GT v/s Saleen S7


Fubar

Fubar

Totally ****** Up
Mark II Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Aug 2, 2006
3,979
Dallas, TX
I raced an S7 today. It was big fun. He couldn't out pull me at speeds but the S7 was so much lighter that it pushed thru turns better. Anyway, my little $150k Ford was right there with the $500k Saleen. 70 to 170 I could leave him.

The only down side to the whole thing was stopping for gas. It was the first time my car didn't get the most attention. :ack

(on stopping for gas: I used a 1/4 tank to go about 20 miles, it was a fun 20 miles tho)
 
Fubar said:
I raced an S7 today. It was big fun. He couldn't out pull me at speeds but the S7 was so much lighter that it pushed thru turns better. Anyway, my little $150k Ford was right there with the $500k Saleen. 70 to 170 I could leave him.

The only down side to the whole thing was stopping for gas. It was the first time my car didn't get the most attention. :ack

(on stopping for gas: I used a 1/4 tank to go about 20 miles, it was a fun 20 miles tho)
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Just curious....will they let you post your own bail? I have still have your "get out of jail free card" in my GT.
 
Wow, that sounds like fun! The comment about not getting the most attention is funny; I still would have walked over to the GT though!

Are you stock?
 
Fubar said:
I raced an S7 today. It was big fun. He couldn't out pull me at speeds but the S7 was so much lighter that it pushed thru turns better. Anyway, my little $150k Ford was right there with the $500k Saleen. 70 to 170 I could leave him.

The only down side to the whole thing was stopping for gas. It was the first time my car didn't get the most attention. :ack

(on stopping for gas: I used a 1/4 tank to go about 20 miles, it was a fun 20 miles tho)
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was it a turbo'd engine? you get the street racer of the day award here on GT Forum, congrats on your kill :party :cool :party
 
I don't know if it qualifies as a kill but it was fast and fun. The Saleen belonged to my brother. It is not one of the new turbo'd versions. I think Saleen says it puts 550hp on the ground, but it only weighs 2500lbs. My GT has a pulley on it so I'm pretty sure I am putting down more power but the extra 1000lbs was killing me. He would take me off the line and the GT would push a bit thru the turns but when we hit open road that pulley really shined.

When we left his house I fully expected to “just keep up.” However when we got on the open road and I could do 60mph pull thru second… I would just kinda walk away. It wasn't a one time deal either. I could consistently out pull him from second thru fourth. Not bad for my little Ford.
 
Aw, the power of the pulley. This is another reason I love the GT's. I'm used to the mod motors with blowers on them; the whole exhaust/intake/pulley upgrade on the 03/04 Cobras and Lightnings will shave around a second off, and the GT's seem to makeing some serious power with the pulley.

Either way, you walked him...you killed him. Congrats. :cheers
 
How is the Saleen's overall quality? I have heard some not so good things...lots of breakdowns etc What is his opinon of the car? How long has he had it?

I was looking into getting one but I hesitated.
 
It's much different than the GT. It is as close to a "real" race car as you can get on the street. The brakes don't work well until they are hot. The suspension rattles (it has to do with the type of high performance joints it uses). The clutch is extremely touchy. But it is very fast and very agile. On the track... it's a god. On the street it's a bit much to contend with. These are my brother's feelings about it. I know he has had a few issues with the S7 but it's a race car... I don't think he is disappointed with its quality.

He was amazed at how drivable the GT is. It's just such a user friendly car. He was also shocked with the power. He made several comments about the how well it continued to pull at 140 and 160.
 
Fubar said:
It's much different than the GT. It is as close to a "real" race car as you can get on the street. The brakes don't work well until they are hot. The suspension rattles (it has to do with the type of high performance joints it uses). The clutch is extremely touchy. But it is very fast and very agile. On the track... it's a god. On the street it's a bit much to contend with. These are my brother's feelings about it. I know he has had a few issues with the S7 but it's a race car... I don't think he is disappointed with its quality.

He was amazed at how drivable the GT is. It's just such a user friendly car. He was also shocked with the power. He made several comments about the how well it continued to pull at 140 and 160.
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The Saleen is wicked, I just can't fit in one... damn...
 
