Saleen S7 History

The S7 debuted on August 19, 2000, at the Monterey Historic Races as the first car designed and built entirely by Saleen, rather than a modified Ford. A mid-engine, two-seat supercar with butterfly doors, an aluminum honeycomb chassis, and a carbon-fiber body, it was developed with Ray Mallock Ltd in the UK and styled by Phil Frank.

Power came from a proprietary all-aluminum 7.0-liter (427-cubic-inch) V8, a heavily reworked derivative of Ford's Windsor small-block, producing 550 hp in the original naturally aspirated car. In 2005 the S7 Twin Turbo arrived with twin Garrett turbochargers raising output to 750 hp and 700 lb-ft of torque, with a claimed top speed around 248 mph.

The S7 was hand-built in very small numbers across the entire 2000–2009 run, making it one of the rarest American supercars of its era. A racing version, the S7-R, competed in the American Le Mans Series, the FIA GT Championship, and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 2001 through 2007, scoring a notable upset victory at Imola in 2004 against factory Ferrari opposition. The S7 nameplate was revived in 2017 as the S7 LM with over 1,300 hp.