Saleen practice mule

[88-0313]

This Mustang was shipped to the Bob Bondurant high performance driving school back in 1987. From everything that I can tell and have found out it was a school car. Sometime in the early 90's Bondurant was going to do a driver search series, that I have been told never got off the ground. I also know that Bondurants contract with Ford from the start, was that all School cars are to be destroyed, or crushed at the end of their use. This is what got Ford and Bondurant fighting in the late 90's. He saw that there was a market for semi prepped race cars, so if they were not to torn up he sold them. This upset Ford because vin numbered chassis can be titled, even if they were not titled when new. Ford did not like the idea of ex race cars being titled for the street, seeing as some of these cars have been wrecked and fixed, it makes them more of a liability. 2001 was the last year that Bondurant got cars from Ford, then they switched over to Chevrolet.
So back to the fox body cars, in 1994 Bob Bondurant, along with Tim Allen became Saleen's celebrity drivers. When Bondurant came to Saleen he brought 3 fox body Mustang GT's from the defunked race series & school, all 3 were further race prepped by Saleen, with 351W, and updated to look like Saleens. Then these 3 cars were used to teach, or get Allen used to the Mustang platform, they were also used by the other drivers to practice. Saleen also took these cars to different race tracks and used them for testing, so that they were not beating up the new 94 chassis. These cars were kept around Saleen from 94 until 2002 when they were sold through the Saleen parts department by Doug Nagy, and forgotten.
About 4 months ago this car came up for sale and of course Allen never raced a fox body, so the owner was just getting way laid by people thinking that he was nuts. Then at the beginning of Jan, the car came up for sale again, this time on Racing Junk. This was the first time that I called the guy selling and asked the most obvious thing. Do you have any paperwork? Answer nope. So that's where I started digging, and pretty quick the history of this car started coming together. This was the most modified of the 3 Mustangs, its the only one with the SR style wing. The cool part is that I have been in contact with Nagy, and he has told me that he has pics of this car, and the other when they were at Saleen being used. This car came out of Indiana, there was one in Texas a couple of years ago, and the other one was in California a couple years ago as well. I also have gotten a few pics of this car and the Texas car when they were still at Saleen in Irvine CA. This car is not numbered Saleen, it was owned by Saleen, and was just another lost part of Saleens history, until a month ago.
The first 4 pics are of the car I bought, and the last pic is the car from CA a few years back.

[mikebna]

I like it, thanks for sharing the story.

[OneQwkStang]

Looks like a project car from a couple red necks.

[Greg Wackett]

I remember these cars that is cool that you found it and now own it. Doug is a good guy with lots of Saleen history in his head.

[Ericc B]

Very cool find

[EXTREME302]

What a great piece of history!

[88-0313]

Originally Posted by OneQwkStang

Looks like a project car from a couple red necks.

Thanks for taking the time to look and read. Just to let you know this is a great running car that is open track ready. So lets try not to sound to ignorant here, the so called red necks all worked at Saleen. I thought this forum is to build these cars and their history up, not tear it down.
Yes the big funny wing looks just that in pics, but in person it grows on you instantly. The wing on this car was a prototype for the Saleen SR wing that they ended up using.
These 3 cars history and back round have already been checked and verified. I love old forgotten race cars I always have.
Thanks to everyone for looking, Greg its amazing how many people remember these cars when they see one of them again. Mark at PAS said the same thing, yep I remember those. Doug N. had lots to tell me, I hope he finds the pics.

[OneQwkStang]

Sorry brother it just reminded me of this one.

[88-0313]

Originally Posted by OneQwkStang

Sorry brother it just reminded me of this one.

Riiiiiiiiiiiight that's laughable, the only resemblance that's those two have, is that they are both white. (or primer according to some) I actually thought your first comment was funny. Hey, red neck department, you guys got a copy, we need another test mule to the race department pronto. The big boss wants to try something. I was not offended at all, I was just hoping that you read the story. We all have opinions, and most people like old race cars with cool history behind them.

