s almost down with the original Ford GT40, which won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969. The “40” stood for the height of the car. (In comparison, a Ford Taurus sedan stands 56.1 inches high.)
In keeping with his experience with Mustangs, Saleen began with the S7R racecar and didn’t introduce the street version until California’s Monterey Historic Races in August 2001.
“We sold four race cars to four teams this year–two in the U.S. and two in Europe,” Saleen said. “All four won their championships.
“It was way above our expectations but it shows the car’s mechanical integrity and endurance. It’s really well engineered, and it’s got all the performance you’d want in a supercar.
“We’re doing things the opposite way by building a racecar first. But we’re looking for a racecar with the refinement of a street car. The fit and finish has to meet our standards, the air-conditioning has to work properly.
“We learned how to do all this in 20 years of selling Saleen Mustangs through franchised dealers: making sure they’re certified, priced right and finished right. On the surface this looks like a big jump but it’s really a normal progression.”
At 52, Saleen reportedly once sold his house to buy a better race car.
His Irvine factory employs 150 people, including his sons, Clint and Sean, and his daughter, Molly, when she’s home from college at the University of Arizona. Saleen’s wife (also Molly) keeps track of the Saleen Mustang owners.
And Saleen’s got racing history. He began as a motorhead in high school with a 1956 Porsche from his father, who would fix up cars and resell them. Saleen started autocrossing, which led to watching races and then, of course, racing. He sold the Porsche and bought and modified a 1965 Mustang.
“I took it to my first race, sat on the pole and won,” he said with a laugh. “Maybe I should have quit while I was ahead but I graduated to formula cars–Super Vees. I had a teammate for four races who had a lot of off-road experience, Rick Mears. He was picked up by Roger Penske, and I stayed with Formula Atlantic and continued to look for sponsorship. That was a popular way for people to go racing then; I ran with Bobby Rahal and Jacques Villeneuve.
“I got into Trans Am with Pontiac and did well. It was the turning point in my career. I was exposed to a large manufacturer doing special-edition vehicles, and I went to grand openings at dealerships. I found I had a knack for styling and content and overall evaluations. During that period we were beating Ford, but they were coming off a hiatus. I got to know them and formed an alliance,” he said of his work in the 1980s.
Saleen soon proved his ideas worked, winning the Canadian Mosport 24-hour race for Ford with one of his modified Mustangs in 1984. By 1987, his three-car team won all four Sports Car Club of America titles (driver, team, manufacturer and tire).
In 1988 they took their third straight Mosport win with a 1, 2, 3 finish for Ford, the first time the company had managed that triple since Le Mans in 1966.
In 1989 Saleen went Indy car racing–competing in the Indianapolis 500–and in 1991 the Saleen team’s Ford Ranger won the Sports Car Club of America Race Truck Championship.
When Steve Saleen hooked up with comedian/sports car aficionado Tim Allen of “Home Improvement” fame, the result was three straight crowns for the Saleen/Allen RRR Speedlab in the SCCA World Challenge Series from 1996-98.
And racing successes were reflected in Mustang sales, proving the old adage: “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.”
More than 8,000 Saleen Mustangs have been built. The marque has attracted owners whose loyalty has become fiercer in 18 years, like Carroll Shelby’s GT 350s from the mid ’60s.
In Saleen’s case, one man in Indianapolis waited years to collect the only three Saleen Mustangs built in 1984, when the company began.
“It’s taken him a lifetime,” chuckled Saleen. “He had to wait for a divorce and a grandmother willing to sell. It’s an unbelievable pursuit.”
Then there’s the 1989 Seal Beach, Calif., police car.
The Southern California seaside town hardly seems big enough for a 140 m.p.h. supercar.
“Did they ever get it out of second gear?” asked a friend who grew up there.
Saleen remembers the one-off cop car as very successful.
“They had a lot of hoops to jump through with the council to buy it, but the police department had it for years,” he said. “They looked at it as high-profile for promotion and recruiting new officers, and it certainly deterred traffic violators, knowing a car that caliber could come after you. I drove it down there once with its glory lights on. It drew as much attention as the S7, with people stopping and getting out of the way.”
Saleen production ramped up in a hurry once the word got out just how effective the modifications were. Initially, you got race-car handling and a stiff racecar ride, though later models cosset their owners a little more.
Saleen sold 141 cars in 1985, 199 in 1986, 278 in 1987, 708 in 1988 and 731 in 1989. Production dipped to 17 in 1992, then took off when the 1994 body was introduced, rising from 46 in 1994 to 992 in 2000.
The 2002 Saleen Mustangs can be ordered as S281s, S281Es or SR widebodies priced from $40,000 to $60,000.
The “base” 281 cubic-inch car cranks out 365 horsepower and the supercharged E version has 425 horsepower with 440 foot-pounds of torque. Older S351 variants were rated up to 507 horsepower.
But those figures pale against the 550-h.p. S7, which is capable of quarter-mile times of around 11 seconds at 130 m.p.h. Designer Bill Tally’s aluminum engine is eight inches shorter than you might expect, with belt-driven camshafts and a side-mounted water pump. Roof-mounted intakes for the fuel injection funnel air into the plenum and create a ram-air system at speed.
Precise airflow is a big part of the S7 concept, thanks to the wind tunnel at Glasgow University in Scotland, where a one-third-size model was refined.
“One of the elements we were trying to achieve was air management throughout the car,” said Saleen. “We have two radiators. Air comes out behind the front wheel well and into the engine intake–that’s unique. Air management over the whole plane allows airflow above and below to be effective; it gives higher speed and more fuel efficiency.”
An obvious comparison to the Saleen is the British-built McLaren F1, but Saleen is quick to distinguish between the two.
