This article comes from the post of everyone's CARS car big name Xie Zonghuan. If you like it, remember to share it with you to optimize your car life~
When I got on the expressway from Yilan (Taiwan) on Sunday, I found that there was a high load control in the snow tunnel. I had to change to Taiwan Line 9 and return to North, which is commonly known as Beiyi Highway to Pinglin Interchange and then enter National Highway No. 3.
Channel 9's changing road conditions, and the steep road steeply up and 275 meters above sea level, and then steeply down Xindian after crossing Pinglin, compared to ordinary roads, Beiyi Highway, which has obviously harsh environment, is easier to test the essence of the vehicle. I have been taking over this old 9-3 convertible for nearly half a year, and I have been suffering from the opportunity to test the results of the modification. This time I was forced to go to Beiyi and can verify whether the package I modified in sequence was really effective!!
old Saab car type is the chassis. Although the turbo engine with a high horsepower, the chassis part cannot keep up with the engine settings, whether it is detailed training, brake strength or overall rigidity. When the turbo horsepower emerges instantly, the old Saab 9-3 types Due to the large gap between left and right lengths of the transmission shaft, the unique torque steering of the FF (front-wheel drive) vehicle will be more obvious on it, and it will even jump to another lane if it is exaggerated! In order to change these innate design defects, I installed the legendary Mika Three Treasures, namely the front I-beam reinforced pull rod, the directional pull rod and the rear thick anti-roll rod.
Because the front I-shaped beam of the old Saab 9-3 is too long, it will cause uneven force on the left and right and distort when turning, causing the road feeling to be blurred when turning. Therefore, the fastest solution is to strengthen the pull-up rod before installing the I-shaped beam to strengthen the overall rigidity. It not only strengthens the rigidity, but also provides high-speed and cornering stability and reaction, but can also be used as the engine lower guard to protect the oil pan. The steering gear lever was proven after testing in foreign competitions, which can solve the problem of the easy breakage of the old Saab 9-3 and NG900 firewall fixtures, and can improve the vehicle's torque steering. The final rear thickening protection can not only minimize the roll when cornering, but also the road feeling and jump of the rear wheels are very obvious, which can be said to be a powerful tool for handling. With the chassis setting like
, you can immediately experience the obvious differences before and after installation on the mountain road of Taijiu Line. The stable center of gravity reaction, whether it is smoothly following the route or deliberately sliding in and out of the curve, the four wheels can always walk correctly on the route set by driving, allowing the vehicle to show a neutral control performance. Impressive.
After countless cornering experiences, I believe that the vehicle's improved dynamic performance is conducive to strengthening the rigid chassis, anti-bar suppression and the wheelbase with increased ET value (original ET45, my modified PIAA two-piece forged aluminum ring is ET38), which greatly improves overall stability. But most importantly, the balance between the Koni set shock absorber , which is assisted by canon tires, is the biggest contributor to its unexpected performance.
Even if it is a tight S-shaped continuous curve, the shaking of 9-3 is beautifully absorbed by appropriately adjusted damping, allowing the center of gravity to move between the left and right quickly, making it look elegant and smooth. On the same road section, I also challenged Ximei with a modified dual-A-arm chassis many years ago. Although there is still a gap between the two, it is very different from before the installation of the kit. Even compared with the BMW E36, which I highly praised, although it still does not have the performance of the rear-drive chassis, its strength is quite close. The performance of this 9-3 control is stable and I feel cautious and afraid to go up the mountain.
has good chassis performance, so I climbed the uphill section at an unexpected speed and entered a relatively smooth continuous detour. Without the test of going uphill, the speed of the car is higher than when going uphill. But in a short while, the test came. Because of the continuous rain, mist began to appear irregularly in the section of the road, covering the entire Beiyi Highway. In addition, the installation of street lights makes it more difficult to determine the route. Affected by the unique terrain of Beiyi section, the often thick fog not only increases the chance of various accidents, but also tests the dynamic stability of the vehicle.The most criticized disadvantage of the old 9-3 is the dim light-making system, so I have long changed the headlight and fog lamp to HID of 6000K and 3200K respectively to increase the lighting during the road. As expected, it is right to prepare for the future. Turn on the headlights and fog lamps, and it is true that the entire road conditions are undoubtedly visible. Under the pressure of time, I continued to rush. Unexpectedly, the final test is invisible...
The continuous drizzle makes the whole mountain road emit a black and golden bright feeling under the lights of the headlights, making the asphalt road look very clean and tidy, but in fact, the more obvious the reflection, it means the higher the moisture content of the road surface and the friction will be greatly reduced. At this time, you need to focus more on driving. After all, the 9-3 is still a traditional FF model, the front and rear weight of the car body is estimated to be 60:40, and the understeering characteristics are still quite obvious. Under such conditions, I can only describe the word "cautious".
enters the smooth continuous curves with the car. This 2.0 turbo engine also provides excellent operating quality and coordination. Even if affected by the gear ratio, the four-speed self-row transmission almost only uses 2 or 3 gears between mountain roads. However, after I asked an expert to rewrite the computer to train the fuel supply and ignite the boost value and fix the boost value to 1.3kg/cm2, the theoretical power output of 297 hp and 44.2Kgm still allows this 9-3 to run happily between the mountain roads of the Taiwan Nine Line. And this Aixin old four-speed transmission does not have too many protection restrictions. As long as you are willing, press S mode, once you turn off, the car will provide a satisfactory gear effect before entering the corner, allowing the vehicle to enter the corner in a stable and fast posture.
