Shapes

A kind of unusual shapes on these two pictures. No front side or back side but an angle where not everybody recognise what car is it. Do you know which Saabs are these ?

src : Save Saab Museum & Kerim @ Saabunderground.cz

The most intelligent car ever built

An early ad from North America. Reminding on surrealist collages from the 20's and 30's ...

src : pinterest

22 years old ad for a Saab convention

This ad appeared in Svet Motoru (World of engines), a long term existing czech car enthusiasts magazine. Year : 1991, month : most probably august.

It's inviting all fans of Saab to a convention on 14, and 15. September 1991 which will take place in Brno, Czech Republic. On the agenda is a meeting, Saab cars, a service check as well as a demostration of the SAAB 9000 Turbo and SAAB 900 Turbo Sport.

It's issued by a SAAB Club Czechoslovakia and SAAB Service in Usti nad Orlici, which might be the same service which recently bought some of the unique Saab pieces.

A nice piece of history.

source : Puppy Hunters Saab Club

Clarkson : "stupid and childish". Really ?

The "disadvantage" of owning a convertible is, that once you go somehwere with hot weather, where a rental car comes into question, you doesn't want anything else, than a convertible. And as a car fan, you probably want to try out better and better cars, or at least which you don't have a chance to drive otherwise.

So we're found ourselves standing after long flights at midnight at a car rental counter asking for "upgrade". "You can get a Camaro, do you want it ?" was the answer. After agreeing, paperwork and a bit waiting we've got a yellow Chevrolet Camaro 2012.

"Stupid and childish", says Jeremy Clarkson about it in this Top Gear episode. He's kind of right :) But I don't care at all. As well as about the Transformers cliché.

So here's a convertible which will drive us for a week around an island. After having an intensive experience with a Saab convertible, an unconscious comparison is always present. Even if these are very different car categories, the situations the driver has to solve are the same.

The feeling is a pretty robust, the car feels (and is) low and wide. The basic configuration has 18" wheels (245/55R18), fabric power seats, basic audioset, board computer and a few of standard things. The transmission is automatic, the engine is the "basic" one, 3.6 liter DOHC with 323 hp and 377 Nm. Stronger than my Saab in horse power but not in torque.

A very known feeling of "compactness" comes after a few road bumps. Either the chassis construction is so strong or it has a front strut brace. I open the hood and see the strut brace. Standard feature. Nice.

The 0-60 should be around 6 seconds. With the automatic transmission hardly, it has a huge delay and switches gears around 4000 rpm. Of course it's quicker when shifting manually but even after honestly trying I couldn't get used to the tap shifting. A muscle car ? Maybe the 6-liter, not this ...

The fuel economy for the 600 miles we did was 17.5 mpg, which is around 16 litres / 100 km. When considering mostly outside of the city and about 25% highways, it's quite a lot. Even with 3.6 liter engine and 1.8 tons of weight. Hm ... 

The roof is a black soft-top. No drops inside even through a huge tropical rain. But it's slow. According to the owner's guide it needs 20 seconds for open or close, Saab needs 16. It's not a tragedy but there is this slow feeling. The only really annoying thing is, that to open/close the roof you have to unlock/lock it manually with a large latch. C'mon it's 21. century.

With top down it's windy inside after about 80 kmh (50 mph), similar to Saab. There are wind deflectors available and it's absolutely understandable that car rental companies doesn't provide them. They would have to change them probably every second week. And on slow roads it's also not really necessary. As the whole car, but that's a different story.

The GM cruise control system, which is the same like in my girlfriends Insignia was driving me crazy. From all the systems I've seen, this is the stupidiest. Instead of simple and quick "set speed", you have to push down the thingie and hold for a short while. Thousand things can happen while you "start" it and find out if it works or not.

Another not very understandable thing is the AUX input. I found it on the third day when downloaded the owner's guide. It's hidden below the power outlet and looks like an unattended hole from the production. Once you know it's fine, but until you find out, some new grey hair appears.

One last and very cool thing is the output of the rear parking camera. It goes directly into the rearview mirror and it's very practical, because you see also combined things which are out of the reach of the camera. While I prefer looking around, in a convertible, especially with closed roof the view is a bit limited.

