Saleen Automotive, North American’s premiere specialty vehicle manufacturer, unveiled its 620 horsepower S302E Mustang for 2008. The new ‘Extreme’, now represents the most powerful Ford-derived vehicle that Saleen has ever manufactured and a critical step in earning Saleen’s new respect for its products and its brand.

The new S302E raises the bar for American performance cars while never sacrificing on style and control. New for 2008, the car is affectionately known as the ‘Extreme’ boasts a Saleen-built 302 cubic inch engine augmented by a patented Saleen twin-screw, intercooled supercharger. The combination delivers an unprecedented 620 bhp and 600 lb-ft of neck-snapping, tire incinerating torque. ”We believe that we are in the process of creating a legendary new car. It’s thrilling,” says Saleen President and CEO, Paul Wilbur. ”It seemed to make sense that as we go into our 25th Anniversary as a manufacturer in North America that we make our best and most powerful car yet.”

The Hardware and Engineering

In the automotive history books, all great cars incorporate great hardware and the S302E is no different. The new Extreme feature a litany of high quality performance parts that are a direct reflection of the company’s race engineering heritage, combined with the best thinking in automotive OEM performance engineering. For starts, the unique motor in the Extreme features a forged crankshaft, forged connecting rods, individually blueprinted forged pistons, 5 axis CNC aluminum cylinder heads, high flow fuel injectors, and high performance camshafts. All of these components have been orchestrated to mesh masterfully together, coupled with our best-in-class, patented Saleen twin-scre supercharger. When married to a short throw, 6-speed manual transmission and Max-grip rear differential, the Extreme screams to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds and clicks through the quarter mile in just under 12 seconds.

”This place represents a kind of automotive mecca for me. We are making limited volume, performance vehicles for people who really love cars, by people who really love cars. I cannot think of a better place to put my 35 years of OEM engineering history to work,” says Vice Chairman and Chief Technical Officer Chris Theodore. Theodore is best known as being the father of the Ford GT while Vice President of Advance Product Development at Ford Motor Company. ”Now I am helping build great Saleen cars in the same factory that I architected for the legendary Ford GT.”

”This is the best motor that we have ever done,” says Powertrain Engineering lead Rob Simons. ”We have really benefited from having Chris [Theodore] around. He brings perspective and experience to the company unlike anything that we have known prior.”

To get that kind of performance, the team had to get the S302E’s power to the ground. This is accomplished with standard 20-inch, 5 spoke forged aluminum alloy wheels wrapped in Pirelli P-Zero Rosso tires. Since power is nothing without control, the Extreme also features a Saleen Racecraft suspension and an all-new, second generation Watts Link system that is sure to help the driver maintain control through the corners. The chassis system is rounded out by upgraded 4-wheel disc brakes with ABS and traction control. This performance brake system features 15-inch vented, slotted rotors with 6-pistons calipers in the front and 11.8-inch rear vented discs with single piston calipers in the rear.

Story by Saleen