Hey Tom, a waaaaaaaaaaaaaay long time ago (1985) we had the pleasure of
having the then reigning Swedish Champion here for several events in the
US, Ola Stromberg, and he was the most friendly and helpful and non BS
guy nyou'd ever want to chat with, and I'd just gotten a full proper
gearbox for my (then only 15 year old) Saab from a good friend of his it
turned out, and I was all raving and giggling about what a real diff felt
like, and was telling him about a friends farm where they had a 1000meter
horse track and hammering the car on skinny 165 Michelin ZX radials a
little over 70mph thru the corners wher with the open diff I would enter
at 65 and exit at 45, and he said words which I belive should be carved
somewhere so all the newbies would see them:

Without a real diff, I wouldn't even load the car on the trailer.

There was a reception at the Swedish Cultural Center in the part of
Sleezattle which tradionaly wan the home of all the working class
Squareheads and Herring Chokers (local pronunciation of "Swede' and
'Norwegian' for eachother) and Ola had his GpA Saab 99 8vTurbo and there
were drinkies and videos and i was watching Swedish WRC with Ola and he
kept elbowing me in the ribs and (play acting) acting excited every time
his buddy I got the tranny from would come by and say "Oi! look here
comes your gearbox again!!" and "woooooow there goes your trannie, man
your trannie is famous now!".

Hey you really out to make sure you have side to side inflation and
diameters really really close, and don't fall into the toe out crap
people blab about.

And did VW ever do an equal length driveshaft arrangement?

John Vanlandingham
Seattle, WA. 98168

...........................................................

Hey Joe,
Ola was from the very beginning a ----er--- um _Saab_ guy, not those
backwards driven OVLOV things, he's from
Örebro, and that's where Stig Blomqvist is from and they opened a rally
prep shop there in the mid 80s. He had gotten all of Saab Sport and Rally
departments remaining parts and was really helpful when I was starting
building my car, and did me some really good prices on stuff when they
were closing down business in the economic downturn in the early 90s.
They built some nice Sierras and Sapphires and let me rummage around
looking at parts when I was last at the shop in 90 or 91.

I remember he is famous for a photo from 1977 or 78 RAC which caught him
Ola perfectly upside down, level as can be about 1 foot off the ground,
so when he gave me his card when I first met him I looked at it, it had a
picture of a Saab 99 rally car coming straight at you and supposedly a
bit in the air, so I took it and siad to him in that way we have of
complaining about things (all this is slang laden Svenska, va):
Ain't that just about typicall, eh? You paid somebody all that miney to
print your business cards up and they canät even get things right,
f***kinä typical, iddnit'

he said ' Like, whaddya mean?'
Me: 'Well just look at this, it should be like this....' and I turned the
card upside down so the car was inverted 'There, thatäs better!'

Ola was smiling but was also crosseyed, and blushing and muttering
'jössus, that one damn photo!!......'

Last I talked to him was a couple of years ago jsut to say Hi, he is
still running the steel prep and sandblasting business, likely an
outgrowth for shell prep.

John Vanlandingham
Seattle, WA. 98168

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat