Saabmarine Racecar

Funny story here.

My brother had a black 2005 Saab 9-2X Aero. In 2012, he broke his neck in a dirt bike accident and could no longer drive a manual. At the time, the Saab was in Rochester, New York, where he had just finished college. While he was still in the hospital, I flew up from Houston and drove it straight through back, which was a hair-raising experience. The rear suspension had been in a sideways fight with a curb and the new alignment corded tires in < 5,000 miles. If you took your hand off the wheel for 1 second, you'd be 3 lanes over in traffic. And this was after a visit to an alignment shop. There was an exhaust leak somewhere that wasn't too bad as long as you were moving. Not recommended settings for cross-country work.

Once back in Houston, the car lived at my house for some months. I took it to a reputable alignment shop and they were able to get it back within spec, which made it a whole new car. I replaced some gaskets that mostly fixed the exhaust leak(s?). I spent some time with a Porter Cable and got it looking respectable.

Here's how it looked when I put it up for sale for him in late 2013:

It was pretty nice. As most of you probably know, this car was the result of GM owning Saab and having a 20% stake in Fuji (Subaru's parent company). GM wanted a Volvo V50 competitor and commissioned a cosmetic upgrade to create this badge-engineered WRX. It's a second-gen Impreza WRX wagon underneath, with an STi steering rack and aluminum rear control arms plus a different interior. This one had a COBB tune, Whiteline anti-roll bars, SSR forged wheels, some mild lowering springs and a couple other small things. It was decently fast and fun with the 5-spd manual and AWD.

At the time, my friend Nik (who's shop I've invaded with Mom's 280Z and now this) was looking for a daily driver at the time. He bought the car and drove it for a few years.

At some point (2015?), Nik sold the Saabaru to a friend that was in the Air Force (Matt maybe? We'll just go with Matt). Matt took good care of the car and did some much-needed maintenance plus a few upgrades. Then, Matt was assigned to fly F-15's at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. Poor guy.

Matt sold the car back to Nik.

Nik used it as a daily driver after getting rid of his CTS-V coupe (which he hated with a surprising amount of passion). Then, he took it to the Houston airport, IAH, and parked it on a surface lot for his trip to Europe in late August 2017.

And that's where it sat for the largest rainstorm ever recorded in the United States, Hurricane Harvey. 40" of rain in 4 days.

By the time Nik returned, most of the flood water had subsided, but he found the Saabaru with water in the cupholders and dripping from up behind the dash. Thus was born the Saabmarine. Best guess is that it had water up to the dash. He had it towed back home, where he and his fiancee spent a weekend disassembling the interior to dry it out and discard the dead/moldy stuff.

At some point he attempted to get it ready for a track weekend. The car started and moved under it's own power, but only a few feet in the garage to check. Because of his impending wedding, he didn't make it to the track.

After the wedding, Nik was auditing his shop/cars/projects/interests. The Saabmarine didn't really fit in his portfolio, so he mentioned to me a few weeks ago that he was probably going to sell it. Cheap.

Now, I have a bit of a sentimental attachment to the car, so I was sad to hear that it was leaving the family. But as I thought about it more, I realized that this could be the perfect opportunity. I've been wanting to get back to the track, but I don't have a car. The Datsun is probably 3 years away (optimistically) from being track-ready. Here was a solution staring me in the face.

Nik made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so after spousal lobbying and approval, I'm now the proud owner of a 13 year old, 4 owner, crashed, flooded, stripped, rusted, maybe running car! Hm, it doesn't sound as good when I type it out...

So I'm really not sure what kind of shape it's actually in. I took a brief peak around last week during my weekly shop visit (my exquisite wife gives me an entire afternoon/night each week to play at Nik's shop, while she wrangles our 7 month old and 2.5 yr old). I was a bit distracted with Datsun stuff, so I didn't really achieve much, other than a few photos.

At this stage, my plan is to to do the minimum to get it ready for a track day. That means it needs:

• Seats (plus a way to mount them)
• Harnesses (plus a way to mount them - harness bar?)
• Brake pads/rotors/flush
• Wiring to get the windows functional (I think Nik still has the door panels floating around somewhere. No pun intended)

Once I get it driving, I figure it'll tell me what it needs. I'm excited to have an AWD manual turbo track car that has such a robust aftermarket. I've never really gotten into WRX stuff- they sound strange. My brother tells me it will grow on me.

