Super car races into China

Steven Saleen gets behind the wheel of a Super S7 at this year's Beijing auto show. Provided to China Daily

Renowned sports carmaker WM Saleen, which was founded by former racing driver Steven Saleen, secured tens of orders during the recent Beijing Auto Show.

Frequently appearing in film blockbusters such as Iron Man and Transformer, WM Saleen only manufactures a limited number of cars.

The company's boss, Saleen, was in Beijing to attend the auto show.

In an interview with China Daily he said owning a WM Saleen represented a unique lifestyle as owners include superstars such as Tom Cruise and Garrison Ford.

Saleen said that he did not regret the brand's "late" arrival in the Chinese market, as he believes his company's delivery is "power in the hands of a few".

As an example he said potential owners of the WM Saleen S7 were only those who want an upgrade from the ordinary to the extraordinary performance.

The booming sports car culture and a growing number of discerning customers in China has driven WM Saleen to extend its reach here after Ferrari and Lamborghini, which have China as their second-largest market in the world, according to Saleen.

"The clients will appreciate our ultimate performance and engineering precision instead of the fancy features that are entirely irrelevant to a sport car's function and performance," he said.

The Super S7's buyers will be invited to Los Angeles for a super car training course on a real race track for one week, Saleen said.

He said the Super S7 is the fastest super car on the planet with a peak power of 1,060 hp. It can accelerate from 0 to 100 km in 2.4 seconds, 0 to 200 km in 6.5 seconds and 0 to 300 km in 14.5 seconds."With that kind of power and speed, you have much less reaction time on the road. People don't unleash a beast before having it trained.

"In this case, we want our consumers to be trained, to respect and appreciate such power and performance.

"Our consumers will be trained by professional race drivers to understand the speed, acceleration, braking, steering and other aspects of handling such a super road machine," he said.

Saleen said the S7 is tailor-made for each individual consumer, who have to wait 12 months for delivery. He believes the bespoke car will become an appreciating investment, like a collectors' item.

He said that the value of a used 2005 Saleen S7 went up $100,000 in nine years.

Saleen said the WM Saleen is quite unique compared to other sports brands in China, due to the combined championships it won.

Saleen's aggressive move into China moved market insiders to warn of the increasing difficulty for people to get a driving license in economic powerhouse cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

The concurrent rise of wealth in China coincides with the country's tightening policies on energy spending and transportation facilitations.

Despite this Saleen said he still had confidence in his company and that the car had a "timely entry and will start hitting Asian showrooms and roadways."

Insiders said there are no statistics for the sales volume of existing sports cars in China because of the difficulty in categorizing sport cars in the existing evaluating system. For example some sports cars are four doors and some are two doors.