July 2011 ~ Automotive News

Saleen S7

Saleen S7

What supercar owners want more than anything else is street cred. It's that indefinable blend of sleek and sexy styling, outrageous power, and genuine racing heritage that motivates a few people to put down the price of a decent house on a car intended primarily to impress friends and deliver weekend thrills. Only Lamborghini has managed to play in this league without the requisite competition résumé.

Then there's Steve Saleen, a man seen by many as the world's most successful Mustang tuner. He is that and more, but how does that qualify him to build a twin-turbo supercar and charge $585,000 for it — a price in the lofty range of the Ferrari Enzo, Porsche Carrera GT, and Mercedes SLR McLaren?

True, Saleen hasn't campaigned his S7 Twin Turbo car in Formula 1, nor has he racked up umpteen wins at Le Mans, as have Ferrari, Mercedes, and Porsche. But despite the sterling racing heritages of their companies, the Enzo, the Carrera GT, and the SLR haven't raced at all. Meanwhile, a racing version of the S7, the S7R, has won seven various GT championships and will be entered again this June at Le Mans. Moreover, that S7R, and the roadgoing S7 Twin Turbo, are virtually identical, built side by side using the same technology — with the exception that the street car, with its pair of turbos, is much more powerful.

This direct kinship with its racing brother is noticeable as soon as you press the start button in the S7 Twin Turbo. The 7.0-liter V-8 bursts to life with a raucous rumble that is unattenuated by any mufflers. Saleen relies on the two turbos and four catalytic converters to remove the harshest notes from the firings of each of the nearly quart-sized cylinders.

Ease into the throttle, and the S7 surges forward with the effortless ease created by 750 horses pushing against just 2968 pounds of car. With 427 cubic inches of V-8 derived from Ford's NASCAR engines and pressurized by two Garrett turbo-blowers working at a mild 6.0 psi, the engine generates enough thrust to scare you at just about any rpm. Floor the throttle when you're rolling along in first gear on a dry, straight road, and the engine fries the rear tires when the boost comes up. On a winding road, it doesn't much matter whether you run in second, third, or fourth gear because there's enough power in any of them to summon big-time oversteer if you're clumsy in a corner.

When you need to shed some speed, you'll take comfort in brakes whose feel is undiluted by any form of power booster. The S7 has twin master cylinders connected by a balance bar, exactly what you find on most race cars. The setup delivers the reassuringly hard pedal and precise modulation that help hold the giant Brembo disc brakes on the edge of lockup.

Although it's power assisted, the S7's high-mounted rack-and-pinion steering is as precise and responsive as the brakes. Move the Sparco steering wheel just a millimeter, and the S7 responds immediately. Run over an invisible dip in the pavement, and the steering wheel wiggles in your hands. Snake through a series of rapid esses, and the S7 transitions without waiting for the suspension to unwind its body roll or transfer weight from one front tire to another. The car simply reverses the direction of its turn instantly.

This is steering that makes a Porsche Cayman S feel sluggish, and you certainly don't want to rely on one hand to control the S7 while you yak on a cell phone in your other. But after a day behind the wheel, it became second nature while retaining its magically quick moves.

Couple this steering with giant Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires, a race-derived suspension, and a chassis that Saleen engineering V-P Bill Tally says is 50 percent more rigid than a Ferrari Enzo's, and you get a car that is very hard to push to the limit on a public highway. Even when you think you're flying through a turn at an outrageous clip, the car still reacts sharply to steering corrections, indicating there's plenty of remaining grip.Continued...