Tested: 1987 Saleen Mustang Doesn’t Do Subtle

From the October 1987 issue of Car and Driver.

The Detroit manufacturers are beset by overcapacity, lagging sales, foreign com­petition, and iffy currency-exchange rates—but for limited-production perfor­mance specialists, prospects have never been brighter. Carroll Shelby has just re­leased his fourth series of Chrysler spe­cials. Reeves Callaway is selling every hy­peractive Twin-Turbo Corvette he can build. And Steve Saleen is in his fourth year of producing modified Mustangs.

Readers familiar with Shelby’s various exploits over the past twenty years, and Callaway’s pressurized power packs of about half that time, may be excused for wondering who Steve Saleen is. The an­swer is that he is fast becoming a perfor­mance VIP in his own right. Saleen’s modified-Mustang production is current­ly running at about 1000 units a year. His success is particularly impressive in light of the difficulties Ford encountered in marketing its own Mustang-based special, the SVO.

Saleen’s initial tie-up with Ford grew out of his background as an enthusiast. He met the people at Ford’s Special Vehicle Operations when he was racing in the Trans-Am series in the early eighties. In 1982, when the reincarnated Mustang GT appeared, he thought it would be an ideal foundation for a limited-production high­-performance special. Saleen approached the SVO people with his idea, and they helped him develop working relationships with Ford’s sales and manufacturing organizations. The first series of Saleen Mustangs appeared in June 1984, and produc­tion has increased steadily ever since.

A close relationship with Ford is critical to keeping Saleen’s costs low and his pro­duction schedule regular. When a cus­tomer walks into a Ford dealership and or­ders a Saleen Mustang, instruction are transmitted to the Ford plant in Dear­born, Michigan, to produce a Mustang LX specially designed for the conversion. The factory equips the car with a 225-hp, 4.9-liter V-8, a five-speed manual transmis­sion, several heavy-duty chassis pieces, and a full complement of power assists and comfort options. In addition, some standard Mustang components and trim pieces are omitted from the normal assembly-line process.

Upon arrival at Saleen Autosport in Brea, California, the raw Mustang is first equipped with new suspension bits. Springs that are shorter than stock Mus­tang GT pieces lower the car by 1.5 inch­es; they are also stiffer than stock, and the front spring rates are boosted more than the rears. The Saleen’s damping needs are handled by Koni adjustable gas shock absorbers; Konis also replace the two hor­izontally positioned shocks that help con­trol the rear axle’s motions. The stock front and rear anti-roll bars are retained, but the front bar’s rubber pivot bushings are replaced with stiffer urethane pieces. Another detail change is the substitution of ball-bearing upper strut mounts for the stock rubber bushings; this reduces steer­ing friction. To stiffen the front-end struc­ture, the tops of the strut towers are tied to each other and to the firewall with a trian­gular steel brace.

In addition to these suspension changes, the Saleen shop installs the four­-wheel-disc braking system previously used in the SVO Mustang. This system not only replaces the rear drums with discs but also employs larger front cali­pers and five-bolt hubs all around. Cast­aluminum wheels made to Saleen’s speci­fications are mated to these hubs. The seven-inch front and eight-inch rear rims are fitted with 225/50VR-16 General XP2000V tires.

Once the major mechanical work is complete, a few new body panels are bolted into place. The frontispiece is a deep spoiler with ducts that feed air to the brakes and the radiator. A matching apron is tucked under the rear bumper, and side skirts that flare out at the wheel wells tie the two ends together. All of these parts are molded in urethane, so they are flexible enough to absorb small impacts. Three fiberglass pieces are added as well: a pair of quarter-window louvers and a rear wing that is both larger and higher than the stock GT fixture. Finally, each Saleen Mustang gets tricolor racing stripes along its side sills and a sunscreen with giant “Saleen Mustang” lettering across the top of its windshield.

The passenger compartment also bene­fits from a makeover. All Saleen Mus­tangs share a special gray interior treat­ment that requires replacing the side panels in the front doors and the rear-seat area. Flofit sport seats with color-coordi­nated fabric replace the stockers in the front, and the factory rear seat is reuphol­stered to match. Other interior changes include a 170-mph speedometer, a three­-spoke, leather-covered Momo steering wheel, a dead pedal, and a Hurst shifter. The Saleen’s standard electronic gear in­cludes an Escort radar detector and a Kenwood sound system complete with a graphic equalizer, six speakers, and an 80-watt amplifier. Finally, a Sateen serial-number plate is affixed to the console of each car.

