Proper barn find saab 99 turbo up for auction
Discussion
Probably the best Saab 99 turbo barn find in years........and coming up for auction at anglia car auctions later this month.
More piccies here;
http://www.angliacarauctions.co.uk/classic-auction...
The story behind it is a bit sad, a guy found out about this in a pub one night, expecting to find an old saab 900.
He bought it 50/50 with a local garage owner on the basis the garage owner would store and do body work, the othe guy would sort the mechanicals.
The relationship between them went sour. The garage owner bought the other guy out and has now put it up for auction.
The guy posted on here, and appears before the relationship went south, that he had found that this was really very bodily sound a rust free, even a good interior.
http://uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9...
More piccies here;
http://www.angliacarauctions.co.uk/classic-auction...
The story behind it is a bit sad, a guy found out about this in a pub one night, expecting to find an old saab 900.
He bought it 50/50 with a local garage owner on the basis the garage owner would store and do body work, the othe guy would sort the mechanicals.
The relationship between them went sour. The garage owner bought the other guy out and has now put it up for auction.
The guy posted on here, and appears before the relationship went south, that he had found that this was really very bodily sound a rust free, even a good interior.
http://uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9...
Sure this has been posted before, would be interesting to see how it looks after a wash.
Breadvan72 said:
This is indeed epic thread revival. A black Saab 99 with those burned orange seats and those mad wheels would indeed be a fine thing. Getting flung into a ditch by the turbo lag would be bonus.
Turbo lag is more of a myth than a reality on Saabs: if you know you're going to get it, you apply the throttle earlier so when you need the power you have it. Makes you drive in a more intelligent, pre-emptive way. Bear in mind the longitudinal engine & gearbox gives you equal length driveshafts, so mno torque steer. Just don't apply the same tactics if you suddenly find yourself in, say, anything with a large NA V8 
I loved test driving a gunmetal grey 900 Turbo in 1989, and was poised to buy it, but my yuppie girlfriend insisted that I be a clone and buy a BMW. I have always regretted that decision. The test drive involved hooooooning up and down the A102 in east London. No speed cameras. The dealer rep wanted me to go faster.
Their appeal is a bit slow-burn. Initial reaction is usually that it's a nice, pleasant car but is hard to drive fast. Once you live with them (I'm 20 years into 900 Convertible ownership now) you learn how to drive them and the appeal grows. They're not about 0-60 times, but in-gear acceleration was supercar territory at the time.
The slightly galling thing for me is that the saloon / hatch variants (please, don't call them coupes!) have sky rocketed in price whereas the convertibles haven't. I don't really understand why, because with most cars the convertibles are very desirable. They're not like Fords, where everyone is turning old Escorts into rally cars with a corresponding "Old Ford Tax".
Probably going to sell mine in spring, and replace with something I can use more often (ie when it rains - they leak like sieves!).
The slightly galling thing for me is that the saloon / hatch variants (please, don't call them coupes!) have sky rocketed in price whereas the convertibles haven't. I don't really understand why, because with most cars the convertibles are very desirable. They're not like Fords, where everyone is turning old Escorts into rally cars with a corresponding "Old Ford Tax".
Probably going to sell mine in spring, and replace with something I can use more often (ie when it rains - they leak like sieves!).
I was in the doghouse in 2004 because my wife disapproved of my not very good Jensen Interceptor (I later had a better one). I sold the Jensen and bought a cheap as chips GM-era 900 Turbo. Great engine, poor handling. It made me miss having a proper 900 Turbo all the more. Much later I briefly had a 9-3 convertible, no turbo. I quite liked that.
I did lots of miles in a non turbo 900 in the 90s. It belonged to a different girlfriend to the one who vetoed the Turbo purchase. She also had a 1973 BMW 3.0 CSi that I foolishly failed to buy from her. It rotted to death on her driveway after she became a biker chick.
I did lots of miles in a non turbo 900 in the 90s. It belonged to a different girlfriend to the one who vetoed the Turbo purchase. She also had a 1973 BMW 3.0 CSi that I foolishly failed to buy from her. It rotted to death on her driveway after she became a biker chick.
Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 20th November 12:41
ClaphamGT3 said:
I had a 1978 Saab 99 Turbo in 1988. Paid £1250 for it. Only 10 years old but rotten as a pear. Managed to get 18 months out of it. As someone has said, once you learned how to have it boosted up for when you actually wanted the power, it was fine.
It got weighed in eventually sadly
They do that: they look great on top and hide the rust well, but rot in places you wouldn't expect. Underside of bonnet, inside door bottoms, behind "Aero" trims and, most damningly, the tunnels through which the driveshafts run. Mine looks ace on the outside, and is totally unrestored, but to keep it would commit me to much £ over the next few years.It got weighed in eventually sadly
I ran my first turbo up to 246,000 miles and only replaced a clutch slave cylinder: they're fabulously robust.
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