I was watching a movie car chase involving a Mustang, and saw the name Saleen on the Mustang’s door panel. And I wondered where that came from – do they beef up engines, suspensions, etc. to make for a meaner street machine?
Then I found the Saleen website and it appears they do quite a bit more. They present themselves as a car manufacturer, though by appearance allthree of their models are based on the Ford Mustang. Interestingly, none of their seven “authorized centers” even say what sate it is in, let alone a city. Presumably these are the places where your Saleen can be serviced, because it appears most of their dealers are regular Ford dealerships.
I’ve never seen such a thing before, and I have some questions… Do they build these vehicles from scratch with some arrangement with Ford? Do they start with Ford chassis? Or more - do they start with whole Mustangs and more or less rebuild them?
Are there other companies that do this based on other cars? If so, who are they and what are they building.
I forget the actual law involved or whether it’s the same as it was, but manufacturers are required to price out and sell the chassis or drive line for a product to outsiders. It happens more in the trucking industry where specialty companies build things like ice cream trucks, buses, cranes and stuff from the original manufacturer’s product. A truck chassis without a body is called a “pie wagon” for example as it has a seat mounted and is drive-able to the aftermarket mod center. The same is done with cars and the Mustang is a popular style to modify for racing or “pimping.” Roush Industries may be considered an auto manufacturer I believe for the mods they provide. Other companies will tear the top off and make a convertible or a limo and they are deemed manufacturers. In some respects it’s like the early days of autos where there are many small companies spread out.
There are several companies that modify otherwise stock vehicles. Calloway is famous for Corvettes, Saleen for Mustangs, Steeda for Mustangs, Rousch for Ford cars/trucks, etc. The vehicles themselves are referred to as “Tuner Cars.” The modifications they make generally do not void factory warranties. Some of these tuner packages are appearance only, some include braking/suspension and the most expensive include engine mods (usually with superchargers). You can either bring the tuner a vehicle you have purchased or buy one through them. Some, like Saleen, used to be available directly from the dealers. In my humble opinion, you can make the mechanical modifications outside these tuners for far less money.
AMG Benzes and the M-series BMW’s are tuned versions of stock models… but they’re pretty closely connected to the factories…
Perhaps something like Alpina,they’re BMW based. Or Brabusthat does (mostly) Mercedes. I used to have a full list somewhere… but I can’t find it right now.
Well, they are, for all intents and purposes, just another division of the same company, although their histories are a little different.
The M brand has basically been an in-house division of BMW from the start.
AMG was essentially formed as a separate company (by former M-B engineers), but then became involved in active partnerships in the 1990s, before becoming a partly- and then wholly-owned subsidiary of Mercedes (or, more accurately, DaimlerChrysler).
This stuff is really interesting. It’s like a whole world that I had no idea existed. I just figured some motorheads tricked out their own cars, or if they had enough cash they brought them to customizing shops.
Oh, I knew if I followed enough links I could figure out where at least some of these places are. But I thought it was interesting that Saleen list the locations. I’m pretty sure they don’t want people thinking about how far they will have to go to get their flashy new car serviced.
Another aftermarket company that specialized in high performance European cars was the Koenig Special Vehicles company.
I remember, as a 17-year-old car fanatic in the 1980s, reading about the Koenig Ferrari Testarossa, which did 0-60 in about 3.6 seconds, and topped out at 210 mph, both of which were considerably better than the performance figures for the stock Testarossa.
As well as the engine improvement, Koenig also added a whole bunch of butt-ugly body mods that (IMO) ruined the lovely lines of the Ferrari and turned it into a steroid freak.
Not sure if Koenig is still in the business of modding cars. I found a website, but it’s a pretty amateur effort; not the sort of thing i’d expect from a company that expects to attract the sort of wealthy clients that buy cars like that.
Indeed you can make the mods for far less money yourself, but in many cases these tuner cars (Saleen, Calloway) will also come with a warranty, which you definitely won’t get if you do all the work yourself (or even just have a shop do them for you, depending on which shop you go to).
A better BMW example would be Dinan (in the US). Though I don’t believe they sell whole vehicles, only upgrades. Alpina (mostly in Europe) sells complete cars.
One reason to start with a known vehicle is that it avoids a whole bunch of FMVSS problems, since the original manufacturer has done all of the hard work to ensure compliance already. No matter how outrageous the conversion, a new vehicle carrying a VIN from a well-known manufacturer will make it through the registration process in most states without raising any eyebrows. Renewal (which requires inspection in many states) is a different issue.
If you build something from scratch and offer it for sale, there’s a whole can of worms waiting - your VINs (or worse, PINs) will be rejected by most DMVs and will get scrutinized by a (usually unsympathetic) human.
Some main companies contracted out convertible work. I believe Toyota Celicas had a “factory conversion” done as well as Cadilac [instead of the fake vinyl roof] back when rollover protection had diminished the convertible market. They came with full warentee from the manufacturer.
There are hearse manufacturers that get the base product - and add the necessary suspension and body modifications. Same as armored car and limousine producers. Sometimes called a body-in-white. I believe there was even a Cadilac pickup back in the 1970s from an aftermarket builder but sold as an actual Cadilac.
Saleen: This company produced an actual production vehicle of its own (S7), AND is known for beefing up the Mustang as a factory authorized/backed product, sold via Ford dealerships.
There website lists 3 models (see the OP), none of them named “S7”, and yes my original confusion was at least partly about whether they build cars from scratch, but chassis and/or drive trains from Ford and build from there, or do extensive rebuilding of existing cars.
You have just added to my confusion, as I was getting from others that they basically started with chassis and build from there. Is that different from your claim that they “produced an actual production vehicle of its own” – are you saying they started entirely from scratch?
The S7 was one model. Point is, they produce(d) ‘Super Cars’ like the S7 from the ground up. Google “Saleen” and you’ll fall all over the S7. A super car is the like of a Lamborghini, a Ferrari Enzo, etc.
They got their rep by modifying vehicles, offering after-market kits and, most notably, getting a gig to hop up Mustangs via a factory authorized option. You can walk into a Ford dealer and buy a Saleen Mustang, and get Ford coverage on it, etc. I don’t know if an extended warranty is available, because the car is expected to be thrashed about and is, generally, under greater stress due to the hop ups.
You can’t buy a Saleen super car, like the C7, at a Ford dealer.
The auto industry isn’t cut and dry. Saabs are Subarus. What does that make Saab?