Saleen is ready to start playing with its own toys again.
The famous California-based aftermarket tuner is teaming up with Solution F to design and build a hydrogen-powered engine. And if everything goes to plan, that engine will be at the heart of future Saleen road vehicles, including a planned supercar.
France-based Solution F, which is owned by GCK Group, is hard at work on a new twin-turbo V-6 as part of the partnership, according to a press release. The mill is meant to be more environmentally friendly and will be able to run on both hydrogen, as well as traditional and synthetic fuels. This is the powertrain that will likely feature in Saleen’s eventual road cars. The engine will be built in France with the help of another Solution F partner, Motul.
“We believe the long-term solution for transportation will be multi-faceted where hydrogen and synthetic fuels are the future in environmentally friendly engines, while still offering the ultimate in performance, and traditional fueling convenience,” Saleen chairman Steve Saleen said in a statement.
Saleen and Solution F are also working on an experimental car that will be based on the latter’s Foenix H2, which is powered by a supercharged V-8 that pumps out 612 hp and 516 lb ft of torque, according to Top Gear. That’s all we know about the vehicle for now, but thankfully that should change soon. Saleen plans to start taking the car on some demonstration runs in North America before the end of the year.
The new car, whenever it is ready, won’t be Saleen’s first original creation. After years of upgrading cars like the Ford Mustang, the shop decided to finally build a car of its own around the turn of the century. The result would be the S7, a mid-engine supercar with a bold design and an extremely potent twin-turbocharged V-8. The vehicle may not have turned out to be the Ferrari and Lamborghini killer it was designed to be, but it has its fans. Earlier this week, one of the only two Competition Package examples built sold for $715,000.
The company has also tried to launch another sports car called the S1, though it has yet to go into production. It is unclear if Saleen’s next road car and the S1 are related at all.
