Horse's Mouth: Saleen 720HP SMS Mustang Concept

Steve Saleen celebrates his 25 years in the business with the introduction of this 720hp SMS 25th Anniversary Mustang Concept. From his early automotive days spent race preparing his personal cars, to his inevitable entrance into the professional racing world, and finally into the domain of the automotive business, Steve Saleen has nearly done it all.

For 25 years, Steve Saleen has been building an array of high-performance, sports, race, and collector cars; everything from the world's fastest production Mustang, the S302 Extreme, to the Saleen S7 and S7R race car. To celebrate his automotive career, Saleen and his new company, SMS, have developed the '08 SMS Twenty Fifth Anniversary Mustang Concept.

"In celebration of my 25 years in the niche manufacturing business, I wanted to create a personal car for myself that appropriately marks this very special Anniversary," says Saleen. "The functional aesthetic innovations that we have developed are truly exceptional in every way. Though this car is not going to be for sale, it nevertheless demonstrates the technological advances present at SMS.

" The concept car incorporates many important advances developed by SMS, in particular, our SMS Red Butterfly Induction System and SMS Light Blade LED Taillight System." The Anniversary concept also features SMS-developed side splitters and diffuser fences in carbon-fiber, billet-aluminum signature elements, a two-tone leather interior, and the unique SMS Chromosome Silver paint with the signature anniversary yellow, white, and black graphic accents.

In following with Saleen's tradition of building horsepower into his anniversary-edition cars, the SMS concept is said to produce a thundering 720 hp and 670 Ib-ft of torque from its all-aluminum, 5.0L modular powerplant. Backed by Tremec's T-6060 six-speed manual transmission, the engine comes down from speed thanks to SMS cross-drilled, 15-inch, six-piston front brakes, while a com­pletely new SMS billet-aluminum Watt's-link rear suspension helps put the power to the ground.