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Posts Tagged “

Saleen

custom cars

Steve Saleen Is Back, Reveals Limited Edition Supercharged Challengers

They may have taken his company, his cars and even his name, but they'll never take Steve Saleen's desire to customize cars to make them look so radically similar to the originals, they're virtually identical to all but the most carefully trained eye. Saleen and his new company SMS have just revealed the new company's first two custom cars. The twin set of Challengers, dubbed the SMS 570TM Challenger and the SMS 570XTM Challenger will, as Phil Frank, the company's Chief Creative Officer puts it "help define our design DNA." So we guess that means more of the same, eh? Anyway, these first two products of his new "Signature Series" of "ultra-high performance vehicles" are based off the 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T and will feature a SMS-supercharged 5.7-liter Hemi engine under the hood with power ratings purported to go from 500 to over 700 HP. Full press release after the jump. More »

ad watch

Lonely And Pathetic? Buy A Saleen Mustang From These Guys

When we were 11 we had a bachelor uncle who proudly displayed a poster in his bedroom of a woman wearing soap and little else cleaning off a Corvette. We thought it was hot at the time but, thankfully, grew enough over the next two years to understand the difference between things that are sexy and things that are merely unpoetic attempts to allude to sex. Though not everyone, particularly people who own car dealerships, have the evolved taste we developed at age 13, we're guessing you all can see this local advertisement for a Saleen mustang for what it is: two unimpressed bottle-blondes in bikinis doing what they have to do to scrape together enough funds for that final semester of beautician's school. Though it may have helped sell a few more cars, this is only because the dealership is from a northern Dallas suburb, meaning it is even closer to Oklahoma. (SFW, not safe for epileptics) [Motorpasion via CarScoop]

saleen s5s

Saleen S5S Heading To Production?

When we first saw the Saleen S5S at the New York Auto Show, we thought, "That's nice, but it's got concept only written all over it." Well, apparently there's a greater degree of possibility there than we'd initially thought. Saleen Vice Chairman and Chief Technical Officer Chris Theodore dropped in to the offices of Automobile magazine to talk S5S. Seems they're feeling out the market by touring the car around their dealers right now and thanks to an overwhelmingly positive response, the company no longer related in any way to Steve is considering sending it into production. Our favorite part of the whole discussion is about how they decided on the design:

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video games

New Screenshots Appear of Midnight Club: Los Angeles

We heard about the release date yesterday, but today we've stumbled upon some of the screenshots from the latest addition to the Midnight Club series. These screenshots feature the likes of the Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R, Saleen S302 Extreme and S7, Dodge Challenger SRT8, 2010 Chevy Camaro and a 2008 Cadillac CTS even appears blurry in the background. Wow, that's quite the repertoire of drivable vehicles in the open-world racing game.

[via Rockstar Games]

video games

Saleen-gasmic Midnight Club: Los Angeles Gets A Release Date

Remember GT5 Prologue? Old news now that another big racing video game for 2008 has finally gotten a release date. Midnight Club: Los Angeles will be available September 9 for the United States and September 12 for Europe. This is the game that features a DUB-customized Saleen S302 Extreme among other vehicles (including motorcycles). Sure, GT5 Prologue may be a more "real" driving simulator, but you can't deny the fun that is had with more arcade-y titles like the Midnight Club series. Click through to see the full release. [Kotaku] More »

transformers

Two Barricade Saleen Mustangs Spotted, Transformers 2 Already Filming?

