Roush saleen sleeper edition?

BobV said:

The mods were done AT Saleen, not the dealer. One of the Saleen employees posted on another forum:

"Those are real! A Saleen sleeper can be ordered by any certified Saleen dealer as an option. We just put the 475hp supercharger on the car as soon as it leaves the Ford plant and ship it to the dealership!"

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If true, & I don't doubt BobV's veracity, then Saleen Inc. continues to find new ways of jumping the shark aka doing anything for a buck$$$.

This is old news indeed, and first surfaced about the time Steve "retired."

It makes sense that the vehicle in question is one of only 8 2007s since this program started late in the model year. While it may be one of 8, certainly it's just a GT with a supercharger, though someone has the assurance that it's well-engineered, installed correctly and the cost of it is financed with the deal.

And sure, one way to think about it is that Saleen Inc. is doing anything for a buck -- I'd prefer to think that they're doing anything to stay alive, as Saleen Inc. is able to put some people to work and sell some extra superchargers every time a Sleeper or a HD F-150 is sold this way... it also brings more awareness to the Saleen brand.

Is it a good move? I don't know.

Will the car ever be collectible? Doubt it.

Is it a real Saleen? No.

Will it be a fun car to drive for the right buyer? Most certainly.

To quote David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap; "It's a fine line between clever & stupid."

Frankly, the actions taken by Saleen Inc. in the post-Steve era are doing far more to diminish the brand than to promote it; over-producing the regular Saleens, creating faux Saleens for dealers, abandoning the company's SoCal roots, marginalizing the enthusiast owners, etc.

If this is considered raising awareness of the Saleen brand, then I'll gladly wallow in my ignorance.

Eh...

I’m probably in the minority that that thought the “sleeper edition” was a novel idea.

Since the introduction of the ‘05 GT and the Saleen Supercharger, they became a popular aftermarket combination. Numerous owners were buying new GTs and adding the blowers, so… not a completely bad idea to offer a dealer ready package for folks who wanted to do this or planned to at some point.

If one looks at the content of a “sleeper edition,” looks like they were based on the Saleen knockdown units. They were wing delete, IUP, base cloth, and base painted wheel vehicles. The GT wings were added at Saleen then placed on the new window sales stickers. They have that connection. There were no Ford wheel options or leather for the sleepers.

If you go back, Saleen always wanted to build a quantity of vehicles every year. If we go back to 1985-86, one will see press about how they just built or plan to build 500 (or whatever amount) that year… In the late ‘80s the Saleen marketing was quoting 1,000-1,200 would be made in the year. I don’t think there was ever a plan to keep production in the hundreds or double/ single digits.

Building 1,500 2007s won’t impact the old ones. Someone spending 50-60k on a new S/C doesn’t necessarily impact interest in the vintage ones. Same goes for the ‘05 NAs hitting the 20Ks now or the 1996-98 S281 GTs hitting the basement with a thud. Not everyone looking at a new one cares to have an old one and vice versa. Each one is a niche within a niche with different character traits.

If one goes back to 2002, one could find similar ideas that a production Saleen Focus Concept would cheapen the brand, embarrass Saleen owners and that Steve Saleen was out of his mind. I think the porno gal named Lisa was in that camp.

Enjoy the cars… we all have an appointment to see the other side.

SVT Saleen said:

To quote David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap; "It's a fine line between clever & stupid."

Frankly, the actions taken by Saleen Inc. in the post-Steve era are doing far more to diminish the brand than to promote it; over-producing the regular Saleens, creating faux Saleens for dealers, abandoning the company's SoCal roots, marginalizing the enthusiast owners, etc.

If this is considered raising awareness of the Saleen brand, then I'll gladly wallow in my ignorance.

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The sleeper program was not a post-Steve project, in fact Sean Saleen set up a lot of it.