Hisserman
Enthusiast
MCVO Tour of Saleen Plant -- the Final Ford GT\'s
We were lucky enough to tour Saleen's Troy, Michigan, plant today -- the place where they have built all the Ford GT's.
So, what's this got to do with Vipers? Well, it was a Viper Club event (know your competition!) and, well, er, eh, maybe there might be some connection between Viper and Saleen in the future. Don't get worked up over that statement -- suffice it to say that Saleen doesn't confine itself to just working for Ford -- like PreFix, ASC and Roush don't just limit themselves to working on one brand.
We were very well received. Here Plant Manager Bryan Chambers provides an initial orientation to one of our tour groups.
Saleen assembles the Ford GT's in this plant and then ships them to Ford's Wixom plant, where the engine and driveline are installed by UAW workers. Saleen then provides quality control and special customer services for the fully assembled car.
This is not where they build the Saleen S7. That is assembled in their other plant in Irvine, California.
The cars are put together on hand pushed carts, much the same as the Vipers are at the Conner Avenue Plant.
They are initially stamped and frame welded in Norwalk, Ohio and then shipped to Saleen as "white models". When the white models arrive at the plant the doors and unibody parts are all given a common number, which stays with each part until they are all fully assembled.
Saleen's paint spray booths and baking booths are very high tech and impressive.
A lot of hand finishing goes into the paint process for the Ford GT's. The picture below does not do them justice, but the stripes on the cars are outstanding -- no tape and very smooth hand paint matching.
As we watched the cars go down the assembly line (they make 9 cars a day here) we had to grudgingly admit we understood where the costs are in these cars -- the materials used and the engineering were very high quality.
Because I am pushing the limits of Viper content with this post, I won't include all the pictures we took (you can see a few more in my Gallery, including the Saleen Mustangs and Saleen Ford F150's produced in the same plant). Just a few more GT's -- one of the low production run yellow cars and a special anniversary edition with the Dan Gurney bubble (a $6,000 option that Viper owners get free with their coupes!).
The final shut down of Ford GT production is scheduled for September 19th of this year. Orders are no longer being taken, the final cars are on the line and what you see is what you get. They made a total of 4,038 of them from beginning to end.
We were all very impressed. I didn't hear any Viper owners talk about trading their cars, but a few were musing about adding to their stables . . .
It was quite interesting to get to see another low volume, all American sports car up close and personal. The staff at Saleen were quite hospitable and seemed as interested in our cars as the ones they were building. As most of you know, some of the people on the Ford GT development team were also on the original Viper team. When you're talking about exceptional cars there is a spirit down deep that binds us all together!
We were lucky enough to tour Saleen's Troy, Michigan, plant today -- the place where they have built all the Ford GT's.
So, what's this got to do with Vipers? Well, it was a Viper Club event (know your competition!) and, well, er, eh, maybe there might be some connection between Viper and Saleen in the future. Don't get worked up over that statement -- suffice it to say that Saleen doesn't confine itself to just working for Ford -- like PreFix, ASC and Roush don't just limit themselves to working on one brand.
We were very well received. Here Plant Manager Bryan Chambers provides an initial orientation to one of our tour groups.
Saleen assembles the Ford GT's in this plant and then ships them to Ford's Wixom plant, where the engine and driveline are installed by UAW workers. Saleen then provides quality control and special customer services for the fully assembled car.
This is not where they build the Saleen S7. That is assembled in their other plant in Irvine, California.
The cars are put together on hand pushed carts, much the same as the Vipers are at the Conner Avenue Plant.
They are initially stamped and frame welded in Norwalk, Ohio and then shipped to Saleen as "white models". When the white models arrive at the plant the doors and unibody parts are all given a common number, which stays with each part until they are all fully assembled.
Saleen's paint spray booths and baking booths are very high tech and impressive.
A lot of hand finishing goes into the paint process for the Ford GT's. The picture below does not do them justice, but the stripes on the cars are outstanding -- no tape and very smooth hand paint matching.
As we watched the cars go down the assembly line (they make 9 cars a day here) we had to grudgingly admit we understood where the costs are in these cars -- the materials used and the engineering were very high quality.
Because I am pushing the limits of Viper content with this post, I won't include all the pictures we took (you can see a few more in my Gallery, including the Saleen Mustangs and Saleen Ford F150's produced in the same plant). Just a few more GT's -- one of the low production run yellow cars and a special anniversary edition with the Dan Gurney bubble (a $6,000 option that Viper owners get free with their coupes!).
The final shut down of Ford GT production is scheduled for September 19th of this year. Orders are no longer being taken, the final cars are on the line and what you see is what you get. They made a total of 4,038 of them from beginning to end.
We were all very impressed. I didn't hear any Viper owners talk about trading their cars, but a few were musing about adding to their stables . . .
It was quite interesting to get to see another low volume, all American sports car up close and personal. The staff at Saleen were quite hospitable and seemed as interested in our cars as the ones they were building. As most of you know, some of the people on the Ford GT development team were also on the original Viper team. When you're talking about exceptional cars there is a spirit down deep that binds us all together!
