Saleen S7: An Under Loved Piece of Supercar History
The Saleen S7 has styling that’s aged so well you’d hardly believe it’s 20 years old. Yet, it’s a bit overlooked in the supercar world.
When you ask someone to name the most iconic sports cars of the early 2000s, you’ll likely hear the same answers over and over. The Lamborghini Gallardo, Lamborghini Murcielago, Ford GT, and Ferrari 360 immediately come to mind. However, one piece of specialty supercar goodness from the era is the Saleen S7. Though it doesn’t quite have the same recognition or admiration as some of the aforementioned cars, it is an amazing piece of history. It still looks incredibly modern despite being 20 years old. Unfortunately, you don’t get a chance to see one often.
So, that’s why we’re bringing you the breakdown of this recent Bring A Trailer auction featuring a 2003 Saleen S7. If you’ve got the pocket lining to pick one of these up, we’ve got bad news; it has already sold. With a final bid of $551,000, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t seem all that unreasonable of a price. The S7 is one of those niche cars that could easily continue to accrue value as time rolls on.
A Big Displacement V8 and a Manual Transmission? What’s Not to Love?
The S7 was first introduced in 2000. It’s an all-American supercar with a Ford Windsor-based 7.0-liter V8 engine that makes a whopping 550 horsepower and 525 pound-feet of torque. Sure, that doesn’t sound so extreme for a supercar by today’s standards. However, its worth remembering that that’s more horsepower than the Gallardo and Ferrari 360 came with at the time. In addition, it’s only about 50 horsepower short of the Murcielago.
Side note: this is a naturally aspirated model. However, later S7 models did indeed come with a twin-turbocharged variant of this very same engine that bumped power to an eye-watering 750 horsepower. It was indeed still mated to the same six-speed manual transmission, too. What a wild ride!
Even being an NA model, though, the numbers are still wildly impressive by today’s standards. It sprints from zero to 60 miles per hour in just 2.8 seconds and will continue on to run a quarter mile in just 11.35 seconds. Finally, Saleen estimates its top speed is around 240 miles per hour.
Now, set all those performance figures aside and just look at it.
Classy Styling Reminiscent of Another Hero of the Highways
It’s stunning, isn’t it? If you’re staring at it and wondering what it reminds you of, though, we’re here to help.
If you’re sitting staring at your screen thinking, “it looks like a McLaren F1,” you’d be reading our minds. It’s pretty hard to ignore the resemblance, thanks to its industrial-esque round tail lights that one might expect to see on a city bus and not a supercar. Especially when you consider the boxy rear-end they’re on. Furthermore, the front end and overall profile of the car just really bare a lot of resemblance to the Gordon Murray-penned legend. It even shares the same top speed!
The black bezels around the headlights, hood, and roof scoops, and even the optional wing found on some S7s look nearly identical. Is that such a bad thing, though? Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, after all.
Overall, the Saleen S7 is a wildly underappreciated piece of both supercar and American automotive history. Saleen did something no other American car company would repeat until a decade later with Hennessey’s Venom. Compared to its Lamborghini and Ferrari counterparts (disregarding the Murcielago), it’s far more expensive. However, in our minds, it deserves to be. We don’t think it’s crazy at all to see a future where these cars are pulling seven figures!
Photos: Bring A Trailer