it started with a CL post for a pair of suparas for $800.  Mike and I botght them.  Straight up. 

We then stripped the black car (got a black and a white car) because it smelled like a dead dog.  The white one we could sell again so it was the big non race car winner.  Took the engine out and played with it a little bit…took all the performace parts off both cars (alum driveshaft, hight flow exhaus, etc) and put them in the black car.  Then we drank a bunch of shiner and this happened. 

This is the logo.  Myria did the art work.  It is bad a.  I am trying get t shirts made.  See how it looks like the shiner logo?  That was intentional.

This is the hood.  It is all shiner caps.  It is also badass.

Here is the side of the car.  Front cladded with cans; back with boxes.  It is also badass.

Detail of the cans.  We be drinkin some shiner.

http://apeusa.com/

http://picasaweb.google.com/jmboehm/24HoursOfLeMonsGatorORama#

Little update on where we are today, then I will fill in how we got there.  here is the final product with aero, modified springs, in running condition.

Ready to Rock.

So here is how we got there.  Last week i pulled the car back into the garage to do a status check.  pretty much had not moved since the last race, it was in bad shape.  Tried to fire it up and had a stinking fuel pump issue.  Went out to APEUSA.com and picked up a walbro.  They know how to treat their customers.  If you need a fuel pump, please, for the love of all things holy go to APEUSA.com and order a pump.  he sets you up right.  Apparently, the SAAB 900′s are set up just like a DeLorian…fuel pump wise.  He set me up and i dropped it in friday night.  I had a couple minor modifications to the filler box, but it went in without a hitch.

The new walbro pump

Matt Carr, Tim and Mike Deck come out and we started in on the suspension.  I put mike in charge of the rear springs first and he cleaned house.  Seriously knocked out the rear springs in no time flat.

Drilling a hole to see what is going on up above

Cutting down the springs. Yes, he has safety glasses on.

Matt and tim started on the glass.  by the end of the evening, all the glass was back in the car minus the driver and passenger front windows.  We think that the windows will help our aero.  Really just a theory, not really sure what it will end up doing.

Race car parts.

Matt and Tim also pulled out the old airbox and put in a sweet air filter.  it is shiny and blue.  It will help us go faster.

Saturday morning i started in on the CV joints.  I thought i was going to be able to get it done without taking the hubs out, but i figured that it would be easier to pull the whole thing out because mike had already taken the front springs out.  Mike was the spring master…if it looks better because the car is lowered, thank Mike.

This is where the front wheel is supposed to go. It is all apart.

this is the jig i made to take the hub bolts out. it worked like a charm; hub bolts came out with zero drama.

Tim was a champ with the bearing grease.  he went under the car and killed it with the grease, the new boots went in and the grease is fully packed.  it was a mess.  The tripod bearings are ready to go because the boots were not blown out.  The passenger CV was toast, there was a blown bearing in there and i could hear what was causing the clicking at the end of the last race.  I am very happy we replaced them.

All the while, matt was installing the front fearing and rear spoiler.  the thing looks sick and it is way solid.

Front splitter. It may help with undercar turbulence. Even if it doesn't work, it looks killer.

The wing. it looks excellent on the car.

this installation is being done by professionals.

it is a real race car now. i installed a plate in front of the radiator to protect it, but this splitter looks legit.

It looks like we are ready to go.  The car runs strong, aero is taken car of , couple small things to take care of (stickers, cleaning it up) but we are pretty good to go now.  bring on the green flag.

I know i already posted this picture, but it just looks way better now. freaking born from jets.

www.lgmotorsports.com   

Ok- now to the juicy parts.  

The headlight would bust the $500 limit

when I grow up I want to be a real race car!

Making magic

Will you be my valentine?   Even though there was a killer car right behind him, Columbus had only one thing on his min.  Ranger aint no hussy – she bit the crap out of him when he tried his moves.

All packed up and ready to head back to the busted knuckle

Making a mess at the ‘rent’s house.

