eBay Find of the Day: twin-turbo Saleen Parnelli Jones Mustang
Click above for a larger image of the twin-turbo Saleen Parnelli Jones Mustang
There's a special place in our hearts for the Saleen Parnelli Jones Mustang. After a week in the Autoblog Garage we fell in love with the wonderful 302-ci V8, amazingly sharp handling, and Trans-Am inspired looks. If we were to pick any of the current Mustang variants, the PJ would probably be it. Because of the collectability of the car (a total of 500 were produced) we're guessing that most owners have left their cars stock, but one particular owner decided to make his Parnelli Jones Mustang truly unique. How? He added dual 57mm Precision turbos, upgraded forged pistons, aluminum heads, a full three-inch exhaust system, and much, much more. In total, the motor produces 768 horsepower and 769 lb-ft torque -- at the wheels! The look of the car remains completely unchanged, making it as much of a sleeper as a car painted in Grabber Orange can be. The modded Parnelli is now up for sale on eBay Motors, and we're wishing that we had significantly more funding in our bank accounts.
[Source: eBay Motors]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mr.ed 9:52AM (10/21/2008)
I'm betting that the Camaro, with its IRS will prove to be a better handler overall. All cars in this segment are grossly oversize and -weight, and a Miata could run rings around them all on a tight course.
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Frank 1:17PM (10/21/2008)
FYI, the camaro and the new Challenger are both heavier then the mustang.
arturo 3:08PM (10/21/2008)
@ Mr. Ed your comment was so ignorant. comparing the mustang to a Miata is irrelevant. Now the Camaro can be compare to the mustang. let me tell you one thing If IRS is what you are bragging check out the 2003-2004 svt cobra. the car comes with IRS and it was making more than the claimed 390 it was more like 425. Now this car is 4 years old and If compare to the new ss coming out I am sure there would be not much difference performance wise. I don't know much about the gt500, I dint really like Shelby coming to inflate the prices of the cobra. I am sure the new one coming out 2010 will performed better. the GT500 looks nice, sounds great but i just don't dig it as much as an SVT cobra.
IOMTT 9:05AM (10/21/2008)
I have seen the Parnelli in person and I like the look of the car. The mods do nothing for me as 750 HP on the street is not very useful, but to each his own. Now where is the Mark Donohue Camaro???
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Domestic 6.0 5:40PM (10/21/2008)
Damn thats f-ing amazing ... I would burn all with this machine !!!
Flashpoint 9:09AM (10/21/2008)
I like this but, I perfer the SUPER SNAKE and the GT500kr more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_Mustang
Only thing is, when you factor in the cost, it becomes alot more economial to go for an SRT8 Charger/300
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John P. 9:28AM (10/21/2008)
Yummy. That's all I can say. Of course, I'd be happy with 400 normally aspirated hp for daily driving.
750+ hp is just showing off a bit. :p
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Jaak 8:58AM (10/22/2008)
Saw the standard Saleen / Parnelli Jones Mustang yesterday in Tallinn, Estonia as well. Looks good!
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Nick 11:01AM (10/21/2008)
Only time I've seen this car it was broken down here in Lauderdale. Even with the hood open it looked great! :)
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Ohso Clutch 11:05AM (10/21/2008)
Heh..........a miata.
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Patrick 11:06AM (10/21/2008)
Mr. Ed...would you kindly shut the f*ck up? Thanks.
And for your information, the Watts Link rear suspension on the PJ should be standard on the Mustang. It gives the best of both worlds. World-class handling, but the durability of a solid axle. Don't follow much GT racing, do you? The Mustang FR500s "run rings" around the Porsches, M3, Vettes, etc.
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cameron 11:12AM (10/28/2008)
i love this car it will go fast has good fuel milage and i would be driving this car everyday all day long
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trishield 9:10PM (10/21/2008)
Good thing I don't drive on a tight course to work then. These aren't tight course cars, these are cruisers that will decimate a Miata on most normal roads, be better to daily drive and turn more heads.
The Parnelli Jones is also the absolute best tuner Mustang ever in my opinion. If I were well heeled and wanted what I thought was the ultimate Mustang this would be the one that would get my money. Saleen's execution is on this car is nearly perfect.
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BoxerFanatic 11:24AM (10/21/2008)
Real polite, there, Patrick. How about maintaining a little civility.
Mr. Ed may be exaggerating a bit, but he isn't that far off.
And most of his argument was about WEIGHT. Most of the muscle cars weigh two tons, and the miata weighs a few hundred pounds over one ton.
Curb weight allows ANY suspension to work better, and more efficiently.
And if Live axles were so utterly fantastic, EVERY CAR WOULD HAVE ONE... Yet only ONE continues to. A table-smooth and flat track is not where the live axle falls down in the face of the laws of physics.
A flat, smooth track benefits an axle where the wheels are absolutely inherently locked together, geometrically. On anything OTHER than a flat smooth surface, is where two wheels being fixed together actually HURTS traction. But no problem, just put bigger, softer tires that weigh more, and flex more... the tires will flex where the suspension doesn't.
As far as Mustang goes, the PJ, and their Red/White/Blue successors are some of the best looking, but they were overpriced at >$50k, and who knows how much the turbo modifications cost.