So is it childish and stupid ? In this yellow color definitely yes. In less screaming colours maybe not so. Stupid ? Not really. It did a good job, the drives around were fantastic. Two cars in front of us had a quite nasty accident, in the not very clean situation I had a very good overview what's going on and the breaks were also very good. Otherwise we would be the next in the crash.

Would I buy it ? Here in Europe in a couple of pricelists, the 3.6 liter version is not present, everything starts at 6.2 liter and 60.000 €. No, not for this price at all. But for a week rental it wasn't bad at all.

Rollin 'in my nine double "o"

Phenom - "900". He's a Saab freak and the video shows it all ...


Good luck man !

Detailism

A great Scania logo detail.

Used with approval, author : © Blanka Benešová

A 900 in it's element

A great Saab 900 convertible pic circulates around. One of the most beautiful and natural ...

source : International Classic Saab 900 Register facebook via Save Saab Museum

SAAB Support Convoy 3rd Anniversary

The slovak and czech (moravian) fans organised a convention for the 3rd Anniversary of SAAB Support Convoy. The place was Lednice, a beautiful town in southern Moravia and a part of the Unesco Heritage. Lednice is a one of the favorite places of me and my girlfriend for the convertible rides. In summer of course.

While sitting in the plane returning from our vacation I couldn't be there. But after getting an OK to publish some photos of my friends, here they are.

Notable things : 45-50 Saabs came, many generations and models. Also present were the auctioned 9-4X and originally Victor Muller's 9-5 NG.

Photos : © Kerim79 / Saabunderground.cz and Puki / Puppy Hunters Saab Club

A street catch

Sometimes there are things parking on the street where you simply have to stop, even risking a parking ticket. A Porsche 356 Speedster Convertible. One of the most desirable collector models in the world. Just on the street.

Project 99 : SAAB EMS

An old video about the background of the Project 99 made by Saab. In english.

We love winter

... is the comment to this photo done by his author, a recently added Puppy Hunters Saab Club member Tomas.

src : Tomas Horvath Foto

The SAAB Hawaii encounter

A tropical paradise with palm trees, bays, boats and boulevards.
A lot a lot of cars, the vast majority a mixture of american and japanese brands. And here and there a Saab. Not many, but at least 1-2 a day. That's Oahu, one of the islands of Hawaii.

In contrast to 7 flight hours far San Francisco, where are tons of Saabs, here's less. No chance to rent one and that will change. To run a dealership in these conditions isn't easy. But there is one - SAAB Hawaii, in Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii.

The advantage of to be connected to a community driven brand such as Saab is, that you can simply walk into a dealership on the other side of the world, say that you are a fan and have a good chance, that your step into space driven by enthusiasts. They talk to you differently as when you come to an anonymous dealership of a let's say Toyota.

Exactly this is what I did one sunny afternoon in Honolulu after googling, that there is a Saab dealership. Coming to the 3030 Waialae Avenue [STREETVIEW LINK], located at the edge of downtown and not far from the famous Diamond Head Crater I spot a house with the Saab logo. In the front are standing several Saabs for sale including the 9-5 NG and of course the 9-3 convertible can't be absent.

A young guy, Craig welcomes me and everything goes as at a Saab fan place. Of course, his 9-3 SportCombi Aero V6 XWD parks in front of the house. He shows me the surfboard with Saab logo, probably one of a kind in the world. A smooth talk goes on while taking a few photos.

He's absolutely on track with the latest informations. It's the day on which the new logo was unveiled, he knows about it of course. He speaks about the Saab drivers on Oahu. They are very loyal and loving their cars. Coming back for service. They love to be different and the kind of exclusivity of their cars.

There are mostly 9-3 around on the island. I've seen several 9-3 I convertibles, one 9-3 II convertible and several sedans and combis.

Craig shows me the backyard, I count 23 Saabs. This is not Sweden or Germany, but not small at all. We're trying to define, what's so cool on the black 9-3 I, which owner refuses to drive anything else. Words like "hatch" or "front mask" are coming, but we both know it's the thing that is so hard to define.

