The History of the Saleen Race Trucks

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Folks,

Okay...here is the backstory on the Saleen Race Trucks and the SCCA series I started inadvertently

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[Chroncake88]

Woohoo! Thank you for sharing Phil!
I know what I'm reading this evening!

 

[Nutty 5.0]

Phil, just wanted to say thank you for sharing this and all the other cool info you is share. This forum doesn’t know (well I guess most of us do!) what a great treat it is to have you here!

 

[Rviator]

Thanks Phil for the writeup, and of course the work effort. I recall following this series as, I mentioned before, I had an '88 STX reg cab when STX was the designation for a sport truck. It came with f/r stabilizer bars, 4.10 LS rear axle, wide series tires, (70's I think) and revised spring rates. (I lost some payload capacity). Inside were bucket seats and an auto. on the floor. I have looked on the web for documentation on this and came up empty.

 

[Dokkenmire]

Great read! Thank you Phil.

 

[Nutty 5.0]

Have you had any involvement with the 99-04 Lightning’s and O John Colletti? You have a lot of great info and I always enjoy what you post. Have you thought about doing a book?

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Have you had any involvement with the 99-04 Lightning’s and O John Colletti? You have a lot of great info and I always enjoy what you post. Have you thought about doing a book?

Hi Dave,

I indeed know John Colletti. Yes, I did the suspension on the Lightning at the beginning as well as the Nite F150. Here is a picture of me with the prototype of the Nite... I got involved in some many added starter projects that were not in my direct chain of command. My bosses just let me run with these projects as my upper management told them to just let me go and do my thing as long as it was after hours or our chief engineer said it was okay... I have to say that every day at Ford was not always exciting but overall, I came in to work every morning and Ford provided the sandbox and the toys and I got to play!

As far as a book...I really think that these forums allow me to provide a snapshot into Ford and how we deliver the product and to provide some help troubleshooting problems even though I am not totally familiar with the 5G Ranger. The key takeaway for forum members is that there were a few of us that had total passion for the product!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co Retired

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Thanks Phil for the writeup, and of course the work effort. I recall following this series as, I mentioned before, I had an '88 STX reg cab when STX was the designation for a sport truck. It came with f/r stabilizer bars, 4.10 LS rear axle, wide series tires, (70's I think) and revised spring rates. (I lost some payload capacity). Inside were bucket seats and an auto. on the floor. I have looked on the web for documentation on this and came up empty.

Hi Doug,

Yep! I did the suspension for this truck. Mike Z the manager of Ranger business did the interior and the powertrain requirements. I speced the 4:10 and the spring rates as well as the shock tuning. Also, and almost unknown is that the alignment settings were different for this truck. I speced 1/32 inch to 0 toe out to improve ackerman for initial vehicle turn in to a corner. Won't find these specs in any alignment info in the aftermarket, but that was the way these vehicle were delivered to the initial customer.... In developing the Lime Rock Trucks, we focused on vehicle turn in and found that on the twin I beam Rangers, 1/8" toe out was a big help. Not so comfortable in a straight line as it was too nervous for a customer, but for a racecar driver, it was not a biggie... I have an article by the Editor of Pickup Van & 4 Wheel Drive, Todd Kaho, but the file sizes are much too large for this Forum and to skinny them down would likely result in -2 font...Will work on makeing them bigger but lots of file size....

Best,
Phil Schilke
Range Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retierd

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Doug,

I have hopefully gotten the file size acceptable...here is the PV4 article...

 

[Rviator]

Thanks Phil, for the post. We didn't know you were this famous. FYI, My two previous rides were an '80 Firebird Turbo Formula and an '86 RX-7. The Ranger's handling was darn close if not an equal, at least from what I discerned in spirited street driving. Now if only your successor will go in this direction for the Sport pkg.... perhaps for the 6G Ranger, then I'll be in line for a trade.

 

[BDoc]

Hi Folks,

Okay...here is the backstory on the Saleen Race Trucks and the SCCA series I started inadvertently

YES!!!! Thanks for posting this, Phil! Downloaded and will be reading them this weekend!

 

[P. A. Schilke]

YES!!!! Thanks for posting this, Phil! Downloaded and will be reading them this weekend!

Here are a few Pix of the Lime Rock adventure....not great pix but show a humble beginning.

The 77 Truck is driven by Andy Gordan (RIP Andy) and me, mopping up as the second driver in the drivers change.
You can see Rob S. in the red 17 passing the piece of GM Junk on the straight. These trucks proved to be really fast!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Range Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Hi Bryan,

 

[Scottopia]

Very cool stuff here. Thank you for sharing!!

 

[BDoc]

Here are a few Pix of the Lime Rock adventure....not great pix but show a humble beginning.

The 77 Truck is driven by Andy Gordan (RIP Andy) and me, mopping up as the second driver in the drivers change.
You can see Rob S. in the red 17 passing the piece of GM Junk on the straight. These trucks proved to be really fast!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Range Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Hi Bryan,

Love this! Thanks for posting, Phil.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Folks,

Just for fun....here a lap around the Lime Rock Track, and a idea of the lay out of what we drove. A bit slower but pretty much the same line and Ranger's speeds were about 105 mph down the Sam Posey Straight....

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

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