Saleen

Mission DETAIL

As one of the biggest names in American motorsports and supercars, Saleen Automotive is legendary among high-performance car enthusiasts – but the company also strived to reach new consumers outside the racing and automotive community. Saleen wanted to reach untapped audiences for its new midengined supercar while also reinforcing the company’s status as an iconic SoCal brand.

The solution was a special collaboration with another famous brand based just down the road from Saleen in Corona, California: Fender Musical Instruments.

Renowned as the company that introduced the first commercially available solid-body electric guitar, Fender has been a leader in musical instruments for over 75 years and the company’s venerated Custom Shop division is highly respected among guitar enthusiasts.

The result of Saleen’s collaboration with Fender was the Stratocaster 1 – a one-of-a-kind custom electric guitar by master builder (and bona fide gearhead) Ron Thorne. The guitar blends the exciting worlds of cars and guitars with unique details inspired by the new Saleen 1 turbocharged supercar.

The guitar debuted at the entrance to Fender’s Winter NAMM booth, alongside a matching Saleen 1 supercar. In addition to dazzling attendees at the show, the Stratocaster 1 generated tons of online and print buzz, thanks to a robust media outreach campaign by Rocket Launch PR.

After the initial media blitz during NAMM, the Stratocaster 1 made an encore performance via a two-page spread article in Robb Report’s May 2020 issue – reaching Fender’s ultimate demographic for the $33,000 guitar.