1988 Ford Saleen Mustang
serial # 88-0065
1988-1990
Spring 1988
I can remember the first time I saw it like it was yesterday: The night of January 12, 1988. It was sitting under the fluorescent lights of East Ford in Jackson, Mississippi. Amid the rows of mere Mustang LX's and GT's sat 3 rather wicked looking beasts, right up against the windows of the dealership. I had read about them in all the Mustang magazines, but had yet to actually see one. This was the latter-day incarnation of the famous Shelby Mustangs of the late '60's, carrying the torch of hi-performance finesse. To the left was a red and silver one, #88-0064. To the right, black and gold #88-0066. Nestled in between sat #88-0065, the metallic charcoal gray and silver paint appearing to glow in the dark, standing out among the rest. My friend Thomas Peede and I gazed awestruck at the car, wondering if it could actually live up to its reputation.

By this time, I was a freshman, starting my second semester at Millsaps College, a school more attuned to having BMW's in the parking lot than 4x4 Broncos. The T-Bird lay forlorn in a million pieces at the shop in Pelahatchie, and I had inherited my oldest sister Michelle's 1983 Thunderbird to use as a daily driver. Using that car as a bargaining chip, I decided to see what I could do trading it in on the magical Saleen. I returned to the dealership on January 13, and negotiated a deal for $22,500. I was about to live life in the fast lane.

The car immediately elevated me to legendary status in Rankin county, and lining up at red lights beside a never-ending precession of Z-28's, Trans-Ams, Corvettes, and every other 5.0 Mustang in town became a fact of life. I quickly assumed the title of King of the Hill, and it wasn't long before fast just wasn't fast enough. Money was soon spent on every bolt-on, go-fast part that could be found:

*JBA shorty headers
*Flowmaster mufflers, H-pipe, and dump tubes (and ditching the catalytic converters)
*underdrive pulleys
*hypertech computer chip
*1.7 roller rockers
*enlarged throttle body
*mass airflow sensor
*ported upper and lower intakes...

A second set of wheels with sticky General autocross tires was all I needed to start racing regionally in the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), and when I wasn't drag racing through the streets of Jackson on Saturday night, I was out of town racing Solo II Autocrosses. I got pretty good, and managed to win my class (E/Street Prepared) for the Mid-South region in 1988.
I was really living large. I even got lucky one night in the back seat, somewhere in a cotton field on Bubba Flanagan's property. Hell yeah! The car was infamous in Pelahatchie, and I gave several 100+MPH joyrides up and down HWY 43 to every cute girl with a need for speed (including one that would break my heart many years later...) It got to where I had to prove how fast it was to everyone, and I decided the best way to show it was to photograph the speedometer at top speed, and just keep the photo in the car for inquisitive minds. What was the max? How about 160MPH at 4000RPM in 5th gear, with a 3.08 rear end. Rodney Miles was the brave soul who snapped the pics.
140.....155......160!!!
I carried the tradition to MSU when I enrolled in the spring of 1989, and I quickly made several like-minded friends who had a wide assortment of late model American V-8's. Unfortunately, by the summer of 1990, the times they were a'changin. A new decade, new priorities (money and grades), and an air of responsibility found me posting everything I had of value up for sale. The Saleen was one of them, and I passed her on to some dude from Grenada, MS, in March 1990, with 60K miles on her odometer.

It was a great run of fun.

Highs:

1) fast and cool
2) first really "new" car
3) babe-magnet
4) outrunning the cops during Spring break 1988 going to Destin, FL, on I-10.
4) music that takes me back: REM, The Doors

Lows:

1) 9 speeding tickets in 2 years...
2) getting rear ended in Starkville by my cousin Shane in October 1988, while he was checking out females at a car wash. No major damage, but you couldn't have told me that then...I was a freak-
3) burning up a fuel pump on HWY 25, miles from nowhere...
What she looked like in 1990: fiberglass vented hood w/3" rise, 5-spoke American Racing wheels, roll bar, 5-point harnesses, 1988 model rear valance (it originally came with a 1987 version). The tag says it all.
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