Steve Saleen is back with a new style, a new label and a new car that looks better in purple (of all colors) than Penelope Cruz wearing nothing but a Minnesota Vikings jersey.
Saleen is the guy behind Saleen Inc., the company famous for making sweet Mustangs, but now he's heading up a new outfit called SMS Supercars which recently debuted its 700hp SMS 570 X Challenger dubbed, fittingly, "Plum Insane."
The SMS 570 X is Saleen's first project that isn't a Ford, and he went all out, topping the Viper-powered Challenger SRT10 Dodge brought to SEMA by a full 100 horsepower. He pulled the sheet off the car at Newport Beach night club, saying "we have an exciting new vehicle and wanted to shake up the old standard introduction at an auto show."
Oh, what we would give to have the first dance and bust a move with this car.
The SMS Challenger has embarked on a lengthy road trip, stopping in at dealerships and shows around the country. The first stop, of course, was the Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz. The $64,870 initial asking price advertised at the auction seems like a bargain considering the car comes packed with so much sweetness. We like its dual-sided Red Butterfly induction hood, redesigned interior and wrap-around tail lights.
Best of all, though, is the SMS 296 supercharger bolted to the top of the block. The gearheads at Motor Authority say it's got a massive 180 cubic inches of displacement and boosts horsepower by as much as 45 percent. Saleen's long been a fan of superchargers, having used them in the Mustangs he hot-rodded for 25 years - earning him a place alongside Carrol Shelby and Jack Roush in the Mustang Hall of Fame.
He left Saleen to work with China's ZX Automobile, and he gained a lot of attention the following winter when he annnounced the S5S Raptor concept, an ethanol-burning supercar said to be good for more than 200 mph. The project went bust for lack of funding, and last spring Saleen launched SMS Supercars - (It's his initials - Steven Mark Saleen - in case you were wondering) - so he could develop something other than Ford products.
"I wanted to expand into new markets with the Dodge and Chevrolet muscle cars that are coming out now," he told Autoblog. "For contractual reasons this was not going to happen at Saleen Inc. due to their long standing with Ford products and the Ford dealer network."
Don't worry though, Saleen isn't turning his back on the original pony car. An SMS Mustang will join the Challenger and a Camaro by next year, and he's still kicking around the idea of a supercar and perhaps even a hybrid or EV.
But he says don't get your hopes up the Raptor.
Photos: SMS Supercars.
