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Saleen S5S Raptor

by: William Ford

Posted on: Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 1:35 am by: William Ford
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Elegant, fast and vicious the raptor swoops from the sky and grabs its prey with razor sharp talons. The Raptor takes a break from devouring the flesh to scan the area for competition: nothing on the horizon. The new S5S Raptor is the bird of prey of American roadways. Unmatched power barrels from its 5.0-liter supercharged V8 creating 650bhp at 6300 rpm. A new twin-screw system supercharger creates more power with its water-to-air charge cooler. The engine is entirely aluminum, running with three-values a cylinder and a compression ratio of 10.6:1.

Saleen has gone green allowing this beast to run on E85 ethanol, and this isn’t just to satisfy the green party: “By using ethanol fuel, the powertrain is able to run higher compression and yield approximately 5 percent more horsepower than our normal 5.0-liter supercharged engine,” says the company.

Standard models will include a 6-speed manual transmission with paddle shifters optional. The double wishbones at the front and rear of the car make the race-car like suspension stiff around those hard corners. Stopping on dime is not an issue with pumped up 15-in. rotors with 6-piston calipers on the front brakes, 13-in. with 2-piston calipers in the rears. Of course the shoes are wide and sticky to grip the road like none other: 275/35R-20s in the front and 315/35R-20s out back.

The Raptor takes no prisoners screaming from 0-60 mph in only 3.2 seconds, hitting the quarter mile in just 10.9 seconds and topping out over 200mph. Saleen choose similar sized body panels and aluminum chassis to the supercar maker’s standard European competition, the Ferrari F430, but the S5S has made their new street car better fit to daily life.

The new S5S Raptor’s aggressive qualities will not be compromised, stressed officials, even though it has been classified as primarily a street vehicle. A spokesmen for Saleen say it “is designed to provide a truly American alternative to the European exotics.” So if you want to feel like you’re driving a European sports car on the autobahn take the S5S for a test drive on an wide-open American highway and don’t worry about those Dodge Charger police cars as the disappear in your rearview at a satisfying speed.