Intuition tells me that the modified chassis of this old 9-3 still cannot be as stable as the new car with the assistance of electronic assist systems, but instead gives me a Spartan-like direct road feeling. Confidence also accelerated the driving speed with the length of driving distance. The amplitude of stepping on the accelerator gradually deepened and the speed became faster and faster. The tracking and route of the front wheel feedback were still stable and clear. The most worrying push phenomenon still exists, but it will not affect the overall driving speed. The swing or slippery heartbeat may occasionally appear. The ears listen carefully to the sound of the tire passing by the road surface and confirm that the ground is still slippery and the speed is not low. However, the feeling of the car returning to the steering wheel also means that everything is under control.
html’s more than 0 years of trial driving and track experience have always reminded me that I must be nervous. After all, there are too many variables on mountain roads with poor weather and people in a rare place with poor mobile phone signals, any minor accident will turn into a major disaster. Therefore, only every sensory system of the body is activated to connect with the vehicle, interact with the seat, steering wheel, accelerator, and brake through the eyes, body, hands, feet, and seats, steering wheel, accelerator, and brakes to sense the grip of the four tires and the road surface, and prepare for uncertain factors at any time.
After quickly bypassing a protruding stone wall, the mist was exposed to the powerful 3000K HID fog lamp, and suddenly it was discovered that there was a football-sized falling rock on the road 20 meters away, which was placed in the middle of the road. If it hits directly, it will be a fatal threat to the wheel rim, water tank and even oil pan! At this moment of flash, at the speed of the car at that time, it is impossible to stop directly, and the intuitive reaction can only dodge. The author immediately stepped on the brakes and twisted the steering wheel left. He immediately obediently reduced the speed 9-3 and showed a steady and accurate control reaction, and flashed through the obstacle. After passing, the Koni shock absorber had a good damping setting and immediately pulled the rear of the car, without any extra center of gravity swaying left and right. Even if there were sand caused by falling rocks on the road, the rear of the car was slightly slipped, and the author also relied on driving experience to counterattack, and the body of the car was immediately corrected to normal. This sudden emergency situation and the continuous dynamics in the past few seconds, the car is like a common off-road racing car on TV. It twists an S-shaped flower gun and passes smoothly, which further confirms that the author has long advocated that chassis strengthening is more focused on power improvement and the correct direction for the car modification.
and able to escape this accident. In addition to the assistance of body shock absorption, I have already strengthened the brake system that the old 9-3 is the most disliked one. At the beginning of buying the car, I used the experience of my predecessors to remove the single-chip Air Tank, which was originally smaller in size, and used large-capacity double-chip parts of the 9-5 models of the same factory to improve it. In this way, the brakes that were originally soft-footed have made great progress, and the overall braking force has increased by at least 70%! After
flashed through the rockfall, the remaining sections of the road were faster and easier for me. But the sudden stop along the way is somewhat worrying about the durability of the tires and brakes. If the brakes and tires are gripped down, it may slow down my journey. Fortunately, when repairing the aluminum ring, I bought a set of Pirelli New P-zero floor-standing tires through the help of Cantonese tires. The grip was excellent, and the upgraded specifications of the 225/45 ZR17 94Y also added points to the control. In a hurry, I made good use of every straight section on the road, and braked with my feet before entering the bend, and delayed the APEX point. However, I still found that the brakes had a decline and could only slow down to avoid accidents. Therefore, in the future, better brakes will be used to make the key modification projects, lightweight two-piece enlarged discs and even four-piston calipers. However, under such abuse, even when we arrived at the entrance of Pinglin Expressway, the brake and grip of 9-3 declined slightly, but its performance was still stable.
In this test, although the old 9-3 models have a powerful sports car style, they do not have solid chassis settings and European style control reactions. After this improvement, the center of gravity of the car body was lowered and the steering was more accurate. After I quickly mastered the handling characteristics of the vehicle, I used the slippery rear characteristics of the car to point the front of the car to the bend to the apex point. After passing the Apex point, I then used the semi-throttle technique of stealing the foreign coach in China to steal the traction force of the vehicle during the bend. It not only increased the traction force of the vehicle during the bend, but also increased the acceleration when out of the bend, so that the entire in and out of the bend was completed in one go. Moreover, the well-adjusted fuel supply and ignition computer makes the engine output not difficult at all on the mountain road, and the overall driving smoothness is greatly added. As for other modifications of the chassis, the rolling range is small when cornering, the steering is agile, and the upgraded 17-inch wheels also allow me to get more road feedback in the car. The P-zero tire with excellent grip completely removes the originally sealed control skills, making it very satisfying to run on the mountain road!
So please always remember that a good chassis is always more important than power improvement. Chassis upgrade is always the first priority for vehicle modification. When you go to the store for modification next time, if the boss just sells power kits and does not mention the word chassis upgrade, it is recommended that you just turn your head away!!
Xie Zonghuan
