July 1, 2008 — PLYMOUTH, Mich. —

Gibbs Technologies has awarded a $1-million, six-month manufacturing development contract to Saleen Inc. to support the launch of the company’s high-speed amphibious vehicles in North America.

Manufacturing design and engineering work for the Gibbs program will take place at Saleen’s development center at 1225 East Maple Road in Troy, Mich., according to Gibbs President and CEO Neil Jenkins.

Gibbs plans to introduce two high-speed amphibious (HSA) vehicles in the United States in late 2009 and early 2010 – a sporty car and an all-terrain vehicle.

The Gibbs Aquada is a vehicle that combines the handling of a sports car with an ability to travel up to 40 miles per hour (mph) or more on water and 110 mph on land. The company’s all-terrain vehicle achieves speeds of up to 40 mph on both land and water.

Jenkins said Saleen also will be incorporating several new features into the design of the Gibbs Aquada.

“Saleen is ideally suited to help Gibbs Technologies launch its high-speed amphibians,” Jenkins said. “The company is well-known for its proven ability to design, engineer and produce unique, high-performance vehicles.”

Saleen’s General Manager Bryan Chambers added, “A successful high-speed amphibian has been the dream of entrepreneurs, automotive engineers and car makers for more than a century. Gibbs has met the challenge with its amphibious-vehicle technology and we’re pleased to be partnering with them in the realization of that dream.”

Gibbs Technologies has operated from a temporary headquarters facility in Plymouth, Mich., for the past eight months. Jenkins said the company plans to announce the location of a North American research-and-development center and corporate headquarters in July.

Gibbs also expects to fill 30 engineering, purchasing, marketing and administrative positions for its North American operations before the end of the year.

The company is the world’s leading developer of HSA vehicles for consumer, commercial and military use. Additional information about Gibbs, its technology and amphibians is available on the Internet at www.gibbstech.com.

Since its inception in 1984, Saleen Inc. has produced more than 12,000 complete, EPA-certified vehicles — more than any other specialty automobile manufacturer. The company also has supplied equipment for more than 600,000 vehicles worldwide. Saleen has a manufacturing facility in Troy, Mich., and offices in Irvine, California. Additional information is available at www.saleen.com.

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By: JOSEPH SZCZESNY on May 13, 2008
Original Article: EDMUNDS.COM

TROY, Michigan — Behind the introduction of the Saleen S5S Raptor at the New York International Auto Show in March is the story of a corporate reorganization that blends two companies previously struggling on their own.

The new Saleen Inc. combines Motor City grit of the former ASC and the California glamour of the former Saleen operations in finely calibrated balance, said Paul Wilbur, CEO of the new Saleen.

Wilbur told AutoObserver that the Raptor is the first project in which both sides of the house have contributed. It combined the efforts of Saleen engineering and ASC’s creative team, which usually labors in anonymity for big clients such as General Motors.

About half of the company’s $180 million to $200 million in revenue comes from the specialty car business nurtured by Saleen; the other half comes from making convertible tops for Toyota, Chrysler, General Motors and Mitsubishi, business developed by ASC.

Hancock Park Associates, a Los Angles-based private equity basically created the new company when it first bought out founder Steve Saleen’s remaining interest in Saleen itself and then picked key ASC assets in bankruptcy court, said Wilbur, an executive at ASC prior to the reorganization in the summer of 2007.

ASC, or American Specialty Cars Inc., which was based in Southgate, Mich., and traces its roots back to the old American Sunroof Co. founded in the 1960s. Businessman and racecar driver Steve Saleen founded the original Saleen Inc., in Irvine, Calif., in 1984 to build what he described as an American super car.

Specialty Cars for Big Automakers

Chris Theodore, a former Chrysler and Ford executive credited with being the father of Ford’s GT, serves as the combined company’s chief technical officer. He said the Raptor, with its aluminum space frame, sleek design and 650-horsepower engine designed to run on cellulosic ethanol and with a price tag of about $185,000 is a glimpse of things to come from Saleen.

Theodore said the reorganized company is already in discussions with big carmakers, looking to add some specialty cars spice to their product lines. “There is a lot of interest,” he said.

Design and engineering of concept cars like the Raptor, which Theodore and Wilbur estimate Saleen could build in about two years once financing and business case are approved, is only part of the company’s story.

Wilbur said Saleen has concentrated its vehicle-making operations just outside of Detroit. “Our (Michigan) facility has one of the most sophisticated low-volume, paint facilities in North America. When you combine that with the phenomenal automotive talent pool that is available in Michigan, it’s a natural step,” Wilbur said.

The paint system, the heart of the Michigan operation, was installed earlier in the decade when Saleen had a contract to paint Ford GTs before they went back to Ford for final assembly. Since last fall, the system in the Troy, Mich., plant has also painted the Dodge Viper for Chrysler, Theodore said.

Building a New Saleen Brand

Marques McCammon, Saleen’s marketing chief who came from Chrysler’s performance SRT group, said his mission is to take the Saleen brand into a new era, following the departure of the company’s founder in the spring of 2007. Under Saleen, the company had produced more than 12,000 vehicles, including the S7, as well as the S281 Mustang, S331 Sport Truck and Saleen/Parnelli Jones limited-edition Mustang. A limited edition Dan Gurney Mustang is also in the works.

