‘It corners like it’s angry with the road and accelerates like it’s late for Armageddon.’
The Saleen S7: America’s answer to the McLaren F1… with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
Built by a Mustang tuner turned supercar maverick, fettled in a quiet English village, and capable of flattening your face at 220mph.
Fibreglass meets firepower. Curious?
You should be, because the brass neck behind it is the only thing louder than its engine.
Full throttle story below…
▪️The 2000 Saleen S7 – An Anglo-American Supercar Stormer
- 1983 – Steve Saleen, former racing driver and all-around horsepower enthusiast, sets up Saleen Autosport to turn humble Ford Mustangs into track-tuned missiles.
- 1998 – After playing fast and loose with Mustang DNA (see: the Saleen SR, which barely counted as a Ford), Steve thinks: ‘To hell with it—let’s just build our damn car.’
- In the late 1990s, Ray Mallock Ltd. in the UK, known for BTCC shenanigans, was roped to engineer the S7’s chassis and aerodynamic bits.
- A California dream needed some British common sense.
- August 2000 – Voilà! The Saleen S7 debuts at Monterey. It looks like a McLaren F1 got angry in a wind tunnel. Under the skin? A 7.0L V8 with 550 horses ready to headbutt the horizon.
- Early 2000s – Journalists swoon. Supercar nerds raise eyebrows. It weighs less than a Mini Countryman, has no electronic nannies, and generates enough downforce at 160mph to pin your intestines to the firewall.
- 2000–2009 – Fewer than 350 were built. Some become race cars. Others are garage queens. All are ridiculous in a brilliant way.
- Today, the S7 remains the only American car ever made that could punch Ferrari in the face and get away with it.
- Gloriously unsubtle. Unapologetically loud. And all the better for it.
‘The Saleen S7: because sometimes, you want your midlife crisis to sound like thunder on steroids.’
