Thursday, 9 June 2022
Sunday, 10 October 2021
JDM day at Combe
Had a great day out again with the daughter at Castle Combe. We missed the vintage day last weekend due to family stuff but got away this Saturday. As always stunning cars to be seen and even an old rat rod Saab had snuck in 😄
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Saturday, 16 January 2010
P900 RIP
Forgot to mention... P900 "died" back last year. Head Gasket failure and didn't have space to get it fixed as I have another c900 that needs fixing and is waiting to be used as my main car.
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Eurofest Action Day at Castle Combe
Took the "P900" to Castle Combe last Saturday for the Eurofest action day. Had two sessions out on track, first was at the "base boost" that the car had been running since we had it. The second later on in the day, I took the waste gate hose off to see if the car would boost until fuel cut out - which it did.
An excellent day out with the rest of the UKSaabs bunch just hope some of them got some pics of the car in action on track!
EDIT>> pic of car on track thanks to Graeme.
Thursday, 28 August 2008
More pics
"Official" slideshow of the event..
http://slideshow.valhallarun.com/
Lots of random stuff in there but plenty of the Pipe mobile, aka P900.
http://slideshow.valhallarun.com/
Lots of random stuff in there but plenty of the Pipe mobile, aka P900.
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
The Valhalla Run - brief rundown of what went on.
The idea was to update the blog as we went along via emails off a mobile phone as none of us took a laptop. Trouble was none of the roaming networks would send the emails, although picture messaging worked out fine.
So a brief run down of what went on.
Day 0.. (16th August > 17th)
Drive to Cheq's and pick up the rest of the team and do some last minute work to the car. The fuel gauge doesn't work on the car so reset the odometer and filled up then headed East on the M4.
About 80 miles into the journey I realised the odometer had only recorded 59 miles. Oh great, no real way of telling what millage we were about to do and no idea of fuel usage.
Got to Cheq's ok and changed the oil, failed to remove the oil filter so filled up with new oil. Cheq installed the freebie ICE system he had acquired and then we had tunes.
We decided not to try swapping the rear springs but loaded them in to the car just in case. Around 5pm we headed to Dover to board the ferry to Dunkerque.
Once we arrived at Dunkerque we had already decided to drive straight for Copenhagen and not pitch tent.
TomTom lead us to the Puttgarden ferry which we paid up and got on with out question. Then about 10 minutes into the crossing I asked the guys if anyone knew where the ferry was taking us. Blank faces is all I got for a response.
Anyway we were on the correct track as we soon arrived in Rodby and headed off to Copenhagen.
Once in Copenhagen we quickly found a campsite with a recommendation from another team and then headed out in to the city centre to sign in for the event and then go get a meal.
Whilst we all would agree our meals were excellent, the service was crap.
Day 1 - 18th Copenhagen to Lillehammer.
The challenge for today was to identify some cryptic images and then take the full photo of them, something we gave up on almost straight away even though we were in for a rather dull drive up the motorways to our destination.
However we made our own fun and had a slight detour to Trollhattan and visited the SAAB museum there. After we had our browse around the museum we went out found the car and thought that after coming all this way we should get a photo of the car right outside the museum.
G drove the car up on to the pavement right outside the entrance and the rest of us were ready to run in case of trouble.
We had already gotten a few pics when some of the museum staff came out to see what was going on. we thought we were in for it but instead they asked what we were doing with the car and could they take their own pictures for the museum!
After the museum visit we headed over to the other side of Trollhattan and visited the main SAAB dealerships so G could get some of those euro style number plate backing things and name badges.
Then continued the fairly boring drive to Lillehammer.
Day 2&3 - 19th & 20th Lillehammer to Umea via Trondheim.
Days 2 and 3 were open, basically you had to get to Umea in Sweden by the end of day 3. So like a lot of other teams we took the long way around and incorporated the "Trolls Ladder" before getting to Trondheim at about 10:30pm.
Trodheim was packed full of people, seems like it was freshers week at the local university. We had no where to stay and the nearest campsite was miles away. We hung around in Trondheim for about 3 hours then got back in the car and headed East to Umea through what was left of the night and day.
This got pretty surreal on this part of the trip, just getting out of Tronheim we hit roadworks so went on a little detour which eventually lead us on to what we believe was a pavement. Then just before crossing the Norway/Sweden border a small Elk (still the size of a horse) decided to run out from the cover of the roadside trees and out in front of the car. Bit of a wake up call that one and something I had been wondering all the time we were out there if it would happen and it did.
Rest of the drive was fairly uneventful apart from the total lack of tarmac on a few miles of Swedish road.
Day 4- Umea to Kuopio & the Artic Circle.
Today was head for Kuopio in Finland from Umea, the ferry crossing was out of the question so we hit the road and also went a bit further North than we needed to cross into the Arctic Circle.
Day 5 - Kuopio to Helsinki
Not a direct route from Kuopio to Helsinki, nope we had some proper navigation to do and got to drive on some proper back country roads that resembled WRC style stages.
