This weeks interview is with a man that needs no introduction (but we’ll give him one anyway), Steve Saleen, founder of Saleen performance vehicles and a race car driver! He grew up helping his dad work on “odd” cars like Olds Toronados and fix them up for resale. These cars never made much sense to young Steve and he leaned toward higher performance vehicles like Mustangs.

Steve got into racing in his early years and had high standards for what he wanted to race – aiming for Indy and Formula One. Like all lofty goals, reality pushed him closer to earth and he got into a paid position racing lowly sedans for Pontiac Motor Division. In 1982 his team raced and won against Ford. While at the track he got to know the people at Ford and found out that they were planning four cylinder Mustangs but were open to supporting Steve if he wanted to build V8 Saleen Mustangs. The first car rolled off the line in 1984 and debuted at Sears Point Raceway and they have been building Saleen Mustangs every year since.