I have always wondered how the 2 cars compare. Thanks so much for the info, very very informative. And, the next question is, how will the Whipple or TT GT do against the TT Saleen?
 
californiacuda said:
I have always wondered how the 2 cars compare. Thanks so much for the info, very very informative. And, the next question is, how will the Whipple or TT GT do against the TT Saleen?
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I don't know if there is video, but someone posted about Joe chasing down the TT Saleen.
 
californiacuda said:
I have always wondered how the 2 cars compare. Thanks so much for the info, very very informative. And, the next question is, how will the Whipple or TT GT do against the TT Saleen?
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Don't you think it will come down to horsepower and weight. The Saleen is a purebread race car modified for the street. Those of us that went on demo rides at the Rally were impressed with the Saleen TT that they took us out in.
Didn't Saleen sell two S7's to Rally attendees?
 
Cut from another Board.... taken from Tony G's write up on the Saleen day during the rally...




"Thursday was the day we went to SSV. The GT is actually assembled at the Saleen plant and then shipped to Wixom for the engine and final details.

It was an unbelieveable day.. Steve Saleen and Ford threw a hell of a party. We toured, hell we went thru every crevice at the plant and saw the team in action.

A few S7's were there and they were giving rides in it too!! We had Joes TT GT there and we gave rides in it too! 38 of them to be exact!! WE met and gave rides to the men behind the GT and they were very impressed.. Actually impressed is not exactly what they were.. It was more like astounded!

More on that in a minute!

During the day I ended up behind the S7 on one of his test drives and as he accelerated at full throttle I mashed the pedal and ran it down!! When we returned from the test drive "Brian" who was the S7 driver came over and wanted a ride in the TT GT!!!! I obliged and gave him an E-ticket ride he and I will never forget!! "
 
Some people call it the Mallock

I was surprised when I was looking into the history of the Saleen and I went to a British website for a guy named Ray Mallock who used to, of all things, make GT40 replicas. Anyhow he was claiming on this site that he engineered and built the Saleen. When I mentioned that to Steve Saleen he said "Any subcontractor can say what they want..." which meant to me that he was saying subcontractors have a way of raising the level of what they contributed whether they did or not

Also I wonder if the availability of the Ford GT just killed Saleen sales because I remember when the first Saleen was unveiled and the Ford GT was still a long ways off in the future
 
Good story Fubar.

The Saleen and GT are wildly different cars. The GT is a street car that happens to be exceptionally fast, easy to make faster, and a very smooth car to drive on the track occassionally. The S7 is a full blown race car made street legal. Even if a particular GT is faster, the Saleen is a 500k racebred machine. I'm very pleased to have ridden in such a kidney-bruiser.

I know which one I'd rather drive on the street, and which I'd rather drive on the track!
 
That is exactly the case DBK. The GT is a tuned up street fighter and the S7 is a tuned down formula one with turn signals. I doubt the Ford GT effected S7 sales. They are just to different. Saleen only makes about 2 S7s a month. I don't care what demand is... supply is very limited.

On a side note, I was told the Steve Saleen made the S7 to get in the running with Ford for the GT production contract.
 
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That's the good gossip I like to hear...

Good theory, that Steve Saleen made the S7 to get into the running so he could get the Ford GT contract. I am inclined to believe it. Has that been mentioned in print anywhere--maybe in a Saleen interview? I was always wondering why Roush didn't get the contract to build the cars, though they did get the contract for the engine development. Maybe because Roush hadn't convinced Ford he could set up an assembly line with expensive cars other than modified Mustangs and since Saleen's S7 was four times the price Ford was convinced that it would be duck soup for him (though that production rate seems far short of what Ford needed). I wonder who else was in contention? I guess ASC was in disarray (can't remember when the owner Heinz Prechter, killed himself), but the only flaw in this theory is that it seems a huge financial committment for Saleen to make just to convince Ford he could do it. He took a helluva chance because if he didn't get the contract and the S7 didn't sell, he would be all that money down the tubes (Of course, that may have been the time he brought in an outside investor and sold a large part of the company).
 
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