Saleen

A while back I wrote a short piece on driving my Mercedes S-600 up J Highway from Stockton Lake.  Last week I had to go down to work on Cheryl’s boat and looking around for a car to drive I had to settle on the Saleen Mustang.  I seldom drive this car and, in fact, would like to sell it, but both the Mercedes are laid up with minor illnesses and Cheryl took the Denali, and here was the Saleen just back from minor surgery on the fuel pump.  The Saleen is a very powerful little car that is set up for road racing, and is consequently extraordinarily uncomfortable on long drives.  So, I thought, poor me, settling on driving a Saleen, a car most teenagers would die for.  Oh well.

The Saleen is set up for curves with custom suspension and a supercharged 281 engine. I modified the engine  a while back by adding an Eagle rotating assembly.  I was just coming home, having been rather sedate driving down, and was hot and tired.  J Highway is rough and bumpy, but very curvy and hilly. A typical Ozarks secondary road. I was cruising along in 5th, not paying much attention, when I suddenly realized I was drifting the first corner.  The Saleen drifts on corners, unlike my well mannered but hot Mercedes that cling to the pavement like the tires have claws.

I automatically dropped down to 4th and increased the drift.  I had forgotten how much fun it is to drift along in the Saleen.  So for the next series of tight corners I worked between 4th and 3rd.  I didn’t go for much speed on the short straights, just played the corners.  Don’t get too critical here.  It was Wednesday and there is simply no traffic on J to worry about.  Anyway, I did the 23 miles to Highway 54 pretty quickly and got onto smooth pavement. Set the cruise control to 75 and motored on home.