Born from Jets at the Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian Air and Space Museum April 22, 2007

Another great weekend to host our friends from the north, Central Penn Saab Club!  About two months ago I recieved an email from their President, and my friend, Ron Nichipor, that a bunch of them were planning on coming down to check out the A&S Museum at Dulles Airport.  What a great idea to host a casual GTG at the Museum and then head over to the Red Robin for beer, burgers, and more Saab chit-chat!

About 18 cars from the two clubs congregated in the parking lot at the Udvar-Hazy facility -- everything from classic pre 1986 900's from Ron (complete with Silvervane/Shelby wheels) and Tom Cox, to an NICE airflow black C900 from Vannek to a pair of 9-3SS Aeros, a SQR Stage 4 tuned 9000 Aero and everything in between.  I showed up in my '93 Commemorative and my wife, Valerie, showed up in her '91 900 Special Edition Convertible.

Well, it turns out our two clubs weren't the only ones thinking of the Smithsonian as a great venue for cars -- the Corvette Club also showed with their whares!

Great time had by all!



WASSAAB Dyno Day, March 3rd, 2007
Despite my suspected bad coilpack or plugs (we'll find out tomorrow...), I had a blast!

After hooking up with Paul Immo in his Charger (hey, no comments: I was driving the Goat...), Frank Hum in his 9000 CSE, Jeff Williams in his SPG, we headed out to Fredericksburg, Va. to pick up more of our crew: David Lyons.

Not sure whether "89T-Sedan" was meeting us there, we had a quick breakfast there at the McDonalds before heading out at 8 am towards Colonial Beach.

There we had the meet-n-greet with Larry's Sr. and Jr. of the Strouth clan. Inside their shop they were working on a Ferrari 246 Dino, a Duster drag car, a '41 Willy's Hot Rod, among many other very cool projects laying about the property.

Randy Rude and Chris Paden joined by around 10 am.

Tom Mitten gets the Long Distance Award for coming to our souare from Wilmington, Deleware! Thanks for joining the party, Tom!

I think 89T(aka, Buxton Hobbes) had the best time. After his first run, we convinced him to let Jeff tweak his APC. His second run confirmed a bumb of 30 hp! Congrats, Bux!

And of course Paul's un-assumingly idling Charger became a roaring monster once Larry Sr. opened it up. I could feel the sound pressure waves in my chest. Just awesome! And we confirmed that the Chrysler's claim of 425 hp was underrated. 450 crank hp. Just amazing.

As hinted above, my GTO displayed some odd behavior. As I was filming a saw a huge puff of black exhust. A second "puff" actually blew the wide-band 0-2 sensor out of the exhaust tip -- and it was held there with vice grips. Larry Sr. felt the engine skip once or twice, too. Perhaps a coil pack going bad. They're known to do so. We'll pull the engine codes on Monday and take it to the dealership for a fix.

All in all, a great day! Hope everyone who could make it felt the same way.