On the 8th March 2008 the Lancashire Saab Owners club had their second Rolling Road day and this time the event was held at John Clarkson Autos in Chorley, Lancashire.

Steve had been in contact with Andrew Clarkson since before Christmas trying to arrange an event day. We knew that a new Daltesk Rolling Road had just been installed and we were as keen as Andrew to have a go.

The garage owner, Andrew, being the perfectionist he is, wouldn’t let us arrange anything until he was happy with some consistent results.

In January Andrew rang to say perhaps we’d like to come over and see the Garage.

(click on photos to see a larger image)



We were firstly greeted by John, Andrew’s dad who showed us around all aspects of the new Rolling road and set-up. Andrew told us that he’d had some accurate results but it just needed a few adjustments, so we agreed on a date and the 8th March was set.


Unbeknown to Steve we ran a book to see who could guess the results of his at the wheel bhp figure, Ian Johnson was the winner.

It really was an interesting day, Dave Barrows put most of us to shame with the condition of his ‘new’ looking 99 and Julian Davies, or Birdie Mango as he’s more lovingly known, certainly showed anybody who hasn’t seen a 99 Rally car, how awesome a machine the 99 can look.

We weren’t too sure of how many people might want to get involved, we posted an advert up on UKSaabs to try andget some interest. Sure enough, in no time at all we had 15 willing enthusiasts.

This year’s event wasn’t as cold as the previous one but the kettle was kept running at full steam and a few biscuits went down a treat. We had a really good day at the garage and although we only finished at 5.45pm we were sure we’d be there again perhaps at the end of summer.

The 8th of March soon came round, on the morning we arrived at 08.45 to be met by Graeme Lambert in his beautiful Black C900 and Rob Grey in a Volvo!! (I think he got his dates mixed up with a Volvo meeting). They had travelled up from the Birmingham area to be with us, thanks guys.

While the first car was setting up on the rollers Graham Lowe nipped out on the bacon buttie run - you can’t beat a good breakfast to settle any pre-session nerves.

On the day we had 15 cars to test run from a standard 99 to a couple of ecu –remapped 9-5’s. As the cars went through the process of one on the rollers, one warming up, it was Rob’s Vovolov that created a problem, with it being an Automatic. Andrew, however,  kept trying to get a decent reading but eventually had to concede as the Volvo started to cook the oil that lubricated the rollers!!!!

At the end of each session we were given a three page print out of how each car had performed. On the day the results we had were :-

 

BHP @ Flywheel                 

BHP @ The Wheel.

Graham Lowe        9-3 Vert

196

158

Rob Gray    Vovolov Turbo Brick

 Inaccurate reading due to it being an automatic        

Andy Gilchrist         9-5 Aero

249

208.7

Mark De Giorgio     9000 LPT+  

219

176

Mike Birds            9000 Aero

240

203

Andy Wilson            C900i

126

94

Rob Mortimer         9-5 LPT +

239

202.3

Ian Thomas           9-5 LPT +

155

120.7

Graeme Lambert    C900 T16 +

261.1

225

Scott Rayner    9-5 2.3 LPT+    

 Inaccurate reading due to it being an Automatic       

Dave Barrows          99 GL      

126

89.3

Ian Johnson            95 LPT

151.3

117.1

BIRDIE Mango     99 EMS Rally

149.3

109

Steve ALTY            9000 Aero

289

249.1

Ian Orchard         C900 T16 +

201.3

156.5


It was nice to hold an event that everyone seemed to enjoy, roll on the next one after a few more tweaks.

Steve and Neal 2008.