Our SAAB 99 Ice Racer.

"RacinBob" (racinbob) 04/05/2020 at 21:40 • Filed to: None

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Chuck P is my racing buddy for 35 years. I met him when he raced me in a SAAB 99E when I was Running a ‘80 VW Rabbit in SSB. we both shared a VW Rabbit when we won ITB in the longest day of Nelson Ledges, and I have driven his 944 in Firehawk races as well and in Nelson Races.Chuck loves SAABS.

The other thing was we ran Ice racing in a SAAB 99 that I found in town. It was owned by a local Postman and it was sitting apparently unmoved in the driveway. I showed up at the door and we offered him $150 and it was ours. It would not start. We put it on his trailer and took it to his house in chicago. The problem it turns out was about a gallon of water in the gas tank. Drained it refilled it and it ran like a beast.

Not really competitive but a lot of fun with few problems. You could hit something and the other car moved and you didn’t. The only problem was that the differential carrier was like made of glass. I flat sided somebody once and hit wheel to wheel. about 1 hour later, the differential broke. Lesson learned.

Two events while we were racing that car. One was we went into the bar by the lake at about 11:00 AM that was the race headquarters and I saw on TV the space shuttle. Not good when they are showing the Space Shuttle on TV when it is 11 Am on Sunday. It crashed over texas. I was coming home from a nother race and I am driving 200 miles home, listening to the Daytona 500 and Earnhardt crashes on the last lap. I heard about the death east of Rochester MN on I-90.

This picture is from 2001 from my first digital camera Cannon S100. I did a lot of racing those years, The one thing I’ve learned is race when you can as time will be less as you get older. 

RacinBob > RacinBob 04/05/2020 at 22:07

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PS I am rocking those white leather tennis shoes in 2001.....

sony1492 > RacinBob 04/05/2020 at 23:14

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The real question is, did you ever stop wearing them?

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > RacinBob 04/05/2020 at 23:22

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My parents SAAB 99 c. 1976 . I was born in 77 so i t was old and battered by the time I remember it

RacinBob > sony1492 04/06/2020 at 00:49

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Yes and no. Not regularly in 15 years years because my wife insisted.

But I keep them in reserve in case I want to go walking in the street when its flooded due to thunderstorms (last time about 2 years ago) or doing something like rafting to protect my feet. (Although I haven’t been rafting in 20 years...)

But I know where to find them if I need them.