Got into Helsinki in one piece and booked into our one and only hotel of the event and met up with "Jope" from the Finnish SAAB Club who came out with us for a meal and a few beers.
Day 6 - Going home?
We had booked the Turku to Stockholm ferry which didn't leave port until 9pm so we had plenty of time to kill today.
We had arranged to meet up with Jope again to go visit his collection of SAABs, especially his 900CD/Finlander and then drive past Turku to Nystad and visit the museum at the Vahlmet factory to see some more SAABs.
The ferry arrived in Stockholm at around 6am Sunday morning and yet again we had kind of decided to see how far we could go before stopping and having to make camp.
In all after some very frequent driver swaps we made Dunkerque at about 3am Monday morning and managed to catch the 6am ferry to Dover.
Back in the UK and heading for Cheq's place to unload the car, have a cup of tea and say farewell as we head our separate ways.
Some pics off my mobile phone cam at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50940&l=36f7f&id=552603487
or
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonessn/
So a brief run down of what went on.
Day 0.. (16th August > 17th)
Drive to Cheq's and pick up the rest of the team and do some last minute work to the car. The fuel gauge doesn't work on the car so reset the odometer and filled up then headed East on the M4.
About 80 miles into the journey I realised the odometer had only recorded 59 miles. Oh great, no real way of telling what millage we were about to do and no idea of fuel usage.
Got to Cheq's ok and changed the oil, failed to remove the oil filter so filled up with new oil. Cheq installed the freebie ICE system he had acquired and then we had tunes.
We decided not to try swapping the rear springs but loaded them in to the car just in case. Around 5pm we headed to Dover to board the ferry to Dunkerque.
Once we arrived at Dunkerque we had already decided to drive straight for Copenhagen and not pitch tent.
TomTom lead us to the Puttgarden ferry which we paid up and got on with out question. Then about 10 minutes into the crossing I asked the guys if anyone knew where the ferry was taking us. Blank faces is all I got for a response.
Anyway we were on the correct track as we soon arrived in Rodby and headed off to Copenhagen.
Once in Copenhagen we quickly found a campsite with a recommendation from another team and then headed out in to the city centre to sign in for the event and then go get a meal.
Whilst we all would agree our meals were excellent, the service was crap.
Day 1 - 18th Copenhagen to Lillehammer.
The challenge for today was to identify some cryptic images and then take the full photo of them, something we gave up on almost straight away even though we were in for a rather dull drive up the motorways to our destination.
However we made our own fun and had a slight detour to Trollhattan and visited the SAAB museum there. After we had our browse around the museum we went out found the car and thought that after coming all this way we should get a photo of the car right outside the museum.
G drove the car up on to the pavement right outside the entrance and the rest of us were ready to run in case of trouble.
We had already gotten a few pics when some of the museum staff came out to see what was going on. we thought we were in for it but instead they asked what we were doing with the car and could they take their own pictures for the museum!
After the museum visit we headed over to the other side of Trollhattan and visited the main SAAB dealerships so G could get some of those euro style number plate backing things and name badges.
Then continued the fairly boring drive to Lillehammer.
Day 2&3 - 19th & 20th Lillehammer to Umea via Trondheim.
Days 2 and 3 were open, basically you had to get to Umea in Sweden by the end of day 3. So like a lot of other teams we took the long way around and incorporated the "Trolls Ladder" before getting to Trondheim at about 10:30pm.
Trodheim was packed full of people, seems like it was freshers week at the local university. We had no where to stay and the nearest campsite was miles away. We hung around in Trondheim for about 3 hours then got back in the car and headed East to Umea through what was left of the night and day.
This got pretty surreal on this part of the trip, just getting out of Tronheim we hit roadworks so went on a little detour which eventually lead us on to what we believe was a pavement. Then just before crossing the Norway/Sweden border a small Elk (still the size of a horse) decided to run out from the cover of the roadside trees and out in front of the car. Bit of a wake up call that one and something I had been wondering all the time we were out there if it would happen and it did.
Rest of the drive was fairly uneventful apart from the total lack of tarmac on a few miles of Swedish road.
Day 4- Umea to Kuopio & the Artic Circle.
Today was head for Kuopio in Finland from Umea, the ferry crossing was out of the question so we hit the road and also went a bit further North than we needed to cross into the Arctic Circle.
Day 5 - Kuopio to Helsinki
Not a direct route from Kuopio to Helsinki, nope we had some proper navigation to do and got to drive on some proper back country roads that resembled WRC style stages.
Got into Helsinki in one piece and booked into our one and only hotel of the event and met up with "Jope" from the Finnish SAAB Club who came out with us for a meal and a few beers.
Day 6 - Going home?
We had booked the Turku to Stockholm ferry which didn't leave port until 9pm so we had plenty of time to kill today.
We had arranged to meet up with Jope again to go visit his collection of SAABs, especially his 900CD/Finlander and then drive past Turku to Nystad and visit the museum at the Vahlmet factory to see some more SAABs.
The ferry arrived in Stockholm at around 6am Sunday morning and yet again we had kind of decided to see how far we could go before stopping and having to make camp.
