saabs really how fast?

[rrsaab]

Hows does a saab turbo compare to other imports performance wise?Can it keep up with lets say a wrx,supra,rx-7?how would it hold up in a street race against other turbo 4 cyl?does any one have any rice burner kill storys too share?i love my new saab,is it worth putting some big upgrades?Like ecu,intercooler,tdo4 exc,exc?What about the tranny can she hold 250 or more hp?Very interested in dropping about a grand into her.1997 saab se 5spd intake,bov,iridium plugs,syn.oil.if so were should i start?I love roasting hondas and mustangs!

[ragtopcav]

Just to warn you, kill stories that are taking place on the public road are in breach of the forum t&c's [websites and libel issues] so I'm sure everything you post will be up the local drag strip, race circuits or closed roads.

I've got a reasonably quick n/a Saab, I've yet to find out how fast it'll achive the rev limit [144mph] but I run out of speed limit in about 7-8 seconds. The ultra light flywheel has had the same effect as removing over 300kgs from the car in 1st gear, 120kg in 2nd, 60kg in 3rd etc. It's a great mod' to have done if launch is your bag.

[mike saunders]

Originally Posted by rrsaab

Hows does a saab turbo compare to other imports performance wise?Can it keep up with lets say a wrx,supra,rx-7?how would it hold up in a street race against other turbo 4 cyl?does any one have any rice burner kill storys too share?i love my new saab,is it worth putting some big upgrades?Like ecu,intercooler,tdo4 exc,exc?What about the tranny can she hold 250 or more hp?Very interested in dropping about a grand into her.1997 saab se 5spd intake,bov,iridium plugs,syn.oil.if so were should i start?I love roasting hondas and mustangs!

Best place to start is by searching the boards here and by checking the FAQ in the workshop section.

Everything you've asked has been asked before, and you can get some really good info by searching the wealth of info that is archived here.

[rrsaab]

launch is it,very slow off the start.the one thing that troubles me is this also the gap between 1 and 2 is way to big.flyweel can solve this?were did you pick yours up?how much?is it a hard to put in?

[ragtopcav]

Originally Posted by rrsaab

launch is it,very slow off the start.the one thing that troubles me is this also the gap between 1 and 2 is way to big.flyweel can solve this?were did you pick yours up?how much?is it a hard to put in?

You'll need to go down the custom route I'm afraid, I use a V6 specialist who makes parts for that engine.

Your biggest problem is the Saab turbo is tall geared for long legged driving, this is where most Saabs are used, lovely winding backroads of europe. As my old V6 is being tweaked as a bit of a track toy, I've gone for a bit more launch along with its factory lower gear ratios. If you really want short gearing, get a tranny from an n/a Saab 900 and use an mbc to control boost as trionic reads wheel speed and assumes there is a fualt if you down gear [so I was recently told]
Most guys tune there turbo cars and leave the tall gearing in it, give some semblance of economy I suppose.

[mike saunders]

Originally Posted by ragtopcav

Most guys tune there turbo cars and leave the tall gearing in it, give some semblance of economy I suppose.

Piffle...

We like the speed.

The tall gearing becomes quite short when real power is actually turning the gears....

The lightened flywheel is something I'm considering, but I'm wondering how it would behave in traffic. I hate driving a 5-speed in Boston traffic as is....

[stromer]

Hey whats up man. I'm in Gray and I cruise in Lewsiton almost every weekend when I'm home. You know, see if there is any easy prey at the Tim Horton's by the movie theatre.

I have the Vig turbo as well as the accompanying hardware for SQR Stage IV. I can walk evo's, sti's, s4's, 350z's, rx-8's, and many others at speeds above 40 pretty easy.

You will really never be able to catch up with cars when racing off the line. Its just something I've gotten use to. But being able to hang with vette's and such on the highway is pretty cool.

Oh, if you're not doing anything Sat, about a dozen of us are going down to MA for a euro car show. We'll be coming through lewiston at about 945. Let me know if you want us to look for ya.

[PureViggen]

yea, turbo saabs run out of gears real quick......my stock viggen dyno'd 220whp and 260lb/ft TQ at the wheels, whereas my stage3 WRX put out 250ishwhpand250ishlb/ft TQ. It was a great for the 1/4 and auto-xing, but on the highway or anywhere where top end is needed it was very weak....teh 15% power loss we experience being fwd allows us to retain much more of our hp than AWD cars like subarus, evo, etc........my viggen when completed should run with anything that has about 300whp -500whp......im looking forward to very very quick 2nd,3rd,4th, and 5th gears......(first will just melt)

[ragtopcav]

Originally Posted by mike saunders

Piffle...

We like the speed.