Anybody have any WRX-goes-to-the-track tips? Flooded car tips? I'll need 'em.

damen

Sweet! You need a periscope though. 

Wait...

So this is a WRX built by GM and branded Swedish?

Learned something.

In reply to SVreX :

I'd probably say it was commissioned by GM, but still a WRX built by Subaru in Japan. Production was only in 2005 and 2006, as the partnership between GM and Fuji was dissolved.

WRX's need oil pan work to track them.

Long left-hand turns (I think), starve the engine of oil. So make sure you look into this.

badwaytolive said:

In reply to SVreX :

I'd probably say it was commissioned by GM, but still a WRX built by Subaru in Japan. Production was only in 2005 and 2006, as the partnership between GM and Fuji was dissolved.

They weren't even the same in each year. 05's had the 2.0L EJ205 and the 06 got the 2.5L.

That's a nice looking car sorry to hear about your brother's accident. AAZCD recently shared his rebuild of a Boxster flood car that was in really rough shape after being completely submerged in hurricane Harvey (now driving & registered with only minor things still needed). How are part availabilities between saab/subaru? Good luck with the project

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/flood-car-my-2004-porsche-boxster-s-se/136449/page1/

NGTD said:

WRX's need oil pan work to track them.

Long left-hand turns (I think), starve the engine of oil. So make sure you look into this.

I've seen reference to this, but I hear more about the lousy construction of the OEM pickup tube causing it to snap off in the pan. Equally bad.

Killerb seems to have built a nice reputation on the back of their pickup and other oiling products.

Then there are the ringland failures from detonation I guess, which can be related to blowby causing a lot of oil getting into intake air. Air-oil separator can help this a lot, apparently.

It's shop night today and I'm going to spend time checking the car out. I should have much more to report tomorrow.

damen

In reply to hvoxi :

Thanks for the kind words.

Yes, I've been following AAZCD's flood rebuild since he got it- great tips in there.

Except for some specific body panels and interior parts, most of the parts are interchangeable between the 9-2x and the WRX wagon, which gives me quite a robust aftermarket!

damen

You are aware that the Challenge sub-class is wagons this year, you might have a contender there. That'll be a fun track car once it's running.

Adam

In reply to adam525i :

I paid $1,500 for this, so it is indeed a good candidate. Especially since the wheels could be sold for some decent recoup money.

However, as much as I'd like to, there's effectively a 0% chance of me being able to attend the actual event, so I won't be going in that direction.

I went to a wedding recently and made a new friend. We'll call him Phil, because his name is Phil. He works for Roush Yates Engineering and supports the Ford GT GTE Pro car whose engine is from RYE. From what I can gather, Phil knows all when it comes to race-spec parts and configurations. Being an EFI electronics expert, his advice has been particularly timely and useful on my other project, Mom's 280Z, but I haven't wasted any opportunity to ask him any question that pops into my small brain.

For the Saabmarine, this manifested as an oil question. I wanted to change the oil both as a precaution and to check for water from the flood, so I did some internetting to check what kind of oil to put back in.

Holy arguments. Between NASIOC and whatever other nonsense, I could find vigorous arguments for and against literally ANY oil in existence. So I asked Phil: what should I put in for track duty, but won't hurt to run on the street?

Mobil 1 Racing 0w-50 Synthetic

Unfortunately, Walmart didn't have that, so I got some Mobil 1 0w40 non-racing. I'm pretty sure I'll have to drain this again before the first track outing to install a new oil pickup and baffle and pan, so I'm not going to stress.

Then when I rolled up with the 0w-40, Nik, who works in ExxonMobil's research department and has access to all the internal documents for their oil products, told me that this 0w-40 is pretty much the best performance/$$ oil on the market. Win.

I drained the old oil- no water or funkiness, so that's a big win too.

New oil and filter in, no drama.

I was hoping to see if I could get the car started on this particular trip, so next I moved to the battery tray to get a battery re-installed.

Upon examining the wiring harness in that area, I observed some funkiness that I'm not too excited about. But, flood car.

