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.

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.

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/

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.

Proposed route for Team-PIPE

Day 1: Copenhagen, Denmark > Lillehammer, Norway.


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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.


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Day 3: Where ever we end up on Day 2 > Umeå, Sweden


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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.


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Day 5: Kuopio > Helsinki, Finland.


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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.

Steering...

Just had word from home, Steering rack has LANDED!!! (many thanks to Ed, Nick and the people at 20CC) - which is good news as I had already booked it in to be swapped over on Tuesday next week. Just need to think of a devious way to get car to the garage that will do the work now.
The 3ARC Tiny Tracker is also on it's way.


Only 8 more days to go before we leave the UK!

MOT Update.

Getting somewhere finally. MOT resulted in a fail. Offside steering arm again so no surprise there and the nearside handbrake which was.
I haven't got time to fiddle with the car this week (or next) so have had a mad day of finding bits and people to fix them.
Team Saabotage have sourced us a replacement steering rack and I've booked the car into a local SAAB indie, nearby to have the swap done. Hopefully they will look at the handbrake and when both jobs are done I can drive the car straight back to the MOT garage and get the car passed. Which means I can get some road tax for it and the car is finally legal for the trip. It won't have a head unit for tunes though. I'll probably throw one in the car so we can fix it up on route - if someone brings some speakers with them.

I'm also in the middle of finalising the GPS tracking unit, need to fill in a few forms before getting hold of it and installing it. Hoping to have the live tracking page up mid next week.

More importantly in the way of progress, Cheq has booked the ferry so we have means out of the UK and on to mainland Europe so we can at least get to the start line.



My young son was ecstatic to see Daddy's Race Car back outside the house too. It's only been gone 2.5 days so I've no idea how he will react when both the car and myself have disappeared for over a week.

Oh and many thanks for those that have donated to the Noah's Ark Appeal today via our fund raising page and to those that have done so in the run up to this event.

MOT results?

I really do hate waiting for MOT results. I usually drop the car off and then wait for a few hours before getting the Yes/No phone call from my local garage.
So last night I fitted a good battery that a friend donated for the use of the trip. Car started up fine, so turned it off and forgot about it. I didn't take his advice and put it on charge overnight, I should have done.
This morning, filled the power steering reservoir and set off the long way around to the MOT garage - so I could at least do some braking and clean up the discs a bit. I also stopped to fill up the car with some fuel. Bad idea, it would not start when I got back in so had to push the car out of the petrol station and bump start it. Joy!

9:15am Got the car to the garage and left it, had a word with one of the chaps there to say what has been done since last MOT test.
Got myself to work on time (just) and had a huge twinge in my back, just as I got out of the car so I'm slightly in pain now.

11.51am Get call from the garage, been expecting a call around this time as it's usually when I get the good or bad news, except I got asked the question "Is it ok form me to leave the car there?"
Yeah fine, I can't pick it up until tomorrow anyway as I'm in work today. Seems their printer has broke so can't print out. Not sure if its another fail or proper MOT certificate.

Will update further when I have info. (which I guess will be tomorow at the earliest as I'm pretty sure they shut up shop around this time of day)

Note:
Fuel gauge doesn’t work - could be an issue on such a long trip.
Need to get some of those headlight stickers to divert the beams the other way.

Real MOT Tomorrow

We've decided to drive the car back home so some more money has been spent to repair certain things and a MOT booked in for tomorrow morning. Pretty much everything that was found faulty in Aprils MOT has been rectified, some not so. So it's hit & miss if it will pass first go.
I had already put new brake pads on the front last Tuesday, this morning I did the rears which kind of went ok -ish.
Found that the end pipe before the axle bend in the exhaust looks a bit dodgy so wasn't tempted to push a screwdriver in to it.

Old rear pads: (remember car has stood for a while so discs are a bit rusty)


Also paid a visit to the local Halfords today, went in for one thing came out without it and bought two other things instead.
An emergency light bulb kit which is needed to be carried in the car when traveling on mainland Europe and a 4 way power thing from the lighter socket.
Its 4 way and switched plus it has blue LEDs! Bargain at a fiver.


Last Tuesday the official event car stickers turned up, it was one of those odd sunny/raining days so couldn't really apply them. Plus family stuff and doing the front brake it was about midnight before I got the first set on.
First applied was on the bonnet, along with one of Graeme's huuuuge Griffin stickers. These went on easy even though it was around midnight and outside under the light of one of those inspection lamps Lidl have recently been selling.

Next day in the daylight put a few more on, the door stickers were a sod to do and hence why they are so creased. The rest were mostly sponsor stickers from companies that have donated to the Noah's Ark Appeal or have helped us out in some way with equipment or bits.



Oh yeah, repainted the inner grill "antique white" and replaced the broken N/S headlight unit as the glass lens had shattered for some unknown reason.

What is more important?

MOT or stickers. Either way both are stressful.

Cheq's on Telly!

Watch Cheq on Channel 4's Scrapheap Challenge ;)

Re fitted what there is of the interior...

The rest of TEAM-PIPE will be glad to know I've dragged the car out from behind the fence of the back garden and started work on it again.
Re fitted what there is of the interior (still can't get the mud off it) that didn't get taken to the skip earlier on in the year.



Knee pad fitted and larger centre cubby hole created


Also added a bit of colour to the dull interior

Panic!

Beginning to have a mild panic develop now over all this. Lack of time and funds to sort the car out is the main issue. At the MOT a few months back it failed on a few brake issues which should be easily solved with some new pads all round and maybe a bleed of the system and some fresh fluid.
The other failure was on the O/S track rod arm, too much play. Never had that one before on a car so a little bit foxed by it. The MOT chap told me to take the gaiter off and check to see if there was a washer on the inner side, peen it over and that should fix it.
I'm thinking the fact there was very little PAS fluid in there didn't help either.

