It is thought that the only American supercars are Ford GT and Dodge Viper, but in fact, there is also a niche brand, Saleen, which can be called a legendary American supercar, and has also broken records.
Retired driver Steve Saleen founded Saleen Motorsport in 1983 and was based in California, USA.
Saleen's Ford Mustang has won multiple SCCA endurance races, and in 1997 the owner raced Le Mans with his own car. During the race, Steve Saleen was inspired by the McLaren F1 GTR and set out to build a supercar.
In August 2000, a supercar called the Saleen S7 made its debut at the Monterey Historic Races.
Developed by Ray Mallock and Sailin in the UK, the Saleen S7 frame is built with a space tube structure and a body made of 4130 chrome-molybdenum steel, aluminum, and composite honeycomb support plates to ensure strength and lightweight. Combined with a large number of carbon fibre coverings, the vehicle weighs 1,300 kg.
In terms of power, it is based on the Ford Windsor V8 engine, the cylinder block is made of aluminum alloy recasting, the cylinder head is CNC machined, the displacement is expanded to 7.0 liters, and the compression ratio is 11.0:1. Forged pistons, racing linkages and alloy billet crankshafts were used, and accessories such as water pumps and dry sumps were customized.
With a final power output of 550 hp and 759 Nm of torque, it was one of the most powerful naturally aspirated engines of the year, with a time of 3.6 seconds to 100 km/h. It accelerates from 0 to 400 meters in 11.4 seconds and reaches a top speed of 354 km/h.
Introduced in 2005, the S7TT version features a Garrett turbocharger and carbon fibre intake that produces 750 hp and 949 Nm of torque.
With the race package from Saleen, the power can also be increased to 1,000 hp.
The turbo version accelerates to 100 km/h in 2.9 seconds, and accelerates from 0 to 400 meters in about 10 seconds. The modified race kit can be completed in 10 seconds at a top speed of 402 km/h.
The racing version of the S7-R won 78 races throughout its career and had beaten Ferrari in the FIA GT Championship before it was delivered to users.
In a career spanning more than a decade, the S7-R won 10 GT titles worldwide and won the GT1 class at Le Mans in 2010.
The Saleen S7, S7TT and S7-R were produced from 2000 to 2009 with a total production of no more than 100 units.
In 2017, Saleen continued to improve the S7, increasing the maximum power to 1,300 horsepower, and using E85 ethanol gasoline with high supercharging, it can also be increased to 1,500 horsepower. In the end, however, there was no mass production, and only seven S7-LM cars were produced.