The new company already is taking orders for the Sterling Edition Mustang, which creates from a stock Mustang “a completely different car,” as McCammon describes with a 620-horsepower engine, new suspension, steering gear and transmission. The buyer receives a company-paid trip and guided tour of the plant that builds the $100,000 car, dinner with company executives, a photo album, letter of authenticity and a serialized car cover. “We are a vehicle manufacturer, but we take it to the next level,” McCammon said.

Steve Saleen Moves On

Meantime, Steve Saleen recently founded a new company in Southern California, SMS, as a niche manufacturer of lifestyle ultra-high performance vehicles, technical performance parts, lifestyle accessories and apparel. Just this week the new company introduced the first in a line of Signature Series ultra-high performance vehicles, the SMS 570 Challenger and SMS 570X Challenger. The street legal cars are based on the 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T with a 5.7-liter Hemi engine rated at 500 or 700 horsepower. Steve Saleen signs the limited edition cars.

[Source: Edmunds.com]

By: High Gear Media Staff on May 4, 2007
Original Article: HIGHGEARMEDIA.COM

The company that invented the modern sunroof has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but company officials argue that the roof is half open, rather than half closed, what with ASC Inc. ready to be sold to the same private investment company that owns the high-performance specialty car manufacturer, Saleen.

ASC, based in the Detroit suburb of Southgate , has petitioned the courts to let it shed sizable assets and restructure debt incurred during its own, abortive push into the production of specialty vehicles. That included the Chevrolet SSR, a high-performance pickup truck ASC produced for several years on behalf of the General Motors division.

Barring a last-minute hitch, ASC expects to emerge from bankruptcy by mid-summer, with its remaining assets being sold to Hancock Park Associates, a private equity investment firm founded in 1986, which now owns Saleen, Inc., of Irvine, Calif.

“It’s terribly frustrating,” ASC President Paul Wilbur said of the bankruptcy, but referring to the impending sale, he told TheCarConnection.com that, “I think there’s a rosier future for this company.”

There’s little doubt that times have been rough for the Detroit supplier, formerly known as American Sunroof Corp. since the death of its founder, Heinz Prechter, in 2001. His widow, Waltraud, sold the firm to Questor Management Co., which shifted focus from sunroofs to low-volume vehicles, like SSR, a decision that also prompted the name change, which is short for American Specialty Cars.

Initially, things looked solid. The move away from sunroofs was no surprise, as they’d become little more than a commodity product, not the premium business Prechter envisioned when the German immigrant started out in Los Angeles , working from a two-car garage.

Detroit makers, as well as their import competitors, had been seeking ways to connect with consumers, and with the U.S. new car market increasingly fragmented, there seemed a tremendous opportunity to produce low-volume, high-margin specialty vehicles, such as the SSR and the Dodge Viper, a sports car for which ASC provided key pieces.

But the specialty niche hasn’t taken off as well as expected, and after an initial surge in sales off the SSR – which Wilbur says “took off hotter than anyone could have expected” – demand cooled quickly, Chevy pulling the plug on production. Compounding the crisis, the Viper’s big V-10 failed to meet government certification, forcing what has so far been a nine-month delay of the sports car.

With lots of ideas but no other immediate projects to replace the SSR and Viper, ASC lost roughly three-quarters of its business. Seeking a way out of the crisis, Wilbur and his senior management team, which includes former Ford Motor Co. product development chief Chris Theodore, began exploring a sale with a number of potential partners.

That included Hancock Park which, said Wilbur, pressed for a bankruptcy before completing a deal. That’s not entirely unusual, these days, added the Michigan executive. “Bankruptcy is becoming a financial strategy when you buy companies. You’re looking at the assets that create customer value and get rid of the assets that don’t make sense.”

In the case of ASC, that means cleaning up a balance sheet showing $31.2 million of total assets and $50.8 million of total liabilities.

ASC has already closed four manufacturing plants, in Livonia, Lansing and Gibraltar, Michigan, as well as in Bowling Green, Ky. , and three more engineering centers, eliminating 1000 jobs in the process. A technical center in Lansing will now be closed, as well.

According to Wilbur, “about 90 percent” of the remaining ASC workforce, approximately 250 employees, will remain on the job if the deal with Hancock Park wins final approval of the bankruptcy judge. Notably, that includes current ASC executives such as Wilbur and Theodore.

Under the law, ASC must still go through a formal auction process, likely to happen in the next 60 days or so. A new bidder could still enter the process, but in legal parlance, it would need to come up with a “better and higher bid.” Not only would it have to come up with more money, but also with a deal that would prove better, in the long run, for ASC, its debtors and employees.

Exactly what will come of the proposed partnership between ASC and Hancock’s Saleen division isn’t clear. The California-based firm produces the S7 supercar, as well as a high-performance version of such mainstream products as the Ford GT. Wilbur suggested there are plans in development which could result in several projects, possibly including both future niche vehicles and aftermarket performance products.

Asked for specifics, he demurred, insisting, “it’s too early to disclose them.”

What’s significant, Wilbur insisted, is that ASC will survive – at least in a slimmed-down form, anyway, once it works its way through the Chapter 11 process.

[Source: High Gear Media]