Saleen S281 “Extreme” Mustang appears as Evil Decepticon in “Transformers!”
| Saleen Inc. teamed up with DreamWorks and Hasbro to design and produce several vehicles for the new hit movie “Transformers.” After months of conceptual development, Saleen’s Troy production facility took numerous black-on-black S281 Extremes right off of the production line to star as Decepticon hunter, “Barricade,” in the movie. Saleen Troy also built two 2009 Chevrolet Camaros for General Motors to star as “Bumblebee” - Barricade’s arch rival in the movie. |
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The movie car built as “Barricade” was constructed as a Saleen S281 “Extreme” with stock performance and body components; the same car that you can find in a dealership today. The only element the movie cars lack is the 550 horsepower engine that normally comes as standard equipment on the Extreme. To give the character its evil alter ego, Dream Works also outfitted each Extreme as a Decepticon police car, including a push bar, white doors, emergency lights and Transformers/Police badging.
Learn more about the S281 Extreme |
Barricade was originally scripted as a Formula One race car in the comic book and Japanese cartoon series, but never made it to the animated series aired in America by the time it went off the air in 1987.
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) was responsible for transforming the Saleen S281 Extreme into the Barricade robot. It took a team of 18 artists to build the Extreme on the computer and 11 weeks to transform it into the Barricade robot.
“We essentially cut up the vehicle,” Dave Floger, model supervisor at ILM explains. “We cut up a standard door panel into five or six sections, and we would cut the hood up into 10 sections. Other animators would take the car in one hand and the robot in the other hand and started moving stuff around until a panel on the car would fly up and become a panel on the robot’s arm. It’s a pretty involved process.” |
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GET YOUR OWN BARRICADE/S281-EXTREME
As one of the most successful toy lines of all time, Saleen has signed on with Hasbro Toys to build a Barricade/Saleen Transformer Toy. The toys are available now!
Click Here to Find Toys
There was not a moving 2009 Camaro when the filming for Transformers was set to start. Although Saleen is typically known for building super fast Fords and the Saleen S7, the movie’s transportation coordinator, Steve Mann, knew that Saleen could build the best production movie cars possible.
Bumblebee started its life as a Pontiac GTO, the vehicle that most closely matched the size of the new Camaro. The GTO also had an adequately sized V8 engine that would work well as a like power plant to the new Camaro.
“Basically, it was reverse engineered by our build team,” says Bryan Chambers, general manager at Saleen’s Troy facility. “We were given some data and some selections and wheelbase drawings by GM. Then we cut and cobbled from there.”
Saleen builders cut the body of the GTO down to the floor boards, even removing the rocker panels and replacing them with steel tubing that would eventually make up the structure of the Camaros. This was done to alter the car, while maintaining its structural integrity.
The first running 2009 Camaro concept took Saleen just 30 days to complete, and both were done in less than 45. |
