SSR parts

[nkro]

Hallo

The story about the swedish ssr parts.

The owner of Ssr Ola Strömberg soled all the parts to a rich finance man in the US. He died, and Ola didnt get any mony.

But what about the parts. There should be a Special Saab 99 shell on a field somewhere in the US. (matter build)

The parts should be somewhere?

I have seen the swedishmotors Saab. But didnt get any answhere. That car look factory built.

The 16 v 99 bougt saab, but the spare parts are still in the US.
I emailed some one whit a bare 16 v head. Maybe the same guy on ebay ??

Any one heard about this story.
Or have picture of the shell or parts.

Niklas
Sweden

[Geoff]

Hi Niklas,
This is what I know about what has happened to some of the SSR parts and cars in the US:

16v heads etc:
At one point John Buffum http://www.libraracing.com/johnbuffumbio.htm owned a 16v 99 rally car. This is the only complete one of these cars I've seen in the US. He also had a complete spare engine and gearbox and I think some other SSR spare parts. In 1998 he sold the car and spare parts back to SAAB and the car is now in the SAAB Museum. The shell isn't the original, the car was rebuilt after a wreck. In 1999 I bought a used SAAB 99 rally car that had been built in the US. The previous owner told me that he had one of the 16v heads but it was just the casting and hadn't been machined. Who did you email who has one of these heads?

SwedishMotors 99: I talked to Rich (the owner) at one of the US SAAB Conventions where he had the car. It is a former factory turbo rally car, again the shell isn't original. Rich said he had the original (crahsed) shell somewhere, he had transfered all the parts into the new shell. Rich said he also had some other SSR spare parts.

Other former factory cars and SSR parts: From what I've read here and from talking to friends it sounds like a few other cars were brought over by Ola and have found there way to other people over the years. It sounds like all of these cars are 8 valve. One or two of these cars are in Maine, owned by Sandy Liverseige (see post by AirSwedenVT). Other SSR parts were bought and sold. ScanWest
http://www.scanwestauto.com/index.php had a bunch of parts at one point (maybe they still do). There are probably a lot of good SSR parts sitting in people's storage. I know a number of people have gearboxes...

[airsweden]

Here's that thread about car in Maine.

http://saabrally.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=768&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[nkro]

Hallo

Fitzgerald bougt the parts from Ola. (1990??) . It was after the 16 v period.

Buffam cars have another story. The guy whit the bare cylinder head. Is a part from Buffams service parts. So saab did not buy the service parts.

Citat

Yeah, the 16 valve head for the B motor is a specifically cast part for the B motor. It isn't too hard for a car manufacturer to cast another head, its a lot easier than making some cossie head fit, especially because its unlikely that the cylinders, headbolts, and cooling passages will all line up. Back when those heads were made the FIA allowed (at least in rallying) those types of parts to be used so long as the manufacturer offered them as a kit. There was a minimum of 200 kits that were supposed to be made avaiable if the parts were to be used in rallying. I've heard the same thing that Don has about only around 50 heads actually being cast and that maybe less than 20 were actually machined out. I don't know if SAAB actually planned on building 200 kits, but I know they didn't build that many and never offered them for sale to the general public.

I've personally seen two of these heads. One was on the engine in John Buffum's old 99 rally car and the other was a spare that was sold along with that car. The spare was fully dissasembled when I saw it. The story I've been told (from rally folks up in Buffum's area) is that SAAB sent Buffum the parts to build a 99 rally car (fully assembled 16V B motor, fuel system, 4spd crashbox with limited slip, etc. and spares). The car was built and then I think one of SAAB's factory rally co-drivers navigated in the car for one or a number of events. After Buffum stopped using the car he kept it stored at his house until he sold it and the spare parts back to SAAB in '98. I remember Peter Bakstrom saying that the car that I saw at the '98 convention wasn't the original shell and the original one had been scrapped due to an accident. It might be that SAAB sent Buffum all the parts from the scrapped car and got him a good US shell to put it all into. If I had the money then (I think the asking price was around $10,000) I would have bought the car - 16V factory tuned B motor with 250(?) HP, crashbox, spares mmmmm yeah.

The white and blue Saab, Sandys car? Is a Ola Strömberg car. Its not a factory car. But built whit factory parts. Probebly the car should have a Turbo engine and the "big dog box" Its a GRP A car.

The 16 V car is a GRP 4 car.

The scanwest boys rallied saab and where dealers for saab.

I think the the car in Maine Is one of Olas.

Niklas

[Geoff]

The bare cylinder head that was part of Buffum's service parts must have been a third 16v head. There was one on the car when I saw it in August '98 (after SAAB bought it and it was still in the US) and there was another complete head (and engine I think) and other parts (gearbox, etc.) that had come from Buffum at SAAB's Technical Training Center in Connecticut when I was there in November of '98. Those parts were getting ready to be shipped to Sweden. So if there is a blank head around and it belonged to Buffum then he must have had three of them...