These last two pics have nothing to do with race cars.

Ranch Dog!

(Bacon Explosion)*2

that aint right (note the gear on the left is missing the tab in the middle.  This is high yield steel boys and girls…that is raw power shearing that (I did get the piece out of the engine.  Thank god for small favors))

that aint right either!  I have about 8 of these.  (Note the gap between the bottom of the valve and the head.  It is supposed to sit flush.  It isn’t)

This car has turned into a very time sensitive project.  It all started on the first work weekend in January; Padre and I made good progress.  We installed all the safety gear (kill switch, conduit, etc) and put the fans on a separate circuit.  We also installed a temp gauge as the factory one was out and decided to heat the car up to see how it worked.  Because we had been messing with the battery wires, they were hanging loose in the engine compartment.  The car started to get some good heat in it- we were close to the 180 deg mark when there was an explosion under the hood.  We hit the kill switch (it worked great) and took a look to see where the smoke was coming from.  Apparently, the insulation melted around the hot wire and we grounded it against the exhaust manifold.  I repaired it but couldn’t get the car started after that; thinking I killed the ignition control unit.  While watching the Superbowl, I thought it may be a bad ground connection.  As soon as I got home, I disconnected the grounds, refreshed the connection surfaces and reinstalled.  We were ready to races.  Or so I thought.

The next weekend was supposed to be a check- we took it to a friend who has messed with the 900’s since they came out in 1978.  We popped the hood and started a list of items to be addressed before we get it on the track.  Have you ever been to a Mass where they do the full on litany of Saints, going on for 10 or 15 min?  That’s how I felt about the “to-do” list.  And the cage wasn’t even in yet.  We didn’t touch the car the rest of the weekend, too much real life going on.

I hauled the car up to LG motorsports last Tuesday night to get the cage put in.  They were racing their own deadline- their car had to be loaded and on the road to NC in a week.  So priorities at the shop were not skewed to my favor; they had to button up a $250K racecar, I neede3d a cage in my $0.5K racecar.  By this last Saturday, they had it bent and welded up and did an incredible job.  We will have the nicest cage of anyone on the track.  I was worthless in the built process; I handed Louis a big hammer once.  That was it.  Their shop dog, Columbus, thought that Ranger would be a good Valentine’s Day date.  She was not.  He tried a couple moves on her and she bit him.  He was persistent, but alas, it was not meant to be.  He and I have much in common…..

Saturday night Padre and I dig into the list.  We are making good progress on it and knock out a bunch of important things, taking out unnecessary wiring, getting the timing right (I did that), tuning the suspension, tightening up the hydro system, etc.  Midnight came and we called it quits.  Sunday we were right back on it finishing up the list.  We did a good job and by 5 I was ready to load it back onto the trailer and take it for paint.  Topher and I even got the start on hood pins (as the hood opens to the front; if we get mixed up with another car; the hood won’t open.  Thanks for the insight, Tom!).  I load all the stuff heading back to the house in the car and drive it around to the front.  As I am turning in the WT White parking lot (aggressively) the thing dies.  Kinda putters out and chokes to a standstill.  I try to turn it over, but something sounds very very wrong.  Get it back to the house (by pushing and gravity) and check spark, compression, fuel…everything is there.  We are defeated.  The car gets back on the trailer thanks to a running start and I head home bummed.  I decide it is probably a timing issue, so back in my garage I take the valve cover off.  I notice that the camshafts are nowhere near the correct timing at TDC so I take the cam pulleys off.  I didn’t even need my socket- the bolts were barely hand tight.  Apparently, I never torque’d the bots when I put the pulleys on.  Massive damage has been done to the engine.

All in all, I have wrecked one cam pulley and what appear to be 8 valves (4 exhaust, 4 intake).  I have the proper T-16 tool sitting at sears waiting for pickup to crack the head off again tonight.  I am going to make a parts list and get the order off tomorrow AM to thesaabsite.com.  I am crossing my fingers that it fires by Friday.  Stay tuned.

