Speeding in a classic 900S: I'm interested...

[High Hope]

...in doing something creative with my Dad's '90s-vintage 900S 3-door 5-speed. My wife and I bought it new, she drove it for 100,000 miles, then we gave it to him. He's put about 40,000 on it and it still looks respectable. I will probably get it back soon as he's aging and the car has very little market value.

I've autocrossed, track day'ed, and winter-schooled different cars over the years, and am hoping to do something fun (and reasonable $$$) with the SAAB, especially since its a "one owner," solid and straight car. It has original shocks and clutch which are shot and cheesy Midas-style brakes and exhaust.

We travel to VT every weekend, so maybe hillclimbing, or ice racing, or other? Even when new the car was a bit of a slug, so now it's probably hopelessly outclassed in terms of performance, but is still an appealing, quality car. Having no trailer or tow vehicle, street-legal is required at this point.

Last but not least, I lived in Sweden in the 60s and early 70s and remember SAABs fondly; my wife, coincidently, has had three of 'em, all bought new, including this one.

Any suggestions on how I might best use the car while not spending a lot of money?

[airsweden]

As is, it might not be the most competitive car for any of the events you mentioned but will be alot of fun never the less. If you are thinking about iceracing, auto-x or hillclimb I might be able to give you some helpful pointers for basic setup and preparation. I wouldn't worry about the car being slow; speed is less important than control and handling.

I think to start with if you want to do one of these events just do one with the car as is and take it from there. Iceracing is cheap, fun and comming up soon, maybe a week or two before we have good ice.

www.icerace.com

Josh

[High Hope]

Thanks Josh, I printed the rules and Street Legal looks like the type of lower-level risk I'd start with with this car. It will need some TLC prior to any event (or even the long-ish drive to VT and NY) including tires, brake pads/fluid, and a major service to begin with.

I would like to keep it simple and adapt the car to various events as far as possible (I tried autocrossing for some years and despite reining in my ambitions costs quickly escalated, with dedicated wheels/tires; chassis tuning; exhaust and brake mods etc. )

My goals with this car are to avoid pricing myself out of the fun, and make do with "penny tech" mods.

[Geoff]

You might consider rallycross too. There is a multi-day event coming up at the end of the month in CT. The winter events tend not to be as rough and are good for trying out. You can also just go watch one or help work at one to get a feel for the event (pretty much the same as autocross but more fun).

http://ner.org/schedule.htm#rx