Modified Saab 9-3 X4R 802bhp Pictures 
HOME GROWN PRIDE
You couldn’t live in Malibu and be afraid of the surf, nor could you be accepted in Kansas without having an appreciation for Jazz. Living in the Swedish village of Trollhattan is no different, own a Saab or have no friends.
gallery (20 photos)
Now the town of Trolhattan, where this Swedish car is built, must have taken pity on its younger generations over the past decade or so because owning a Saab is no longer embarrassing or drab, especially if you modify it like Per-Anders (P-A) Johansson did. In fact being employed by the manufacturer even meant that he had quite a lot of in-house magic at his finger tips. So, feeling rather confident he pledged to build the most powerful four-cylinder Saab, grafting like an elf over Xmas, he didn’t stop short of 802bhp. We kid you not, this 9-3 X4R is an outright race car but because it bears the town badge it would be practically sacrilegious for local coppers to ban it.
So where did all this madness start? Well when P-A got hold of a Turbonetics/ITS T76 turbocharger he knew that he could really stir some emotions by sidling up at the traffic lights with shall we say less cared for 9-3’s. You see they’ll always be solid and efficient motors but too get the most excitement out of them takes a little tampering, or a lot in P-A’s case. Now having already fitted a Tractive 4WD system the engine had to fit snugly at the back of the centre console and shifting it back this far has given the 9-3 a 56%:46% weight distribution which is ideal for racing.
Indeed, the track is where P-A spends the majority of his time which is just as well as a car that pulls to 70mph in first gear is a bit of a weapon out on Swedish streets. The throaty note of the exhaust will always precede its welcome too and for some orthodox Saab lovers this is just way too offensive. Out on the track however, our somewhat progressive Saab protégé is famed for both his drifting and quarter-mile displays although the latter he admits could be further improved by changing the transmission. As it stands P-A can programme the active differentials to swap between 4WD and rear wheel drive so when it comes to figure eights he can get those fat tyres smoking like an industrial furnace.
Look at little closer, once the smoke has cleared and you’ll spot those mammoth Tarox 12-pot callipers and 380mm discs at the front to rinse dry the power, the fugal force is replicated at the back but with 8-pots on 360mm discs. Staring at those trepidating 10X20” rims for long enough and how could you not notice? These rims have been sunk lower to the tarmac using a coilover suspension system which again is not really ideal for road use but on a smooth wide circuit the sportier handling really pays off.
Being a rather heavy-footed kind of guy however has cost him the price of a pretty lavish carbon fibre triple-plate clutch. It must be easy to get carried away in the moment though as you sit cocooned in the Sparco Evo VTR bucket seat and have your hand ready to exasperate each gear of the Tractive five-speed sequential changer. The handbrake (a Wilwood rally-spec variety) is also poised for action and just to keep you in fully concentrating on the task in hand is the multi-point roll cage, reminding you that racing is no game. On the flip side, customising a car usually includes many unnecessary though aesthetically pleasing enhancements and in P-A’s Saab there’s an array of very tacticle switches. The carbon fibre dash will of course save our man a few pounds but it also looks the part and that’s almost as important.
This leads us to the exterior shell and the design work chosen by our Swedish connoisseur. Having an eye for seamless expertise P-A employed the talent of the Saab Technical Department who developed the body kit to suit the Nuburgring 24 hours race and also the Swedish Long Distance Cup. It consists of a lot of carbon fibre racing panels and has been purpose built for maximum presence so width and girth were high on the agenda. Being coated in Porsche’s Titan grey paint then gives it a classy finish.
Looking at it head on you can see the front bumper has had quite a lot of cosmetic work using this race-inspired material. The wheel arches have also been beefed up using carbon fibre and now measure 7cm larger than standard. Keeping the weight down further is the boot lid and the sporty roof that’s taken cues from the BMW M3 CSL. The extreme nature of this Saab is also hinted at by the rear wing supplied by Wargia Engineering.
The complete package certainly challenges anyone to say that a Saab belongs in a geriatric car park. Ok there is still a fair way to go before standard Saab’s have the same street-cred as Bimma’s but P-A’s version gives us a glimpse as to what the future might hold. Think outside the box and there’s a whole realm of possibilities…
CAR MAKE & MODEL
Modified Saab 9-3 X4R 802bhp Pictures
CAR REF NUMBER
21102
CAR COLOUR
Porsche Titan Grey
ENGINE MODIFICATIONS
2.0-litre, four-cylinder 1994 saab 900 engine, standard head ported by mike billet, custom head bolts, 90.8mm bore, 78mm stroke, trollspeed 34mm inlet valves and 32mm outlet valves, wargia/trollspeed adjustable valve timing and adjustable cam tensioners, piper 298-degree cams with 12.9mm lift, je pistons, verdi rods, 9.35:1 compression ratio, oil filter removed, setrab oil cooler, spal fan, 8 x 720cc siemens injectors, 3.5 bar fuel pressure with twm fuel pressure regulator, 40-litre atl fuel cell, custom catch tank with two bosch 044 fuel pumps, 1.5-litre catch tank with double filters, two high-pressure fuel lines, wargia custom fuel rail, henrik (jesus) custom four-branch manifold with 44.5mm pipes, two tial 38mm wastegates, two tial dump valves, turbonetics/its t76 turbocharger, 3" pressure pipe from intercooler to turbo, 3" stainless steel exhaust system with 3.5" downpipe, racecoolings custom intercooler, racecoolings radiator, tibuc and trollspeed water pump, pectal t6 ecu. max power - 802bhp, max torque – 775nm at 2.9 bar boost using 105 octane race fuel
TRANSMISSION MODIFICATIONS
tractive five-speed sequential gearbox, ap racing carbon fibre 200mm triple-plate clutch, trollspeed lightweight flywheel, tractive four-wheel drive system, tractive hydraulic programmable active differentials: tractive 3.31:1 rear differential with volvo 850 steel diff housing, sellholm tuning 3.31:1 front differential, svea bid hybrid volvo/bmw driveshaft
SUSPENSION MODIFICATIONS
forza customised bilstein coilover setup front and rear, custom made setup by pelle at wargia
ALLOY WHEELS
10x20in bbs rs gt
TYRES
255/30/20 yokohama advan sport
BRAKES
front: tarox twelve-pot calipers with 380mm discs and 2006 saab 9-5 custom hubs. rear: tarox eight-pot calipers with 360mm discs and 2006 saab 9-5 custom hubs
EXTERIOR MODIFICATIONS
saab diners club racing team carbon fibre front spoiler, carbon fibre front arch panels, carbon fibre rear arches moulded into metal panel (6-7cm wider arches front and rear), carbon fibre extension for rear bumper, swedish composite engineering carbon fibre boot lid and roof, standard saab aero side skirts, standard aluminium bonnet with pins, wargia engineering rear wing, porsche titan grey respray with custom saab griffin graphics. weight 1325kg wet with 56%:44% weight distribution
INTERIOR MODIFICATIONS
race certified rally products multi-point roll-cage, rear seat removed, sparco evo vtr bucket seats, sparco 3” harnesses, tilton pedal box, wargia engineering steering system, sparco snap-off steering wheel, carbon fibre floor plates, custom centre panel cover to cover mounted-further-back engine, standard saab dashboard with carbon fibre inserts, vdo gauges, wika boost gauge, aim dash data logger, custom centre panel for automatic fuse switches, red button for fire system, wilwood rally-spec handbrake. in boot: 40-litre atl fuel cell, custom catch tank with two bosch 044 fuel pumps, two separate fuel lines to engine, high pressure fogmaker water sprinkler system, carbon fibre panels in boot floor and sides
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