LG Motorsports does a great job.

If only the car ran as good as the decals look…..

While sorting out some starting issues I became a clearing house for fuel pumps.  I have no less than 4 fuel pumps in my possession.  Tom French over at French’s Foreign car really helped me out with this.  He gave me a huge bag of pumps and held a check for $20 at his shop while I fiddled with them and made one work.  I have to take the other three back- but you don’t meet guys like tom anymore.  He has run this SAAB shop over in Irving for 30 years and as soon as I told him what we were doing- he did everything he could to help us come in under budget and with a solid racer.  Thanks, Tom!

Santa was very good to me this year- check out the huge yellow compressor down below.  This is the read deal 15 gallon 200 PSI regulated, 800 PSI burst American Made DeWalt.  Around 10 PM last night I had the compressor and the grinder going at the same time.  My neighbors must love me.

Photos below.

Fuel Pump Central

No Glass

I guess I was a good boy this year ( have no idea how to rotate the photo.  Just tilt your head to the left)

I wired the gas tank to my jack when I took it out.  That didn’t work at all.  My garage reeks of gas.

I ground off all the moulding and put a black stripe on it.  It dosen’t look to hot now…but it will!

Here is the team concept in case you cared:

Team Concept:

Boehm Racing has been training for the 24 Hours of Lemons since the K-Cars hit showrooms. We are a family outfit- a big family outfit. The patriarch, Rodney, has successfully sired 6 offspring. The matriarch, Ann, has delivered each and handed 5 sons and one daughter to Rodney over the years. Because of the number of mouths to feed; Boehm Racing never had the spare cash for fancy things like new cars. We inherited them, loved them and made them our own. The list of family movers includes a 1986 Aries K station wagon nursed to 160K, a ’89 Chevy Van with 120k+ on the clock at the time of death, and an assortment of retired church vans. The children are all grown now and have carried this affinity of love-your-car until it dies on to the next generation. In the Boehm racing fleet, there are 2 Volvo 240’s whose odometers stopped working at 200K, a retired Volvo 740 with 300K+, a Dodge diesel truck that just got through its break in period at 110k, a ’89 Chevy pickup that was bought for $300 and had been in service now for 6 years, and my oddball brother with a brand spanking new Shelby GT 500 Super Snake. I am not sure he is really my brother. He does have a really old Corolla, but that is beside the point…..

This history of beloved autos has trained us to take 2 tons of scrap metal and turn them into daily drivers. I have never paid over $1400 for a car and I have had 5. The Patriarch treated himself to a Porsche 944 when it was still new (only 140K!) and is still commuting with 220K on the clock. Its torque curves and paint make it look like it rolled out of Stuttgart yesterday. (We also rebuilt him a 440 Cutlass for his 50th birthday- he is kinda spoiled) We have been training every time one of our old faithfuls has rolled to a stop on the side of the road and we break out our toolkit and multi-meter for a fix. These cars are as much of the family as the dogs, and we have been raised with a torque wrench in one hand and a Haynes manual in the other.

This race is an extension of our skill set onto the race track. Ferrari makes some great road cars, but they make their name on the track. It is the same for Boehm Racing. For the last 30 years, we have over a million combined miles on the various odometers and the total purchase price of all these cars couldn’t put you in a new Kia Sportage. Our team will cut through the competition like PB Blaster on a seized exhaust clamp. Not only do we have the mechanical expertise- we have the race experience. Half of us have been employed by LG Motorsports (American LeMans) at one point in time and a handful has been to race school. Although we drive crappy cars; we know how to drive them. I considered buying a new car once but left when I saw that the throttle body was controlled by a computer. How and the heck can I install cruise control if I can’t wire a cable from the throttle body to the dashboard? Such is life in my family. Drive it until the wheels fall off- then put them back on and wait for it to happen again.