By: SUE ZESIGER on March 2, 1998
Original Article: FORTUNE, VOL. 137, ISSUE 4

Unless you’re a racing-team owner like Roger Penske, chances are you don’t keep a few hand-tweaked, high-powered Chevy Suburbans in your stable, good for bigtime hauling as well as for sinful joy rides. For the rest of us 4×4 plebes, real high performance has been out of reach. But now, car companies are catching on that there’s a huge segment of urban and suburban sport-ute buyers who never go off-road and who see these hulks simply as status symbols, the automotive equivalent of a Gucci bag. (Now that we have bigger, what do we want? Faster!) Mercedes-Benz is planning a high-performance version of its M-Class SUV for model year 2000, with a bigger V-8 and sportier handling. And Porsche is looking into building a 4×4–which would be genetically incapable of sluggishness.

In the meantime, racer and vehicle-visionary Steve Saleen of Saleen Performance–a Ford-sanctioned small-volume manufacturer, based in Irvine, Calif.–is betting on the appeal of “performance utility vehicles.” He’s hot-rodded a Ford Explorer to prove his point and hopes to sell 500 this year. The Saleen Explorer has a supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 that produces 286 hp and 333 ft-lb of torque. Plus Recaro seats, 13-inch four-piston racing-style brakes, lowered suspension, 18-inch Pirelli Scorpions…. It all adds up to lots of throaty burble, lots of torque, lots of opportunities to take corners at an alarming clip–and not heel over. “SUVs have been practical; now they need to be appealing,” says Saleen. For about $50,000 you can own this very distinctive beast (note extreme body flares)–and no one will mess with your kids when you pick them up after school.