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Saab Owners Convention Trip Report
Posted by The Saab Network (more from The Saab Network) on Fri, 13 Aug 1999 22:09:56
Travel Day 1 - 9:15AM - Palo Alto CA
I met up with Don and David Young at Don's house in Palo Alto. Don is the President of the
Bay Area Saab Club and would be driving Paul Perry's (of Saab Factory fame) 1968 Sonett V4
out to Keystone. David was in his 9000 Aero and I would be driving my 1990 900. Don handed
out the walkie talkie and with a couple of snapshots, we were on our way leaving just after
the Bay Area commute. We passed ten miles of backed up traffic on 680 as we left. The drive
up to Tahoe was uneventful with the Sonett leading the way followed by me with David acting
as the sweep. We stopped in Reno for an amazing prime rib sandwich at the Silver Legacy and
were quickly on our way deep into Nevada. We hit Elko at around 7:45pm and were pretty pleased
with the time we had made.
Travel Day 2 - 8:30AM - Elko Nevada
My phone rings, but I was expecting a walkie talkie call and the other two Saabs waiting outside
my motel... It was Don and apparently the Sonett was not starting. I drove over to where they
were staying and the Sonett was cranking well and catching but sputtering out clearly not running
on all four. Due to the altitude, the car was definitely running rich and before I arrived
they had decreased the spark plug gap which didn't help too much. I suggested we check to see
if we were getting spark to all the plugs (just about my only contribution and one that would
have come up shortly anyway). We were indeed not getting spark to all the plugs. After a short
call to the Saab Factory and a check of all the plugs, we determined only number 3 was getting
any spark and it was weak at that. Well, it turns out that the only thing that Paul had done
to bring the car into the 90's was to install an electronic ignition. Don had a mechanical
distributor and we installed it and the car start!
ed right up and sounded great,but would stall at idle. We decided to embark east to see how
it ran and warm it up at the same time. About 25 miles later, we took a desolate exit and parked
under an overpass and in the shade. Amazing things you find in out of the way placed. The underside
of the bridge was covered with Swallows' nests and, consequencly, a hell of a lot of bird guano.
We then made a number of adjustments. First, we adjusted the dwell gap. Second, we disassembled
the Webber carburetor and removed the primary jet (.140, I think. It's possible I'm not remembering
correctly.) and replaced it with the secondary (.135) and then put a smaller jet in the secondary
(.125). After reassembly, we adjusted the timing and the Sonett was ready to go. In fact, Don
said the car ran better and with more power the second day.
Shortly after we got back on the road, David walkie talkied (my new favorite verb) us to say
Salt Lake City had been hit by a tornado. Turns out, if we hadn't had the Sonett delays, we
would have been in Salt Lake City right about the time the Tornado touched down. We stopped
about 30 miles outside Salt Lake City to gas up but there was no power and the pumps were not
working. We continued on and hit very heavy traffic in SLC. Although we could see the heavy
front to the North, we could not see any of the damage from the highway. We didn't really stop
for lunch because we were so behind and pushed on down I15 to highway 6 and across to I70.
We pulled into Clifton outside of Grand Junction sometime around 10PM, I believe. We grabbed
a quick dinner and commented on the fact that we had seen incredibly few Saabs on the road
over the last two days. However, the Sonett got stares from every car that passed or was passed.
Travel Day 3 - Clifton CO - 9:15AM
We headed over to a town that I'm blanking on at the moment and I left my map in the car. Something
Springs. In any case, I'll remember and fill in the blank later. We got a good cup of coffee
and lunch and relaxed a little. We had an easy drive to Keystone from here. As we pulled out
of town, we met up with a 900CSE that was clearly headed to the convention. They stuck with
us for awhile before pulling ahead. We passed them later on and didn't see them until they
pulled in at the convention. Now we started passing Saab owners like crazy, all waving.
We arrived at Keystone and hit the registration, picking up our packets and t-shirts. I finally
got to meet Steve Goldberger. Actually, I met his wife Norma first. Besides having Saabs in
common, we're both African Grey Parrot owners, so my first conversation at the convention was
about Parrots instead of Saabs. We watched the caravan that had done the Rockies tour pull
in with Erik Carlsson in the lead. He hopped out and the next car was Paul Perry and his wife
Sheila in their 93F. As each car pulled up, the driver got out for a picture with Erik. We
stood in the parking lot for awhile with the Sonett hood open and talked with a bunch of other
Saab fanatics as the temperature nose-dived. We finally packed it in to go get checked in after
which Sheila, Paul, Don, David, and I went out for dinner.
Convention Day 1
I headed over to a local cafe shortly after 8. It was pretty quiet, but another 9-3 convertible
owner had pulled up at the same time and we walked in together. We joined each other for breakfast
and it turned out to be Dennis Sweeney (of Dennis Sweeney, Inc who sells and services Saabs
and also sells parts). We had a great conversation and a hearty breakfast. After that, I caught
Paul, Don, and David in their hotel parking lot. They were just getting ready to go wash and
detail their cars. I headed over to the convention to find out where my talk was to be given
after which I watched a few cars racing away on the autocross course. Of course, I've taken
a bunch of photos and I'll post them when I return (including one of the 4 door, Monte Carlo
Yellow Viggen). I went back to the parking lot and sold a few t-shirts and Chip Lamb pulled
up in his 9000 and unloaded an incredible amount of Saab parts to sell. Indeed, it was a magic
act to see what he kept pulling out of his car. A !
crowd quickly formed to go though all the goodies.
At around 12:30, I headed over to my seminar room and got set up. I gave a talk titled, The
Electronic Rally - Saab Resources on the Internet. I gave a brief technical introduction to
the Internet and then we toured The Saab Network and about another dozen sites. I'll put the
presentation online with a list of visited links. After that I caught a bit of John Moss's
Basic Saab Care and Repair and then Kemal Demos' Rally Tips. I ran into Steve Crowe who many
of you know from the Saturday night technical chats as he was competing in the Master Technician
Challenge. All day I ran into TSN members and it reminded me why I like the Saab community
so much. This is an incredibly friendly group of people. I met owners who had sold Saabs through
TSN or bought Saabs through TSN. One person came up and said, 'Hey, you're Scott Paterson.
You send me email.' I laughed and replied, 'I probably send you A LOT of email.' I bumped into
Matt Kanewisher from Abbott Racing USA. They'll be changing!
their name soon to reflect the fact they carry more than just Abbott products. He promised
to make another guest appearance on TSN chat soon.
At six, I hit the reception tent for a dinner of ribs and chili which is what I would've picked
if they had asked me. I ate with Martha and Steve Carrellas and we watched Baxter Black, FCowboy
Poet' perform. I have to admit that I was a little dubious about the entertainment value of
a FCowboy Poet,' but Baxter was incredibly intelligent, insightful, and funny. Most importantly,
he's a poet based in prose rather than rhyme, so he related many cowboy anecdotes and I was
laughing so hard I was crying. After this came the auction. I only stayed for the first few
items because I wanted to get back and write up these past few days. The first item up for
sale was to have your photo on the cover of NINES. The bidding was particularly fierce and
I believe, if I recognized the winning bidder correctly, that Mark Kline of ScandiaTek took
this item for a tidy sum of $500. Worth every dollar, in my opinion.
So that's it for now. I don't believe I'll have a chance for another update until after I return on
Tuesday.
-Scott
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