I do agree that some of the Saleen body panels - especially the rear fin on the trunk are not the most "perfect" fitting pieces but everything else on the car bodywise fits pretty good. I don't know what Saleen you drove but mine don't have a creak or rattle one. The interior is put together very well and everything fits tight with good clearances. I will argue to the death that the quality of the Saleens interior is every bit on par with the EVO's. The EVO has a ton of plastic interior pieces. Now, if you were driving a BMW M3 or Lexus SC350 then you may have an argument on how the Mustangs interior is inferior to yours but saying that the EVO's interior is "better" or less "plasticy" than the Mustangs is absolutly absurd. I'm a big guy and actually find the hand stiched and bolstered seats in the Saleen more supportive for my body type over the EVO's Recaro's. Now for the suspension and the way the car feels. I live near the Cascade Mountians in the state of WA and SR20 going through the Northern Cascades is a very twisty road with some cool switchbacks. You are absoluty crazy if you don't think a Saleen can keep up with a EVO on roads like that. The EVO may be better suited for a dedicated road course but driving spirted on twisty mountian roads - the Saleen feels every bit as confidence inspiring as the EVO. I have pushed this Saleen pretty hard through that road and just let me say that Steve Saleen know's his s%^& about how to set up a suspension. I also don't see a supercharger wieghing that much and upsetting the front of the car. I have the non-supercharged S281 but I really don't see the SC being that much heavier in the front as to upset the handling characteristics of the car. This Saleen has no hint of being "front heavy" and feels every bit like a precision instrument. Even the brakes feel great with little fade when pushed hard comming down the mountian. I give the Saleen 2 huge thumbs up for being a phenominal handling car. Saleen designed his own shocks/struts, springs, and front/rear sway bars. Like I said, the Saleen prepped Mustang is no slouch when it comes to handling - the regular Mustang GT may be pale in comparison to the EVO when it comes to handling but I think the Saleen is a different story.

I've had this car past 100mph and noticed no "flapping" as you stated. I don't know what you mean by that.

 

53K for a RUSTSTANG with 335hp.

Im sure you are gona enjoy the years ahead with the great ford build quality!!!!

 

Where did you get 335 hp from? he said it was like 470 earlier...

Oh and nice car, good luck with it..Oh and I was wondering what are they supposed to run out of the factory 1/4 wise..?

 

Way too many EVO fanboys on this site. That thing will gun 90% of evos down PERIOD. Yes its expensive at 53k but its an amazing car. I think some of your guys heads are well on their way to explosion

Dont listen to some of these momos you made a good decision with that beast

Steve Saleen has been building rockets for years. Love what they did with the new Stang

 

my evo was an 03 no problems with it and no problems with my 06 evo either, now on the other hand every v8 i owned showed signs of wanting to crap out on me by 30k im done with this thread haven't seen anyone else mention owning a saleen in this thread besides me but yet everyone knows how great they are ha ha. Look i hope you have no problems with the car, but i'd bet you do and if you do it's a ***** tryn to get saleen to actually warranty the cars.But good luck.By the way Mr. Hashell you don't know dick!!!!

 

Enjoy.

I saw this Saleen at the USGP. My thoughts were nice car and lose the chrome rims. Chrome belongs on modernist furniture IMHO.

 

Wow. You really think your personal experience is an accurate indicator quality?

Do you really believe anyone takes you seriously? Growup.

 

