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Champagne Reception Accompanies Delivery of 
First Saleen S7 Road Car

“A Lady in Red” Makes a High-Performance Debut”

For the past year the S7 has been burning up the road circuits of America and Europe, winning four different GT Championships during 2001, a remarkable feat for an all-new car. And while the S7 continues its winning ways in 2002, and is set for a repeat appearance at the most prestigious endurance race in the world, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where it placed third in class last year, the key ceremony is the fulfillment of a promise made by Steve Saleen at the very beginning of the S7 project. 

“We will race the S7,” Saleen said, “because much of what we have learned about how to make a better performing Mustang for the street came from our racing. We will apply similar lessons from the S7 in competition to the street version we will produce.”

Manufacturing and marketing a fully DOT and NHTSA certified automobile isn’t easy and this is especially true of a small manufacturer like Saleen. But Saleen has been doing just this with his high-performance Mustangs since 1994. 

“Some people don’t realize, Steve continued, “that the Mustangs we sell are certified for sale in all 50 states. That’s why the delivery of this car to Jerry and Kathy is such an important step for this company. No one else in America has done what we have done: Start with an initial concept and build a ground-up fully certified mid-engine supercar.”

“Besides being drop-dead gorgeous and offering incredible performance, we believed in Steve’s commitment to the S7 by being the first to put down a $100,000 deposit with our S7 dealer, Motorcars International,” said Jerry Ritzow. He and his wife live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where Jerry founded an aquarium manufacturing company in 1967, which has grown to be the largest in the world.

Jerry has always been interested in fast cars, but during the last 10 years the interest has turned into a serious hobby. “Kathy and I both enjoy cool cars,” Jerry says, “and we’ve added a number of them to our collection over the last several years.”

In addition, Jerry has attended a number of racing schools including Buck Baker for stock car racing, Skip Barber for road racing and the Frank Hawley drag racing school. 
Obviously, the first of many S7s to come has been handed over to four very enthusiastic and competent hands.

IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 19, 2001 – Earlier this year, Steve Saleen made the difficult decision to support a customer car program instead of a factory effort in the inaugural race season for his new American supercar, the Saleen S7R.  Not even Saleen, whose firm has won five straight GTS Manufacturers’ Championships (‘96-‘00) with his high-performance Saleen Mustangs, could have anticipated the incredible results of the 2001 race season.

When Carlos Palau won the Spanish FIA GT Championship last weekend, it was the fourth Drivers’ and second Manufacturers’ and Team Championships this year for Saleen Motorsports and the beautiful new Saleen S7Rs.

With four Saleen customer teams entered in four series around the world, the Saleen S7R customer teams have set 29 poles and 27 fastest laps and won 19 out of 32 races this season -- quite possibly the finest inaugural race season for any marque in history.

After debuting at Laguna Seca last year, the Saleen S7R scored its first victory in March at Homestead in the first Grand-Am race of the season.  Driving Park Place Racing’s S7R, Chris Bingham literally dominated the Grand-Am Rolex Series: GTS pole-sitter in all nine races, class winner of seven and the Grand-Am GTS Drivers’ Champion.

Two weeks after Bingham’s first win, Konrad Motorsports’ Saleen S7R scored a major victory over the factory Corvettes in the 12 Hours of Sebring.  Terry Borcheller and Franz Konrad went on to challenge the Goliaths from General Motors throughout the entire American Le Mans Series (ALMS) with Borcheller winning the ALMS GTS Drivers’ Championship in the season-ending Petit Le Mans.  The championship was his third in four years as a Saleen factory driver.

A fourth Saleen S7R competed by Ray Mallock, one of Saleen’s technical partners in the development of the supercar, and driven by Ian McKellar won the Team, Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ Championships in the European Le Mans Series GTS class

A high-performance vehicle manufacturer for 19 years, Saleen introduced the S7, the first true American supercar, at the famed Monterey Historic Races in August of last year.  Less than three months later, the first S7R racecar performed admirably in its inaugural race at the same Laguna Seca circuit.  The Saleen S7R’s 7-liter racing V8 generates 600 horsepower and is capable of speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour.  With its extreme ground effects engineering, the car could be driven upside down at 160 mph and still stay attached to the road.

Saleen was crowned the SCCA World Challenge Champions in 1996-1998, while an ex-Le Mans Saleen SR won the Spanish FIA GT in 1999.  Last year, Saleen swept the Grand-Am GTO Championships winning the Team, Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ titles.  This season’s remarkable success with the S7R makes this the sixth straight GTS Manufacturers’ Championship for Saleen Motorsports!