84 900 F Prepared Notchback

[airsweden]

Nope, not here. Here's the link to his shop's webstite though. I'd shoot him an email, probably too busy to talk on the phone much. Tell him you are a friend of mine, he's on facebook too.

http://www.tiredironsaab.repair.bz/

[SwedeSport]

I hit him with an email, hopefully he gets back to me. I need to setup the wheels on the car to Fab up the flares.

[Hans]

Looking at a set of Mrw stock car wheels for my notch. 15x8 with 0 offset. Assuming I am running a stock 87 vented setup, what's my scrub radius gonna look like? Anyone have a measurement figure for the stock configuration?

The Saab manual doesn't list a measurement; it merely states that scrub radius is positive (steering axis inclination intersects wheel centerline below-ground):



IIRC, the manual does list the angle somewhere, so you could figure out the measurement.

EDIT: The manual says 11.5* +/- 1*, at stock alignment (basically no or slightly positive camber). Adjusting camber changes the SAI; more negative camber increases the angle, decreasing the scrub radius.

If you put zero-offset 8-inch rims on the car, the scrub radius would become more positive because you're pushing the rim centerline 40mm farther away from the line that the SAI describes as it runs down to the ground. Compared to a stock 5.5-inch rim, you'd also be pushing the outer edge out nearly three inches. I notice from just Aero rims an increase in tramlining, though it's not horrible, and the effect is caused, in part, by tires. Aero rims increase scrub radius a bit and the outer edge is ~1 inch farther than stock.

Supposedly, the Germany-based Skandix racecars use narrower springs up front to allow wider rims, deeper into the wheelwells, closer to stock scrub radius. I have a set-up like this that I'd intended to install this summer but I stupidly mis-calc'd and need to re-tweak things (ride height is too high). If you're interested, I can post a pic. You could conceivably lose some turning radius due to rubbing.

Also, in the rear, you don't really need a whole lot of tire, and reverse stagger is pretty common for autocross cars: lots of Street Prepared and Street Mod FWD cars run up to 275s up front with 205s in the rear because large rears simply can't be worked hard enough to warm them up. Tire temp data I collected some time ago show that the rears are basically along for the ride, not warming up much, and not evenly.

EDIT: This site rocks for messing with rim/tire "what ifs":
http://www.rimsntires.com/rt_specs.jsp

[SwedeSport]

Been a while since the tarp was off the car. I got a bug up my ass to mess with the project a little. I spent the day cutting out the airdam, and mocking it up on the car. I left the material a little long at the bottom edge and ends. I may trim the bottom, and possibly add a rubber strip. Have not attacked the fender treatments since I don't have my rims and tires yet. The car sits on extremely low cut springs. It's nearly on the bumpstops. The final ride height will be a bit higher than it sits now. I'll cut the ends of the airdam when the fender flares are done.

Hunting for a cheap fixed racing seat so I can get rid of the milkcrate. If I can mount a seat, and put an exhaust on it I could at least drive it around the parking lot. It's hard to start but runs decent once warmed up. Just a 16v NA in there now but will give way for a turbo eventually. I have not made much progress in a while, it's about time I get something done.

[SwedeSport]

Spent a few hours this week working on the notchback project. I would like to have the body work done, and have paint on the exterior in the next month or so. I have been doing some of the body fab and mock up in preparation for getting sprayed.

The front end consists of the stock car plastic sheet cut out and pop riveted to the turbo fascia. I'll run sans bumper, with the bumper mounts cut off. The holes will be opened up, like in the mock up photo. a trim bezel and some screen gets pop riveted on to hold it down. I was thinking a set of brake ducts riveted on the lower skirt, and an aluminum reinforcement behind the skirt between the ducts. Not sure if its gonna need a rubber strip on the bottom. The whole front end will come off with a few Dzus fasteners. I'm torn on the grille and headlight treatment. Since it looks like it might be a while or never before we get that fiberglass order from Sweden... I'll run a stock hood and trunk, and use the early bezels with no parking light. The vinyl wrapped corner lights and tail lights will fill the holes.

