mckpat's SAAB 900 - Is no longer mckpat's.

[mckpat03]

Whats up guys. I figured I'd make a journal because I plan on keeping this thing a while and slowly making it even more special than what it already is. Updates will likely be slow at first because my employment may be circling the drain right now, but I digress.

Acquiring the car was an adventure in itself. It started off with a hiccup in our initial communication. I sent the PO an e-mail through SAABnet and I didn't hear back for several days. I thought my e-mail didn't go through, but he actually sent several replies that got caught by my spam filter.

So we e-mailed for a while and set up a date to meet up and view the car. The problem here was that I'm in central PA near State College and he was from Connecticut. I was thorough in my e-mailing and confident enough in the car that I traveled to Conn. with the intent to buy the same day.

I traveled to Conn. on Saturday, Aug. 13. I meet the gentleman, everything was going smoothly. We head out on a test drive, with the PO driving first. We hit a back road, and he took it up into boost and it felt completely healthy. Then we hear what sounds like a vacuum leak. He looks the car over and finds that the throttle body lifted or something and the throttle body o-ring blew out. Luckily, the PO was a SAAB tech at a SAAB dealership (which is where we ended up, so he could hopefully fix it). Unfortunately, the closest o-ring was in Maine or something. So I went home empty handed.

I was hugely disappointed but told him I was still interested. On the drive home, though, the PO sent me an e-mail offering to drive the car to me if I was seriously still interested. We did some talking and he ended up driving the car down to Pennsylvania to sell it to me.

On Monday, Aug. 22, the PO drove to Harrisburg, where we met up and struck a deal. I bought the car and took it home. The car was awesome. I love/loved everything about it.

Here are some pictures:








If anyone was at the Carlisle Import/Kit Car show, you may have seen this thing.

Anyway, I'm sure everyone is looking for modifications. Here is a list:

'96 900 - Originally a 2.0t, auto

Go fast
- B234R 2.3 swap (includes TD04HL-15t-6cm housing)
- 19t upgrade for the TD04
- 3" DP, race cat, 3" cat back (resonated and mufflered)
- Custom CAI
- Fuel - Green giants, 255lph, 4 bar FPR
- 3 bar MAP sensor
- Forge FMIC
- Forge BV
- JZW Stage 5 tuning

Slow down
- Viggen 308mm front brakes
- 300mm rear brakes
- Slotted/dimpled rotors
- Ceramic pads
- SS lines

Turning
- Koni yellows
- Vogtland Springs
- Sways
- Strut tower brace
- Triangulated hatch brace
- Steering rack clamp/brace
- Poly everywhere
- Yokomama AD08's

Drivetrain
- 9-3 Trans w/ hyd. clutch
- aluminum flywheel
- Viggen PP
- Stage 3 ceramitallic 6 puck
- Solid mounts
- Short shifter

Exterior
- Viggen body kit
- Realcar Sweded rear spoiler
- 19" Interlagos reps (I think???)
- HIDs
- LED everything
- Custom badges
- Custom grille
- CF pillar trim

Interior
- Viggen front seats
- Custom A-pillar two gauge pod
- Custom SID two gauge pod
- Suede headliner/a-pillars/hatch cover
- black everything
- LED everything
- Aftermarket speakers and amp
- Custom trunk mat

That should pretty much be it. I apologize for the long winded first post. I know I know... Too long, didn't read, haha.