On Oahu there is no diesel at the petrol stations, which I like a lot. There is E85 to get, so consequently some of the Saabs are carrying the BioPower sign. Another small detail underlines the spirit here - the "My other SAAB is a JET" sign on the numberplate frames.

There is a hard thing to get a SAAB rental car when you travel somewhere nowadays. So is Honolulu but this is going to be different. They're planning to offer a rental service for Saabs only. So there will come chance to get a rental Saab including convertibles in the future. This is a great idea and quite a unique thing. So if you plan your holiday on Oahu, try to email them.

 My visit comes to the end. It's a strange feeling, back at home are tons of snow and ice, here you see the surfboard and convertibles. It's still a few days after Christmas, there is still the tree inside as on many places in Honolulu. It was a very nice visit, the feeling that there are people eleven timezones far away sharing the same hobby is just great.

Aloha !

My other Saab is a jet

Two beautiful photos appeared in the network. It's Prague airport.

As usual click for higher resolution.

source : I love my Saab

New SAAB logo and visual identity

NEVS has unveiled a new SAAB logo and parts of the visual identity. It was made public through a press release on the current NEVS website.

Also there is a new website coming, saabcars.com, which currently shows part of the visuals and will be updated soon. 

So what's new : 

The SAAB logo. It will be used on certain product parts including wheel hub covers and bonnet. The color will be silver against a white circular background. Right now we see a grey logo, reminding on the classic 900 logo. The wording stays, the font as well.

The visuals. There will be different visuals for the four seasons and respective road conditions. Right now it's winter in Sweden, so there is a snowy visual combined with Aurora borealis.

Also the NEVS logo is new. Similar to the SAAB logo, only the name NEVS in a nicely chosen and a sans serif font is the whole logo.

The design made by Stockholm Design Lab AB reminds on the older visuals of SAAB. The griffin as well as the aircraft parts are missing in the logo. The website visuals is too fresh and not complete to comment, but the trend is to see - very modern and kind of minimalistic. Actually in comparison with the current NEVS site it looks much better. Several levels better.

Things are moving. Hopely in the right direction. Under the given circumstances.

edit : reader Martin pointed out, that the logo is simillar to the Saab 99 logo and sent a nice photo :

 ... and the new logo reminds a bit on this 96 emblem on the C- pillar. It's a different font but the appearance is there :

Who bought Victor Muller's 9-5 Aero ?

The recent auction included some very rare Saabs like the 9-5 NG Aero from Victor Muller as well as couple of 9-5 NG SportCombi, 9-4X and others. I was thinking about auctioning as well, but it turned out to be out of my possibilities.

But at least 6 of the auctioned Saabs ended in very good hands. The Saab Service Suchomel in Usti nad Orlici, Czech Republic bought them. They love Saabs and know them very deeply. This is so cool and a huge congratulation to these rare pieces ! This is one of the very unique collections worldwide.

I hope to get a chance to make a closer coverage in the future. It's 240 km from my home, so definitely a summer trip worth. 

Just check it out : 

You can find more pictures on saabclubslovakia and a gallery here.

Sources : Saab Club Slovakia and Saabunderground.cz

SAAB production restart ?

Several SAAB news sites are writing about a letter that NEVS sent to suppliers. Reportedly NEVS examines a possibility to restart the production this year.

They claim to have capacity of 20.000 cars and if the manage to start produce in week 34 - starting 19. August, they can produce 8.000 cars. The production could raise in 2014.


The letter speaks about conventional Saab 9-3. No word about engines, but further the information says, they plan to start with 9-3 convertible and 9-3 sedan, later 9-3X. Electric engines should come next year.

The news comes after the announcement that the chinese City of Qingdao became partner of NEVS. The cars should be built in Trollhattan, there is no information about engines available.

Interesting and sounds good.

sources : Saabsunited, Saabblog.net and saablog-in.

A Hollywood Saab

Our roadtrip (kind of) seems to get an unplanned movie background. The Bullitt movie locations thing was something I wanted to do for more than 10 years but even been in San Francisco several times, there was never time for this. But Hollywood was completely unplanned due some circumstances. I love these unexpected situations, which just appear from nowhere.

