Here’s a hot take for you: I think Steve Saleen’s monstrous 760-horsepower NASCAR-engine S7 was the last time any kind of hypercar actually moved the needle. It looked like a spaceship in a good way, not in the stretched and blobby way they all do now. And it sounded like Hades himself was rising up from the underworld to tear existence asunder, instead of an overboosted hair dryer. Sure, modern hypercars are faster and quicker, but are they more emotionally resonant? Do they make your heart ache with desire and reverb in equal measure? The S7 does.
For the next six and a half minutes I want you to sit down, put away all your other distractions, click the play button, maximize the video to full screen, and crank up the volume. These videos from inside and outside a gorgeous vintage Saleen show just how underrated this ridiculous machine is. This is pure speed, and it sounds like it, whether the backdrop is the high banks of Daytona International Speedway, Spa Francorchamps, or Goodwood Circuit. This car is your mantra of the day. Through a seven-liter V8 all things are possible, so jot that down.
This is more than a car, it is a time machine. Sitting and watching this American Kaiju of a car will take you back to a simpler time, back to the S7-R’s competition debut in 2001. You had a thicker, fuller head of hair then. Life was but a Saleen S7 dream. America was producing a mid-engine powerhouse of a car that could take on the best that Italy could muster. It was just 24 years ago, but it feels like it was yesterday. Saleen S7. Saleen S7. Saleen S7. Breathe.
