wow, what kind of tires?

 

Actually, the new model makes 750hp and puts out 700 ft lbs of torque. One of the locals knows Steve and got a tour of the factory a couple of weeks ago. Very impressive. They raised a ton of money from one of the private equity firms a couple of years ago and now have a modern operation with hard tooling, CAD packages, dyno's, the works. They think that engine can produce 1000 hp without sacrificing reliability.

 

The new s7 is $550,000 in case you were wondering!

 

Also long term survivability is a question mark. !0-20 years from now Porsche will still be here, but Saleen might be gone. It's scary when they have to get an infusion of capital from investors vs. actually being profitable with sales of their cars. Could go the way of Vector, or DeLorean, etc.

 

Not nearly as scary as it would be to need the cash and not be able to attract it . Some businesses can bootstrap their way to success, some rely on investors to get them to critical mass. Statistics show that the latter are much more likely to make it than the former (but YMMV). In this case, they were definitely strectched trying to both complete the S7 development and open the plant in Michigan to paint and assemble the Ford GT.

And Saleen has been around for more than 20 years, so I think comparisons to DeLorean are pretty far-fetched.

 

This:
http://alltimeracing.homestead.com/files/s7t3.jpg
S7 was delivered last time I was at Willow Springs. The head of engineering was there, and said this particular one had 800hp!

 

I don't see them attracting many more orders recently because they have an infusion of capital. I would understand using an infusion of capital to advertise & get additional prders to grow the business, but to date I do not see additional advertisement in any of the Ford magazines or anywhere else. I don't know there sales (and or increase in sales), but getting capital to sustain yourself vs. being profitable is still not a great model (but yes it is better than not being able to generate the capital when needed). Look at Hennessey. They were doing well as a small shop, then they grew rapidly only to basically screw over their customers, and noot meet very many deadlines. Wound up getting sued, going into bankruptcy, and firing most of his staff. Now they are back to a small specialty shop again.

 

i don't want to spend 550,000 and still have to explain to people what a SALEEN is.

 

seems pretty egotistical


you'd have to do the same **** w/ a zonda, would you not own one?

 

The new Saleen at WSIR was candy apple red metallic with a twin turbo V8 putting out close to 850 HP. It looked much more exotic than the CGT, which actually looks tame in comparison. The Saleen had more of an American Lambo feel to it. Hard to keep that much power on the ground though ala Bugatti Veyron.

 

What would you need to explain?

 

because people will ask. and better yet with a smile when u talk cuz u don't want to park it unseen.

that's the problem when driving an exotic.

if u ask the question that might mean u haven't been there yet. the experience is sometime annoying.