V10 ACR
Viper Owner
The So Cal Viper Club had the pleasure of a tour of the Sallen factory in Irvine, CA. It was a beautiful day for a drive and more than 35 vipers were present at the start of the tour.
Steve Saleen gave a brief introduction and let us have nearly the run of the place.
The plant was finishing the run of 500 special edition Parnelli Jones cars.
It is pretty amazing watching them take apart a brand new car, strip much of the body, pull the engine, and then replace with newly fabricated parts. Everything is done by hand and they were doing excellent work.
The best part was watching six Saleen S7's being born.
It started with the frame assembly. The tubing for the frame, when fully assembled weighs less than 250 pounds.
Then comes the carbon fiber shell. Aircraft grade and ultra rigid with no flex to keep the well designed areodynamics from shifting.
The shells destined for the street cars are smoothed with a bit of bondo. The shells for the race cars are left with the minor imperfections. Someone will have to correct me on this because it still sounds unreal, but they said that the full carbon fiber shell weighs 35 pounds! The reason they don't bondo the race car shells is because it can add an addition 10-15 pounds.
The shell, the engine and the frame all come together.
Nearly done.
Saleen was great, the weather was great, the drive was fun, good company at lunch, now I just have to figure how to come up with $700,000 to get one of the twin turbo S7's built just for me. Anyone care to make a donation?
You must be registered for see images attach
Steve Saleen gave a brief introduction and let us have nearly the run of the place.
You must be registered for see images attach
The plant was finishing the run of 500 special edition Parnelli Jones cars.
You must be registered for see images attach
It is pretty amazing watching them take apart a brand new car, strip much of the body, pull the engine, and then replace with newly fabricated parts. Everything is done by hand and they were doing excellent work.
The best part was watching six Saleen S7's being born.
It started with the frame assembly. The tubing for the frame, when fully assembled weighs less than 250 pounds.
You must be registered for see images attach
Then comes the carbon fiber shell. Aircraft grade and ultra rigid with no flex to keep the well designed areodynamics from shifting.
You must be registered for see images attach
The shells destined for the street cars are smoothed with a bit of bondo. The shells for the race cars are left with the minor imperfections. Someone will have to correct me on this because it still sounds unreal, but they said that the full carbon fiber shell weighs 35 pounds! The reason they don't bondo the race car shells is because it can add an addition 10-15 pounds.
You must be registered for see images attach
The shell, the engine and the frame all come together.
You must be registered for see images attach
Nearly done.
You must be registered for see images attach
Saleen was great, the weather was great, the drive was fun, good company at lunch, now I just have to figure how to come up with $700,000 to get one of the twin turbo S7's built just for me. Anyone care to make a donation?
