The first tests of the "AP-22" Performance meter bought from Speedparts.
There was an enthusiastic group of people that gathered at Prevessin around 13:00.
It was very nice also to see a new member, number 21, at his first event, Paolo Palazzi
driving his white 1990 9000i 2.3. Welcome to GASE Paolo!
We were prepared with cones, walkie-talkies, AP-22 meter, laptop for downloadning
the data from the runs and Coffee & snacks for the later "FIKA" (=Coffee break).
The weather of the day was cloudy. The road / dragstrip was wet and all cars had
problems with lack of traction. Especially the more high-powered turbo cars were
having a hard time getting the power down into the ground. One member, Mike Struik,
got some good launches with his fast 9000 Turbo 2.3 nonetheless. This also shows
in his times. One small surprise was the not-so-bad staring performance of the
Classic 900! It was much easier to launch than the turbo cars.
(Look at the rollout & 60ft. times for the Classic 900 in the chart!)
Partly due to the slippery road conditions, it was difficult to get good 0 - 100 times.
Speaking for myself (Magnus) I also missed a shift on the first 0 - 100 run, and this
combined with the poor traction in the start gave a really lousy time. (See the table.)
A much more pleasant test were the 0 - 402 meters, the quarter mile, apart from the
insecure feeling of blasting past a crossing where one or two GASE members were
on guard. There was never any real danger involved in the timing runs, but some
unwanted "exitement" was nevertheless present with a few cars. For the next
Dragstrip / etc. events GASE must find some better place to do the runs.
Especially riding with Mike Struik was quite interesting. To even the weight of the
cars in the runs, I had Roger joining me in my 9000 Aero. He also was a little
"white" after the blasts. It really is worse to ride along than to drive. :-)
Michael was wondering about how big the difference in time would be with the
convertible top open vs. closed. This we have to try some other time.
Since this was the first time Lennart was really blasting with his 9000 Aero, he
felt a little bit unsure about the launching procedure. After some initial clutch-
slipping he anyway made a quite ok run. In the 9-3:s there was some gearstick
oscillation when the whole drivetrain was trying to escape from the chassis.
Of course, this was no real problem. It only looked like the 1:st gear might
pop out with the stick jumping back & forth...
The braking tests 100 - 0 were quite undramatic except for a mistake from myself.
In order to prevent the TCS (ABS actually) from braking the front wheels in the
quarter mile runs, I removed the ABS relay. Guess what? I forgot to put it back. :-P
The result was locked wheels for a short distance. After putting the relay back in
place I ALSO forgot to "reboot" - to restart the engine. Guess what? Another
cloud of tire smoke. :-| Oh my. But, then after re-starting I was finally able to
make a "normal" ABS brake test. :-) This is why I made three 100 - 0 runs.
Another small incident during the 100 - 0 tests were caused by too large shoes.
Roger pushed the brake pedal hard, and in doing so, he also happened to push
the accelerator. Well, it is good that there are rev-limiters... :-) After learning
this little feature the hard way he made a quite good 100 - 0 run.
Some reading tips for the measurement data;
All the "best three" times per category and run are in bold text and the best of
these three in bold and red text. If there are two or more identical "best times"
they are all listed with the same text emphasis.
The estimated horsepower is fun to look at, but taking into consideration that it is the wheel
power that is being measured, the values are a bit optimistic. We will have to fine-tune the
configuration data for each SAAB model later to get more accurate readings.
The cars were using the following setup data in the AP-22;
Classic 900;
Weight: 1450 kg
9-3 5-door;
Weight: 1560 kg
9-3 Convertible;
Weight: 1560 kg
9000;
Weight; 1600 kg
All SAABs;
CdA: 0,9
Roll resistance 0,013
Tilt factor 0,014
Roll factor 0,011
Smoothing 0,004
(Possibly the CdA is too high, this could explain the high power ratings at "high speed"...?)
After the tests had been done, the cones collected and the cloud of smoke disappeared
the members headed off to have some "FIKA" in a cafeteria. ("FIKA"=Coffee & snacks.)
At the "FIKA" opportunity some of the measurement data was commented and some
official matters for the club were discussed. Magnus had been able to negotiate a discount
for GASE members at Garage Luc Tecon in Gingins! This discount is between 10 - 25 %
of the price for service & parts.Another issue that was discussed was that there should
be made some kind of "GASE membership cards" to easily prove the GASE membership
when dealing with co-operating garages. The issue of ordering some nice "GASE Polo shirts"
was also approved "another time" by the members present, so the board will investigate
further the options for producing these "GASE Polo shirts".
The event fee of 10,-CHF per participating member also helped to create some very little
GASE funds that the treasurer, Michael Karlsson, is looking after.
In short, the event was a nice way to get some data for your car. And another
detail is that it will be easy to improve these data with some dry roads. :-)
On behalf of the organizing committée; Mikaela, Magnus and Michael, we would
like to thank all the members that attended the event. It would have been boring to
time only 2 - 3 cars...
Until the next GASE event, take care and drive carefully! See you on the roads!
Magnus
President / Chairman of GASE
Below you will see a lot of picture thumbnails, as usual, to get a bigger view, just click on the small
picture to see a version with higher resolution. The sequence of the pictures correspond to the story
told earlier on this page.
