Roush Mysterious stories about my saleen ?!?!?!

Right,

Im totally confused here... these are the things i KNOW:

the 96 saleen 281 #96-005 was bought by me with the supercharger already on it, the 2 previous owners i have met and spoken to say the supercharger was on there when they had it too. The Paxton sn2000 blower was designed for the 302 small block (fox body) if im not mistaken.

The car was personally imported by Jon Walker of Saleen/Alan Racing. I have all the documentation for this.

Theres 2 pictures of it in the saleen book, one colour one of the car being driven and one black and white one of the car over here with uk plate..

ok.... now here are the things ive heard from others, previous owners and read on the internet:

1. The car was a test vehicle for saleen, apparently there were 3 s281 cars in 96 that had blowers tested on them. Apparently they were testing which blower to use on the upcoming s281sc.... This was one of the test cars and the blower was left on when it as sold/given to Jon Walker.

2. Who Jon Walker was ?? He's no longer at saleen, no one knows where he is ? Any ideas where he is or what he did at saleen ?

3. The car was sold to Jon and he had saleen custom install the blower for him before he came to live in england.

So, Jon Walker? a factory blown s281 in 96? a test mule?

any ideas guys, anyone know anything about it???...

helpf ???

EDGE
 
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FASN8N said:
I would call Joe @ Chicane, I think he was building cars with Saleen around that time period.



Yes,

What the man said. Joe would know this guy, may or may not be able to verify #05 being used as a test mule. Joe also has a cat named Dave working for him that also worked at Saleen during that time period. Call him. If he is not busy, which he usually is he will be happy to talk to you.
With Liz retired now there will be a lot of unanswered questions like this because most of it is in her head. Your car is the only orange car with a bumper number under 15 if I remember. I do remember your car being driven around Whatney in early 96. I would hang with Stan out back before they used the other buildings for parts. I never saw it with the hood open so I can't say the blower was on there or not but I do remember your car.
 
thanks for the advice guys... i called Joe yesterday and he was busy, BUT, he made time to answer my extreemly odd questions. He put a lot of these rumours to bed so now i can pretty much piece together the truth.

I will definately be speaking to Joe again though, he has a whole heap of very hard to find saleen parts in stock, ready to go... I just need to make a list of what i need then give him another call to order some parts :nice:

EDGE
 
Walker was the Electronics WiZ for the Saleen/Allen Race Team up until about 98/99. Then he returned to England and took the car over with him. The car was a test vehicle for the Paxton Supercharger install on the 4.6 mod motor for future use which never happened.
 
Hey Saleen Bug,
How do you know all that, your right about the Paxton.
Saleen were looking at options at the time for a supplier for a supercharger for the S281, and i was asked if they could use my catr for a test inastall, of course I accepted, as it cost me virtually nothing to get it done.
The car ran really well with it in the US.
When I got brought the car back to UK the following year I did experience some problems with detonation, the fuel must be a lower octane.
The install was pretty crude from the fueling point, there was no mods to the ECU, just a high gain pressure regulator.
It was a bit better with th det when i removed the low fuel octane link (just near the airflow meter, a 1K resistor i think). This drops about 2 deg of spark from the map.
Overall I had a great time wit the car, I just wish I had some more pictures of it.
Regards
Jon
 
SALEENBUG, Do you own all of those Saleens currently?? Or is that over your lifetime?? My wife thinks I've got it bad! Do you still have the 2004 Saleen Cobra???
 
Todd,

Give it up. You know you are doomed and if you could you would own all of those cars at one time just like I wish I could. :)Damn, nice collection.

SaleenBug and Jon aka JSW. Welcome to the Saleen section of Stangnet. We are a pretty good oldschool group of guys. Not too many new car guys here but we like all of the old car talk.

Jon, was it not your car I saw around Whatney back then right after Saleen moved there from Long Beach? I rememebr Stan Berry showing me your car I just don't remember the blower being on it yet. Maybe it was even a few days before they added it. I also remember seeing it a few days later through the glass righ next to an SR being built from a body in white car. Those were the days.
 
That's also the car I used as a color ref guide for the
speedster CAR-toon in the Turkey Trot design.
(Had to make it a speedster, so as to show the "Trukey" driver.)
 
Good old days at Whatney

Hey Marcus,
I have a lot of good memories down at Whatney, we set up the Race shop (Speedlab) as Steve liked to call it, there at the start of 2005.
I was one of umber of Brits working on the race team along with a really good bunch of local guys, quite a few of the from Nissan (NipTech) in Santa Clarita.
The race shop eventually moved up the hill a couple of miles to Lake Forest. (too far from Captain Cremes for must of us).
How are things there now?
 
Ahh,

It's all corporate now, lot's of guys working there that don't even know what an S351 is/was. Bobby Root does not even work there any longer and get this they even fired Liz. Anyway, the good ole' days are gone but those great memories will always live.
Capt. Cremes! Hilarious. Have not been there in a while. Maybe I should stop by with a Saleen banner and get it signed by some girls for you.
 
JSW said:
Hey Saleen Bug,
How do you know all that, your right about the Paxton.
Saleen were looking at options at the time for a supplier for a supercharger for the S281, and i was asked if they could use my catr for a test inastall, of course I accepted, as it cost me virtually nothing to get it done.
The car ran really well with it in the US.
When I got brought the car back to UK the following year I did experience some problems with detonation, the fuel must be a lower octane.
The install was pretty crude from the fueling point, there was no mods to the ECU, just a high gain pressure regulator.
It was a bit better with th det when i removed the low fuel octane link (just near the airflow meter, a 1K resistor i think). This drops about 2 deg of spark from the map.
Overall I had a great time wit the car, I just wish I had some more pictures of it.
Regards
Jon

well... HELLLLLLLOOOOO Jon.....

I've been trying o get a hold of you since I bought the car.... Who'd have thought you'd find me here :D

I have a few questions I'd love to ask you... I'll get my ducks in a line and send you an email or something if that's ok?

The car's undergoing a fair bit of work at the moment as Im changing to a Paxton Novi 2000 blower... So who at Saleen installed the blower? I spoke to Joe at Chacine and he seems to think that they didnt do it when he was there... its a very confusing past...

One quick question though is.... Who moved the Saleen Plaque in the engine bay about 6" right ???? That's been confusing me for years now....

Good to finally catch up with you Jon, I've tried MANY different ways to contact you but noone seems to know where you went... What are you doing now ? And what brings you to our little section of the forum here?

Thanks

EDGE (Michael)