Photo courtesy of Retro Cars(www.retrocarsmag.co.uk).
As seen on Ultimate Saab Day 2004 (full report in the March issue of Retro cars magazine. USD test driver Dave Basely posted the highest lateral G of the day - 0.875 in the streaming wet. To quote the man: "It's very controllable when it's sideways!"
'Saabine' has been part of the stables from January 1994 and saw lots of mechanical configurations before arriving at the current spec. Engine-wise, she's left the production line as an 8 valve turbo, then was converted to just over 2.1 litres capacity using pistons from a fairly well-known German 'tuner' that are NOT suitable for the job, but before we had a definite on that another set plus a 16 valve head went in. After that, a 'proper' short engine was built by Frank van Oeteren of Sweedspeed Racing using forged Cosworth pistons, shot peened rods and crank and employing piston oil cooling jets. After we got DI up and running - getting rid of the ignition distributor using a rather crude mechanical advance/retard mechanism in the process - the cylinder head was swapped for a modified T7 (Saab 9-5. 2000- on 9-3) head (including custom intake) originally built by frank for a racing car. Now that the factory standard cams have been replaced with Sweedspeed billet items, final power runs have netted 295 hp @ 6,000 rpm, and 339 lbs.ft @ 3,500 rpm.
The brief for Project 900T-R was/is to create the "Yellowbird" or P1 of Saabs - developing the real world fastest and most satisfying overall dynamic package possible using the old 900 as a platform, rather than concentrate on headline power figures or bling factor. She's already become something of a legend within Saab circles, and surely there's more to come...