I'm not sure what to do about this that doesn't involve removing it all and cleaning and reinstalling. Any ideas? Does it even matter?

Anyhow, I did my best to clean up the area and put a battery back in. I then moved to the interior to get the wiring hooked back up and tucked back in a bit. It was a mess from the flood remediation.

Between trying to figure out where everything is supposed to go, then actually putting it where it's supposed to go, I spent a couple hours just organizing. I got to a pretty good spot, though, with only the gauge cluster and assorted center console wires left to sort.

I think I'll probably remove those grey support pieces where the rear seat bench used to be. Any reason not to? I can't imagine they're adding structural rigidity. But I've been wrong before.

With the wiring sorted (enough), I hooked up a battery and turned the key. I took a video, but it fired up right away into a super normal idle; it was too boring to bother uploading.

But, yay! It starts! I would have taken it for a test drive, but the seats are long gone. I'm not tall enough to see over the cowl when seated on the floor, so I need to get some seats.

Luckily for me, Nik had some racing seats in stock. He offered me a nice deal, so I took it. (2) never used Sparco Pro 2000's. They fit me really well, so I'm very excited. Nothing beats a good racing seat when you're on track.

I've ordered some low-profile slider mounts; I hope they don't suck, but we'll find out soon enough.

I'm now consternating over the price of racing harnesses. I haven't bought one in 10 years. Have they always been $400 each? Zoinks.

damen

Very much fun!  Looks like a good deal to me

Well, I'm not sure these low profile mounts don't suck.

I'm not horribly excited about the build quality on these, but the material is so overkill that I'm not too worried about them breaking either. 

They look fine from 5 feet away.

The big thing I really like is how low they put the seat. The bolts for the side mounts and the tabs for the bolts to the car are literally welded to the beefy sliders. You can't get any lower without bolting it straight to the floor, which I don't want to do because adjustability.

Anyhow, the driver's side rear mount is supposed to bolt to the transmission tunnel (where the factory mount is), but as you can see in the photo below, where all the scratches are, it didn't fit.

At that point, I had to decide if I was going to keep them, despite the ugly craftsmanship etc, or return them.

Ultimately, I decided to just keep them, mod to suit, and drive the car. The other mounting option is to buy an adapter that bolts to the car, then bolt sliders to the adapter plate, then bolt the seat side mounts and seat to the slider, adding probably 3" of height. Not to mention 120% more expense. Pass.

So I massaged the interfering corner on the mount, then painted.

It wasn't quite enough, so I used a ball peen to massage the transmission tunnel a bit.

Then it fit.

The door side fit right up, so I mounted the seat. Success! I do love these seats. Nice snug fit and very comfortable. And they look cool.

With that sorted, I cleaned the windshield, adjusted the mirrors, and took it on a maiden voyage!

There seems to be something wonky with the steering; early indications are the firewall bushing/bearing has popped out of place. The throttle is a bit sticky. There is some strange whining noise when the clutch first starts grabbing, but goes away as soon as fully engaged. 

Since it was dark out, I had no gauges, the steering was wonky, and it hadn't been seriously driven in 10 months, I didn't go far or fast. Just around the corner to mix in some fresh gas. I realized I hadn't driven a manual car in years. Feelsgoodman.jpg.

I'd call the first drive a success. It definitely needs a bath.

I didn't get much else done, but I did unpack some Datsun parts and help Nik pull the 2.5L out of his red bugeye. There are some serious conflicting and suspicious stories about the car from the previous owner, but Nik is furiously disassembling, so we'll find out soon enough.

These are all my first real experiences with these flat 4 motors. I can see the appeal; it was really easy to pull this one out because of the exterior dimensions (it's super short both in height, AND front to back).

Next for the Saabmarine will be passenger seat, gauges, sorting the steering, and hopefully a harness bar and some 6 point harnesses. I've been choking pretty badly on the 6pt harness pricing, so I have to come to grips with that first...

damen

Please don't put in a harness bar.  Either put in a real rollbar, or just run the factory 3 point harnesses.

In reply to docwyte :

Really? What's wrong with a harness bar?

No roll over protection.  You're in a fixed back seat with a 6 point fixed harness.  What's going to happen in a crash?  If you rollover, you're held in place and the roof caves in.  If you get hit in a side impact, the harness bar is going to bend/break and now you're no longer restrained.

