Brainchild of the brilliant Ford Mustang tuner and racing team impresario Steve Saleen, the S7 was as near as any American manufacturer has come in recent years to a street-legal race car.

That was, essentially, what it was: a homologation special, with a bespoke chassis purpose-built for competition, and compete it did.

The S7R, as it was known on the circuit, earned the respect of some of motorsports’ most seasoned professionals, achieving impressive class wins at both the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The roadgoing S7 was no less startling.

With a lightweight carbon-fiber body and potent 7.0-liter V-8, based upon Ford’s small-block Windsor engine, performance was otherworldly by early-2000s standards and remains so today: 0-60 was possible in just 3.3 seconds, on the way to an estimated top speed of 220 mph.

While Saleen did not release official production figures for the S7, research indicates that about 78 total units, in both racing and street specificatio...