Events Archives - Page 9 of 10

Mouthwatering Saab Club meeting in Hong Kong

Back in January 2010 there were a lot of gatherings around the world held in support of Saab as the company was threatened with closure by General Motors. The website that I used to run, Saabs United, was a central gathering point for the exchange of information about those convoys and it was a tremendous success.

I remember sitting at home watching the news flood my inbox as each of the convoys was held. You could almost track the movement of the sun by the email titles. I wasn’t surprised to see a huge gathering in Trollhattan, nor representation in Germany, France, the US and England. These were all markets I knew about.

What did surprise me, however, was the passion exhibited from Saab fans in Asia. The number of people and the incredible quality and condition of the vehicles they owned. I’ve talked to a few Saab tuning companies in my time and more than one has told me that their best and most fanatical customers are in Asia.

So it’s no surprise, then, that the following photo gallery from Hong Kong includes some fantastic Saabs. The event was held last weekend and I received the following review from Kenson Chan, part of the authorised dealer group in Hong Kong.

On June 5 (Sunday), the Saab Club HK gathered around 30 Saabs at a scenic place called Whitehead Club. Whitehead Club is just next to Sai Kung — the “Leisure Garden of Hong Kong” and has long been one of the most beautiful places in Hong Kong.

On that day, we were invited to join the gathering and we brought a new Saab 9-5 Aero and a 9-5 Vector to the venue. All members were happy to see the new Saab 9-5 and we also arranged test-drive session for them.

During the gathering, members showed their 900 Convertible and 9-3 Viggen to the media. Some members even tuned their cars on the day! At the end of the gathering, all members were given Saab Expression souvenir.

Sounds like a great club gathering and from the pictures, I think you’ll agree that Sai Kung is one of the most beautiful places in Hong Kong. What a setting!

My thanks to Kenson for the images and information, and congratulations to the Saab Club of Hong Kong on what looks like a wonderful outing.

Click the images to enlarge.

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Saab’s US chief Tim Colbeck appears on Autoline After Hours

UPDATE:

The show is now finished. You can view a replay below or at Autoline’s site. You can also check the Inside Saab twitter feed to read the live coverage.

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Autoline is a motoring news service headed up by John McElroy out of Detroit, Michigan.

Autoline After Hours is the Autoline equivalent to MTV Unplugged, with a more casual atmosphere and a focus on detailed questions to the special guest. The show also takes in questions from viewers and right now, AAH has opened the door for Saab fans to ask questions of Saab’s new US chief, Tim Colbeck.

Tim will be appearing on tonight’s show, which will stream live at 7pm ET in the US. From the Autoline Twitter feed……

Send us questions for tonight’s #AAH guest, Saab COO Tim Colbeck, or phone them in at 1-620-288-6546 (1-620-AUTOLIN)

I believe the correct link for the broadcast is here, though there’s nothing about tonight’s show there yet. It will appear just before the scheduled broadcast time.

You can send your questions directly to viewermail@autolinedetroit.tv and include “AAH Question” in the subject line. If you’re a Twitter user, you can also send your question to Autoline’s Twitter account.

It should be interesting to hear what TIm has to say now that he’s had a few weeks behind the wheel. And don’t worry if you miss the live broadcast because all of Autoline’s After Hours shows are archived at that link as well.

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Tim Colbeck appears at around the 29 minute mark of the broadcast (you can click the timebar to get straight to that point if you don’t want to watch the preliminaries).

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Living in Trollhattan – Wednesday night at the locks

If you’re familiar with summertime in Trollhattan then you’ll already know what this story is all about. If not, then here’s another little snapshot of life in Trollywood.

If you ever come to Trollhattan in the summertime, try to include a Wednesday night in your stay here. Why?

I’m not sure exactly who organises it, but vintage and veteran vehicle owners from the Trestad area (i.e. three cities – Trollhattan, Vanersborg, Uddevalla) hold an informal car show at the locks in Trollhattan on Wednesday nights. Today was the first day of June, the first day of summer, and a Wednesday, so the lads and ladies had their cars ready to show.

I’ll start this entry with what was the end of the car show for me – the more Continental section of the show, where the Saabs were loosely congregated amongst other European makes. Here’s a fine Saab Sonett II to start with (there were no Sonett III’s at the show, nor any original Sonetts, which have actually been there in the past, both a genuine Saab 94 and a very good copy)

This was the third time I’d seen this 99 today in Trollhattan……

There are heaps more photos after the jump…….

