My "sensible" replacement for the mighty Legnum VR4
Discussion
So after almost 3 years of Legnum VR-4 ownership the time finally came to trade in for something newer and more economical. I have a 5 week shift cycle and in that 5 weeks I do 1200 miles so 20mpg wasn't going to cut it for long! I had been using the wife's little 1.3 auto Yaris but even this only just manages 40mpg on a good day.
So I had a £12k budget, it needed to be reasonably fast, and estate car and automatic. After a couple of months of looking I eventually went for a 2011 Saab 9-3 TTID Aero 6sp auto.
It has a twin turbo 1.9 4 pot diesel with 177bhp stock (they call it a 180 but its 180ps)and even came with a £2000 optional extra satnav.
To bridge the performance gap it went straight in for a remap at AMD and came back with 209bhp and 300lb/ft of torque. It's now pleasingly fast (considering i'd come from a 320bhp Legnum!) lovely to drive, very smooth and quiet and the heated leather interior is very welcoming after a 12 hour night shift!
Best of all i'm getting almost 50mpg (my entire 33 mile journey to work is on rural Oxfordshire B roads!)my insurance has gone from over £600 a year to less than £200 and i'm saving over £150 in fuel per 5 week shift cycle!
It still feels a bit "modern" with its fake indicator tic-toc's and the steering feels a bit numb but all in i'm very pleased with it! The best thing for me though is it doesn't drive like a deisel at all! zero lag thanks to sequential turbos, peak power is right up at 4000rpm so it pulls well and the 300lb/ft of torque makes ripping past dawdling cars 2 or 3 at a time easy work!
Anyhoo, I know we all love pic's so here it is;
Here it is clean!
and not so clean;
Here's the printout from AMD, Red is before and Brown is after;
And here is my old dearly beloved Legnum VR-4;
It just needs a pistonheads sticker for a 10bhp increase and we're done!
Gary
So I had a £12k budget, it needed to be reasonably fast, and estate car and automatic. After a couple of months of looking I eventually went for a 2011 Saab 9-3 TTID Aero 6sp auto.
It has a twin turbo 1.9 4 pot diesel with 177bhp stock (they call it a 180 but its 180ps)and even came with a £2000 optional extra satnav.
To bridge the performance gap it went straight in for a remap at AMD and came back with 209bhp and 300lb/ft of torque. It's now pleasingly fast (considering i'd come from a 320bhp Legnum!) lovely to drive, very smooth and quiet and the heated leather interior is very welcoming after a 12 hour night shift!
Best of all i'm getting almost 50mpg (my entire 33 mile journey to work is on rural Oxfordshire B roads!)my insurance has gone from over £600 a year to less than £200 and i'm saving over £150 in fuel per 5 week shift cycle!
It still feels a bit "modern" with its fake indicator tic-toc's and the steering feels a bit numb but all in i'm very pleased with it! The best thing for me though is it doesn't drive like a deisel at all! zero lag thanks to sequential turbos, peak power is right up at 4000rpm so it pulls well and the 300lb/ft of torque makes ripping past dawdling cars 2 or 3 at a time easy work!
Anyhoo, I know we all love pic's so here it is;
Here it is clean!
and not so clean;
Here's the printout from AMD, Red is before and Brown is after;
And here is my old dearly beloved Legnum VR-4;
It just needs a pistonheads sticker for a 10bhp increase and we're done!
Gary
I like this.
My mum had one in the same colour, also an estate, but the 2.8t with some Hirsch stuff on it. Was about 290bhp and drove quite nicely. Really comfortable seats and great on a long run. I agree about the steering - a little vague especially on or around centre from what I remember.
IIRC you could not adjust the steering column and this really bugged me as the seats were so comfortable. Couldn't get it in the perfect position because I wanted the wheel to come closer.
Remap on this sounds like a good job and to still be getting high 40's mpg is great.
Any more pics of the Legnum?
My mum had one in the same colour, also an estate, but the 2.8t with some Hirsch stuff on it. Was about 290bhp and drove quite nicely. Really comfortable seats and great on a long run. I agree about the steering - a little vague especially on or around centre from what I remember.
IIRC you could not adjust the steering column and this really bugged me as the seats were so comfortable. Couldn't get it in the perfect position because I wanted the wheel to come closer.
Remap on this sounds like a good job and to still be getting high 40's mpg is great.
Any more pics of the Legnum?
manmaths said:
I like this.
