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Sacrifices for racing

I read one time in one of my hundreds of issues of National Dragsters that racers are a hardy bunch. We will forgo creature comforts and sacrifice personal relationships and credit scores all for the thrill and love of racing cars. Today I sacrificed one of my favorite things about my car. The sunroof. I say bye bye to Sunday afternoon cruises with the sunroof open and blue skies above. Hopefully the end result of all of my sacrifices will be rewarding beyond the things I have given up.

Keep on praying for our Saab brothers in Sweden,

Kaylan Marie
 

Day 6

Tonight we spent out time disassembling all of the doors. We took out all of the windows, power locks, window motors, and the wiring harnesses to the doors. We also had to take off all of the window frames, rubber seals on the bottom of the doors, and the door handles. The two passenger doors are ready for painting now, but I still need to find a good rear driver side door.

I have purchased an LC-1 Wideband unit that I need for tuning with NIRA.

Keep tuning! (tuning Saab's that is)  ;)

Kaylan Marie

Day 5

Today was productive. I caught up on my sleep! Im working 56+ hours this week so I am spent. My husband did the dirty work today and started to repair the body damage on the rear quarter panel. It wasn't wrecked but dented bad enough in some inconvenient places to warrant doing this:

You can see the slight bending on the inner fender too, so that will be cut out tomorrow and these panels will be replaced with good ones from the 94 Aero parts car.

Keep reading! Dont miss out on the fun!

Kaylan Marie

Learning from past mistakes

Out with the old and in with the new! Its official everything is out of the car except the pedal assembly. My husband starting taping the car up tonight to prevent welding splatter getting outside of the car while we do the cage.

Keep on Saabin' and pray for an AeroX. :)

Kaylan Marie

Hidden Damage

When we pulled the 94 Aero apart we found some major damage. We parted it out and its going to the junk yard. The new car is a 1997 9000. It was a one owner car and has only 120k on the clock. We towed it home on Saturday and have made some excellent progress. Its only day 3. :)

 

Merry Christmas to me!

When I bought my black leather status seat on ebay (brand new) I didn't know what type of back it had. When I talked to the seller on the phone she told me it was fiberglass. When I picked it up from her brothers home I got a little suprise! I was so excited and I can't wait to bolt this baby into my new Aero.

Carbon Kevlar is so hot!! This seat retails at $2495.00

Keep lovin' the brand!

Kaylan Marie
 

New ATL fuel cell

My new fuel cell is dimensionally identical to the one that was in my old Aero. I went with the stainless container this time instead of aluminum because #1 it was cheaper and #2 it was red and will match the color theme of my new build. This may be a race car but I am still a girl and color coordination is a must! I went with a dip stick instead of a electrical gauge this time, and also upgraded the fill plate to an aluminum style because the plastic one on my old cell felt to cheap. It has two -6 outlets, one -6 return, and one -6 vent.

Keep Saabin'!

-Kaylan Marie

2000 degree coating

My header is back from Performance Coatings in Auburn Washington where it was cleaned and coated with their velvet black 2000 degree coating. It looks as good as new, if not better. Now its time to bolt on the Synapse Engineering racing wastegate!

 

-Kaylan Marie

Status Racing seat

The new Status Racing Seat. My old ones were red cloth with fiberglass backs. This one is black leather with a fiberglass back. I would like to get a set custom made but this will do for this stage of the project. This seat is what the roll cage will be built around. I think it looks great!

-Kaylan Marie

Harnesses Arrived

I bought black instead of red. They are stunning. :)

The padding is to prevent the camlocks from putting tiny holes in my tank tops like the Takatas did. Just kidding, but that is an added bonus.

TeamTech Harnesses

For my new build I am going with TeamTech harnesses. I bought this one today to make sure I like them. Its a 5pt camlock with pelvic padding. I am going with red TeamTech harnesses and black Status Racing seats this time, both FIA approved.

On another note, I got a substantial raise at work today. It will help out with buying some of my new parts, buying our new house, and paying our lawyer bills in our custody case! Its nice to feel appreciated.

Keep Saabin'!

Kaylan Marie
 

The new beast

I have aquired my new project car. It is a stock 9000 Aero, automatic and its been passed around between probably 15 different owners. To be perfect it only needs a new front bumper, three new doors, and a front right fender.

 
...but we aren't talking about perfection here. We are talking about a new monster Saab build! I have begun taking the firsts steps into this major transformation and hope it will be a smooth quick sailing for my new project.

