Back from Golden West

My photos are here.

The Golden West SCCA National Rally was last weekend, July 8 and 9. Headquartered in Yreka, California, it's a straightforward touring rally with one control or checkpoint per section. This was the Saab's second visit to this event, this year with my friend Ryan. It was his first experience with an SCCA rally, and probably the last for both of us. I'm just not a fan of having to stop after every checkpoint. Both Ryan and I made simple mistakes that gave us many more points than we should have had, but we still managed to win in Limited class, where we used an Alfa checkpoint odo/clock to provide detailed mileage and time information.

The rallymaster did a great job incorporating fantastic roads throughout the Siskiyou, Klamath and Yreka areas. The finish location was superb as well, located at a high enough elevation to bring down the temperature from the blazing 100 degrees or so down in the valley. A local BBQ restaraunt catered lunch at the finish and once again provided much better than average rally food.

The Saab ran well overall, though we experienced cooling problems on the first day. See, the 1985 Saab 900 Turbo has a reputation for very poor wire quality, where the insulation rots where it's exposed to air and/or heat. In this case, bare wires near the right side cooling fan shorted a number of times, causing the fuse to fail, and providing for some tense moments while making extended climbs in second gear. With help from some fellow competitors, the probable location of the problem was located and repaired with electrical tape. A longer term fix will go on the list for Alcan prep. Up next, replacement of the exhaust system from the catalytic converter to the tailpipe, and rewire the engine harness.