July 2007
Eddie Garcia 95
S351R #76
So after having
already owned a Saleen, 2000 Speedster S/C and a clone, 1994 ‘vert, I
found myself without one in June of 2006. I had recently sold my
road-race car and hadn’t done much of anything with my right foot in a
while, other than kicking the dog…just kidding, I only nudge him now and
then.
Although my wife,
Ema, told me to wait before buying another toy, I found myself surfing
the net for… what else… another Saleen. I found this one on Ebay not too
far from home. The price was good and the seller seemed knowledgeable. I
went to look at it and wound up driving it home. Of course I found a few
things the seller neglected to tell me but luckily I love working on my
cars.
The car was fast
and reliable and in pretty good shape. I even took it to an open track
day at the California Speedway’s road course back in October. The Saleen
and I turned quite a few heads as we embarrassed a few big boys like
Vipers, Porsches, and few others. We would have spanked some STI’s and
Evo’s if it weren’t for their darn all wheel drive.
According to
Saleen, this is a one of one for 1995 and it was originally shipped to
Delaware in June of 1995. It came with the Alcon brakes, 10” rear rims,
leather Saleen Recaros, and the Vortech supercharged 351 Windsor. I
bought the car from the third owner in June 2006. It had about 28k miles
on the original motor. All in all the car was doing exactly what I
wanted it to do. It was clean, fast, fun, and rare. I guess I spoke too
soon, because in December of 2006, the motor had a detonation and the
result was a total loss of the engine.
Well I had to make
a decision. I considered selling the car with a blown motor and letting
someone else fix her up. Eventually I talked to the boss and she said I
could fix it up. I don’t think she fully grasped the concept of what a
car guy thinks of when he says, “fix it up”.
So I decided to
“fix it up”, and then some. I put in a new 408 stroker built on a 351
Windsor. I had it professionally built and the only part I used that was
from the original block was the timing chain cover…repainted of course.
The original extended plenum upper intake, Vortech equipment,
alternator, headers, and miscellaneous parts were polished or ceramic
coated and reinstalled on the new motor. The Saleen got new motor
mounts, hp water pump, Ram kevlar clutch, Accufab throttle body,
Lighting MAF, AFM power pipe, and more. My goal was to put more than 500
reliable “bullet proof” horsepower to the ground. The results after the
final dyno-tune were 525 hp, 550 rwt on 91 fuel.
So now, at its 12
year anniversary, and with 30k miles on it, the car still looks great
and is really…fast, not that I would speed or anything. The next project
is to tackle the suspension and then…who knows?! I couldn’t have brought
my car this far without help (and lots of money) from certain
performance shops. So, thanks to GTR Performance in Rancho Cucamonga, CA
for working on my car all these months, Ford Performance Sport in
Anaheim, CA for building a strong race ready motor, Powertrain Dynamics
in Huntington Beach, CA for the final tune, and the members of the
Saleen Club of America for the advice and friendship. Oh, and thanks,
Honey.
