Feeding the Saab obsession

Every hobby remains a hobby when it is performed in a frequent manner. The Saab obsession belongs in this category. Every Saab spotted around feeds the virus. My feeder is this Saab 9000. It parks nearly every day below my balconee. It belongs to a friend, which is a high quality coffee importer. And before it belonged to another friend, an experimental and progressive musician, which switched to this classic Saab 900.

Well yes, not only doctors and architects, but also coffee and music experts are owning Saabs.

It's a 9000 CSE, born in 1993, it's hirsched to 270-280 horses, it has aero exhaust and 322.000 km on the clock. I considered to buy it, but it's now in good hands.

Midsomer Murders

This episode of the Midsomer Murders series was aired on some czech channel last weekend. The 9000 car chase was a surprise. Many Saabs are in the whole series, the IMCDB features 13 of them, there were definitely more.

But mostly they belong to criminals and murders. Why, this is a big unknown, at least for me. 

Saab @ work

These pictures came to me yesterday with the comment : "Look how our friend Milos is going into the woods!". A very old 9000 which is actually used as a working Saab. From time to time at least.

It's actually another prove how robust the construction is and what can it hold. If you had the same feeling as me, that the 9000 should be treated more softer, than you should know, that the car is in good condition and this treatment doesn't do anything to the 9000. In worst case, it's dirty inside.

These guys love Saab. They are running Suchomel Saab, a good dealership and service for many years, organising annual meetings, helping with advise and live Saab. They live and love Saab in their own way.

Print ads

Jalopnik has a recent story called The ten best automotive print ads of all time. A couple of very nice car ads from the history. Saab 9000 included.

Two questions unrelated to Saab were raised by this. Firstly, it's so strange how long is the ad text on the white background. Today nearly nobody would read it in whole. So I am wondering if in the time of this ad (late 80ies ?) people actually were reading the text.

And a second question is about the whole Jalopnik story, all the top ten print ads are from the past, relatively long time ago. The newest one is from mid-nineties, the rest is older. While understanding and liking the retro wave, does it mean we are recently in the dark age of bad car ads ? I don't think so ...

A Saab 9000 convertible ?

This is a custom rebuild of a Saab 9000i, done by Björn Frykholm. It's a 50th birthday gift to himself. It took two years to accomplish, from 1993 to 1995. Many self made parts, the frame, the doors, interior parts. The canopy is a modified originally from Ford Escort. At least this I could understand from the google translated description from the swedish Saab turboclub forum thread.

The author of this masterpiece Björn Frykholm was for a time working with Robert Solstad, who did several special rebuilt Saabs, including convertibles as well as special transport vehicles. And this 9000 was not his first rebuilt Saab.

For more pictures definitely visit the mentioned Saab turboclub forum, there are more of this. This convertible is a nice addition to 9000 rebuilts including a couple of combis. Also here is one more interesting picture.

Nice !

source : Save Saab Museum facebook, Saab Turbo Club of Sweden

Time witness : a 1988 Saab 9000 print from the Stop magazine

The Stop magazine is a slovak car magazine. A very weird name for a car printed magazine, it should be "start" isn't it ? :) In these online ages his fame faded out "a little bit", but there were times it was the only one local printed magazine about cars. I loved Stop a lot many years ago.

This is a Stop scan from February 1988, the 9000 time.

The text says :

"The SAAB 9000 CD has broaden the Saab 9000 model range. A luxury limousine with classical lines. It offers an inline four cylinder 1985 cm3 engine with fuel injection and an intercooler, 16 valve head with dual overhead camshaft (DOHC). Saab offers a catalytic converter as an option.The version without catalyst offers 129 kW (175 hp) at 5300 rpm and 273 Nm torque at 3000 rpm. The version with catalyst offers a 119 kW (160 hp) at 5000 rpm and 255 Nm of torque at 3000 rpm."

It's amazing how they ignored any kind of marketing speach. Just raw basic facts and nothing else. It's not seen nowadays at all. Also that is why this is a pure time witness.

src : Puppy Hunters Saab Club

A 9000 pickup mod

A Saab 9000 pickup modification. Not a good picture, but the only one, which appeared.

src : facebook