Behind the Wheel: Saleen S7 Twin Turbo: When Irresistible Force Meets Unlimited Wallet November 25, 2006
The S7 doesn’t waste its time on common Corvettes. This American psycho is designed to take on European supercars like the $1.2 million Bugatti Veyron 16.4.
ASK a car nut to spin a globe and pick out the sources of the world’s supercars, and his finger is unlikely to point to Orange County, Calif., where flash-frozen traffic makes a 200-mile-an-hour car seem especially over the top.
Yet nestled among the malls and office parks of Irvine, a small, specialized factory is handcrafting one of the world’s fastest, rarest and priciest automobiles: the Saleen S7 Twin Turbo, a $585,000, 750-horsepower sports car that can reach not just 200 m.p.h., but 250 - faster than most racecars.
Indeed, the Saleen is essentially a midengine racecar, barely more civilized than the S7R that campaigns in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and other GT series. Its creator is Steve Saleen, famed for the Mustangs he tweaks for high performance, and who also built the recently departed Ford GT.
Now, the Ford GT can top 200 m.p.h., and it sold new for $160,000. What’s more, a $70,000 Corvette Z06 can attain 198 m.p.h.
The S7 doesn’t waste its time on common Corvettes. This American psycho is designed to take on European supercars like the $1.2 million Bugatti Veyron 16.4. And with roughly 25 Saleens built and sold worldwide each year, an owner is assured of exclusive rights not only at the country club, but possibly in an entire country. (Mexico’s sole owner ships his S7 to Monte Carlo for the summer).
The S7’s sheer improbability as a street machine was driven home in my opening stint at the wheel, as I escaped New York in crawling traffic on the West Side Highway. My first impression: Trying to stay incognito in the Saleen is like having a quiet cup of coffee with Lindsay Lohan. Amateur paparazzi buzzed the silver S7 with camera phones flashing. The limelight was especially intense whenever I’d stop and swing open the wild scissor doors.
The S7 is almost certainly the longest, lowest sports car going, about 13 inches longer than a Corvette and nearly as wide as a Hummer H2. Yet with a steel-tube chassis and a carbon-fiber body, the Saleen weighs 3,000 pounds, about 300 less than a ‘Vette and on par with the small Porsche Boxster.
Combine feathery weight with 750 horsepower - optional upgrades raise the horsepower to 850 or 1,000 - and you have a car that challenges the Bugatti for the world’s-fastest title. The missile launch to 60 m.p.h. takes barely three seconds.
From there, it was hang-on-tight time, as I worked the chunky six-speed shifter and felt the Saleen reshuffle my internal organs. The aluminum 7-liter V-8, naked and howling in a glass display case at the rear, is essentially an enlarged Ford Nascar engine - with a pair of ball-bearing turbochargers added on. If you care about mileage, keep in mind that the government rating is 8 miles a gallon in town, 14 on the highway.
Air and its management are especially crucial to a car this fast. A profusion of gills and ducts help to cool components and reduce drag and lift. By shaping body parts to direct that air - including a special underbody, a rear wing and vertical blades called diffusers - the S7 generates extreme aerodynamic downforce to keep the car earthbound at epic speeds.
I would never describe the Saleen as beautiful, but its interstellar shape certainly inspires awe and dread. Coming across one is a bit like encountering the Death Star, only with more ports and a bigger deck.
Like the Lamborghini Countach of another era, the Saleen must be today’s adolescent dream. Like the Lambo, it’s an oversexed peacock whose mission is to shame any and all slower species.
The trend in exotics - the Porsche 911 Turbo, the Lamborghini Gallardo, the new Ferrari 599 GTB - is to be relatively practical and approachable, to flatter their driver’s skills.
But the Saleen is a drill instructor, not some New Age personal trainer. There are no air bags, antilock brakes or stability control. (The low-volume car received an exemption from federal air bag rules.) The S7 indeed felt like a racer, with a heavy twin-disc clutch, go-kart steering, indescribable grip and such volatile power that it takes patience to safely extract the performance.
In that vein, Sgt. Saleen seeks only the most dedicated, gung-ho drivers; natural talent is an added bonus. And the S7 is uncomfortable with civilian life, rules and roads. With its snout hanging just four inches off the pavement, negotiating even gentle driveways proves a challenge. Climbing in or out over the foot-deep door sills requires an expert yoga move - call it “the python.” Once inside, the Saleen’s racy interior accommodates a tall driver and passenger, and its lightweight racing-style seats are snug and comfortable, though they cannot be adjusted.
Nor is there an inside rear-view mirror, only a camera that beams a wide-angle view onto a pop-up screen. Trusting that video image, and remembering to look forward to look back, took faith and practice.
I should note that my S7’s air-conditioner wasn’t working, so my shirt was soaked after hours of joyful exertions. And at anything beyond 120 m.p.h., the body, hunkering down from aerodynamic force, began chuffing against the tires over modest bumps, forcing me to back off in fear of cutting a tire.
I could only imagine what a prospective owner might think, sweltering in the cabin with tire smoke wafting in a car that costs more than a Ferrari F430, Lamborghini Gallardo and Porsche GT3 combined. “What a bargain” is not the phrase that came to mind. (The company says they’ve devised a fix for the tire scraping.)
Certainly on public roads, most any driver will go roughly as fast, and in greater comfort, in a less-costly exotic car. Lacking a racetrack to play on, or a police-free planet, the Saleen defies logic. (Many owners do race or track-test their Saleens, though that voids the warranty).
Of course, squashing logic flat is precisely the point of the Saleen S7 and its equally uncompromising owners. I’d say more power to them, but clearly they have enough.
- Posted in : Uncategorized
- Author : arnold
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