Tire and wheel choice has been narrowed down. I have settled on Hankook Z214 225 45 15. Probably a set of soft and a set of medium. Going with a 15x8 wheel with 0 offset. Really like the MRW D-hole stock car wheels, but also like the XXR 527 wheels. Both are about the same price, roughly 100 bucks a wheel shipped.

[SwedeSport]

Began to measure out and start to fab some of the elements of the flares. essentially I made a rivet flange out of 1/8" fiberglass sheet, and bent some 3/16" steel rod to a somewhat consistent radius. The plan is to construct a wire skeleton all welded together. I'll drape fiberglass over it, and let that harden. Finish the arch out by sanding and filling where necessary. That gets attached to the car with rivet tabs. and the fiberglass flange is riveted to the fender. The flange is glued to the flare, and when cured gets rough sanded. Some bondo, and some high build primer should smooth it. Finally its painted as if it were a finished piece. It is a shame that I have to destroy it and throw it in the trash. The final piece will just be a few layers of fiberglass that gets pop riveted to the fenders. I'm gonna hack off the factory lip and bend the panels closed and weld them again.

Well at least that's the plan.

[SwedeSport]

More pics.

[spgeebee88]

very cool i cant wait to see the progress, i need to do a set on my car as well

[SwedeSport]

They might even cover those big meaty slicks on your ride. Next time they are on the car, measure how much they stick out from the flat part of the fender. Not from the edge of the lip.

[airsweden]

I know you like making stuff yourself but just in case you or anyone else want's a less labor intensive solution.... you can still buy the original 99 type fg flrares repro'ed in Sweden. I even see used ones from time to time on Bloket.

[SwedeSport]

Last time I saw someone reproducing those they were 300+ a set. They are cool for a rally replica, but not my favorite. The ones I'm attempting to create mimic the Airflow flares to some extent. I was thinking if I pull a mold I can reproduce sets for around 200.00 No problem if these are too wide for your car, you just trim the edge down to match your track width.

[SwedeSport]

I shut down my shop for the whole week for the 4th. There is never any work, so I might as well take care of my own projects. I have been tinkering on the notchback again.

Made a little progress on the fascia. The brake ducts came and I installed them in the airdam, and I'm working on the attachment hardware to make the whole front come off with Dzus fasteners, and Camlock fasteners. Hopefully I can have this mostly complete before I open back up on Monday the 11th.

Stripped the paint from the trunklid, and filled the lock hole. Attached the tabs that will hold the rear spoiler on the car. Plan is to make 2 of them out of 1/4 inch Lexan. One will be about 3 inches tall and the other will be about 5 inches or so. Gonna bondo it up tonight in the hopes of having the inside painted white, and the outside primed by weeks end.

Ordering the pieces for the exhaust as well. Very simple setup with no cat. I have decided to drop a 16v Turbo into it. 3 inch downpipe, into a flex pipe, into a Summit bullet muffler, into a splitter, then 2-1/4 inch exiting at both sides in front of the rear wheels. Ill bolt the exhaust to the floor of the car using bayonette shock bushings as isolators. Ill have to allow the front mount to swing a little to accomodate the heat growth.

[spgeebee88]

very very nice! whats that material the air damn is made out of? so the car is going to be E/F prepared looks like you'll be FP with my self!

[SwedeSport]

The plastic is the stuff you get from the stock car suppliers. For a 10 ft by 24 in piece it was 30 shipped. Its kinda flimsy, so I'm adding an aluminum strip behind it as a stiffener. The brake duct funnels stiffen it some as well. I'm only making it removable because its so low, causing difficulty to load it on the trailer. I may still add a rubber scraper at the bottom.

As far as class goes. The way I understand it, I would run E prepared if I use the NA 16v. And F prepared if I run a Turbo.

[DrewP]

Looks fierce! Great success!

Is the blue one in the background taking off, or landing?