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Login to post Forums » Grassroots Motorsports » The 3rd life of a GRM $2010 Challenge car

April 2, 2011 11:27 p.m. Sonic Dork

This is the story of the 3rd life of a GRM Challenge car.

Most of you who came to the $2010 Challenge probably remember the 1996 Saab 9000 CSE Turbo that tb entered, and came in 31st

tb then had the car up for sale on the $2010 classifieds here twice, and I picked it up about a month ago. He only lives about 15 minutes from my mother's house (though it is 6 hours from where I live), and after we had a nice chat swapping stories and reliving the challenge, we agreed to a deal, and he dropped the car at my Mom's house.

This weekend, Chrissy and I hooked up our new trailer that I picked up 2 days ago and went off to Boston to get the Saab. This morning I loaded it on the trailer, and the Disco did an admirable job of towing the 5500# load home, with no complaints. BTW, I love my Tekonsha P3 brake controller and new trailer. Just awesome

In the coming weeks, after Lemons NJMP in our Lemons Civic Wagovan, we will get to work on the Saab. Basic plans call for a Swedish flag paint job, followed by some general swedish themes, like the swedish chef, IKEA, girl with the dragon tattoo, etc.

Updates to follow as we progress toward BABE

Børk! Børk! Børk!
April 3, 2011 11:42 a.m. tuna55 Dork

racinginc215 wrote:

Don't forget the Swedish Fish.

Hey, we (The Tunachuckers) did that at Lemons one time.
April 3, 2011 11:52 a.m. sachilles Dork

You are going to want to move the plate on that trailer. Have a similar one, and your plate won't survive there. I just mounted it off the stake pocket. Congrats on the purchase. 4.0 or 4.6 in the disco?
April 3, 2011 1:12 p.m. tb Reader

I actually miss her a little bit more than I thought I would

I am glad that she found a good home, though

Just don't judge me too harshly when you finally dig into things, it was a challenge car afterall...

My first thought for theme was 'Swedish Bikini Team' but the imagery got fairly unpleasant pretty quickly

Guess I need a new avatar now...

Good Luck
April 3, 2011 11:08 p.m. Sonic Dork

Sachilles: Yea, I can see the plate is going to be an issue. I'll find a solution. The Disco is a 4.0, and it was working hard yesterday, as the Disco+Saab+trailer+crap in both cars had a total weight of over 10,000 lbs. It didn't complain, and got the job done. It's no longbed dually big block, but it works well enough the few times a year I do tow, and this was by far the longest and heaviest tow it has ever had, 350 miles.

tb: I'm pretty pumped about it. You really stuffed it full of goodies, I haven't had time to go through all of it as we are in last minute thrash for our Lemons car, but there is a lot of stuff in there! I'm not worried about "challenge car" fixes, as BABE rally repairs are much much worse. Swedish Bikini Team? That imagery sounds very pleasant to me.
April 4, 2011 5:43 a.m. JThw8 SuperDork

Sonic wrote: Swedish Bikini Team? That imagery sounds very pleasant to me.

Sonic likes the way the material feels on his body.
April 4, 2011 9:54 a.m. Wally SuperDork

Sonic wrote:

Swedish Bikini Team? That imagery sounds very pleasant to me.

Often we picture one thing,

And life hands us something a little different:
April 4, 2011 10:19 a.m. Rusted_Busted_Spit Dork

^ I think you are looking in the wrong place:
April 23, 2011 10:17 p.m. Sonic Dork

Wow, I missed some posts on this thread while I was working on the car.

As a bridge between those pics and on topic, my girlfriend (Chrissy) did buy this costume to go with the theme of the car

Though she is blond, she is about the same size as this girl. Here is a pic from BABE rally 2010
I'm the one in the dress in the front of the picture, Chrissy is in Black on the left, TheWake is on the right in his Scarecrow outfit, and Allison (Chrissy's BABE rally teammate is between Chrissy and I.

Moving on...
For the Saab, I've driven it to to work several days this week. It is a nice car, and I remember how much I like these cars. This is my 3rd 9000 Turbo, and I've never paid more than $800 for one. After driving it a bit and putting some of the rear interior back in it, I got it jacked up in the garage and gave it a once over.

Here's what it needs:
Both driveaxles
Shifter linkage
Thermostat
right rear brake caliper
all fluids flushed
procure missing interior pieces (like rear seatbelts) and install
Theme
install BABE accessories (CB, power outlets, iPod adapter)
profit!

I better start ordering stuff.
April 23, 2011 10:19 p.m. Sonic Dork

JThw8 wrote:

Sonic wrote: Swedish Bikini Team? That imagery sounds very pleasant to me.