Harness bars are the devil.  Do it all, the right way, or don't do it at all applies here in spades.  Since the car is gutted I'd honestly just put in a full cage and not even bother with a roll bar.

Just saying, if you want to get started, JEGS branded has 5-point harnesses for cheap and they are SFI rated...

"Old Style Latch" $70  https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/70082/10002/-1

Cam Lock $125 https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/70087/10002/-1

In reply to AWSX1686 :

Right on, my dude, thanks!

This looks like a fun project, and sounds like it was cheap enough to keep things low-stress. My kind of trackday car!

The Saabaru styling works in some colors and not others IMO, but in black it looks great. Especially with those wheels.

As a compromise between harness bar and building a full cage yourself, it may be wise to look into something like a bolt-in cage kit. The hard part is done already (interior gutting) and you'd end up with something far safer.

I think I have conversed with your friend Phil at RYE via email. I also support the Ford GT in IMSA and WEC. My employer makes high-speed machines that use the power of exhaust to compress intake air, and I worked with Ford directly in 2014 / 2015 to spec out the GT turbochargers and get them up and running. The program passed to a colleague of mine but when he left the company I inherited it again. I'm back to being the single POC for GT turbo engineering & customer service, working mostly with Roush Yates now. Small world!

Your photos are really high quality! Cool project too. Always loved Saabs, even the "fake" ones. I prefer the Saab over Subaru styling for this car.

In reply to Duder :

I agree- cheap and low stress are good trackday car properties! 

I believe you are right about the cage vs harness bar situation; I am just having a hard time conjuring up the $(price of car * n, where n > 2) for all this not-making-the-car-faster stuff. I suspect I will do a harness bar for a couple slow track days to get a bit of a quick fix, then disassemble the car to have it properly caged while I rebuild the whole thing from stem to stern. Probably some built 2.5L something? Eliminate the cheap and low stress properties at least. After all, if any of us could "just leave it well alone and drive", we wouldn't all be here, would we?

Small world indeed- very cool! Phil is excellent people, as I'm sure you've found out. He is also very glad that Le Mans is done.

From what he's described to me about boost regulation and performance balancing, I can imagine the turbo design might have some interesting parameters and constraints?

damen

In reply to maschinenbau :

Thanks for that- I spend an embarrassing amount of time on the photo part of this stuff.

I'm glad someone else thinks this is cool- I admit I have a bit of a sour taste for these cars based on second-hand experience and NASIOC. I'm hoping that working on this one in my own way will alleviate a bit of that. I mean come on, turbo, AWD, manual, infinite aftermarket!

I, too, prefer the Saab styling for this particular chassis.

As an aside- although I haven't posted much, I've really enjoyed your builds and am amazed at how quickly you mow down problems and get things done; cheers to your conitnued success!

damen

In reply to badwaytolive :

If it was Phil V. then yes - I worked with him back in the early days of the GT when we were still setting everything up. With BOP being applied so many times and with severity, the turbos end up operating pretty far off of the design point. If we knew where the boost limit was going to end up then the turbo match likely would've looked very different. Unfortunately it's homolgated for 3 years and we can't make any major changes. Even without homologation restrictions, if you improve your performance too much they will BOP you right back down again...

At least it makes for exciting races for the fans!

I had a 2003 WRX wagon trackday car / daily driver that I resisted modifying severely and it served me well. That was a 2.0L of course so it was quite gutless in town but made for a good all 'rounder and was fine on the track. I can see why you'd want to upgrade to a 2.5L, if this is going to be a multipurpose car. Then again more displacement will make a track car better too.

I found this thread through your 280Z thread and will watch them both with interest.

badwaytolive said:

 

I'm now consternating over the price of racing harnesses. I haven't bought one in 10 years. Have they always been $400 each? Zoinks.

damen

Just go buy a set of Racequip. Just as safe, just as legal, just as good, have camlocks, way cheaper. I'd say a good half of rally teams I know use them (especially since we have to buy TWO sets for our cars, lol). I think the sets I got were like $129 each.....6-point camlock HANS 2-->3" in black. If you can deal with an ugly color (lime green) they can be even cheaper!