We had been promised clear skies and at least a few degrees above freezing. Day one ended in fog and day two continues into the fog with an addition of light drizzle. Henrik is back in the drivers seat for the first leg of the journey and will be relieved in a few hours when we make our first pitstop. Hopefully we have cleared Denmark by then and can easily find 98+ octane fuel.
Current position: 65 km east of Odense
680 km and two dealer visits later we have come to the following conclusion: It’s damn near impossible to find anything other than 92 and 95 octane fuel in Denmark! Luckily we managed, after two close calls where we almost ran out of fuel, to find a Shell filling station that offered V-power. It’s worth the risk running out of petrol when you know that 98 octane fuel or V-power unlocks the full 415 bhp.
After a few hours of touring the Jensen Racing facilities and general conversation we were treated to a great dinner provided by Jakobs wife.
Amidst all the conversation about business, the tuning situation in Denmark (all aspects of it are illegal, even advertising about it) and general Saab talk we forgot to take any real pictures. We can however offer two good examples of Danish perfection;
A very well-trained dog called Pluto, and a perfectly organized cabinet for diagnostic tools.
That’s it for today. Now it’s time for six hours of sleep before we depart for Hoek van Holland, via Autobedrijf Tholen. In total it’s a 900 km drive that needs to be completed before the ferry departs. Hopefully there will be enough time for some kibbling.
After an uneventful drive from Örebro (no races, we were on summer tyres) we arrived in Helsingborg slightly behind schedule due to some re-routed traffic.
We join Stefan, the owner of Stylit, for lunch and some friendly conversation. Stefan is relatively new as a Maptun dealer, having owned the store for only three months, but he is by no means new to Maptun or Saab. The store offers performance parts and styling for a variety of car makers , along with a big collection of car audio parts.
If you want to visit Stefan and Stylit, head over to his website www.stylit.se
After close to 500 kms it’s time for a driver change. Henrik will now take the co-driver seat and hand over the car to me. Expect an update in a few hours, when we arrive at Jensen Racing.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to photograph the Maptun car during any part of the trackday trip. A selection of the pictures sent in to us will be published right here on the blog. Send all your contributions to anders@maptun.com
The itinerary is as follows (preliminary). All times are local.
09:00 Departure from Maptun Performance – Örebro, Sweden
13:00 Arrival at Stylit – Helsingborg, Sweden
Late afternoon – Crossing the Öresund bridge to meet up with Jakob Jensen of Jensen Racing, Maptun DK in Lynge, Denmark.
Late evening – Arrival at Scandic Hotel in Ringsted, Denmark.
Friday morning – Continuing the drive, crossing the Great Belt fixed link, onwards to the Dutch Maptun dealer Autobedrijf Tholen
Friday evening – Arrival at Hoek van Holland, departing to Harwich via the ferry connection.
Saturday morning – Arrival in Harwich, driving to Snetterton Cirquit.
Sunday – TRACKDAY!
Monday – Driving home
That’s it for now. Current position is road 50, 15 minutes north of Motala, Sweden.
Welcome to the Maptun blog! In order to better let customers and other fans follow what goes on at Maptun HQ we have decided to start a blog.
This comes very handy since tomorrow morning we will departing for the UK with our 415 bhp 9-3 SS to attend a trackday. During the entire trip you will be able to follow our progress as we drive and blog our way over to the British Isles. Expect lots of pictures and video. We are bringing a total of three cameras, not counting phones, so there will be plenty of material to publish.
The goal is of course the trackday hosted by our UK main dealer Neobrothers at the newly reconstructed Snetterton circuit. We have access to the full cirquit and the competition will include Ferraris, Porsches and other supercars. Hopefully at least one of the drivers from Team Maptun will have the guts and skills to put them to shame. The hardware is certainly capable of it.
The trackday will be attended by Fredrik Bengtsson, Henrik Forslund and yours truly; Fredrik Åberg. This is my first official entry on the blog and hopefully my somewhat rambling writing style will improve over time.
So make sure to bookmark this site and return tomorrow morning, the adventure starts at 08:00 Swedish time (GMT+1)!
We are still working with the preparation for tomorrow’s trip to England. Now is our new Sparco seats prepared with standard seat brakets, so we can quickly mount the chairs when we get to the track. During the trip, we will sit comfortably in standard TurboX seats.