Yesterday James and I took my old GT3582R apart that was on the car during that horrible fire. We took off the cold side so we could access the blades and start cleaning them. We took my header off of it, and scraped all of the mangled parts around them such as the tial wastegate and mangled aluminum intercooler pipes.

 
Today I took the header into Performance Coatings in Auburn Washington and I am having the header and external wastegate dump tube coated with 2000 degree velvet black coating. It really needed a good cleaning anyways. I also took my new head into Steve at Progressive Automotive in Tacoma Washington to have the spring tensions tested to make sure the fire didnt seriously damage anything.

Once again I do not dissapoint with the famously crappy cell phone photos. However I did get a new cell phone so hopefully the images have improved slightly. ;)

Keep Saabin!

Kaylan Marie

A slight name change

On June 17th 2009 I was married to James O'Connor. :)

My husband James is from Minnesota, he is a welder, and he has learned to love Saabs! James put a roll cage into my brothers Rally America race car last winter, and my brother Quinn has been racing all year long. You can view Quinn's Rally blog here: http://www.northwindracing.com/ 

 

James and I also bought him a 2001 Viggen for $2500 with a bad motor. We did a B234R swap successfully and it ended up being my daily driver for about four months. 

Unfortunately we sold the viggen so we had enough of a down payment for this:

We arent closed on it yet, but it should close within 120 days. It was forclosed on 344k.

We need a shop for all of our SAABS! :) James is going to be converting my new 9000 to a coupe, and building it a roll cage before it gets sent off for paint.

Kaylan Marie 
  
  
  
 
 

The loss of my 9000

Well as most of you in the Saab community have already learned, my Saab 9000 was lost in a horrible car fire on 5/7/2009. Although this was a tragedy, I never lost a tear over the sudden loss of a car that I really put a little piece of my soul into. Immediately I looked toward the future and decided I would build another 9000 (my true love of all saab models) and do to it everything I never had the chance to do with my first one.

My old Aero "Dustin" was purchased six years ago for $12,000. I purchased a new 9000 Aero for $1,000 in condition that reflects the price. I have began stripping the car out and its going to get a make-over from the inside-out and from the ground up! I have already bought basically every part I will need to make the build, however time has been short lately.

I will keep blogging, so you had better keep reading. Check back often for updates.

Thanks for all the love and support!

Kaylan Marie

Shop Time

Shop time is all I really have to look forward to during the winter. I dont get to drive my 9000 much because of the weather so I get in my saab time working on my 9000. I havent done much work this year and I realized this last night when I began my "list of things I have been too lazy to do". When the list got to be three pages long I stopped writing and got back to work! ;) I recently drove my 9000 daily for about four months straight. He is running great and doesnt really need much anymore. I of course still have huge plans for him! Im working on the small stuff right now but the last major project I have left is putting in a roll cage. My kick-ass brother actually bought all of the steel tubing we need for our cars a couple of months back. Now its up to me to buy the welder and we are well on our way to having a pair of super-cool racing machines!

Since I stopped blogging my car has recieved a new gearbox. (same as the last... shot piened... cryo treated... quaife... and a few other updates courtesy of SCANWEST in seattle WA) It has also been enjoying new Champion brand spark plugs, new abbott racing door sills, and some new upholstry. (photos soon) I have also ditched the Status Racing seats for now until I can buy a new set that are FIA approved!

This week there are a few smaller projects on the bench. My boyfriend and I are working on a custom radiator support for my car. Its almost finished and then it needs some hand sanding and paint. I say "we" meaning mostly him doing the work, and me telling him what to do. What a great guy!

This past weekend we actually bought him his first Saab. Its a black 85 Turbo SPG. (maybe? how can you really tell nowadays if a 85 SPG was really a factory SPG? Does anyone know if its in the VIN or???) Anyways something is wrong with the motor so we got a killer deal on the car. We are thinking, and hoping, that its just a blown head gasket. We all know I have a lot of experience with those. ;) Now all we are waiting for is some more SHOP TIME.

More updates coming... when I get a chance. ;) Thanks for reading my saab blog!

-Kaylan Marie

500HP or parts on the floor! No parts on the floor here!

Finally my Aero topped 500WHP. 510WHP to be exact. The last dyno tuning we put out 476WHP with 32PSI from my GT35R turbocharger! THIS TIME we went 510WHP on only 18psi from the same turbo! The improvement in this 9000 in amazing. Next time we are going to run him hard and shoot for over 600WHP! Wish me luck? Im going to start buying headgaskets in a ten pack.

