Saabfestival 2013

About 1500 cars and 10-12.000 people is the rough estimation for this years Saabfestival in Trollhattan. Origin : all around Europe, some people from U.S., Canada and China. And reportedly, there were more people from outside of Sweden than locals.

The festival had great luck for weather. Sunny, the ideal 25°C for a convertible top down. In contrast to the rest of Europe fighting with heavy floods.

A very positive atmosphere all around the place. Smiling people. A lot of Saabs driving between locations where something happened : 1) the Saab Museum as central point, 2) the ANA shop, service and scrapyard with special prices and 3) the parking place in front of the SAAB factory for a short car test.

Old friends, new friends, many interesting talks and indeed a feeling of a fresh wave of optimism for the future. Well there were reasons for that. NEVS, in addition to its electric story, announced a  facelifted 9-3 with a combustion engine. This is not a really new thing but a still a powerfull message saying it's not the end.

Old, new, tuned, heavily modified Saabs, whatever you can imagine. 300 HP here, 550 there, even 1000 HP. Wonderful small details on many Saabs. You can see some of them on the photos below.

I've counted seven NG 9-5 SportCombis. With numberplates and on the streets. There will appear photos from their photosession sooner or later somewhere on the Internet. Nice.

Coming back to home wasn't easy : 800 km in rain (my rainy record), I had to find alternative routes twice because of some closed roads A huge part of middle Europe, is under water right now. Some of the sceneries around still opened highways were not nice and I can only wish luck to everyone, where the water didn't reached the peaks.

Other photos : part 2 and part 3.

Coming to the Rostock ferry with an excellent timing. 9-5NG Sport Combi, 9-4X and my convertible.

9-3X with the Independence edition wheels looks imho great.

The two belgian Toppolas. Not everydays picture at all.

Andrei (Griffin models) is proudly showing his models. Handmade and for sale. Late evening at the hotel.

Talks, talks ... everywhere.

A 550 HP Saab 9-5 by Maptun. Well yes.

The two famous motorhomes. Numberplates : FUJ and DEO :) Interior photos in next blog posts.

Wanna race ?

A great color combination on this Sonett

A detail ...

Plenty of space ...

My convertible. I always wanted to have such a photo, so here it is. It was the 3.000 km worth.

A 1000 hp Saab 9-3 by Speedparts.

If you like the photos, here is more of them : part 2 and part 3.