Carlsson Trackday - The Journey
Part 1 - by Norse Performance

As members of the Sussex Saab owners club we decided to form Norse Performance a track day car team. The team is made up of Chris Trick, Gareth Jones and Matthew Jones. This series of articles will track the progress of preparing the car in readiness for it's first outing this year.

Having gone on a charity track day at Goodwood last year we were bitten by the track day bug. We all felt that a track car would be a lot of fun and an interesting project to undertake. It was decided that racing our own Saabs was a risky option as we all rely on them for the daily commute.

After a look on the internet, in local papers and anywhere else we could think of a likely candidate emerged in the form of a 1991 9000 CD Carlsson. A few e-mails later, and a late night trip to Suffolk, the car was sitting on our driveway.

The CD Carlsson was recommended by our local Saab tuning specialist David Greenwood of SaabFlight. There were other turbo models under consideration at the start of the project, but these were decided against for the following reasons -

Ø The earlier 900 models gearbox tends to give way under the additional power present after modification.
Ø The 9000 CS does not have same stiffness to its body shell as the CD due to its hatch back.

We knew the Carlsson could be easily (and cheaply) modified to gain extra performance. Having all gained some knowledge of how to maintain and fix our own Saabs we felt confident with the excellent support on offer from David that we would be able to gain big performance improvements with relatively cheap and quick modifications.

As the funds available for the project are fairly limited we decided to seek some sponsorship for the car. We had come across John and Julian from Elkparts in the course of maintaining and modifying our own Saabs. Their enthusiasm and knowledge made them top of our list of people to contact. After a meeting and a few pints we had secured their backing.

Whilst transporting the car to its new home (having been kicked off the driveway by her in doors) an ABS fault suddenly appeared resulting in an almost total lack of brakes. Seeing no obvious problems under the bonnet and as the rain began to fall we decided to take a detour with the car to SaabFlight. A faulty ABS pump was later diagnosed and promptly repaired.

With the car back up and running (and stopping), we were finally able to get the car up on the ramps in David's workshop. The first job on a project such as this is to ensure the basic mechanical soundness of the vehicle.

An inspection of the car showed up some areas that would need to be addressed before the car could be modified for the track.
1. Leaking unions on the power steering hoses - this was evident from the characteristic bright red power steering fluid seen on the bottom of the sump.
2. Rust - A few areas of minor rust where apparent on the rear of the sills and these will require a treatment of rust killer to prevent further deterioration.
3. Brake Pipes - The rear over-axle brake pipes around the fuel tank area were quite rusty in places and needed replacing.
4. Missing Wastegate Pin - The pin was absent from the wastegate actuator rod. A minor yet very common problem on Saab 9000s.
5. Plus minor oil leaks and basic wear and tear you find on a 12 year old car.

The first hands-on stage was a full engine service. The oil and filter were changed, the sparkplugs were replaced with the standard specification NGK plugs, gapped to 1.1mm.

We added a flushing agent to the coolant reservoir which will clear any unwanted deposits from the cooling system - this will then be changed once the car has been run in and before we race. We changed the air filter for a JR Performance unit and the air box will at a later stage be modified to give increased air flow.

The next step was to begin stripping out the unnecessary interior items out of the car, this turned out to be good therapy after a long week at work. We started in the boot and worked forward, taking out anything that would not be needed on the track! This included everything from the stereo and speakers to the fibreglass sound deadening packed into the cars void spaces.

This amassed a sizable pile of parts completely filling up the back of Chris' CS Aero which had been volunteered to take the rubbish to the dump. The near scraping of the bumper on the ramp into the dump suggested that we were carrying a lot of weight! We will weigh the completed car to find out what the overall weight reduction has been.

Our next steps (which can be read about in future editions) are to commence the engine tuning, fitting racing seats and other performance parts to improve the cars handling.

If you want further details of our progress or performance enhancements, our website www.norseperformance.com includes brief guides to help you get the most from your Saab.