SALEEN To aquire the "Viper" Name Plate?

[GreekMaverick]

A coworker who has got an 06 Viper srt and constanly talks about it just told me that chrysler is in the talks to sell the Viper name to SALEEN....!

I wonder what that would do with Saleen's current line up of beefy fords, what an anomaly....!

[!Xoible]

smart move!

[Couch]

It's just a rumor. And more than likely will not be Saleen.

He is supposedly in dire straights with his business as it is.

And IMO, someone who modifies Fords has no business messing with the Viper. Saleen WILL fuck it up.

[Year's_End]

Originally Posted by Couch

It's just a rumor. And more than likely will not be Saleen.

He is supposedly in dire straights with his business as it is.

And IMO, someone who modifies Fords has no business messing with the Viper. Saleen WILL fuck it up.

+1 on all three accounts, especially that last point.

[rubber_ducky]

Originally Posted by Bimmer Loyalist

+1 on all three accounts, especially that last point.

Originally Posted by Couch

It's just a rumor. And more than likely will not be Saleen.

He is supposedly in dire straights with his business as it is.

And IMO, someone who modifies Fords has no business messing with the Viper. Saleen WILL fuck it up.

I have no idea if there is any truth to the rumor, but you guys do realize that Saleen isn't what it used to be. That being a mustang tuner.

In any case Steve Saleen sold Saleen and started SMS limited, which tunes more than just fords.

Not sure about you fanboys, but I think saleen did an ok job with this 'Ford':



And this concept isn't that bad in my opinion:



If anything, either firm isn't a huge risk of "messing it up"

[!Xoible]

i have to agree saleen's tuning of mustangs was terrible. but S7 is one sick motherfucking car.

i wish Hennessey bought the Viper line. those fuckers do an awesome job with the car
http://www.webwombat.com.au/motoring...gt-concept.htm

[darkphantom]

even more sick is the S7R (TT)

[Davin]

Originally Posted by Bimmer Loyalist

+1 on all three accounts, especially that last point.

agreed

[Couch]

Originally Posted by rubber_ducky

I have no idea if there is any truth to the rumor, but you guys do realize that Saleen isn't what it used to be. That being a mustang tuner.

In any case Steve Saleen sold Saleen and started SMS limited, which tunes more than just fords.

Not sure about you fanboys, but I think saleen did an ok job with this 'Ford':



And this concept isn't that bad in my opinion:



If anything, either firm isn't a huge risk of "messing it up"

If someone considers themselves a car guy and hasn't heard of the S7, they need to walk the plank now. I wasn't referring to Saleen Mustangs, I was referring to Saleen as a business.

And as I stated, from what I've read he's not in a financial state to buy the Viper name. Neither is Roush whom is the other party with a strong interest and it's said they don't have the resources.

Here is what Viper_10 on the Ferrari boards says on this:

[Quote]I agree with most of you about this being very sad for Chrysler and losing their halo car. That what you get when you put the guy in charge from Home Depot... instead of a car guy like Bob Lutz.

I wouldn't speculate that Steve Saleen or Hennessey could do this on their own. Saleen was going broke running his own company into the ground (before Han**** Park bailed him out) and Hennessey has had 3 companies go belly up under his watch... and had the US Attorneys investigating him.

My guess is that Han**** Park would have a good shot at buying the Viper brand because they already own Saleen and ASC (who by the way has the final designs for the Gen 4 Viper already done)... The new powerplant was already designed by McLaren (I don't believe that it is the UK based McLaren). Up until a few months ago, Paul Wilbur was the CEO and President of ASC and Saleen.. he was the ex-VP of Marketing for Team Viper under Lutz.

I would also think that Roush might be a player for this, along with potential investors like:
- Tom Gale
- Wolfgang Barnhard
- Shelby
- Rousch
- I wouldn't be surprised if Bob Woodhouse got a piece of this action... he owns several car dealerships in the Mid West and is the #1 seller of Vipers in the country.

Panoz wouldn't be a good fit because he has been married to Ford from the begining.

I've heard rumors that Daimler is interested in buying the Viper brand. There have been some camoflauge photos of the new SL coming out that looks exactly like a an SRT-10 Viper roadster in camoflauge.

I would think that another viable company would be the Audi/ VW/ Porsche/ Lamborghini/ Bentley/ Bugatti consortium. If there is one thing that they are committed to is building the fastest street and race cars on earth.

Before Daimler came in to do the unfriendly takeover of Chrysler, BMW was talking about merging with Chrysler (which was being driven by Bob Lutz before the Daimler Germans had him canned). The Mini-Cooper was the car hat was to be the first project that they did together... and it still has a majority of Chrysler drivetrain form the Chrysler World Car to this day...

That's my $.02

Brad[Quote]

The Viper is a special car and it needs the right people to take over and keep it as close to the the way it is.

[Deda]

very interesting.