Per Eklund's Saab

[FIRE]

A while ago I read on a other forum that Per Eklund's Saab is a Prodrive Subaru WRC with Saab body. Or at least it uses a lott of technology of the Subaru. Is this true?

[buffy]

well i suppose alot of the cars have differnt bodies on, the take the early focus's or is that foci (lol) escort cosworths with a diferent shell,
cheers
matt dunno about per's car though

[Cryos]

nope its not, it all saab & Eklunds apparnetly. That and prodrive have two subaru specs "WRC and WRC Customer Spec" the main difference was with the way the suspension was affixed to the car (on the S9 it is something really strange, but the previous incarnations are even worse!)

[imull]

doesnt it have to use the same mounting locations as for the road car.

I would be a bit unhappy too after shelling out 3-400K on a new toy to find out it isnt going to handle like the real thing due to a totally different system.

Arent Saab and Subaru linked so there is probably some truth in that he has had Prodrive help with a few aspects of the design

[FIRE]

Originally posted by imull
Arent Saab and Subaru linked so there is probably some truth in that he has had Prodrive help with a few aspects of the design

Saab and Subaru are both owned by GM.

The new Saab 9-2x is based on the Subaru Impreza.

[Cryos]

@imull

The cars customers buy off prodrive are slower than the wrc proper spec, prodrive even admit this.

As far as i know all the running gear in the saab is out of 93 turbo 4x4's adapted to competition car and of course strenghtened.

Saab make cars for the home market unlike subaru who design their cars for the international market. As far as i know saab aided in the design of the initial saabs he raced and since then they have been carbon copys nearly.

[FIRE]

Originally posted by rxie
Saab make cars for the home market unlike subaru who design their cars for the international market. As far as i know saab aided in the design of the initial saabs he raced and since then they have been carbon copys nearly.

I think Saab makes also car for the International market, their most important market in the USA.

[Matti Alamaki]

The Saab probably has some common competition bits to a Subaru as Eklund campaigned a Legacy for years before he got the Saab.

[Cryos]

true,

@FIRE

Saab design is for the scandinavian market, its like volkswagen, they design cars for their home market they dont care how its preceived in other countrys as long as its good in their country its grand. if the car sells internationaly its all the better.

[winnie]

I thought Ecland used the WRC Subaru transmission. Don't forget he ran a twin turbo Subaru for a few years and Prodrive supplied a lot of parts.

[Cryos]

as i said as far as i know its all saab

[DCS]

The Eklund Saab is build by Eklunds own team and uses a Trollspeed 2.0 Saab based engine. Some of the transmission and suspension part are indeed of Prodrive, but is nothing like the Subaru WRC. Why do people still think that rallycross cars are WRC, look closer to the car and you know they are totally different and more freely build!

[BertMk2]

Originally posted by DCS
Why do people still think that rallycross cars are WRC, look closer to the car and you know they are totally different and more freely build!

I think the confusion is partly brought on by the fact that the cars look very similar to WRC cars and are generally similar models to the WRC gear (although there are others out there). As you say rallycross allows much greater modification thanks to a less restictive set of regs and the very different demands on the car.

At the rate the WRC is going that'll be turning into rallycross soon anyway Shorter stages run multiple times, super specials with head to heads - it's getting closer....