9-3 LPT 185 Auto Question

[Beno]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum and find many of the postings extremely informative.

I have the following questions and hope you experts out there can enlight me a bit:

1. Does MY2000 9-3 LPT 185hp have intercooler? I wish to get a bit more out of my car by upgrading to the Viggen's IC and would like to know if my car has one to begin with.

2. This leads to my second question, would my auto tranny be able to withstand this extra hp (10hp for IC, or 40hp from superchip)? I noticed that the HOT automatic model's engine has been de-tuned to match the torque that my car gives (can't remember exactly how many lb/ft of torque).

3. There's 'blue exhaust smoke' upon startup and it goes away quite quickly (5-10 secs), is it a sign of anything? My car is still under warranty.

This is my first Saab and I love every bit of it. I have to admit that there are problems that I have to put up with, ie. SID dot matrix seems to have a mind of its own, cowl shake (vert), but the sweetness of its mid-range acceleration (bone-stock LPT with auto) just makes me forget these flaws.

I am very pleased to see the improvement on reliability of this car over the years. I remember when I was a schoolboy 25yrs ago seeing my neighbour working endlessly under the hood of his 99. BTW, he kept buying Saabs, one after another!

Thanks all!