My mum had one in the same colour, also an estate, but the 2.8t with some Hirsch stuff on it. Was about 290bhp and drove quite nicely. Really comfortable seats and great on a long run. I agree about the steering - a little vague especially on or around centre from what I remember.
IIRC you could not adjust the steering column and this really bugged me as the seats were so comfortable. Couldn't get it in the perfect position because I wanted the wheel to come closer.
Remap on this sounds like a good job and to still be getting high 40's mpg is great.
Any more pics of the Legnum?
Yeah I got plenty more pics mate. I'll get the laptop fired up first as putting pics up is a pain on a mobile! There is actually a little Lever under the steering column that releases it so you can adjust it for both rake and reach! Handy for me as I have long legs and short arms so I've always been sat too far from the steering wheel!My mum had one in the same colour, also an estate, but the 2.8t with some Hirsch stuff on it. Was about 290bhp and drove quite nicely. Really comfortable seats and great on a long run. I agree about the steering - a little vague especially on or around centre from what I remember.
IIRC you could not adjust the steering column and this really bugged me as the seats were so comfortable. Couldn't get it in the perfect position because I wanted the wheel to come closer.
Remap on this sounds like a good job and to still be getting high 40's mpg is great.
Any more pics of the Legnum?
The Legnum was a pretty decent bit of kit really. It had the same 4wd and active yaw control as and evo v so not a lot kept up with it down a greasy b road! It could do an easy sub 5 0-60 sprint (4.7 was my best) and I managed to go 2 seconds a lap quicker than a blobeye sti at Curborough sprint track a couple of years ago!
I should have looked harder then! That was my only gripe with the car. It was great otherwise (epic fuel consumption though). I think these still look great on the road and I prefer the estate over the saloon.
IIRC the police were quite fond of Galants - probably Legnums too - is that right?
Those are some good numbers you quoted! Like I said it looks great. I was considering a fast Jap estate at one point and looked at the Legnum and a Nissan Stagea.
IIRC the police were quite fond of Galants - probably Legnums too - is that right?
Those are some good numbers you quoted! Like I said it looks great. I was considering a fast Jap estate at one point and looked at the Legnum and a Nissan Stagea.
manmaths said:
I should have looked harder then! That was my only gripe with the car. It was great otherwise (epic fuel consumption though). I think these still look great on the road and I prefer the estate over the saloon.
IIRC the police were quite fond of Galants - probably Legnums too - is that right?
Those are some good numbers you quoted! Like I said it looks great. I was considering a fast Jap estate at one point and looked at the Legnum and a Nissan Stagea.
When I first got the Legnum my next door neighbour at the time was a copper l, along with his dad. The pair of them told me to watch out it being nicked as it was one of the cars they look out for due to them being stolen for ram raids!IIRC the police were quite fond of Galants - probably Legnums too - is that right?
Those are some good numbers you quoted! Like I said it looks great. I was considering a fast Jap estate at one point and looked at the Legnum and a Nissan Stagea.
The numbers it made were pretty good Tbh. It was running 15psi with a custom turbos back exhaust (not cat) and an uprated fmic.there was a bit of a delay at a standing start followed by a very rapid 5-40mph in first gear!
I have started to play around with the 9-3 now and getting used to how it performs, I've got to say from 30-130mph flat out you could put a turbo petrol soundtrack to it and it wouldn't be out of place! I recon a civic type r might be in trouble put it that way! Not round a bend though! Lol
That had crossed my mind Tbh but there were other factors such as a massive reduction in insurance, no more 2k mile oil changesand no more 6k mile atf changes! The 9-3 is a £250 service once a year with an interim oil change halfway (at my annual Mileage)
It's also little things like the fact it's much newer, I never appreciated how old the Legnum was until I bought this and thought I was in a rolls Royce! No more ticking engine in the cold (just permanent diesel clatter! Lol) no more sticky leather on the steering wheel in the cold, the seats, the leather and the interior in general is a much nicer place to sit and the heated seats are luurverly!
Maybe I'm starting to turn into an old man (at 34!! Lol) but at the end of a hard 12 hour nightshift the 9-3 is a much nicer place to be!
It's also little things like the fact it's much newer, I never appreciated how old the Legnum was until I bought this and thought I was in a rolls Royce! No more ticking engine in the cold (just permanent diesel clatter! Lol) no more sticky leather on the steering wheel in the cold, the seats, the leather and the interior in general is a much nicer place to sit and the heated seats are luurverly!
Maybe I'm starting to turn into an old man (at 34!! Lol) but at the end of a hard 12 hour nightshift the 9-3 is a much nicer place to be!
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