I noticed that you owned a 01' S281SC. How exactly did your car "crap out" at 30,000 miles. I find this very hard to believe but do tell. The Ford 4.6 is a pretty stout engine and can run the 5-6psi of boost that Saleen designs into the base superchargers all day with no issues. Anyways, I would like to know exactly what "signs of wanting to crap out" you experienced.
Also, good luck trying to get Mitsu to warranty their product if something major happens. I have read many, many threads on here telling the horrors of trying to get warranty work done. Some have been lucky getting warranty covereage but many have not so don't come off sounding like a Mitsubishi is all great and the Saleen is not just because Saleen refused your warranty covereage. I don't know the particulars of your situation but Mitsubishi is no better than Saleen at covering warranty issues. As with any performance oriented car - if an issue arises with the powerplant/drivetrain, the manufacture is going to be leary if the damage was caused by abuse from racing/modification/owner neglect or if the damage is actually a manufacturing defect.
I really don't care about your experience because there are thousands of Saleens on the road with well over 30,000 miles on them. Did you get a lemon? - who knows. Did you abuse your car by not breaking the engine in correctly with keeping it under 4 grand for the first 500miles, changing the break in oil to full synthetic then not going over 5 grand for 1,000miles? - I don't know. Maybe you modified your car in some sort of way that messed it up and made Saleen deny your warranty - Who knows. I'm smart enough to know that your absurd statement of saying that a Saleen craps out at 30,000miles is just that - absurd. The EVO is a fantastic machine and I still admire them greatly but a benchmark for quality they are not. If your going to dog on a Mustang you better have a BMW M3, Porsche Carrera S, Lexus SC350 or some other high end performance car because dude, you own a Mitsubishi and Mitsubishi don't build high quality, high end cars. They build cars for the masses just like Ford and have many flaws such as plastic interiors, fish eyed paint, leaking water into the interior because of poorly sealed joints, etc, etc. The EVO is a great car but perfect it is definetly not. Every car, like the flamming Ferrari F430, has issues. If you find the 100% perfect car, let me know - please.

 

It's actually 47 grand with a 5,000 dealer markup but I'm not complaing about the markup since the dealer paid off my entire balance of $35,842 on a 61,900mile 06' EVO 9 that was bought in Nov of 05'.
If I'm not mistaken, does'nt an 06' EVO 9 come with like 285hp. Let me see, that's 50 hp the Saleen has over the EVO out the box, stock for stock. The Saleen also has 325ft/lbs of torque. I don't know what the EVO comes with stock, but I know it's not 325ft/lbs. When I bought my EVO, I was comming from a 04' STi and honestly - I was not impressed in the least bit with my stock EVO 9 MR. I was actually quite disgusted that I traded my Subie and asked myself why did I just trade in a car that I was happy with just because various people told me the EVO was a better car. It was'nt untill I modded the fu$# out of my EVO to end up at 370awhp and 350ft/lbs of torque that I was content with the car. If I just add the Saleen supercharger running 5psi of boost, I will go from 335hp to 425 and from 335ft/lbs of torque to 430. That is just from bolting on the supercharger with a modest 5psi of boost. That 1 mod will make more power on 92octane than my EVO that had cams/springs/retainers, meth injection, catless turboback, big AMS intercooler with upper and lower pipes, 25PSI OF BOOST, custom dyno tune by Jestr, 680 injectors, and Walbro fuel pump. If I opt to run a ProCharger with 8psi of boost my Saleen will be at around 470hp with 460ft/lbs of torque and if I actually put forged internals in the engine with CNC ported heads/cam, ran the ProCharger to 18psi and had all the other supporting mods (headers, exhaust, injectors, tune) - I would have an easy 800hp car with a correct set up rear end and slicks would easily run 9's in the quater.
Stock for stock, the Saleen feels way stronger and IMHO is a much easier platform to get to go really fast with minimal mods and pump gas. I think that's what I love about the Saleen or any other V-8 for that matter - being able to make sick power on low boost and pump gas. I hated having to run high boost in the EVO and having to keep up with meth injection. I'm not looking to make 800hp or run 9's in the quater which is why I'm going with the base Saleen kit, 435hp and 425ft/lbs of torque all while running 92 octane is more than enough for me.


You all keep amazing me with the cheap shots at "build quality". Please understand that YOU OWN A MITSUBISHI and a car that starts life as a Lancer on top of that. Mitsubishi is not a benchmark for high quality cars. Quite having a complex like you are a BMW or Aston Martin owner, those cars are built by people that are sticklers for detail and both use the utmost highest quality materials. Mitsubishi does not share any principals with high end auto makers like Aston Martin. You all own mediocore quality cars that have many quality issues. Stop ******* on Ford because the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO is not that much better quality of car.

 

i dont like those at all. should of keep the evo!!!

 

lol @ all those people
Great car, and props to you Enjoy!

 

Precisely.

 

Refer to E.Haskell's post.

 

lol @ paying 53k for the Mustang and 42k for the Evo. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

It sounds like you don't make very smart financial decisions...

 

Man, you had to have known that posting this thread on an Evo site will attract the kind of attention it did.

To all Evo owners, I myself included: The Evo is an awesome performance machine! Not everybody likes it. It has flaws. There are better cars out there for the right price. This guy bought what he wanted! The Saleen is a badass performance machine. Give this guy some credit. Most importantly, he is happy! Leave it at that.