
The Saab Hillclimb Project
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Post Mt. Washington Thoughts

Sunday, June 19, 2011
Testing and Tuning
With only two days until we will be leaving for the Mt. Washington climb to the Clouds it is great to say that the car is ready for action.
The first time the car drove on the road since work began was two weeks ago Wednesday. Although things did not initially go well. First we ran into issues with the clutch spinning under any noticeable application of throttle. This turned out to be caused by a faulty clutch disc that has since been replaced with a new unit. The next issue was questionable brake pedal feel that did not inspire confidence. To cure this we had to re-bleed the system, as well as plumb the hydraulic handbrake cylinder correctly. (I had mistakenly put the input on the output side of the cylinder.) The third issue involved the shifting, it was hard to find 1st and second and fifth and reverse. After re-adjusting the shift rod we were able to get this mostly worked out. Fifth gear is still not perfect, although I can now find it every time, quick shifts to fifth are not possible. We decided to leave this be for now as I will not be seeing fifth gear on the hill. Finally, we encountered an issue where the car would not shut off and intermittently not start. After talking with the very knowledgeable Peter Maitland we began investigating two blown bulbs in the instrument cluster. Turns out that these blown bulbs were allowing power to be sent from the alternator to the ecu even when the ignition was turned off. Once we knew what the issue was we were able to re-wire the alternator field circuit to avoid this issue in the future.
Unfortunately, all of these issues came up the day before we were supposed to leave for the Burke Mt. hillclimb. Between fixing them, and finishing the other necessary work on the car I missed the first day of the hillclimb. Luckily I did make it for the second day and was able to test the car. After previously only driving a couple miles to fill the gas tank, I set out to drive to Vermont that Saturday evening. I was very happy that it made the 160-mile drive without issue, and then ran fine all day Sunday during competition. The rainy weather made it hard to really push the car, especially with the fear of wrecking with Mt. Washington so close. While my times were not particularly fast, it was good to get a feel for the car, and it felt good.
This past week was spent finishing up the various loose ends on the car, as well as having the ecu tuned by Saab tuner Mike Digiorgio. I ended up spending two nights working with Mike to get the car tuned. First we ran into issues getting a good speed signal, in the end we ended up swapping out the speed sender, which solved the issue. We also found that the DI cassette and the BPC solenoid were both faulty. Because of these issues the car had been limited to base boost, which made me feel better about my times from Burke. After we got the car running correctly we spent several hours getting the tune just right. We used T5's boost limiting feature to limit first gear to base boost. In second gear the car will request around 14psi. All other gears get 18psi. I am planning on having the car dynoed and weighed at some point, but it feels fast. I was also pleased with how stable and planted the car feels at speed and under acceleration.
Finally, I spent this afternoon testing the car further at one of In Control Advanced Driver Training's facilities. I used this time to test the car under braking and get a feel for when they will lock, and how the car behaves under heavy braking. I also pushed the car through a slalom, and through some long sweeping curves. It felt really nice through everything; the only issue that came up was the mounting of the wheel arch flares as one came loose.
The next few days will be spent packing and putting together a good spares package. Things with the car really have come a long way though, here is a good before and after picture set:
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Catching up on our progress.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
The car is coming together......
Friday, April 29, 2011
Facebook Page
Saturday, April 16, 2011
CTTC Entry List Released!
Here is the press release that accompanied the entry list:
2011 Mt. Washington Hillclimb Competitor Entry List Revealed
(April 15, 2011) Officials at Vermont SportsCar revealed the invited driver list today for the return of the legendary Mt. Washington “Climb to the Clouds” Automobile Hillclimb, to be held June 22-26, 2011. The Mt. Washington Hillclimb, known as the Climb to the Clouds, was first run in 1904 and is considered to be one of America’s oldest motorsports events. The 2011 Climb to the Clouds, which makes a comeback after a ten year hiatus, will be a 5-day festival of motorsports with a 75-car competition field filled with some of the best drivers and cars from around the world competing for “King of the Hill” honors. The entry list includes three of the past five course record holders, former and current rally champions, several high-powered open-wheel cars, a vintage class filled with cars steeped in motorsports history and a first for the event; a purpose-built race-truck!
