Hi all, I just got back yesterday from L.A. California.

I went out there to go to the annual Saleen car show and I got to meet Steve and Liz.

Better yet I got to autocross for the first time in a supercharged Saleen.

Even better than that, I got to go for a full speed autocross ride with Steve Saleen at the wheel in a "281-E" car, a 425HP supercharged saleen convertible. It was sweet.

I am seriously considering buying one of these things to go along side my (still waiting on) '03L in the garage.

I have always been into drag racing and thought autocross was goofy, but man I had a blast out there tossing the car sideways through the turns!

I thought that Saleens are overpriced based on their relatively low HP to Sticker Price Ratio. I still do, but after driving one around here for a week (people in my area aren't really used to seeing them) and I might as well have been in a ferrari or lambo diablo. and the brake and suspension upgrades and stuff really make the car fun to drive.

P.S. on a Lightning related note, the car show was open to all ford makes and models and there were 3 lightnings there in attendence, got to meet some west coast L people, I think they were mainly NLOC guys though.

later,
chris

 

Sounds like you had a BLAST!!!
I want to try autocross once.I raced gokarts on autocross tracks and had a blast.Have not done it in the L though.Maybe I will have to hook up with the pawn for some lessons.

VINNIE

 

VINNIE
Daniel(thepawn)'s first lesson on how to autocross is to get a Black truck HEHE .

 

Lucky SOB.

I would love to get behind the wheel of one of the new S281e's.

 

Steve signed my car at the woodward dream cruise a couple weeks ago. I kinda got the impression that he was a bit of an a$$. Colleti was hanging out there though and i BS'd with him about cars and stuff for a long time on top of the Saleen trailor and he was cool as hell.

 

That would be Soooooo Cooool ... Twisties in a GREAT
CAR ... I envy you, SF!!!

 

Sounds like a blast!
Did Saleen have his SuperCar there?

 

I can see how Steve may come across as an ***. I've met him a couple of times, and he isn't much of a people person. I don't think he means to come across that way.

 

I have meet him and tried to do business with him Also did some track work with his crew back in the Late 80's.AllI can say is no comment!Stan

 

Dam, that sounded like Fun Chris, way to go.
"I'm jelous" I would have really enjoyed that "too".

 

I worked for Steve back in 1989/90 @ Saleen when it was on Hunter Lane @ the Fullerton/Anaslime border. That year, we were assembling the SSC's. At any rate, he is a jerk and that is using the wordly lightly. They took my 1990 GT and produced what they call the GT Sport model out of it. Junky MacPherson struts/shocks, half *** sway bars and the basic SSC bolt ons.

Personally, i wouldnt own anything Saleen builds nowadays. Buy yourself a 03/04 Cobra and wave bye bye to alll the Saleens. If you want the looks of one, just slap the body kit of there. You will save yourself quite a bit of $ buying the cobra over the Saleen and in the process, whipping their asses on the street. Throw in some Maximum Motosport or Griggs Suspension and slaughter them on the tracks of CA.

Glad you had fun though. Im about 15 mins from Saleens factory. I was going to goto the show until he wanted to charge $40 to enter, even if you OWN a Saleen. It used to be free.

 

I wouldn't say that Steve is a jerk at all, but like somebody else said he really doesn't seem to be a "people person". I did see him speak sternly with an employee one time but only because he needed to get something done right then and there. sometimes that is what it takes to be the boss, thats why everybody hates the boss. so maybe he is different from an employee standpoint.

I'm not defending him because I really don't know him, but I suspect that he really just has an outer shell that you have to break through to get to the real person. I'd be willing to bet that this has to do with people constantly coming up to him asking him to do something or listen to their idea etc. after awhile you just put a guard up I suppose.

the new headquarters is huge.

Steve's wife Liz is really cool. she definately makes up for whatever people skills steve may seem to lack. she has a great personality and is very friendly, she is the one that got Steve to give me a ride in the car. We were out at dinner and they just happened to come into the same restaraunt and Liz came over and sat down and talked with us. We walked over to their table before we left and steve was laughing and joking with us about how I stripped a stud on one of his cars when I was participating in the "pit crew challenge"

over all I had a blast.

yesterday I was ready to buy a saleen, but this morning I drove my drag car to work and now I'm not so sure I'm ready to sell it!

either way those cars and autocrossing/road racing in general are a lot more fun than I had given them credit for.

as for buying a car and making it "better" than a saleen. well of course you could easily do that for less money, but that is the same situation that i'm in with my 93LX, i've spent a small fortune in it (not including my labor time) and I'll never see that money again.

You could build a "better" modified cobra or something but you wouldn't have any resale value. just because you buy a $30,000 car and spend another $25000 in modifications doesn't mean that in the end you can sell it for $55,000 dollars. It just doesn't work that way. At least with the Saleens and other "factory" cars like that, you can turn around and resell the vehicle and cash in and get some money back. sure it'll depreciate, but you can still resell and recoup some of your investment.

just my .02

like I said, over all it was a very fun weekend, first time flying in 25 years, first time to Cali (first time west of the Mississippi for that matter), first time autocrossing, lots of fun new stuff

later,
chris

 

What Steve looks at is how you present yourself the nicer you look the more$ you have.Which in my area will get you to the poor house REAL fast!We were looking at buying all his take off and wanted a package deal for all of it,He figured about 3 semis full at the time,but we were dressed in jeans and t shirts so he would not give us the time of day!To bad for him we had the $ to almost buy him out.Stan

 

Ouch.

I'll take then

 

They have a Supercharged Saleen Coube sitting next to an 03 Cobra Coupe at my dealership. The Saleen is 60k and the Cobra is 34k. Hard to justify the 26k!