Am I nuts to consider this '88 Saleen Mustang?

[jkarolyi]

When I was 16 years old in 1990, a guy down the street had an '88 Saleen Mustang in red. I had a '77 924 with high compression pistons and a few other tricks that made it less slow, but I was absolutely gaga for that car. I was never a fan of all the 5.0 mustangs people were driving then because I knew they were straight line cars, but the Saleen was different. He let me drive it once at an autocross and I saw muscle cars in a new light.

The engines up until 1993 were mostly bone stock 225 hp 5.0s unless you special ordered upgrades. While its easy to write off 80s Saleen cars as handling and appearance packages, these were OEM Saleen cars with Saleen serial numbers, much as the 60s Shelby Mustangs or a RUF Porsche. Styling mods were tastefully aggressive IMHO, much better than the factory GT, and the suspension transformed the crude Mustang into a real handler.

These cars are absurdly cheap...$8300 for this very nicely kept one with some nice engine mods (original block) that I drove the other day:

88 SALEEN MUSTANG #26#

While I want to buy the car to drive something fun and different for awhile, I'm trying to justify the purchase hoping that these cars will someday parallel the Shelby Mustangs of the 60s. Then again, I also think that factory slantnose 911s will one day be really sought after. Saleen had a lot of success on the track racing these cars and they were designed for track days. He even made his own supercar, the S7. What do you think, am I nuts? Did any of you lust after these back in the early 90s like I did?

[legion]

It's an okay car. The price is right for what it is and the condition. You could have a lot of fun with it.

I never understood the funky shape of the intake manifold on those though...

[TGTIW]

I would go for it. I've always been a fan of the late 80's Saleens, not bad looking, and a good bit of performance. Certainly easy to tune as well.

[VincentVega]

That was the hot car when I was in high school too. Most of the good ones seem to have been chopped up or wrecked by now, there arent many in my area at all.

I doubt they will ever be worth a ton, but there will always be guys our age that want to relive a piece of their younger days.

[Rot 911]

Probably will never be highly collectible as it has a body style that has not aged well.

[Carrerax]

According to your sig, you have a 993 and several longhoods. What else could you possibly need? You already have the best of the best

[Talewinds]

I used to see them somewhat regularly for sale on Autotrader.
To qualify, I'm not a Mustang guy and probably never will be, HOWEVER, I think you're crazy if you DON'T get one.
Seriously, I kick myself in the ass every time I think about how I didn't pursue any of those Fox bodied Saleens I used to see for sale cheap, including right now.

[jkarolyi]

Originally Posted by Rot 911

Probably will never be highly collectible as it has a body style that has not aged well.

Really? I think the late 80s Mustang LXs (granted, the GTs are hideous) have a very simple, clean look to them, with none of the side scoops and styling gimmicks of other cars from this era like the Camaro, 911 slantnose, or Testarossa.

Slantnose 911s and Testarossas don't look good today, but tastes change, and perhaps one day they will be in vogue again.

[jkarolyi]

Originally Posted by Carrerax

According to your sig, you have a 993 and several longhoods. What else could you possibly need? You already have the best of the best

Thanks, I think so too! But one can't eat filet mignon every day, once in awhile you gotta have some nice, greasy BBQ ribs.

[Rednine11]

The price guides are showing low book at 5k and high book at 8k so really I should think it would be worth what he's asking. Who knows if it will ever increase in value or not. You would think so being a Saleen. I say if you want the car grab it. It looks to be well kept for an 88

[Talewinds]

Originally Posted by Rot 911

Probably will never be highly collectible as it has a body style that has not aged well.

HUH!?!?!?

[GG Allin]

The 5.0 Mustang were better handling cars than one might think. Better than the Z28's, T/A's and Corvettes of their day, I guess that's not saying much. Do these Saleen cars have Ford VINs or Saleen VINs?

[jkarolyi]

Saleen sold body kits too, but true Saleens (like this one) have Saleen VINs.

[legion]

Can anyone explain the funky shape of the intake manifold?

[porkee]

I'd tell the seller that the shag pimp seating would definitely need to go (later replace with black sport seats & matching material for the rear). Have it checked out & offer around $7k cash. Lots of bang for the buck IMO.

[GG Allin]

The SSP Mustangs are worth a look too. They came chuck of all sorts of factory go fast goodies and a lot less unnecessary stuff.

[fumanchu]

In my youth (high school)I had many, many fox body stangs.... 2 CHP models too.

This is a nice Saleen, as some one said earlier, most are trashed or very nice. Hard to find an in betweener. If you've never owned one and you need to get it out of your system, give it a try. I'm not gonna go into all the bads, there are many, but there are many goods too.

great daily driver if you can put up with the stiff suspension and live axle. Great torque and minimal shifting make it do well in this department. Sound good too especially when they are quiet. Borla muffs sound good on these if your a Porsche guy.

I think they will be worth something someday, but you probably wont own one when they are.

legion: the intake manifold is a good design. Long runners for torque with a large penum to equalize pressure. They tip the runners over for hood clearance. Even the aftermarker( trick flow, bbk) 5.0 manifolds are designed the same way, so it must be a decent design to start with. I think the Saleen motors are GT40 spec, but I can remember anymore. Here a link of the manifold variations:

Mustang Intake Manifold Test Photo

[Jim Bremner]

Originally Posted by legion

Can anyone explain the funky shape of the intake manifold?

TORQUE. The lenght of the runners has been tuned to provide the right ammount of torque at a given range.

There was a 5.0 mustang tuning book where a guy made an ajustable lenght intake to make the runners shorter and longer by bolting in spacers.

They did several dyno pulls to determine the right lenghts.

Bore is 4" X 3" or 102mm X 80mm the starting point is the sweep volume of the cylinder.

[Jim Bremner]

This is a photo of a 1961 Plymouth Savoy - 413 "Sonoramic" Cross Ram Engine. In 1960, Chrysler introduced this wild aluminum cross-ram intake option for the motor, which suspended the carburetors over the fenders and fed the air/fuel mixture through long two runners which ran over the valve covers on opposite sides of the engine. In short, the carb on the right feeds the left side of the engine and the carb on the left feeds the right side. The cross-rams helped Mopar win a combined nine races on the Grand National (NASCAR) circuit that year. The 413 was also on the streets during that era, and was one of the few engines (the Hemi being the other) that could truly be considered as being designed specifically for racing. While both of these engines could be classified as high-performance street engines, the engineers were busy designing a motor designed strictly for drag and oval-track racing. This wild intake option was only available for a few years.

The "X" is open to a little interpretation as it's partially obscured by the distributor in this image. Mouse over the image to see the notes. It's a little more obvious when viewed large size.
This photo has notes. Move your mouse over the photo to see them.

[Jim Bremner]