While Steve Saleen, founder of American pony car tuner Saleen, didn’t explicitly say that his company didn’t add more power to their tuned Tesla Model S (called FourSixteen), it’s pretty clear that they haven’t. That’s most obviously true when he says they tried not to mess with the range of the car, or the batteries…
We already knew it has a new slightly shorter final gear, in order to shoot off the line even faster, and a body kit, and new rims, and more side bolstering on the seats, but it was really the power that posed the last question.
XCAR did a feature inside the Saleen shop, speaking to all of the major names involved. You still end up wanting one, but not as much as if it were actually more powerful, just for the sake of the idea alone.
The Saleen FourSixteen is a cool car as it finally represents a properly tuned Model S, but it’s clear that the aftermarket/tuning scene for such cars still needs to evolve, when even a big name like Saleen is wary of touching the battery pack and the really complicated electronics.
Oh, and what do you think of the new, much louder motor sound?