310stanger said:
personally id rather have the gt500, theres something about a built 5.4 with a blower and a 6spd that really appeals to me. the latest saleens are great cars with great performance but lets face it.... they really dont have anything done to them that you couldnt do yourself. they really amount to bolt on cars with a proprietary body kit and a great name. badass cars dont get me wrong, but still mustangs. plus i think lots of people have to actually see the new gt500 to base an opinion. the car is a so much better in person.
The Saleen S281E is far more than what you're giving it credit for. The entire engine is hand-built (with trick internals), and then the entire chassis and driveline is modified. If you really sat down with a pen and paper and calculator, and added up what it would COST you to build a S281E in your garage from a new Mustang GT (I'm talking the whole enchilada here, wheels, body kit, tailpanel, exhaust with electronic dumps, interior with trick seats, EVERYTHING), you'd zip past $50 grand before you knew it, not including the value of your time and labor, and you'd be in that garage for a whole winter... And at that point, what really IS the point? The Saleen will always have a collectible value, and your clone would just be a home-built clone with far less value, meaning in the big picture, you just pee-d a bunch of money away, ironically thinking that you were SAVING money....
I did the same math before I ordered my '97 S351. Lightning short block, aluminum 'brock heads, polished forged crank, Venolia rods and pistons, all the machine-work, intake, fuel system, blower system, T56 6-speed, Torsen diff, chassis, wheels,
Brembo brakes,
Borla exhaust, Recaro seats, and then all the additional details needed to actually effect the car. When you added all of the parts it would take up, and added the cost of the donor car, it was over $55 grand, BACK IN '97!!! There was no point in building a clone myself, and it was eye-opening looking at the long long list of hardware that Saleen actually puts into their top-line models. Regular S281's are a different story entirely. But when you're talking about the "Extreme", you're talking about a boat-load of pricey hardware.