And exactly how, without drag tires, do you actually use that much horsepower on a drag track, and it is pretty much irresponsible to use more than a minority fraction of that on the street, and it would be dangerous even on a road course without a *lot* of traction. Like F1 levels of traction and downforce.
Nice to look at, but I would spend money in so many other ways.
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BoxerFanatic 11:28AM (10/21/2008)
Sorry, LACK of curb weight helps any suspension work better... Probably should clarify that.
Mike 1:08PM (10/21/2008)
I've heard you use the table smooth and flat track term before and you obviously don't do any road racing.
Tracks are not repaved every year and are subject to the same freezing and thawing that the streets see if they are in non-southern climates. Of course they don't see the traffic or trucks but they sure do get abused. We have a local track here that is a country club and well funded- the surface was falling apart this spring, and guess what? They threw a patch on it and you raced. Not to mention that the rumble strips and off-camber areas are used by race cars and are far from flat.
So when it comes down to it, race tracks are not table smooth, not always flat, and handling on them is not benefited by having both rear wheels locked together, else teams using cars with IRS would switch to solid axle when they set the cars up for racing (watch a season of Speed World Challenge and see how many cars fail to finish the race due to a busted half shaft).
You also talk about weight and you rip on the car in the class with the least amount of it (adding IRS by the way would increase said weight).
Finally, if you spend any time at a TRACK and not a PARKING LOT, you would find that even the tightest race track short of a cart track would see the Mustang outrun a Miata. Only in coned off parking lot solo events do you see Miatas keeping up with Mustangs and that's because they are so small and the weight advantage is a factor there.
The fact is that the Mustang still packs alot of punch for the price, it's racing success shows it's handling ability and if you drive one on a daily basis, you find that the rear axle is fine over most surfaces and only becomes noticable under the worst road conditions where your speed should be slowed anyway.
Benfolio 1:56PM (10/21/2008)
"And if Live axles were so utterly fantastic, EVERY CAR WOULD HAVE ONE... Yet only ONE continues to."
Pretty sure the Grand Marquis/Town Car/Crown Vic (fleet) still have live axles out back.
Should have said "Yet only ONE COMPANY continues to use them"
BoxerFanatic 2:58PM (10/21/2008)
A track is still smoother than a crowned and rutted, potholed and frost heaved street.
When the AXLE doesn't FLEX, disruption of one tire, by suspension action translates to the OTHER TIRE, no matter how the suspension works. An independent suspension is just that.
No amount of conjecture, and arguing around the issue changes the laws of physics, and how they apply.
You can argue that a Mustang with a V8 engine and DOUBLE the horsepower of a Miata might be faster, it may well be. Mr. Ed might be exaggerating saying that the Miata may be faster. But the Miata will handle it better, with higher suspension confidence.
The mustang may have less weight than the Callenger or Camaro, but that is like being the smallest of three elephants. It is still a BIG animal. The more engine performance a Mustang is configured with, the more it weighs. Why is that trade-off necessary? Why not more power with LESS weight?
The Miata and the Sol/Sky twins, and others are lighter cars than anything in the Muscle car class. The Mustang used to be a lighter, smaller car than it currently is.
There are two ways to go about performance.
1: Making a heavy, powerful car try to handle well
2: Making a light weight, good handling car try to go faster with more power.
Frankly, procedure two is more likely to get purer performance in the end. It is much harder to overcome inertia than to add speed.
It is likewise easier to make an independent suspension handle a smooth surface, which it already inherently can, than to make a live axle handle broken pavement in a controlled manner.
Spring, damper, and anti-roll torsion resistance are used on both, and can keep the contact patches stable on smooth surfaces. Only an articulated axle can maintain one contact patch while the other goes through suspension movement.
Tracks may not be literally as smooth as a pool table, but they ARE smoother than most roads, and maintained better. They are designed to be and paid for. Drive in the snow-belt sometime, and see what broken pavement means, especially in states that have less money in their road maintenance funds.
Most people drive every day on the street, and are only on the track very occasionally, if ever. Some people don't live NEAR a track, other than maybe a dirt oval.
And, Benfolio, I can forgive the Panther platform cars. They are dinosaurs. They are on their way OUT, and they aren't performance cars. Even Police cruisers aren't truly performance cars, most of the time. But the new Charger cruisers have IRS, and other cruisers are FWD family cars.
The Mustang is a sporty car, and was completely renovated in 2005, and are being upgraded in 2010. Neither of which have brought even the OPTION of independent suspension, when it's new class mates BOTH have independent suspensions. That is less forgiveable.
arturo 3:15PM (10/21/2008)
@ Mike you like many others do not understand the concept. will you call a Miata a muscle car? or a mustang a sports compact? which one sells better? so which one do you think people want the most. The mustang is not produce to handle. it has a different mix then a Miata and there the difference. yeah a miata handles better but i ll rather have a mustang a gt, the v6 is a joke. I dont really take my car to the curves outside fresno going towards yosemite, its to expensive, so i take a zx6r that I have.
John P. 12:06PM (10/21/2008)
Doesn't the fabled GT-R weigh around 300lbs MORE than the Mustang? I agree the Mustang is too heavy, but I bet it's got pretty much room inside.
Not to mention, the Mustang isn't a Sports Car to begin with. It's a car that people have fun modifying into something faster than it's modest "secretary's car" history. A lot of people, including me, find that cool.
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