Gunning for overall victory and a new overall course record will be a trio of past record holders. They include multi-time rally champion Tim O'Neil from Whitefield, NH, seven-time SCCA ProRally Champion Paul Choiniere from Shelburne, VT; and current Climb to the Clouds official-record holder and six-time Canadian Rally Champion Frank Sprongl from Ontario, Canada. These drivers all hold records within a minute of each other and will be racing in the Open Class at the Climb to the Clouds.
Other notable drivers going for the overall record include Jimmy Keeney of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Todd Cook from Tempe, Arizona – both of whom will be driving purpose built open-wheel hillclimb cars with upwards of 900 horsepower, but only two-wheel drive. Keeney was the 2nd fastest qualifier at the 2010 Pikes Peak International Hillclimb and Cook is a multi-time class winner at Pikes Peak. Two other open-wheeled cars are the 1968 McKee MK8, a Formula 5000-based car raced by Robert D'Amore from Arlington, MA, and “The Patriot”, a bespoke hillclimb car built and raced by Jerry Driscoll. Driscoll, who makes his home in East Randolph, Vermont, set the current Speed Record of 113mph on the Mt. Washington Auto Rd. course in 1998 driving the very same car he’ll be racing this June.
The Vintage Class features a lineup of prestigious racing cars from the 1930's and 1950's. Although all the entered vehicles are steeped in motorsports history none maybe as much so as an extremely rare 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 that won Le Mans with legendary Grand Prix driver Tazio Nuvolari at the wheel. The 8C was shipped across the Atlantic, and in 1937 it raced and won the Mt. Washington Hillclimb – it returns this June, restored as it was raced, to compete 74 years later. Also competing will be a 1934 Reuter Special known as "The Old Grey Mare," a 1953 lightweight special known as "The Cheetah" and a 1951 Jaguar XK120 known as "The Beast." The Vintage Class roster will also feature a 1931 Studebaker factory Indy car – one of only three that were built – that won the pole at Indianapolis in 1931, as well as raced and won Pikes Peak the same year. All of these historic cars have raced at Mt. Washington before and will return this June!
The Mt. Washington Auto Road will see a truck race up its narrow serpentine course for the first time in its history as daredevil Mike Ryan of Santa Clara, California takes his purpose-built Freightliner 14.7 liter turbo-diesel-powered race-truck up Mt. Washington in the Hillclimb Special Class. Ryan, a Hollywood stunt-driver by trade, holds the current record at Pikes Peak in the Super Truck Class and will forgo the Colorado event this year in favor of the unfamiliar Mt. Washington Hillclimb.
The two-wheel drive and all-wheel drive Rally classes will be headlined by defending Rally America, North American and Canadian Rally Champion Antoine L'Estage in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X and Former Subaru factory rally driver Ramana Lagemann from Somerville, Massachusetts in a 2010 Subaru WRX STI. The all-wheel drive class will be a showdown between the makes as five Subaru and five Mitsubishi rally cars are entered.
Four additional classes host race cars which normally compete in the New England and Pennsylvania Hillclimb Championships that include cars from the 1970's: BMW 2002, Datsun 510, Opel Ascona, Chevrolet Camaro, and even a Triumph Spitfire; the 1980's: VW GTI, Mazda RX-7, Peugeot 505, Saab 900, and Porsches; the 1990's Nissan Sentra, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Dodge Neon, BMW M3, and the thrilling 240RS Maxi, and the 2000's including modern Volkswagen, Subaru WRX STI, and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution entries.
The Climb to the Clouds will also host a vintage car show during the event weekend displaying cars and machinery with impressive ties to Mt. Washington. Highlights include the 1904 Orient Buckboard that raced in the first-ever Mt. Washington Hillclimb in July of 1904, a 1907 Bailey Electric from Amesbury, MA identical to that of a Bailey Electric that completed a 1,000 mile loop from New York City with Mt. Washington on its route, and the 1961 Volkswagen with Porsche Carrera power that Bill Rutan from Moodus, CT drove to the overall record in 1961 – 50 years ago this June.