These shots, snapped in a drive-by of a trailer in the movie-making capital of Culver City, Calif. are two Saleen Mustangs outfitted with that familiar paint scheme that marks a very special 'stang. This can only mean filming of Michael Bay's next masterpiece is underway or getting pretty damn close. We can already hear Wert's robogasms from here.
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new york auto show

Jalopnik Plays Midnight Club Los Angeles

After checking out the new S5S Raptor and the Dan Gurney Mustang at the Saleen stand, we decided to get behind the wheel controller and a have a test drive of a DUB-customized S302 Extreme— in the upcoming Midnight Club Los Angeles video game. We thought it was a good opportunity let our oldest most life-experienced Jalop, Matt DeBord, have a hand at the game. He knows LA pretty well, so we figured he'd have an advantage driving through the virtual city of angels. We soon found that while Matt may have life experience, he doesn't have so much experience with modern video games. Maybe we should have someone else here give the game a proper review. More »

new york auto show

Saleen S5S Raptor Concept Unveiled At New York Auto Show

All the folks we shook hands with at the Saleen Sterling Edition S302E reveal a couple of months ago were in attendance and happy to give us a look at their new Saleen S5S Raptor Concept. The ground up design starts with an all aluminum frame and a 5.0 L supercharged V8 good for 650 HP and 630 lb.ft. of torque. Those are some scrappy figures and the S5S Concept is said to make the run to 60 in a mere 3.2 seconds all while sipping on cellulosic ethanol. That's right folks, the S5S Raptor is a psuedo-environmentally friendly car with renewable fuel on its mind. Sounds good to us, we're happy with anything we can blast around in supercar-style long afte the dinosaur squeezin's run dry. Full details in the presser after the jump.

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iron man

Full Iron Man Trailer Debuts, Makes Us Want One of Those Suits

After months of Ironman teaser shots and Ironman Super Bowl commercials and all kinds of other nonsense, the full trailer is now live and it's looking pretty good. Convenient for our Leap Day Celebration, Ironman appears to be able to jump right into the suit with some sort of Jetsons style automatic clothes putter-onner then bound around from explosion to explosion. It also looks like the evil-doers get a hold of... oh, we don't want to be a spoiler - watch it yourself. Be forewarned though, the destruction of the Cobra is explained here so be sure you can stomach it after lunch. [also playing at Gizmodo and io9]

custom cars

Saleen Debuts Limited Edition $100k Sterling Edition S302E

In honor of Saleen's twenty fifth anniversary, the specialty manufacturer has decided to produce an extremely limited edition car to mark the occasion. Just 25 Sterling Edition S302E's will be produced for sale. The Sterling edition has a host of upgraded and unique features; Inside the cabin is very handsome black alcantara leather with silver stitched seating, iPod connectivity, a dash mounted start button and above that a 16oz solid sterling silver serialized medallion. On the outside, you'll find custom 20" five spoke wheels, hand painted anniversary logos, billet emblems, and carbon fiber splitters front and rear. Under the hood you'll find...

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tuners

Texas Twister: 2008 Saleen S331 Sport Truck Debuts at Texas State Fair

In a world, where $50,000 pickup trucks are for po' folks, and pigskins are for both throwin' and eatin', there's a truck. It's the Saleen S331 for 2008, and it combines Ford's 5.4-liter three-valve V8 with a twin-screw supercharger for 450 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque. Underneath, the stock Ford running gear gets support from Saleen's RaceCraft suspension, with N2 struts with linear-rate coil-over springs, a tubular anti-roll stabilizing bar and urethane pivot bushings Saleen's showing it off this week at the Texas State Fair. More »

woodward dream cruise

And Speaking Of Transformers...The Saleen Display Appears To Be Hiding A Decepticon

Over in Birmingham, across from the GM-obsessive "Triangle," the Saleen display appears to be hiding a very, very naughty Mustang. Not to cast aspersions on an auto custom shop, but Barricade's one bad Saleen. Luckily, we didn't piss him off as badly as we pissed off Ironhide yesterday.

news

The 2008 Dodge Viper Paint Job, By Steve Saleen


One thing we didn't know about the new 2008 Dodge Viper is Steve Saleen's helping to build them. And by helping to build them we mean is he's painting all of the body panels, with Prefix doing the racing stripes for the 'merican side of the still-a-German-American hybrid. Who knew? Not us. [via YWV]

news

Saleen Retires from Saleen

Founder and Vice-Chairman of Saleen Motorsports Steve Saleen has officially retired from the company's executive team. Steve Saleen is shown here with Carrol Shelby, and series sweeping SCCA Mustang driver Rick Titus. Mr. Saleen himself will continue on as the Ambassador of the Saleen brand in order to help prevent any possible spins. Press release after the jump. More »

news

Saleen Slashing Jobs: Performance Vehicle Company Cutting 40 Jobs In Irvine, CA And Troy, MI?

