Tag: sprinting

Saab 9-5 Aero (HOT) Estate For Sale – SOLD!

Given that I’m selling my motorbike at the moment as well, you may well wonder if I’ve had some kind of financial crisis of my own.

But thankfully, no.  I just don’t need such a large and fast car any more.  When I was doing a lot of sprinting I needed something capable of towing a car trailer comfortably and reliably.  But I also wanted something I could enjoy driving as my daily transport.

City Commuting Doesn’t Suit Big Cars

And that’s what happened, basically – for the past 18mths or so I’ve driven 12 miles to Liverpool city centre, and 12 miles back – congested roads, with a lot of stop-start action.  In the end I bought a Golf TDI which makes much more sense for that kind of driving.  Although I’m tempted to keep the Saab, which I will if I can’t get the right price, I know that in reality it’ll get far too little use in the coming year or two.  The sensible decision, then, is to sell it.

So, here goes…

Specification

This is a 2004  (04 plate) 9-5 Aero HOT Estate with 250bhp.  The full specification items worth listing are as follows:

Bi-Xenon headlights, headlight washers, factory alloy wheels, factory CD/Radio, Nokia Bluetooth Hands-Free (works with most phones), electric windows all round, electric mirrors, heated mirrors, split climate control, dual-colour leather seats, leather steering wheel, lots of airbags (5* NCAP Rating), ABS, Electronic Stability Program, new Vredestein Giugiaro front tyres and lots of life on the identical rears, detachable tow bar, FSH (main dealer or specialist only), two owners (first owner the dealership as it’s an ex-demo car), 58,000 miles, 10 months MOT, Tax until 10/09.

The car is in a gorgeous Capuccino Black.  In other words, most of the time the car looks black or very dark grey, but when the sun shines on it you realise that there’s a pearlescent bronze finish.  The photos below really capture this, which took some effort as it’s not easy to show in pictures – normally it just looks black.

Damage Worth Noting

I’m nothing if not thorough and feel it’s worth noting everything even if it’s minor so that you’re not disappointed if you travel – the car has a couple of tiny dings from the careless door opening of others.  It has a small ding that’s almost but not quite invisible under the nearside rearmost window with a matching scrape on the bumper – that was a van in Paris that did it, and no, he didn’t leave details.  But I’d say very few people can spot these marks – I’ve taken close-ups, however, to try and show marks.  Also, one of the alloys has a barely visible kerb scrape on it.  Picture shown.  There’s a few minor and normal stone chips that could do with being dealt with by chipsaway or similar, but one left a tiny ding on the bonnet.  Another tiny ding was caused by the biggest hailstorm I’ve ever seen, over in Italy.  I expected worse….

Get in Touch – Price to be around £6200

If you’re interested, you can contact me through the contact form on this site, or simply call me, during office hours or in the evening on 0151 709 7977.

If you’re wondering whether someone with the word ‘mental’ in his website address and a history of motorsport will have taken care of his car… well, in racing if you don’t take care of your car you often end up with an accident at some point.  Or losing.  I apply the same philosophy to my road cars – look after them and they look after you.

Enjoy the gallery – simply click on a thumbnail to get the big version, and you can then move between images by clicking on the arrows that come up.

 

And a Deep Zoom Seadragon view of the under-bonnet area

 

 

And now, PhotoSynth

Yes, I may have been playing – I’d be interested to know what you think of this use of technology…

Competing in Your First Sprint or Hillclimb

I’m often asked by people how to start competing in sprinting, and the reality is fairly simple. This information also applies, by and large, to entering many other events which don’t require a special license – eg, trials, autotesting, navigation rallies and so on.

First, find an event with a local club. In the North West I can heartily recommend the Liverpool Motor Club – one of the most professionally run clubs around. They run four events in the region: three sprints at Aintree, Liverpool, and a hillclimb at Loton Park, Shropshire. They also run two trackdays which are a great way of gaining track time on a budget. To find a club near you you should look on the MSA website where you’ll find lots of information on clubs, regional associations (which usually maintain a calendar of events) and events running around the country.

Then you should contact the club and see what events still have spaces. Popular events at the big circuits tend to fill up quickly so you may need to plan ahead. If the price and availability is fine, then the club can send you the entry form for an MSA competition licence. This licence should cost no more than about £50, and usually less, depending on what categories you want to compete in. Full race licences cost a bit more and you’ll also need to arrange a simple medical test with your doctor (£45 to £80 depending on the doc). If you wish you can actually complete and pay for the form on the day of the event – but watch out for preparation as you won’t have had a chance to read through the blue book of rules that the MSA send you.

elise_on_dynoPreparing the car

Obviously I’m assuming you have one to use! It’s not unknown for people to enter events using rented cars from Avis and the like, but personally I’d not recommend it and if you have a serious accident they’ll be unimpressed. I’m also assuming that your interest is in starting with a road car. If you have a race car to enter you probably know a lot of the following anyway.
There are a few things to sort out – sadly not much is detailed on the MSA website but I’ll link to detail where possible.

  1. Decent tyres – the more you spend on tyres, the faster you’ll go as a rule, but to start with ordinary good quality tyres are just fine. I use Bridgestone S03s. The club will usually be happy to advise on which tyres are suitable for the class of car you’re driving. As each club can have different rules (eg, some allow any road-legal tyre, whereas others specify the tyre must come from the infamous MSA List 1.a).
  2. A timing strut – you’ll need to mount a strut to the front of your car for the timing beams used in hillclimbs and sprints. Details of how to make a strut are on Steve Heath’s Page.
  3. Yellow tape wrapped around the positive battery terminal, for easy identification in case the battery needs to be disconnected quickly after an accident.
  4. A race suit – buy one from any motorsport suppliers, like Demon Tweeks. They start at around £60 for something respectable though I prefer a good multi-layer Nomex based suit (around £200 upwards) rather than the basic clubmans suits you can buy. After all, if you’re unlucky enough to find yourself in a rare fire you’ll appreciate the extra protection.
  5. A helmet – you can use a good quality motorbike helmet but do bear in mind that it may not have the fireproofing of one specifically designed for car use. There are some other differences too. I do use a motorbike helmet, but that’s partly because I’m a biker and already have enough helmets lying around. If it’s not already MSA approved then the scrutineer at the event will check the helmet and attach an MSA sticker if it’s suitable. You’ll be charged £1 for this.
  6. A sticker around the ignition barrel, in white with clear black writing, with an arrow showing the direction in which to turn the ignition in order to turn the ignition off.
  7. Some stick-on numbers (you could paint them on for all the officials care, but I don’t recommend it) for your race numbers. In my first event I’d assumed they were supplied, so I had to make some up with bits of tape. Technically the numbers should be on a contrasting background but in the road classes people don’t worry so much.
  8. On some older cars you may need to add a supplementary spring to your throttle to make sure that if your throttle spring fails, the throttle will still close. BUT…be careful, do it badly and you can make the throttle more likely to jam. I think more accidents are caused by this regulation than are prevented. You’ll find that most production cars with fuel injection don’t need this extra spring anyway.
  9. And some race sense! You’ll need to be sensible enough not to crash, and committed enough to go quickly. Don’t worry if you’re slow to start with – it’ll take time and practice before you can win against the country’s best.

Coming soon – what happens on your first sprint, when to arrive, what will happen, and what to do.