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It’s been a little since we updated the SUHRT website but that doesn’t mean the team has been idle.
Far from it, in fact!
The last few months have seen the guys add two more cars to the garage. The question, now, is which historic rally cars these ones will made into replicas of.
First, to the two new cars.
Jörgen picked up this blue 99Turbo 2-door notchback:
And Vladimir Antonov purchased this green 99Turbo, which is also a 2-door:
Both cars will be rally-prepared eventually and the team is currently deciding which historic Saab rally cars to re-create.
The options are as follows:
1. Stig Blomqvist RAC 1979 Red
2. Stig Blomqvist Swedish Rally 1981 Blue
3. Stig Blomqvist Swedish Championships 1980 Black
4. Ola Strömberg Swedish Championships 1980 White
It’s definitely going to be a busy winter for the guys as they prepare these two cars.
Which ones would you choose?
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The Midnight Sun rally is complete for 2010.
The Saabs United Historic Rally Team did well in that they simply managed to finish the event with both cars running. Remember, these were two brand new cars that were only completed in the days before the event and one of our drivers, Vladimir Antonov, was driving in his first rally event.
And then there’s the blown engine and all the drama of finding and installing a replacement overnight.
To the placings, then….
Our #1 Car, the black 99T, with Jörgen Trued driving and Bo Janzon navigating came in 21st position.
Our #2 car, the white 99T with Vladimir Antonov driving and Denis Giraudet navigating came in 23rd position.
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Saab did well with good connections in other classes, too.
Jörgen’s uncle, Bertil Trued, won his class (Regularity, no tripmeter) in his Saab 96.
Stefan Helin came third in his class (Regularity, with tripmeter) in a Saab 99EMS.
The Historic Class (up to 1000cc) was won by Stefan Segerljung in a Saab 96 850 Monte Carlo
And finally, Kenneth Bäcklund from the Saab Performance Team won his 1600-2000cc D3 category in his Ford Escort RS.
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Congratulations to all the competitors and well done to our guys in the Saabs United Historic Rally Team!
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Today is the start of the final day in the Midnight Sun rally.
I spoke to Jörgen on the phone last night and after the drama of the previous day, he was a very relieved man.
The great news is that both cars – including the #1 car with the transplanted engine – made it through Day 2 unscathed. Well, almost unscathed. There may be a few marks or even indentations here and there where the conservatism of the regularity class was overlooked 
but both cars are running and will start the day looking to finish the event.
I’ll be posting the results to the site as soon as I hear that both cars are over the line.
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Last night, I reported that the engine in the #1 car seized up. Initial reports diagnosed an oil pressure problem, but the more the team looked into things, the more serious the situation became. This was no minor problem, it was a case of the engine going off to Valhalla, leaving our black Saab 99 Turbo high and dry.
As you may have seen in comments over at SU, Jörgen mentioned that they were going to try and transplant another engine into the #1 car.
So here’s how it happened…..
The engine came from another 99T, which was owned by a friend of the team. The car was purchased from him, and taken to a garage about 30 minutes away. They started at around 11pm last night and finished, with the engine running, at 3:30 this morning!
Just before 8am, I had the pleasure of watching the #1 roll in to the Museum car park under its own power.
The guys responsible for this massive effort are from Historic Rally Racing Team, a Swedish firm full of Saab nuts, who are specialists in preparing and repairing older Saabs exactly for this sort of work.
They also looked over the #2 car, which had a cooling problem yesterday. It turns out the cooling fan is operated by a switch, rather than being operated automatically by the thermostat – a difference that perhaps hadn’t been communicated fully. The car is all-systems-go now and both cars made a spirited start to the event just after 8am.
Some spirited driving has ensued in the #2 car?
As Denny Crane always says….. “name on the door!”
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