Building a 900 rally car...in time for Rally West Virginia

[TRAILINGTHROTTLE]

I am putting together a 1985 900 rally car to NASA Rally Sport specs. If I am lucky, me and my people will make Rally West Virgina our first event. The car will run in stock for this event. Any advice (Saab specific or not) would be appreciated. I have road racing experience, but this will be my(our) first stage rally.

Matt Joseph (Driver)
Jeremiah Dow (Codriver)
Karl "Buzz" Bayless (Crew Cheif)

I will post pics of our progress if anyone cares at all. Thanks!

[Luke]

Ok a couple questions:

How far along is the build?
Pictures?
2 months is a short time but definatly doable especially if you are going to run production class.

We are currently working hard authoring a manual "Rally Preparing the SAAB 99/900" It should be finished off within the next couple weeks and should provide most of the information you are looking for. West Virginia is a great event you won't be dissapointed.

Just feel to ask any specific questions you may have on this forum.

[max]

The manual should be finished if you guys move your butts and write more! :cracks the whip:

[TRAILINGTHROTTLE]

The car is stripped and all of the normal wear items (hoses, belts, etc.) have been replaced. I have the seats, etc....so I need to get the cage in there, the safety stuff, rally computer. Its going to be a busy next few weekends. My immediate questions are...Clutch, and how much do I need for my super high output SOHC 116 h.p. lump. Will stock be o.k.? Surely not??? You guys have made me paranoid that my A-arms are going to snap like twigs as soon as the car enters a special stage. how serious is the A-arm problem on a stock/production car? I have hundreds of questions but i will spare you. Thanks a lot.
Matt Joseph

[Jordan]

I'll try to field a couple easy answers... Although I have never been to the rally in WV yet its fairly smooth rally?(I may be thinking of another).

- Definately get some A-arms (or plates) from Luke if he can do them for you. Stock *might* survive.. but why risk a DNF?

- Stock turbo clutch should be sufficient

- The cage will probably take longer than you think... do it ASAP

- If it's an 85, how is the wiring? Replace anything that looks halfway suspicious.

- You may want to move to vented calipers/rotors (86-87T)? But somebody else can comment on that.

- Ask about what portions of the shell should be reinforced

- Build a good skid plate!

Good Luck!

[saab90089]

I can't tell you too much specific to a rally Saab (know alot about the Saab...just not rally prepping). I can speak from the point of view of a new rally team (1 race so far):

Try and have the car 100% finished a week before the race. Or at the very least 24hours before the race. Our 1st (only) race the team was working on the car till 4AM the night before we had to drive to the race. We also spent another 8 hours the day before the race working on the car. It did prove to be fun in its own way; but all of us would rather NOT have to do it.

I wouldn't worry too much about trying to gain HP out of the engine just yet. I mean upgrade items in the engine that need it to survive a race and/or any parts that you are working near anyway. But I wouldn't do anything major to the engine untill you get some races under your belt. It's always better to learn how to drive w/a slow car then when you have a faster car you will have the skills to utilize the faster car better.

I know at the Sandblast rally everyone was helpfull especially to us as a fresh team. Sometimes you need to not be afraid to ask. I know we ended up borrowing a tool/2 from a team and a part from another team.

After the race (drive home maybe). Write down notes for the next race. Such as: things to fix on the car, things to bring, things not to bring, & things to do for next race, etc. I only suggest writting it down because if you don't touch the car or your next race is months away you might forget about these things. Best to write them down while they are fresh in your head.

I know all of this might seem like obvious advise; but this is just a few things I learned out of the one race. Our next race will be Rally WV hopefully we will see you there!

Ian
PS-I'm pit-crew for our team: Atomik Racing with a 1986 GTI

[Luke]

Well I think he indicated that he wanted to run production class, so we have to remember that many of of modifications we usually do won't be allowed.Brake upgrades even to the 86 stuff would be a no no. Reinforced a-arms are allowed however. No the a-arms won't snap like twigs. At least add some additional welding where the [ channel meets the pivot rod though, plating them is a pretty easy thing to do though. Stock clutch will be fine as long as its in good shape. Rally west virgina is very diverse. There are a couple very smooth stages and a couple very rough ones with large bed rock boulders jutting out into the road. All except one are very narrow and VERY twisty with lots of opportunities to hang a wheel off in a ditch and snag a rock or stump.

[GRMPer]

I drove my rally car to and from work last year to iron out any bugs....It's amazing how much you learn about a car from just driving it. I drove my vintage race Alfa to work today (it has a plate/insurance) as I'm heading up to VIR next week and wanted to fix anything BEFORE I get there.

[TRAILINGTHROTTLE]

stock turbo clutch it is, then! excellent. and as for the wiring, the car certainly had what the British would refer to as a "manky wiring loom", but only in specific areas. some of the wire was perfect and then two inches further on...no insulaton at all. I have never seen wiring as bad as that, even on the 40 year old VWs i used to fool around with. Is that a common saab problem? I just worked back until i found the good stuff and replaced about 350 miles of wire. as for the cage, i (foolishly???)ordered an Autopower cage to use as my starting point. should of had it in my possession/car but they made it in 1.5" instead of 1.75" so i am still waiting. how much are the plates for the A arms??? do i need the diff end plate with a stock motor/clutch?

[Geoff]

You don't need brakes, they only slow you down

The '85s had crappy wiring. The insulation was some organic soy based stuff that rots.

Is that Autopower cage a bolt-in or a full weld in? Are bolt-in cages allowed on new cars (they would have to be fully welded regardless)? You'll have to do a bunch of updates to it to make it legal. Rally WV is a NASA event and I think minimum tube diameter is 1.75" for NASA. Its 1.5" for Rally America depending on wall thickness and vehicle weight so you'd have to get a RA logbook in order to make the cage legal if you're using 1.5" tubing. Study the rule books!

[TRAILINGTHROTTLE]

the autopower is a weld in. i wasnt clear in the last post. im waiting for a new cage with 1.75" tubing, as the rules clearly state that it is required. my logic was, that although the cage will indeed need to be updated, it would be a lot further along more quickly starting with the autopower. money wise this was, im sure, not the smartest, but im not sure i trust myself with the notching and bending of the main cage. i will feel better about this arangement and there is a lot to be said for that.

[Luke]

Yeah its a little late now but the autopower cage is not that a great foundation to build off of. With the amount of work required to make them legal you may as well have built a custom cage, unless things have changed. But you should be able to make it legal with a little work.

[TRAILINGTHROTTLE]

Congrats on STPR! the in car is on my ipod...im wearing it out. just a couple of question for anyone regarding this '85. for brakes stainless steel lines and EBC reds good enough?, or is there a better pad for rally. Remember i am running stock/production. I really like the EBC's for my "pavement weenie" stuff, but with rally i dunno. i also am curious as to what front toe i should run on this thing. I need that manual!

[Jordan]

I believe the consensus is zero toe and 1.5-2(?) degrees camber. I think look also recommends a caster adjustment for increased stability, but I'm not sure what it is.

We have lots of other incar vids that I think we should put up... Its on the list for early next week...

[Jordan]

Maybe somebody could write the suspension set up portion of the manual in this thread so it can be posted to the manual-in-progress.