The Ford Focus wasn’t the most “American” car to come from Ford’s stable of things with wheels — in fact, Ford spent a lot of marketing money telling everyone how the little front wheel drive econohatch was actually European. That rubbed forner race car driver and Mustang tuner Steve Saleen the wrong way, so he […]
The Saleen S7 was an insane mid-engine supercar (hypercar?) built by madman Steve Saleen and sold in minimal quantities for a catastrophic sum of money ($500k?) from 2000 through 2009. This next car is NOT a Saleen S7, but it does a decent job of hiding the basic C5 Corvette body in a Saleenish body. My only suggestion is to remove the “Saleen” badging and replace it with something whimsical and mysterious like; “L’Orange” or “Spleentastic” or “Corvantic” or “El Chupacabra”. Find this 2000 Chevrolet Corvette C5 Saleen kit offered for $24000 buy-it-now located in Kew Gardens, NY via eBay. Tip from Cory.
I always imagined that Steve Saleen was some kind of a magician with the way he could build and sell cars. Not that his recipe for success was magic (take a basic car, add some scoops, more horsepower, racy name, boom). No, his spellcasting was reserved for what he could convince buyers to pay for his pimped out Ford/Saleen machines. Let’s take the Saleen S331 Sport Truck for instance: It starts with a 2007 $19k Ford F150, add a supercharger, those scoops, some head rests, big brake kit and $55k MSRP…yikes! With mark ups like that it’s no surprise the Chinese government is currently embroiled in some kinda kerfuffle with Saleen involving a failed business venture in Shanghai — but that is a story for another time and we’ve got a good deal on a well depreciated F150 Saleen thing. Find this 2007 Saleen S331 Sport Truck offered for $16,500 in Rochelle Park, NJ via craigslist.
Check out this 1989 Saleen Mustang SSC (6400 miles on the odo) here on eBay bidding for $26,000 reserve-not-met with auction ending on Friday at 1:29PM PST.
In 1983, a former racer (and SoCal car guy) named Steve Saleen launched his own aftermarket tuning company that was in many ways a repeat of what that Texas chicken farmer did with Fords in the 1960s. Saleen Performance rapidly became a small automotive OEM (similar to Shelby Automotive) and as such released cars that […]
The 5th generation Mustang (code named S-197) was released in 2005 to much fanfare and ballyhooing from Mustangers, pundits and retro-style enthusiasts. It transformed the previously dull new-edge/SN-95 shape into a sexy retro styled beauty while maintaining much of the classic formula under the skin but adding a few ponies. Except when Steve Saleen got […]
Horsepower has its price. You pay for it even when you aren’t using it, a conundrum that is central to developing technology like forced induction and cylinder deactivation. But what if there was a way to have extra horsepower by literally flipping a switch? That’s right, N2O means exactly what you think it means. Better […]
Steve Saleen was a former racing driver who started his own aftermarket tuning company in Southern California in 1983. Saleen Performance rapidly became a small automotive OEM (similar to Shelby Automotive) and as such released cars that while based on (and using parts from) Ford’s Mustang; they were technically according to the Dept of Transportation, […]
In 1998 Saleen started to modify a few Ford Explorers in the same way it had created scores of modified Ford Mustangs. The basic Saleen recipe was to take a Ford product and add a supercharger, body kit, a few badges and significant digits to the price tag. Saleen was one of the few aftermarket […]
Steve Saleen was a former Formula Atlantic racing driver who started his own aftermarket tuning company in 1983. Saleen Performance rapidly became a small automotive OEM and as such released cars that while based on Ford’s Mustang were technically a Saleen. The company’s future has been in question recently as Steve left in 2009 and […]