We received the following tip from a very reliable source about the specialty vehicle manufacturer, Saleen:
"The investor group Hancock Park Associates that owns Saleen, Inc. last week laid off 40 people from Saleen's two facilities in Irvine, CA and Troy, MI.

Some of the executive level positions that were effected include; CFO, VP Engineering, VP Design, VP Dealer Development, Director of Aftermarket, Image Design Director, IT Director, as well as numerous engineering, production, sales and development positions."
We've heard that tensions have been rather strained between the folks at FoMoCo and the Saleen team — which is one of the reasons Steve-O's... More »

movies

Transformers Movie Update: New Vehicle Pictures From Edwards Air Force Base!

With the General now going full-tilt into the Transformers movie merchandising and product placement, we're thinking we're going to be seeing a lot of pictures like the one above and the rest in the gallery below. Above we've got all of our favorite bots all lined up pretty-like in their vehicular alt-modes...and all of them are GM products. Well, except for that Saleen Mustang over there on the right...and yeah, Starscream there. Unless of course Starscream's a Saab, and we just can't tell the difference between Saab's and the vehicles they were "born from." And speaking of galleries, make sure to check out the ability to pop up 800 and 1280 sized photos, the links are right underneath each of the pictures. Also, as always, we invite you to check out all of our Transformers coverage via the mini-page or the full Transformers gallery, located below the first. More »

novelties

Transformers Toys For Tots: Barricade, Brawl, Jazz And...Wreckage?

Well, it's Friday and we're feeling a bit of a hankering for some Transformers action, and our fave fan-boy site on all things 'formers is all about the toys today, scoring not only pictures of the Pontiac Solstice-bodied Jazz, the Saleen Mustang-bodied Barricade and the Abrams Battle Tank-bodied Brawl — but also some pics of a not-yet-seen and until-now not-yet-named Decepticon by the name of Wreckage. Wreck-Gar? No — Wreckage. We've no idea what he is — although he does appear to be some kind of military vehicle like an armored personnel vehicel. We've also no idea what his role in the movie will be, but hey — good find on TFW2005's part. But that's not all we've got. We also managed to snag some clear-as-daylight PR pictures of the toy version of the Decepticon baddie known as Blackout in all of his MH-53 Pave Low blade-filled glory. The Transformers in a box gallery, sans Adam Sandberg and Justin Timberlake is first and the Blackout gallery is below that. And with that, our craving for Transformers tchotchkes has been satisfied for the moment. But if yours isn't, feel free to check out or tag page and our gallery for more to get your fix. More »

custom cars

Pony Express: Saleen to Build Special-Edition Mustangs for Road Rally

Cannonball Run Europe, one of the many high-profile road rally events making the world's idle rich just slightly less idle, is expanding to the US. The founders are inaugurating a new event in mid-2007 called the Great American Run. But more newsworthy than that is its confirmed partner in crime, as it were. That is, motorsports shop Saleen. The winner of the don't-call-it-a-race will receive one of 25 special-edition Saleen Mustangs to be built for the event. According to rally site GT Spirit, the cars — 11 of which have been sold to rally entrants — will be tuned to produce 600 hp. The cars reportedly do zero to 60 mph in under four seconds, with a top speed of 200 mph. They're no TransCom ambulance, but well, Jack Elam's no longer with us anyway. More »