One of them was a short trip to Hollywood. One of the websites describing best ways to the Hollywood sign is saying, you should go from Mulholland Drive. So we did, of course in wrong direction. But we've driven a while on the street known from the famous David Lynch movie :) 

But our GPS (otherwise strange) has the sign as a point of interest. This second option worked flawlessly and there was also a Saab nearby. It wasn't an ideal parking position, but ... on the right side of the street ... it's a 900 SE 2.0 Turbo (click for higher resolution). 

ohh and ...

Bullitt

I like San Francisco for a couple of reasons. 

The first is, when I've started my first job for a multinational  company, I was sent to Silicon Valley for two weeks. It was 1997, my first time in the U.S., I had zero experience and with my school (more british than american) english the first 1-2 days I couldn't understand a word. Things changed after a while, but the "ehm" feeling will be always remembered. 

The second reason are classics - a movie and a series from the 60's and 70's. The series was The Streets of San Francisco featuring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas and the movie was Bullitt with Steeve McQueen and Jacqueline Bisset. Bullitts opening credits (created by Pablo Ferro), the atmosphere, the famous car chase and all around, the whole movie is a masterpiece. 

The cars ! :) The famous car chase is between a 1967 Ford Mustang GT-390 Fastback (V8, 6.4L, 325hp) driven by Steeve McQueen vs. 1968 Dodge Charger 1968 R/T 440. 

The Bullitt filming locations are mapped, there are two main resources for it : the Bullitt locations in San Francisco is a wonderful overview including up-to-date (2002) pictures of the locations and the Bullitt car chase Google map. At the end I found the first link (text) a better one. 

So we did a drive there with cameras. Even if there are coverages around the web, I wanted to do my own as well as go through the places.

All the pictures are clickable for higher resolution. The car chase can be found in several places on youtube. 

This is a part of the chase filmed on Filbert street heading east. The church is Saints Peter and Paul Church and the tower is Coit Tower. Above the shot from the movie, below from 7. January 2013.

Filbert street.

Next the famous jumping scene. It starts at the intersection of Taylor / Vallejo with a bay view with Alcatraz. Both houses are still there, maybe the trees are the same as well.

Taylor / Vallejo crossroad

The rollercoaster continues. In real life Taylor looks much more narrow than in the movie. It might be because of the original camera, the way the cars are parking today on the left side, I don't know.

Taylor street

The other look on this passage is from the other side, means uphill. A picture blinked in my mind, so I was driving down, made a "semilegal" U-turn and came back.

Taylor street

On the Taylor street there were also two places, known from the movie. The first is Bullitt's house, 1153 Taylor street. It's still there, but with different colour. And someone made a garage from the place on the ground floor. Just look.

1153, Taylor Street

The second known thing is the small grocery, where Bullitt "bought the newspaper" and shopped inside. It is across the street, in front of the house. Both the house and the grocery are on cross Taylor / Clay. When I came here, I recognised the grocery prior to the house, it is much more visible and in simillar colors like in the movie.

Grocery at Taylor street

That's it. For more, there wasn't time. Maybe at the next visit, if it comes. Hopely you like it. The pictures are taken on 7. January 2013. The photos from the movie are from the rjsmith.com site, currently the best coverage I've found. Wonderful. One picture originates from here.

Edit : 
The last evening our GPS in the rental car played completely crazy, so we came home on another route than usual. As things sometimes develop, it leaded us around another place from the Bullitt filming locations - the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental Hotel. Not too far away from our hotel, so I took a walk back to take some night picture.

Mark Hopkins Intercontinental, where Bullitt started to trace Johnny Ross

Well and than I turned to the other side of the street and spotted another place known from the movie - the Grace Cathedral, where Chalmers confronted Bullitts superior Sam Bennett requiring Johnny Ross should attend on the court hearing on Monday.

The Grace Cathedral

The newer pictures are all from 7.1.2013, the last two from 8.1.2013.
Copyright notice : 
This blog post is a pure fan post and is not trying by any meaning to violate copyrights of anyone. 
"BULLITT" is a trademark of Warner Bros./Chad & T. McQueen Testament Trust. Still captures from the Bullitt DVD are copyright Warner Bros., are included here for review puposes, and are for personal viewing only. The current photos are copyright of Saabism.