Day: February 5, 2013

Exhibit: Saab Spirit Lives On

The Simeone Automotive Museum in Philadelphia, PA, will host a special Saab exhibition from February 23rd to March 17th entitled The Saab Spirit Lives On.

The vehicles on display are all owned by Bill Jacobson, owner of Sports Car Service in Wilmington, Delaware. I don’t know Bill but his name’s been on my radar for some time, now. Bill’s long been a prominent figure on the vintage Saab scene and he purchased a number of vehicles from the Heritage Collection when it went up for sale following the bankruptcy.

His collection includes one very special Saab – Sonett #6. Actually, the collection is one that could almost rival the Saab Museum itself. Not in number, of course, but in quality and the way it represents such a nice walk through Saab’s history.

The Sonett will be on display at Simeone, along with the following vehicles:

  • 1959 Saab 750 GT (Red) – Featured in Autoweek magazine article “50 years of Saab & Ferrari” also appears in Michael Furman’s Automobiles of the Chrome Age
  • 1964 Saab Quantum Formula “S” (blue with yellow nose) – Sold in “kit” form through Saab US dealers only. Raced in the mid 1960’s with S.C.C.A.
  • 1964 Saab Bullnose Wagon (Tan) – Acquired from the GM/Saab Heritage Collection
  • 1965 Saab Longnose Wagon (Red) – All original, only 75,000 KM
  • 1967 Saab Sonett II 2-stroke (Silver) – One of only 258 produced, most of them were sold here in the US.
  • 1970 Saab 99 (Tan) – Acquired from the GM/Saab Heritage Collection
  • 1978 Saab 99 Turbo (Burgundy) – Acquired from the GM/Saab Heritage Collection, the first of the turbo charged cars that started the “Turbo” powered era.
  • 1980 Saab 900 5 door (Black) – Acquired from the GM/Saab Heritage Collection
  • 1986 Saab 900 T Convertible (Red) – Saab press car for the release of the Saab convertible. Was always owned by Saab and the only red 1986 produced.
  • 1990 Barber Saab Pro Series Formula Car (Red) – Series featuring open-wheeled, Saab-powered formula cars ran from 1986 – 1991 giving many race car drivers their start, such as: Robbie Buhl, Bryan Herta and Juan Pablo Montoya
  • 1991 Saab 900 SPG Convertible (White) – Custom ordered and made for the former Saab president Jim Crumlish
  • 1993 Saab 9000 Cut away (Yellow) – Acquired from the GM/Saab Heritage Collection, shows the steel reinforcements made on a Saab giving them their high standards in crash safety records
  • 1993 900T Limited Edition (Black) – #139 of 325 produced. The last year of the “classic 900” 3 door body style
  • 1996 900 Turbo SE Talladega Challenge (Silver) – The 1996 event Oct 16 – 24th, the Saabs in the challenge bettered 18 of their own records and set 22 more. On the last day the fastest 900 averaged 143 MPH for 12 hours
  • 1998 Saab 9000 CSET Aspen Police (Silver) – Former Aspen Colorado Police car for the first 19,000 miles and then sold back to Saab Cars USA for resale in 1999.
  • 2000 Saab 9-3 Viggen Convertible (Lighting Blue) – 1 of 41 produced in this color in the production year 2000
  • 2011 Saab 9-5 Aero (Silver) – One of the last Saabs to be produced, ending an era in the Saab world.

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The mystery cars of the Geneva Motor Show

The best motor show of the year is coming up soon – the Geneva Motor Show. You’ll see a lot of cars from companies you recognise in your favourite motoring pages. There are a few companies you’re less likely to hear about, though. Small companies trying to sell themselves every bit as much as they try to sell dreams on wheels.

Who are they and what are they offering? Here’s a look at some of the more interesting ones (to me, at least)…..

GTA Motor

GTA Motor is a Spanish company looking to build 99 supercars – exclusivity is everything – capable of reaching 100kph in under 3 seconds, and a top speed of 350km/h. The GTA Spano project is actually a few years old now. It has shown at Goodwood and 2013 will be GTA’s second year at Geneva.

It’s a handsome vehicle, for sure.

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Soleil Motors

Soleil is another fledgling supercar company, based in Milan, Italy. It’s production concept/model is called the Anadi but I don’t know if any have been built for real just yet. They seem to be similar to Spyker in philosophy, with an emphasis on luxury and execution rather than flat-out performance.

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Pariss Electric

Another exotic from another new company. Are you sensing a trend here? As the name implies, this is an electric vehicle and it even made its debut at it’s namesake motor show – Paris 2012. Pariss claim 100kW of power, a 125km range and a recharge time of just 5 hours for the French made batteries. The price is a very reasonable sounding 60,000 Euros and it’s scheduled for launch in the first half of this year.

Le Tesla?

This video is your first in-motion glimpse, presumably filmed in Paris last year. It shows the state of production readiness at the time – being driven at slow speed around a roundabout, in the rain, with no working windscreen wipers.

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Fornasari

Fornasari are a specialist carmaker founded in 1999 and based in Italy. They have a number of body styles already in use, particularly high-bodied vehicles intended for sports rallying. The cars mostly use GM V8 engines and rather wacky body styling in some instances.

I’m not sure what they’re showing at Geneva, but it might be the GiGi Concept, below. Again, bespoke leather and aluminium interiors that are reminiscent of Spyker’s work. Very nice.

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Exagon eGT

Laurent: Dis car haz six sides – front, derrire, left, right, top and bottom. We call it de Cube!
Jean-Paul: Nissan already use dis Cube name. Pigdogs! Hexagon also has le six sides.
Laurent: A-ha! Exagon, it is!

And so goes my broadly stereotyped tale of how the Exagon company got its name. It’s another French sports car and it’s another electric one, too. The Furtive eGT features two 142kW motors giving the equivalent of 400-odd horsepower and claimed acceleration of 0-100km/h in just 2.5 seconds. Range and Recharge aren’t discussed (yet).

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There are a number of equally small exhibitors doing smaller projects that don’t quite capture my imagination in the same way as these movers and shakers. They’re more in the frame of modifiers of existing vehicles or other small electric start-ups.

You can peruse the entire list of Geneva entrants here. There’s likely to still be a few names there that you haven’t heard of.

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