Saleen Club of America

Featured Car of the Month

Stu Akers' 84-0032 ~ 1st Quarter 2004

We begin our “Saleen of the Month” spotlight by highlighting the car that started it all. Due to the importance of Saleen 84-032, we have chosen it to be “Saleen of the Month” for the entire first quarter!

In 1983 Steve Saleen took his idea of a racecar for the street to Buick, Chevrolet and to Ford. Lucky for us, Ford was selected, and in 1984 Saleen Autosport built its first car in Petaluma, California. One may wonder why it is not numbered “#1”, and the answer is a simple one. The number 32 was chosen because Steve wanted to give the impression that he had already built several cars, and the number 32 did not represent anything.

The lucky owner of 84-0032 is Stu Akers. Stu first learned of Saleens in about 1990, when as a Mustang owner, he had a 1970 BOSS 302, which he sold about the time he learned about Saleens. 84-0032 was the first Saleen Stu purchased, believe it or not. He learned of the car by accident at a cruise-in. Stu met the then owner of 87-0001, the Federal Test Saleen, and he had 84-0032 for sale in Indy. Stu took ownership of the car from Blue Diamond Classics in October 1991. Lucky for Stu, it wore the original paint, and had very minor problems.

Since owning 84-0032, Stu has only had to replace the tires and brakes from normal wear due to driving the car. He did have to get the original cargo cover for the car from Liz Saleen, as she and Steve had it in their storage unit back in California. Stu and his wife drove the car for some time after purchasing it, but now it sits in the garage in its mostly original and untouched condition. Stu jokes that his wife will not let it leave home now since she was the one who used to drive it to all the shows back in 1991-1995 J Patti fell in love with 84-0032 as she got to be the one who drove while Stu was driving around in one of their other Saleens on a regular basis. Even though 84-0032 doesn’t get out much, Stu still manages to have fun driving Saleens, as he is a multiple Saleen owner, and has nicknamed his collection the “Saleen Mustang Ranch”.

Being the first Saleen made, in a year where only 3 were produced, there are several unique features of 84-0032. The console plaque is ¼” longer than all of the other plaques, as they were shortened in all future Saleens. Another interesting note is that 84-0032 wears the entire rear wing off of the Trans-Am car Steve Saleen was racing at the time because the original spoiler was not done in time. The White Hatchback with Desert Tan Articulated Sport Seats features painted on side stripes, hand cut decals, chrome valve covers, and the optional Sanyo stereo that is still in the car now.

Besides finding the original Ford Build Sheet in the truck under the spare tire, Stu also found 3 speeding and parking tickets in the car with the name “Robin Lee Saleen” on them.

The original window sticker price for all this fun back in 1984 was $13,302.

 Please click any of the pictures below for the full size image.