In all after some very frequent driver swaps we made Dunkerque at about 3am Monday morning and managed to catch the 6am ferry to Dover.
Back in the UK and heading for Cheq's place to unload the car, have a cup of tea and say farewell as we head our separate ways.
Some pics off my mobile phone cam at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50940&l=36f7f&id=552603487
or
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonessn/
Thursday, 14 August 2008
Fully legal
MOT, tax and insured (all 4 of us) as of yesterday plus tracking/alignment done... although still has massive understeer in the wet, as it's on 185 tyres
Just need to change oil and rear springs now. Not that I have the time or the inclination to change the rear springs at the moment. Oil change will be done at Cheq's driveway on route to ferry, Saturday.
Many thanks to SAABStyle, Motortec and D&E Motors for the work done this week.
Just need to change oil and rear springs now. Not that I have the time or the inclination to change the rear springs at the moment. Oil change will be done at Cheq's driveway on route to ferry, Saturday.
Many thanks to SAABStyle, Motortec and D&E Motors for the work done this week.
Monday, 11 August 2008
Proposed route for Team-PIPE
Day 1: Copenhagen, Denmark > Lillehammer, Norway.
View Larger Map
Day 2: We have a choice, go straight for Umea, Sweden (starting point of day 4) or take the long route and take in the "trolls ladder" near Trollstigen and then on to somewhere like Kristiansund, Norway.
View Larger Map
Day 3: Where ever we end up on Day 2 > Umeå, Sweden
View Larger Map
Day 4: Is a choice of catching the ferry across the Baltic and then drive to Kuopio, Finland. Or take the costal road and drive all the way.
Yep, we're driving.
View Larger Map
Day 5: Kuopio > Helsinki, Finland.
View Larger Map
Whilst the millages covered don't look to huge per day, the Scandinavian countries have some pretty strict speed limits and I'm guessing we'll be stuck at 30~35MPH for most of this trip. Add in the fact that we have to drive to the Start of the event in Copenhagen from the UK and then we have opted to bring our car back to the UK, it's going to be a bit of a trip.
View Larger Map
Day 2: We have a choice, go straight for Umea, Sweden (starting point of day 4) or take the long route and take in the "trolls ladder" near Trollstigen and then on to somewhere like Kristiansund, Norway.
View Larger Map
Day 3: Where ever we end up on Day 2 > Umeå, Sweden
View Larger Map
Day 4: Is a choice of catching the ferry across the Baltic and then drive to Kuopio, Finland. Or take the costal road and drive all the way.
Yep, we're driving.
View Larger Map
Day 5: Kuopio > Helsinki, Finland.
View Larger Map
Whilst the millages covered don't look to huge per day, the Scandinavian countries have some pretty strict speed limits and I'm guessing we'll be stuck at 30~35MPH for most of this trip. Add in the fact that we have to drive to the Start of the event in Copenhagen from the UK and then we have opted to bring our car back to the UK, it's going to be a bit of a trip.
GPS Tracking now Live
The link over on the right is now live for GPS tracking of the car. Just need to attach the device to the car and power it up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
The Valhalla Run
In Norse mythology, those who fell gloriously in battle passed on to a magnificent place called Valhalla. In bangerese we call that a scrapyard. If Valhalla has a car park, we're sure to be adding to it before this route is run.
Valhalla Run is StreetSafari's 5th European Banger Rally.
We've gone in every other direction: East through Europe; South to Africa; West to America.
Nowhere to go now but North...
The event starts in Copenhagen on the 18th of August.
We cross into Sweden, and then on to Norway to do the impressive Trollstigen (Troll Ladder), before a night in Kristiansund.
For anyone dipping their toes in the various seas and oceans around the world, this is your chance to see the Arctic Ocean.
From Kristiansund we travel all the way to Umea on the Baltic Sea, cross by ferry to Korsholm and then head towards Helsinki for the final night, 22nd August.
The distance is around 1,700 miles, through terrain unlike most people have ever seen before.
This is more different than any other StreetSafari event to date. You can also bet it's more desolate than the other European countries we visit. Norway has less than 5m people in a country nearly 50% bigger than the UK!
Valhalla Run is StreetSafari's 5th European Banger Rally.
We've gone in every other direction: East through Europe; South to Africa; West to America.
Nowhere to go now but North...
The event starts in Copenhagen on the 18th of August.
We cross into Sweden, and then on to Norway to do the impressive Trollstigen (Troll Ladder), before a night in Kristiansund.
For anyone dipping their toes in the various seas and oceans around the world, this is your chance to see the Arctic Ocean.
From Kristiansund we travel all the way to Umea on the Baltic Sea, cross by ferry to Korsholm and then head towards Helsinki for the final night, 22nd August.
The distance is around 1,700 miles, through terrain unlike most people have ever seen before.
This is more different than any other StreetSafari event to date. You can also bet it's more desolate than the other European countries we visit. Norway has less than 5m people in a country nearly 50% bigger than the UK!
Posts