I'm slowly putting bits of the interior back in after stripping it all out. It won't be a complete interior but comfortable enough. I also have to wire in a head unit and some speakers of some sort. Oh and get the car out of the back garden (by removing the 6ft fence that is in the way) before I can work on the MOT stuff.

We have also decided not to bring the car back, it's either going to a "recycling" place in Helsinki or a chap from the Finnish Saab Club forums will hopefully be taking the car off us so it will live on in one piece.
We've also decided to drive up to Copenhagen, so we're doing the Dover to Dunkirk ferry to keep costs down.

Vacancy - Driver/Adventurer Required

Due to a team members work commitments we now have a space available within TEAM-PIPE.

Driver and all round good sport required to complete a team of four to compete in StreetSafari's Valhalla Run event this August.

You will need to have a good sense of humour and be a team player.
Valid passport and Driver licence essential.

Able to get time off from work between 17th (sign in night) - 22nd August. Add a few days either side of those dates for travelling time to and from the event start/finish. The Run is scheduled for August 18 to August 22, 2008.


Entrance fee has already been paid. You will just need to chip in with rest of the adventures costs.


See http://www.uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30596

Elkparts spreads the word

Well thanks to Elkparts the whole world knows about our planned exploits.

John and Julian kindly used their weekly email to publicise our trip in a bid to get the donations flooding in. Eschewing the usual update of new products available, the mail no doubt took a few readers by surprise - not least TeamPipe. It might not have been what their loyal consumers were expecting but some were obviously interested as within 24 hours we received money from as far as France and America.

Elkparts has been around as long as i have been into Saabs and is run by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. The website caters for nearly all parts and models of Saab cars and often has discounted or clearance sections as well as lifestyle accessories and clothing.

You'll often see John at Saab meets up and down the country and the organisation isn't shy at sponsoring deserving events. Check out their site here for more information and to order the latest parts for your Saab - whatever the model.

On behalf of TeamPipe, i'd like to say thanks very much.

Noah's Ark Appeal Stickers

10" (I think) diameter stickers for the car kindly donated by Sharon of www.motormugs.co.uk

Spent today replacing the front shocks on the car for some good used ones (see previous post) as the car is booked in for it's MOT tomorrow morning.

Nottingham Saab's very generous donation

The team are pleased to announce that Nottingham Saab have made a very healthy donation to our cause. Their money is a huge boost for the team at this early stage and is hopefully a sign of things to come as the cash floods in.

The outfit have provided much needed expertise and often good old fashioned elbow grease to keep Graemes c900T16s on the road over the last few years. Always there to badger on the phone with questions there will no doubt be some more about the Valhalla run car as the departure date looms closer.

Anyway - on behalf of the team: Thank you very much Wes and Karl.

Nottingham Saab was established in Summer 2004, by Weston Moore AMIMI, a Saab Master Technician and between him and able assistant Karl they have over 30 years of experience. They offer a variety of services from servicing to tuning and bespoke fabrication. Nottingham Saab are an official Nordic Tuning centre and can offer their full range of products.

Check out the Nottingham Saab website for more details or call them on 0115 9309393 for more information.

Live Web Tracking

Delighted to announce that 3ARC have agreed to sponsor us a Tiny Tracker tracking device for the duration of our trip. So come August you will be able to track our progress on the event via the web in real time.
Two teams currently using 3ARC devices are on the StreetSafari Calais to Casablanca challenge.
www.3arc.com/craggyislanders
www.3arc.com/the2turners

Also while I'm at it many thanks to Dan & the rest at Paradise Club Classic Saabs for the front shocks.

The Route?

Bit of spare time at the mo... tried to have a look a the proposed route on googlemaps .com (avoiding Highways) Looks like we're going to find out first hand why the Scandinavian countries produce such good rally drivers!


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..and then we need to find a route back home!

The End of Saggy Rear End

The good 2nd hand rear springs I had sourced turned up today so no fear of that well known SAAB 900 rubbing and a saggy rear end when carrying 4 passengers and their hand luggage.
No idea when I'll actually fit them to the car as I'm in the middle of gutting and re doing our bathroom so I'm not allowed to play with cars until it's finished.

Car Tribe joins us for Valhalla run

Big thanks to Car Tribe who have asked us to get involved with their website, and of course have agreed to give some much needed sponsorship in return.

The website is social site where members can swing by and torque cars (geddit) with the ability to upload videos, pictures and create blogs. They are already involved with some other banger rally nutters (Scirocco to Morocco and Mongol Rally) and it's hoped more will continue to join. In that vein we should all soon be meeting up for a rolling road session in April and there will no doubt be other 'team' events leading up to our departure.

Our introduction thread on Car Tribe can be read here http://tribes.cartribe.co.uk/kickapps/_Introducing-TeamPipe/blog/42783/7276.html

The home address is http://www.cartribe.co.uk/

Ready for Donations

We're open for donations to the Noah's Ark Appeal, either over on the right of this page using the JustGiving widget or at our fund raising page: http://www.justgiving.com/terampipe (and yeah I spelt the name wrong)

Confirmed or Commited!

TEAM-PIPE are now officially registered and confirmed with a place on the 2008 rally!

http://www.valhallarun.com/rally.esp?PG=teams

Our nominated Charity will be announced soon, we just need to finalise the permission to raise funds for them.

Payment sent!

Just sent the payment off for registration, awaiting confirmation now.

Car details/background

Bought originally as a track hack with an idea of doing a StreetSafari event sometime in the future.
http://www.uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21993

See the original rank ex-Glastonbury interior pics and much more here: http://www.saabphotos.com/gallery/album693

Test pic from phone.

As per subject.