Sonic likes the way the material feels on his body.

And yes Jim, I do. It makes me feel pretty. So does Nomex.
April 24, 2011 7:29 a.m. huge-O-chavez SuperDork

Wait you paid less than $800 for it?
April 24, 2011 7:48 a.m. JThw8 SuperDork

huge-O-chavez wrote:

Wait you paid less than $800 for it?

It was for sale over in the classifieds for $600, a screaming bargain.
April 24, 2011 7:55 a.m. fornetti14 HalfDork

My '93 had terrible TCS check engine light issues. I swear the car tried to kill me.

I've heard the '96 + cars were much better in that area. The car (when running correctly) was freakin' awesome. Ours was black too!!

There's a '94 with a bad motor in my area and I'm trying not to think about buying it right now. Perfect body and interior (w/5-speed) for $500.
April 24, 2011 9:29 p.m. Sonic Dork

Yup, $600 as advertised right here in the $2010 classifieds, with a spare set of wheels/tires (so the car was $500, the extra wheels with RA1s were $100).

The TCS system on the 93 and 94 models is a nightmare. I would avoid a car with that system at all costs. Fortunately, they realized it was a problem and got rid of it for 95. By 96, they had really worked out most of the bugs in the platform, and now they are just suffering from old luxury car syndrome, where some of the electrical contacts are spotty in the many power systems in the car.
April 24, 2011 10:27 p.m. DILYSI Dave SuperDork

Is that snow on the ground? When it's nearly May? WTF?
April 24, 2011 11:02 p.m. gamby SuperDork

DILYSI Dave wrote:

Is that snow on the ground? When it's nearly May? WTF?

That has to be closer to late-March. March 31 was the last time we saw snow in these parts.

That said, I like where this project is going. I also like the naughtiness factor.
April 25, 2011 8:55 p.m. Sonic Dork

Yup, snow on the ground in Boston, April 2nd. I had to clear off the car where it was sitting in a shady spot in the yard for the prior 3 weeks, and some spots still had a good 3-4" of snow.

Gamby, thanks...just wait until it is painted.

An update on the car, tonight I ordered most of the parts needed, and am working on sourcing some of the used parts I need (like seatbelts, etc).
June 4, 2011 10:04 p.m. Sonic Dork

UPDATE! We leave for BABE tomorrow. I've been busy prepping the car.

Mechanically, I've had to replace the drive axles, shift linkage, right rear caliper, and thermostat.

In the interior, I had to put back all of the rear interior that tb removed, which even required sourcing the seatbelts and carpet and a few other things.

We painted it in the driveway with Eastwood single stage blue and a HF HVLP gun. I didn't bother to check the settings, and did it in the driveway on a windy day, leaving a fair amount of texture and a few runs. We did a quick and dirty wetsanding, which helped a little, but it is full of swirlmarks, even after some compounding. The wheels, wipers, and spoiler are all spraybomb yellow.

Today we added the stripes and vinyl.

Overall it has been running well, I've put about 350 miles on it, it is getting an average of 30 mpg. There are a bunch of little things that don't work, as to be expected in a 15 year old swedish luxury car with 218k miles, but as far as BABE cars go, this thing is first rate.

You can follow along on our blog which we will update from the road: http://misfittoysbabe2011.wordpress.com/
June 6, 2011 2:13 p.m. miatame HalfDork

Okay let's check the blog...car is already puking coolant on day one?!

Car looks great though.

haha I think I need to do this Babe Rally thing!
June 6, 2011 2:40 p.m. tb Reader

OH NO!!!

Now I feel a little bad since that will be the 4th radiator in that car in less then 2 years... I guess they all break in that area eventually... I put over 4k miles on the latest one and really thought it would hold together... Luckily that is a pretty easy swap once you actually get the parts...

But the car does look great, and it wouldn't be a BABE car if things didn't break!

Good luck !
June 6, 2011 2:50 p.m. SilverFleet HalfDork

Car looks great! Good luck with the rally!!!
June 6, 2011 3:36 p.m. miatame HalfDork

tb wrote:

OH NO!!!

Now I feel a little bad since that will be the 4th radiator in that car in less then 2 years... I guess they all break in that area eventually... I put over 4k miles on the latest one and really thought it would hold together... Luckily that is a pretty easy swap once you actually get the parts...

But the car does look great, and it wouldn't be a BABE car if things didn't break!

Good luck !

This is hardly your fault unless you jacked the car up once or twice using the overflow neck...
June 6, 2011 3:56 p.m. pinchvalve SuperDork

My brother is Swedish if you need any translations.
June 6, 2011 4:00 p.m. Jay SuperDork

...and you're not?

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