The tall gearing becomes quite short when real power is actually turning the gears....

when did you last redline in 5th? 158mph is utterly pointless [imho of course] one of the fastest cars in real terms that I've been a passenger in could not get over 125mph at 7500rpm. It was a rally car. Lightening out and down gearing makes a car in real world term quicker - until it hits it maximum rotation speed, then of course tall gearing takes over. The phrase [I'm sure you know] is horses for courses. Why are tuning shacks here and mainland europe selling low ratio final drives to pull down there F23 & F25 trannies and take over 10mph off top speed? to condense the power where it's best utilised. This doesn't mean I'll change the gubbins in the 9000's gearbox, no, we'll keep that tall for long legged economy. I've made no mods to my tranny interior on the V6, it does around 66mph at 3000rpm in 5th as stock.

OK so lightweight flywheel, lets look at it for real you know I've got a killer billet steel unit that took nearly 10kgs [yes that's 22lbs] off stock.

I need not write much, read this from an enthuiasts point of view that page covers most of what we need to know.

OK day to day driveability; Mike I've not been to Boston, but I can imagine downtown is like any other metropolis - a drivers hell of stop and go. Now combine the total absence of torque you have low in the revs and then take away a chunk of your energy store [this is what a flywheel is in effect] then you'll go from bad to worse. I find the turbos we've got/had poor at low rpm, in the town high compression give deep torque at sensible revs, you'd need to rev' it silly to spool the turbo just to pull away, it would get silly at every junction I'm sure [make one hell of a track car though ] I would recommend lightening to anyone, but having 22lbs removed is a bit extreme unless you've monster torque depth anyway, the V6 [even the 2.5] has this in abundance. But the 3.0 with the reduced weight flywheel is harder to control than the stock 2.5 to give you an idea of the difference.

Value for money hardware change, a custom lightweight flywheel will cost about the same as a big valve conversion with gasflowing of the 4cyl head; I'd think that would yield more ultimately.

[Rogozhin]

I had a new SRT4 before I bought the Viggen - Drove the vanilla WRX as well-the Viggen once in second is faster than both of these cars.

There is a 2006 EVO running around town here-we're supposed to go run some closed lap pulls this week.

I've put in a powerchip ECU, wider tires, and a new Bypass valve-the Viggen is ALOT faster-so I don't know how close it will be

Rogo

[ragtopcav]

There's an Evo 9 local to me, further 'prepped' by ralliart. It was disgracefully quick. Sadly wasn't being drive with much consideration for others [this is where the bad rep' for any tuned cars comes from, imho]

[Ryan33]

seth, you guys going to that show in worcester? is that what your talking about...a buddy of mine lives in worcester and we were possibly going to stop and check it out...how is that suppost to be?

[mike saunders]

Originally Posted by ragtopcav

when did you last redline in 5th? 158mph is utterly pointless [imho of course] one of the fastest cars in real terms that I've been a passenger in could not get over 125mph at 7500rpm. It was a rally car.

130 last week. But it was pretty scary on snow tires.

Value for money hardware change, a custom lightweight flywheel will cost about the same as a big valve conversion with gasflowing of the 4cyl head; I'd think that would yield more ultimately.

That was a great link; I liked this one as much as the informative one on head porting....

I'm going to need another tranny pretty soon, so maybe I'll consider lightening -- but not to a huge degree. Group 9 Performance here in the states used to sell lightened flywheels, but I'm sure that they still do....

[mike saunders]

Originally Posted by ragtopcav

There's an Evo 9 local to me, further 'prepped' by ralliart. It was disgracefully quick. Sadly wasn't being drive with much consideration for others [this is where the bad rep' for any tuned cars comes from, imho]

That was probably the FQ model.....you can guess what the F in FQ stands for....

That thing is pure evil...

[Ryan33]

last weekend i went on test drive in the evo 9 MR...thing is damn nice...the salesman let us take it from a stop and launch, and go through a fourth gear run...thing pulls so hard for a stock car..if i had the $40,000 that would one of the top of the list...

[rrsaab]

sounds like a cool show!if i can find a baby sitter im there!

[rrsaab]

well i know for a fact its faster than 3000 gt sl,cuz on my way to lewiston today one tryed to race me.left him in the dust from a roll.dont know if it was a turbo or not.but i bet hes woundering why he got left sitting there.

[KC9-3SE]

I'm not sure if this is any indication of the potential top speed here, but my 9-3 5-speed is turning 3000 rpm at an indicated 80mph in top gear. This good or bad?

[ragtopcav]

Originally Posted by KC9-3SE

I'm not sure if this is any indication of the potential top speed here, but my 9-3 5-speed is turning 3000 rpm at an indicated 80mph in top gear. This good or bad?

What that tells you is that you've nice tall gearing, good for economic and spirited driving. The only downside is that if you've loads of deep power [highly tuned turbo] at each gearshift you load the tranny low down and things get stressed as I understand it.

[mike saunders]

Originally Posted by KC9-3SE

I'm not sure if this is any indication of the potential top speed here, but my 9-3 5-speed is turning 3000 rpm at an indicated 80mph in top gear. This good or bad?

What tire and wheel combo are you using?