SAAB Sonett, FTD at the VSCCA Mount Equinox Hillclimb 2013

[formulasaab]

Hi folks,
Its been a while since I posted anything, but I figure this is a good way to start up again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7alBUcKR3Ew&feature=share&list=UUxgDJ6G9judGZlwbz2C1yjA

This is my final run at the Mt. Equinox hillclimb last Sunday. It was good enough for FTD.

Mt Equinox hillclimb is the oldest continuously run hillclimb in the country and has been a vintage only event for the last few decades.

[SwedeSport]

Awesome work,... it is even more impressive that it has a column shift!

[99sven]

Really enjoyed your footage. That was quite fun to watch. I liked the long relatively straight run near the end of the climb. It looked like the throttle was pegged to the floor! Nicely done Stefan.

[DrewP]

Very cool Stefan!

A co-worker's aunt used to own a yellow Sonett II with the roof chopped off that they Autocrossed, hers was a 2-stroke at the time the sold it though, sometime in the late '70's.

Maybe the same car? History on yours?

[formulasaab]

Really enjoyed your footage. That was quite fun to watch. I liked the long relatively straight run near the end of the climb. It looked like the throttle was pegged to the floor! Nicely done Stefan.

Thanks!

The throttle is always pegged.
That long section is where I lose time to the big cars (or cars with better gearing). The radar trap showed my top speed after "the saddle" as 87mph (~7500 rpm in 3rd). The 2nd place Corvette was recorded at 99mph.

I was actually only 4th fastest on the upper part of the course. The lower part is where I make all my time, as that's where most of the corners are. I was 5 seconds faster on the lower part than anyone else and 10 seconds faster than the Corvette.

[formulasaab]

Very cool Stefan!

A co-worker's aunt used to own a yellow Sonett II with the roof chopped off that they Autocrossed, hers was a 2-stroke at the time the sold it though, sometime in the late '70's.

Maybe the same car? History on yours?

Thanks!
Not the same car. Dad built this one in the early 80's (first shown to the public at the 1985 SOC in Chambersburg, PA).

I autocrossed it from the mid 90's until the early 00's. We turned it into a vintage road racer in 2006. It has been messing up our competitor's plans ever since.

[Geoff]

That's a great video angle, it really gives you the feel of going fast! There are too many in-car videos where the car just doesn't feel as fast as it's really going. The engine noise helps too.

[formulasaab]

I've always liked putting the camera on my helmet. I feel like it gives a better sense of what's going on with me in the driver's seat. The "speed sense" that this video gives is helped by the narrowness of the road and how close the trees are.

I agree, the engine noise is a huge factor. My greatest disappointment in my earlier videos was the poor sound quality. The two-stroke Formula S was worse in that regard than this car, as the microphone was completely outgunned and incapable of handling the pure decibel onslaught. The Go-Pro isn't perfect, but it does a better job for sure.

[gmreider]

Perhaps you would share the extent of engine modifications and gearbox mods?
I have a 68 Sonett coupe that I considered Hill climbing , but presently am running ac900.
I notice that you don't have a full cage. I suppose that meets vintage regs?

[formulasaab]

The car is set up for vintage road racing. It meets all the specs outlined for the VRG (http://www.vrgonline.org/rules/) and (with a specific age allowance) the VSCCA. One of the oddities of vintage racing is that in many cases they actually dis-allow extensive safety modifications, specifically full cages and chassis bracing.

The engine was pieced together with a lot of help from Jack Lawrence. I do the assembly, but he supplies almost all of the race-specific parts.

Lubrication:

• MSS high volume high pressure oil pump
• Air-oil cooler off a 9000T
• MSS dual oil flilter mount (one of Jack's that he used on his GT car)
• Accusump
• Oil pan modified with a windage tray of my own design/fabrication
• Crankcase ventilation of my own (ever evolving) design

Cooling:

• Re-cored radiator
• mechanical fan delete - 9000 AC fan wired instead
• swirl pot (my own fabrication)
• gutted thermostat (still trying to get the correct hole size figured out)

Fuel and air:

• MSS ported intake
• Solex P11 - later style with accelerator pump (this thing flows like crazy, but driveability is shit and I'm ready to kick it to the curb if I can't figure out how to keep it from flooding/starving in the turns. No way Jack ever raced it like this. Something is not right.).
• big Pep-Boys triangle shaped air filter modified to fit the Solex

Heads and Valvetrain:

• MSS heads - Jack's porting, big valves, relieved combustion chambers, o-ringed
• MSS spring package (main spring plus 2 "helper" spring inside the main one)
• MSS tubular pushrods and bottom ball seat lifters
• MSS "middle range" cam
• stock rocker assemblies

Bottom end

• 1500 crank - MSS balanced
• MSS timing gears
• MSS balanced flywheel with ARP flywheel bolts
• MSS balanced pressure plate with Red springs
• Pistons are MSS custom - high compression, crowned (with a flat center section to give something for the valve to bounce off of that isn't at an angle to the valve face)
• Stock rods
• ARP rod bolts

Ignition:

• V4 distributor with vacuum advance delete
• Pertronix ignitor
• Pertronix Flamethrower coil
• Spark plugs indexed... Because if I don't they impact the pistons
• Magnecor 8.5 wires

Gearbox:

• SS&R Spec1 gears
• I'm ashamed to admit that I forget which R&P we have in the car... I need to go look. I think it is a standard sedan R&P. No, we do not have a limited slip diff.