"Like a dimmer switch" - Saab Turbo-X Driving Academy

You have to be smooth on the power! :)

Day 1:

Day 2:

I am really no good at interviews, but I sure do love driving!

An update for those still reading. ;)

I have received a few emails regarding my absence, thank you very much to everyone that emailed!

Recently I lost my job, and once again I have managed to break my AERO. :) I am actively seeking a new job in a better working environment. My break in blogging/ work/ automotive related events has been nice and given me a chance to relax. After blowing my last head gasket only a few weeks ago many other things have gone wrong. I blew up a heater core and replaced (I got covered in coolant when it blew while putting the full 500HP down to the ground... it is a really great story), and most recently I thought I had clutch failure but it was really my gearbox failing in a miserable way for such a nice gearbox to die. :( A small plastic $8.00 oiler inside the cover failed. When it fails 4th gear gets starved of oil. 4th gear has bearings on it that go on the main rod in the gearbox that has 1st and 2nd on it. The bearings failed and cut into the rod. All in all it was a good failure. After opening up the box we were pleased to see no wear on any normal parts inside the box. It has 30,000 miles on it now inside my car with me driving. :) I'm confident I could drive on it a little more aggressively now! The new parts will be here soon but it will take about three weeks to send them out for cryo treating and to be shot piened. Don't forget this was no ordinary gearbox!

Please keep checking back to my site and I promise very soon I will be actively posting Saab news and continuous updates on my Saab for you to read!

<3 Kaylan

GM to build new Saab 9-3 in Germany 2012 on

This was originally posted on Marketwatch.com. I hope to see more information on this soon. "Built in Trollhattan by Trolls" - Would you buy a Saab built in Germany? I am a Saab purist but I do have an open mind to realize that sometimes things have to be done to keep the brand alive. Hats off to GM for sticking with Saab and not giving up.

European unit will produce the new generation of its Saab 9-3 model at its German plant in Ruesselsheim from 2012 on, biweekly Automobilwoche said in an advanced report to be published Monday, citing GM Europe's top labor representative Klaus Franz. Additionally, 500 new jobs will be created at the Ruesselsheim plant this year, according to the report. p>

2dr 9000 race car finally back on the road!

After a long hard couple of months with my 9000 its finally back on the road.

Wait, let me start again....

After a VERY long, and VERY hard couple of months with my 9000 it's finally back on the road. I don't think I have ever worked so hard on something before. These last few weeks have really showed me just how dedicated I am to this car and how much it means to me. Something I read a few months back in NATIONAL DRAGSTER has really stuck with me. This is in excerpt from an article written by Phil Burgess Editor for NATIONAL DRAGSTER a magazine dedicated to NHRA drag racing published weekly.

Racers are a hardy bunch. They'll work long into the night, in the rain, in the blazing heat, in the dirt, with busted knuckles and sweat stinging their eyes. They'll forgo creature comforts and sleep, risk relationships and credit scores. They'll get knocked down and keep getting up." - Phil Burgess

This quote triggers so many memories for me. I remember swapping my GT35R turbo (that hardly fits between the block and relocated radiator) in my yard laying on my back in the dirt during one of the hottest weeks of the year. I remember supporting all of its weight with one arm in the air while I tried to thread in the bolts with the other hand from the bottom. This makes me remember cutting my hands so many times working on my motor that I would only notice when drops of blood were running off of my tools. Most recently this morning I woke up with black weather stripping and spray glue all over my hands. Yes maybe I should have worn gloves but between taking my turbo off to fix an exhaust leak, fixing my idle, building a false firewall between the fuel cell and passenger compartment, and swapping in a new passenger seat it just slipped my mind. I have lost relationships over giving so much attention and energy towards my car, and I'm sure I have lost many friends because I simply don't have the time. Many times I have run up credit cards because I just needed one more new part... and then one more, and one more.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to put the first 90 miles on my new motor. Modifications to it include, but are not limited to: JE forged pistons, new rings - bearings - chain - guides, custom cams, valve lash caps, adjustable SPEEDPARTS cam gears, and balance shaft delete. The car drives fairly well after we did some road tuning the night before, but there is still plenty of room for improvement in the tune. The car starts up well but I have to fight it for a few seconds before it holds a perfect idle itself. I set the idle a little high at about 1300RPMs where it seems to be happiest at.

This morning I made the 45 mile drive to the tuning shop where it will be given special attention tomorrow on the dyno. :)