Saleen Autosport makes no changes to the Mustang’s drivetrain, so the high­-output V-8’s emissions certification and warranty are preserved. The stock tail­pipe, however, is replaced with a unit that provides a throatier sound. Saleen also of­fers, on a limited basis, an optional 3.55:1 rear-axle ratio.

The finished product looks like a take-­no-prisoners street fighter. The lowered Mustang has a purposeful, aggressive stance on its wide wheels and tires. And the Saleen body panels are every bit as eye-catching as the factory GT’s, proving that you don’t need such boy-racer touch­es as do-nothing scoops and pretentious fog lights to turn heads. We do find the huge “Saleen” lettering on the windshield a bit gauche, but otherwise the Saleen is as good-looking a Mustang as we’ve ever seen.

The Saleen’s interior changes are not only tasteful but, for the most part, benefi­cial. The seats are comfortable and sup­portive, the dead pedal is well located, and the Momo wheel reminded us of how sat­isfying a well-designed three-spoke wheel can be. Our test car’s Hurst shifter, however, was less successful. It afforded a tight and precise shift action, but its link­age buzzed annoyingly at certain engine speeds. We also found the six Saleen badges visible from the driver’s seat to be about five too many. When we discussed these issues with Steve Saleen, he insisted that the buzzing of the shifter was unusu­al. He did admit to getting a certain ego boost from the badges and sheepishly confessed that as many as thirteen name­plates had adorned the interiors of previ­ous Saleen Mustangs.

This visual chest puffery is easy to for­give, because the Saleen Mustang’s func­tional modifications are as effective as its cosmetic ones. In fast, hard driving, the Saleen is much more comfortable than the stocker. On the skidpad, we measured a maximum adhesion of 0.84 g—a signifi­cant improvement over the 0.82 g gener­ated by a stock Mustang GT that we used for comparison. Moreover, the Saleen is more neutral and controllable at its limit, and it changes from understeer to over­steer much more smoothly as power is ap­plied, allowing delicious four-wheel drifts in third-gear corners and on freeway ramps. The smooth limit behavior is hard­ly surprising: Saleen campaigns his Mustangs extensively and successfully in Showroom Stock endurance racing.

Despite this rigorous high-speed devel­opment, though, the Saleen displayed a strange, two-step steering response in sla­lom testing that made it difficult to thread precisely through the cones. The stock Mustang was much easier to drive and much quicker. We never noticed any of the Saleen’s aberrant steering behavior on the road, however.

Indeed, in hard driving, the Saleen’s stiff suspension makes it much more se­cure than the stock car, which bounces constantly. Unfortunately, the Saleen’s chassis also feeds every tiny road imper­fection into its body. Because the Mus­tang’s structure is tight enough to with­stand such beating without generating a symphony of squeaks and rattles, we sus­pect that those who live where roads are smooth will find little fault with the Saleen’s ride. Any northerner thinking about buying one, however, should defi­nitely take a Saleen on a test drive over local roads.

Although engine changes are not part of the Saleen package, the improved rear traction and the optional lower axle ratio might be expected to enhance accelera­tion. Our test car’s engine, however, was too tired to take advantage of any im­proved starting-line grip. And although the lower axle ratio improves top-gear ac­celeration, it requires revving the engine well past its power peak to reach 60 mph in second gear, thus hurting the time to that speed. The shorter gearing also limits top speed, at least in theory. In testing, though, our Saleen reached 136 mph—­only 1 mph shy of the Mustang GT we tested last June.

Anyone considering buying a Saleen and pushing it to its limits will be comfort­ed to learn that his car will be backed by the same warranty that covers stock Mus­tangs. Ford guarantees the factory parts, and Saleen covers the rest. And in order to receive the official Ford blessing for his program, Saleen had to commit to stock­ing a supply of spare parts for seven years after each car is produced.

You can buy a Saleen Mustang for $19,900 from any of the 4700 Ford deal­ers in the country (although most of the Saleen business is concentrated at the 150 outlets that specialize in performance sales). If that price seems steep compared with a comparably equipped Mustang GT’s sticker of $13,838, consider that you probably couldn’t duplicate the Saleen for any less, and you couldn’t buy its warranty or the development that went into it at any price. Consider also that the Saleen costs only a little more than a similarly loaded Camaro IROC-Z or Firebird GTA. You might think of the difference as the price of distinction.

Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com