[Greg Wackett]

[QUOTE=88-0313;76158] I thought this forum is to build these cars and their history up, not tear it down.


You are correct negative and tear down comments are not welcome. All they do is bring down hobby for all the cars and owners.

I would love to have one for the collection. I got my 89 coupe back this weekend rebuilding the collection now that I have garage space.

Have fun with it and I hope you are able to get it out and race it.

[Nightstalker]

Very cool find.

[88-0313]

Apparently there were 4 cars, I have talked to Liz and gotten more info on how these cars were tied into Saleen. Here is a pic that someone found from the 1994 Sears Point race. Here is the email from Liz on the history of these cars and how they came about.

These cars were actually bought from Bondurant by Steve's business partner at the time, Tony Johnson (Doug Nagy's father in law). He wanted some cars for him & his friend to go play with when we had the race team practicing. Marni (Tonys daughter & Doug's wife) was the team manager so the race team made sure the cars were safe for them to go play. :-). The only people we were aware of to drive the cars were Tony, his friend Earl, his son Ron (a driver on the team) and MAYBE Tim Allen. So bottom line is they were really Tonys personal property that our race team took care of for a little while.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by 88-0313

Apparently there were 4 cars, I have talked to Liz and gotten more info on how these cars were tied into Saleen. Here is a pic that someone found from the 1994 Sears Point race. Here is the email from Liz on the history of these cars and how they came about.

Is this photo from 1996?

[88-0313]

Originally Posted by Dave

Is this photo from 1996?

I do not know when this pic was taken, it is probably summer or fall of 95, because of how brown the hills in the background are. But at the same time, it could be from sometime in 96. I saw the Budget rental sticker on the SN-95 Saleen sitting there to.

[Ericc B]

Yeah the RRR team debuted in 1995 so it's unlikely they had the whole rig in full livery already in place in 94. Still a great pic and cool info :)

[88-0313]

This car keeps getting better, I email Ron Johnson, Ex Saleen team driver, and this is his email response back to me.

Wow - this is a blast from the past!

Yeah, we got them from Bondurant and Saleen maintained and prepped them. I used them in multiple SCCA Club races in the summer of 1996. It ran in the ITE class and won most of the races we entered. Not sure specifically which car you got, as there were 4 of them in total.

If the picture you sent me is the one you own, then that is likely the one that I raced - the wing is the give away. We added that a month into the season to try and plant the rear end better - it is a spare wing from the World Challenge cars we were prepping the same year. The second seat was added after the season to give hot laps.

We used the cars for sponsor days at Willow Springs, and one sponsor ended up buying one of the cars as well. Not sure what happened to them after about 1999 - think that is when they left the shop.

I will look around for some pictures of the cars and shoot them over if I see any.

[Dave]

Great response! What are you plans for this vehicle?

[88-0313]

I was just going to use it for local autocross events, and the occasional open track days, put on at Thunderhill.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by 88-0313

I was just going to use it for local autocross events, and the occasional open track days, put on at Thunderhill.

Sounds like this would be a great vehicle to do these events with!

BTW: Why is the front track so wide? Do these vehicles use SN-95 suspension components upfront or do the wheel offsets cause the stretch?

[88-0313]

The front lower control arms, are some modified custom built piece, then it has 12 Willwood Superlite front brakes. With a separate hub, and hat style rotor. I don't exactly know why the front track on this car is so wide, but that's how they were built. I have switched the wheels from the 94-04 style to 05-11 wheels, and they fit inside the wheel wells better, with the deeper backspace.

[88-0313]

Here is the last email that I just got from Ron, I was asking if he raced all the cars at different times, or just one.


The first race I did was in a different one I believe, but the wing one was most of the racing. Also, Tim Allen did drive that car at a test day while warming up for the GT car. But he definitely did not race in it.