“We looked at what we wanted to do, unlike McLaren who just went to BMW and said `make us an engine.’ We learned over the years to make our own rods and pistons, and we’ve developed a fair amount of expertise. If we’re using aluminum, we’re using the best aluminum; if it’s magnesium, it’s the best.
“We even use beryllium for the valve seats. People go `wow, isn’t that expensive?’ It is, but it’s the best.”
Saleen warms to his subject.
“In almost 20 years of making Mustangs, we’ve learned economies of scale. The McLaren costs over a million dollars, and we’re one third of that. We’ve perfected niche marketing that’s cost effective. There’s 100 percent correlation between racing and the product on the street. We test on the racetrack.”
Whether the collectible car market will value Saleen S7s with McLarens eventually, the McLaren has an edge right now.
“The McLaren may not be a race car, but the company has a distinguished competition history,” said Keith Martin, publisher of Sports Car Market magazine. “It’s the must-have bauble for millionaires right now and trades in the $1.5 million range.
“On its face value, the Saleen seems like a bargain with performance and visual panache–sort of an entry-level super exotic.”
And it seems to be holding its own with Ford GT40 prices, said Martin who was intercepted on his way back from the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“An S7 [the prototype] sold for $432,000 including commission and that was the top price paid at the auction. A GT40 Mk III, which was the street version, sold for $310,000.”
Saleen hopes to sell 100 S7s a year, 60 in the U.S. and 40 overseas, at $395,000 apiece. Cars sold in Europe will be assembled by Ray Mallock in Britain, known for its competitive and durable sports racers.
With the launch of the S7 and booming sales of Mustangs, how does Saleen relax? The answer is: he doesn’t.
“There is no time off. I go to a race. It’s passion, and it’s business. It really is 24/7–a full commitment,” he said in wonderment, as if the idea surprises him as well.
Saleen S7
Price: $395,000
Wheelbase: 106.25 inches
Length: 188 inches
Track: 68.75 inches front/67.25 inches rear
Overhang: 40.6 inches front/41.1 inches rear
Height: 41 inches
Ground clearance: 4 inches
Width: 78.3 inches
Weight: 2,750 pounds
Trunk space: 2.65 cubic feet front/2.82 cubic feet rear
Engine: 7-liter, single-cam, aluminum V-8 (This item as published has been corrected in this text.)
Horsepower: 550 at 6,400 r.p.m.
Torque: 525 foot-pounds at 4,000 r.p.m.
Redline: 7,000 r.p.m.
Bore and stroke: 4 1/8-inch x 4 inch
Transmission: Longitudinal, 6-speed all synchro-mesh transaxle
Transmission ratios: 1st, 2.46; 2nd, 2.06; 3rd, 1.47; 4th, 1.18; 5th, 0.958; 6th. 0.74
Final drive ratio: 3:22
Fuel: 92 octane
Fuel capacity: 19 gallons
Alternator: 140 amps
Battery: 12 volt
Oil capacity: 12.6 quarts
Wheels: Saleen forged alloy 19 x 9.5 inch front/20 x 13 inch rear
Tires: High-performance Pirelli P-Zero Rossa 275/30-19 front/355/25-20 rear
Safety: Integrated roll protection; aluminum honeycomb impact absorbing panels; three-point seat belts with automatic pre-tensioners; carbon fiber rocker panels and doors; aluminum honeycomb front crush structure, integrated rear crumple zones; center position fuel tank/passenger-side filler.
Interior: Connolly leather; aluminum and body-color accents; performance sport seating; custom driver seat position; leather-wrapped steering wheel & shift knob; rear-view video camera with LCD display; quick-release steering wheel; 240-m.p.h. speedometer; central-mounted tachometer.
Exterior: Dual power mirrors; projector beam headlights; heat-rejecting tinted glass; power antenna; autoclave carbon fiber body panels.
Comfort and convenience: High-volume flow-through ventilation system; air conditioning; tilt and telescoping steering column; power windows/locks; variable intermittent windshield wipers; electric heated windshield; fitted luggage; remote trunk/hatch/fuel-filler door releases; AM/FM remote six-disc CD changer
Security: Electronic immobilizer.
Hidden secrets in Mustangs betray fakes
So you want a Saleen Mustang? The bodywork is very popular in the aftermarket, and there are good fakes. Here’s how to tell if it’s the real thing:
– Bumper number. All Saleens have serial number on left front bumper. It’s easy to duplicate so don’t stop there. No Saleen has been produced with an “06” number; that’s a fake.
– Dash plaque: On the center console. The number should match the bumper and the plate under the hood.
– Under-hood plaque. Pre-1987 these are riveted on the left front fender. Later cars mount it on the firewall; modern cars on the left, some older ones on the right.
– Hidden plate: This is a secret location on the car. It varies but the K-member, the cross member under the engine, is a good place to look.
– Best idea: Call Saleen Performance (949-597-4900) with the last six digits of the car. They can tell you whether it’s real and the original equipment, so you can tell whether it has been modified.
These are rare Saleens:
– 84-32: The first one. Belongs to an Indianapolis collector who owns the first three.
– 89-422: The only Saleen Mustang built for police use and now retired.
– 89-159: Only 160 SSCs were built to mark the Mustang’s 25th anniversary and Saleen’s 5th. This car is the only one with a back seat.
– 92-: All the cars from this year are rare. There were only 17.
– 93-07: The only Fox-body coupe (the angular Mustang body made from 1979-93) from 1993.
– SA10s: Nine 10th anniversary cars were built, all black with yellow stripes.
– 95-118: Mustang Illustrated giveaway car. It’s a black SVT Cobra with the hardtop option–the only one made.
– 96-189: One of 10 S281 Cobras made in 1996, but the only one painted in Mystic, the “chameleon” paint that changes color when viewed from different angles.
— Paul Duchene.
