Saleen opens S1 Street order books from $160,000, eight years after debut

Saleen has opened reservations for the S1 Street, bringing the road-legal sports car from concept to orderable product roughly eight years after it appeared at the 2018 Los Angeles auto show. Pricing begins at $160,000, and that figure likely excludes destination charges.

A reservation for the street car costs $1,000, while the race configuration asks $2,000. Both deposits are fully refundable. The race version is said to start at an even $250,000, so the deposit is the only money at risk for now.

Saleen is the American manufacturer that earned its fame with the S7, and the S1 Street takes a very different route. Many American supercars live by the phrase that there is no replacement for displacement. The S1 is built instead to be lightweight and agile.

If nothing has changed since the S1 was first revealed, the car pairs carbon-fiber bodywork with an aluminum chassis. Saleen claims it weighs just 2,685 pounds, which is the number the whole car is built around and the reason the modest output matters less.

That low curb weight means the S1 should be quick despite a relatively pedestrian horsepower figure by 2026 standards. Saleen lists the road-legal car at 450 horsepower and 425 pound-feet of torque, with a zero-to-60 mph time of 3.2 seconds.

In road configuration the automaker claims a top speed of 171 mph. The race version uses the same power figures but cuts the 60-mph time to 2.9 seconds and lifts the top speed to 180 mph, so the gain is in tuning, not output.

What the two versions cost

The S1 Street starts at $160,000 and the race car at $250,000. Reservations scale the same way, at $1,000 for the street-legal car and $2,000 for the race car, and both can be refunded in full.

Saleen has not said how many cars it will build, when the first will be delivered, or what destination charges will add. A buyer joining the line is therefore reserving a car whose full terms are not yet public.

A long wait for a revealed car

Tesla plans to reveal the Roadster on October 15 after another delay, almost a decade after its first unveiling. Saleen is following the same pattern with a car shown in 2018.

The S1 Street is not part of that electric race. It is a combustion coupe whose argument is low mass, and the S7 remains the car that gave the Saleen name its reputation for serious performance hardware.

Against a 2,685-pound curb weight, 450 horsepower is enough to put the road car at 171 mph. The race car's 180 mph and 2.9-second sprint cost an extra $90,000 for the same engine output.

Our coverage of scene has followed objects that reward patience, from limited watch editions to auction results, and the S1 Street fits that pattern. Its order book arrives after a wait long enough to outlast several product cycles.

For a buyer weighing a $160,000 sports car, the proposition is plain: a carbon and aluminum build, a top speed beyond 170 mph, and a refundable $1,000 deposit that holds a place without committing to the full price.

Saleen has confirmed nothing beyond the open reservations and the stated figures. Build volume, a delivery window and destination charges for the S1 Street remain unannounced, and the company has given no date for when those details will follow.

What is settled is the specification: the weight, the 450 horsepower, the two top speeds and the two prices. Whether Saleen can turn eight years of waiting into deliveries is the question the order book now begins to answer.