I Wanna Find a Long, Flat Stretch of Highway for These Amazing Saleen Cars

With its "angel wing" doors—and 750 hp engine—the Saleen S7 soars to 60 mph in less than three seconds.



Steve Saleen is obsessed with speed. "Roll into the throttle," the former Bob Bondurant racing school instructor commands me as I navigate a makeshift test track, which consists of the public roads that surround the Saleen automotive company’s headquarters in Irvine, Calif. Heedless that his S7—a certified supercar equipped with 750 hp and no traction control other than the driver’s right foot—is already roaring through the industrial park well over the speed limit, he urges me on: "Faster, faster!"

A Saleen S7 will hit 60 mph in 2.8 seconds from a standstill—while still in first gear. It is capable of traveling a quarter mile in the 10-second range and will achieve 200 mph in another 10 seconds. But as I take a sweeping right-hand turn and press the accelerator deeper, the clutch pedal moves simultaneously toward the floor and—with a clink, and then a clunk—flops backward, smacking my shoeless left foot with the subtlety of a ball-peen hammer. I shift out of first, but the clutch refuses to engage second gear, so I lift my foot just as Saleen is begging for more throttle.



As we soon discover, the pin that held the clutch pedal in place has become dislodged, rendering the transmission inoperable. We coast to a stop, and the ride is over.

"You broke it," Saleen deadpans. "Way to go.

"Exotic supercars are notoriously temperamental, and the American-born Saleen S7 apparently is no exception. The car, which made its production debut in 2002 at 550 hp, gained twin turbochargers in 2005, giving it the additional 200 hp and a total of 700 ft lbs of torque. "But that is only using 6 to 7 pounds of boost pressure," says Saleen. The factory, he notes, offers an aftermarket package that generates 1,035 hp, and the S7’s twin turbos are capable of handling as much as 23 pounds of boost or—theoretically, at least—as much as 2,000 hp.

Read more about these amazing cars in the Robb Report

Pedestrian Pleasures: A Land of Fairy Tales and Nightmares

Jack Smith

Robb Report

The simple pleasures of Bavarian folk revels are a world apart from the elaborate displays that greet the hiker farther along Maximilian’s trail. As it continues eastward from Ruhpolding, the purple route winds past Chiemsee Lake (the largest lake in Bavaria) and the Herreninsel, where Maximilian’s son, Ludwig II, built his spectacular, though never completed, homage to Versailles. Farther along stands Hohenschwangau, where Ludwig’s grandfather, Ludwig I, built Bavaria’s first fairy-tale castle, and finally to the best-known of Ludwig II’s creations, Neuschwanstein (www.neuschwanstein.com). Ironically, the castle that has become the epitome of fairy-tale glitz was designed to blend in with its surroundings.

So, too, was another tourist attraction, the Kehlsteinhaus (www.kehlsteinhaus.de), in nearby Obersalzburg, though nothing about the place is inviting. The architecture is crude, the decor cold, and its history horrifying, for this, better known to Americans as the Eagle’s Nest, was Adolf Hitler’s hideaway, a mountaintop retreat blasted out of sheer rock that is more than 6,000 feet above sea level. The Eagle’s Nest was designed by Hitler lieutenant Martin Bormann, who presented it to Hitler in 1939 on the occasion of the führer’s 50th birthday. It was considered an engineering marvel of its day. Into the mountainside was carved a four-mile-long road that leads to a tunnel running several hundred feet into the mountain. At the end of the tunnel is a large brass elevator that rises 407 feet to the building. Every day now, thousands of tourists ride the elevator up to the house where Hitler entertained Mussolini and the Nazi elite. The main reception area, which looks out over the town of Berchtesgaden, now serves as a restaurant, and if—despite the view of Berchtesgaden below—the ambience is uniquely banal, it is also fitting.



It is not known whether Bormann’s creation scored points with Hitler, who rarely came to his mountain retreat except on official business, even after an elaborate bunker system with underground barracks and concealed machine gun and antiaircraft emplacements were added in 1942. No matter how impressive the engineering of the Eagle’s Nest, and regardless of the praise it evoked from his guests and the omnipotence his followers ascribed to him, Hitler routinely avoided mountaintops, for he had a fear of heights.


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Mercedes-Benz; Ocean Drive

The Ocean Drive’s timeless presence begins with its face. The V-shaped grille is 30 percent larger than that on the current S-Class, standing upright à la the Rolls-Royce Phantom’s. Double C–shaped headlights not only echo Chanel’s streamlined aesthetic, they nearly replicate the French couturier’s logo. LED technology, also used in the taillights, makes this design possible and consumes less energy than other lighting alternatives. Even the door handles are unobtrusively flush with the body; they pop out electronically, activated by the touch of a finger.

In profile, the Ocean Drive’s strong character lines—long at the front, short at the rear—reference the sweeping fenders of 1930s-era Mercedes limousines without being cartoonish. "We took this element from the past and treated it in a modern way," Wagener says. A full-length chrome strip delineates the bronze and gold in the two-tone paint scheme that is another nod to Mercedes-Benz history. "It’s a very subtle contrast," he says, noting that nuanced variation in color continues into the cabin with the muted hue of the bird’s-eye maple wood. "We also combined the leather with fabric—something our designers picked up in Milano. You see it in the latest handbags, which we transferred into car design."



With a 128-inch wheelbase—20 inches longer than the Bentley Continental GTC’s and about 5 inches longer than the Bentley Arnage’s—the Ocean Drive provides ample legroom for four adult passengers. From within, the vehicle appears to be as wide as it is long, and, like the old 300 cabriolets, it does not lend itself to slalom driving. The front and rear corners drop away from the driver’s perspective, making wide berths a necessity.

While comparisons between the Ocean Drive and the Bentley Continental GTC are inevitable, Wagener claims such assessments are misguided. "The sedan is a totally different pair of shoes," he says. Indeed, the Continental GTC is the approximate size of the Mercedes-Benz CL-Class, so an open two-door CL would be more of a direct competitor to the Bentley than the four-door Ocean Drive might be. Still, the cars’ similarities—from their broad proportions to subtle details such as the wood trim that surrounds the hard tonneau cover of the Ocean Drive’s canvas roof—are apparent. Like the GTC, the Ocean Drive is endowed with a 12-cylinder engine and copious torque.



The Ocean Drive also exhibits Mercedes’ state-of-the-art electronics. Most of the vehicle’s functional systems—including the Comand screen with GPS navigation, and the digital audio controls—derive from the S-Class sedan. The car’s rear seats may be the best in the house, with abundant legroom and access to a DVD entertainment system. To ensure that cold air does not bother passengers or driver when the top is down, the Ocean Drive is equipped with the Airscarf system from the SLK roadster, which circulates warm air throughout the cabin.


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