Continue reading Living in Trollhattan – Wednesday night at the locks

Mille Miglia Photo Exhibition at the Saab Museum

Posted to the events page……

The Saab Car Museum in Trollhättan will host a special photo exhibition on the 2011 Mille Miglia from Saturday, May 28 until Monday, June 6.

The exhibition will feature the two vehicles (still with Italian mud caked in the tire tread!) driven by Mats Fägerhag and Hans Hugenholtz, along with a slideshow of images taken during the rally. The images were shot by renowned British photographer Charlie Magee.

The exhibition will be open to the public during normal business hours, Monday to Sunday 11:00-16:00, and entrance will be included with purchase of museum day pass.

Get a preview of some of the photos here.

History: Mille Miglia and Saab

Once described as the world’s greatest road race, the Mille Miglia was created in 1927 as a marathon speed test of man and machine on closed public roads from Brescia to Rome and back. The original route was almost exactly 1,600 kilometers, hence the race’s iconic name – ‘Mille Miglia’ is Italian for 1,000 miles.

Continue reading Mille Miglia Photo Exhibition at the Saab Museum

Saabs @ Carlisle 2011

One of the bigger Saab events on the North America calendar is the annual Carlisle Import and Kit Nationals. In Saab circles, it’s known as Saabs @ Carlisle and it was on again last weekend at the Carlisle Fairgrounds in Pennsylvania.

Organisers of the Saab effort were hoping to top the magic 300 mark this year. They fell agonisingly close, with around 275 Saabs in attendance, plus some cars from the Saab Heritage Collection in the US and dealer demo vehicles. Given the rate of growth and interest in the event, I’m sure they’ll get to the 300 mark next year, and I’d love to bring Inside Saab along to record the occasion.

All manner of Saabs drove to the event from 22 different states. A good friend of mine, Jim Coggenshall, was there and he sent me this report from the event:

Saab had at least twice as many cars as any other make a the Show. Audi, Volvo, BMW and Opel were all very well represented but less than half the number of Saabs. Other interesting groups included Simca, Lancia, Datsun, & Citroen but there were literally hundreds of other imports and kit cars (Ferrari, Lambo, GTR, etc).

The vast majority of the Saabs arrived (often in multi car convoys) in time for the Friday night BYO cook-out. A fair number of folks (including myself) camped right at the fair grounds. It was a great way to meet up with old friends and share a little late night revelry without having to worry about driving.

Saturday morning dawned as a beautiful day. A nice change for the North East US, which has had the most widespread wet spring anybody can remember. Sunscreen was in order. It was very easy to tell who forgot theirs on Sunday!

The Central Pennsylvania Saab Club had set up a 200 foot long tent as the central gathering spot. It not only was the area for provided meals, it also housed the Heritage Collection brough along by Saab Cars North America. What a stunning display. Chip Lamb of West of Sweden spent a fair bit of the day Saturday firing up nearly all the cars. On Sunday, at least three of them were taken out from under the tent for a few laps around the roads of the fair grounds. Nothing turned more heads or ears all weekend than when Chip took the two stroke Quantum racer for a slow but noisy joy ride around the entire fairgrounds.

All the Saab participants filled out People’s Choice ballots in at least 12 different classes. Nice plaques were awarded for 1,2,& 3 in each class. A pleasant surprise was the participation of the Saabaru folks with nearly a dozen cars (Saab 9-2x’s). I’m told the true Subaru folks don’t like them and they sometimes get sideways looks from the true Saab folks. But they love to drive their 9-2x’s and it was great to see some of their really well cared for cars.

The organizers also invited “friends of Saab” to participate, and they were represented by everything from a DeLorean to an old RWD Jeep somehow mated to a Saab B234 (I’m told it was seen doing wheelies).

After lunch at least three different groups went out for loosely organized cruises through the beautiful Pennsylvania farmland and up into the hills around Carlisle. Others visited the rows and rows of vendor tents to score some elusive parts for their cars or just some other memorabilia from the weekend. Then it was back to the fairgrounds for another good meal.

After dark the big transporter that brought much of the Heritage Collection was pulled up beside the huge tent. A big screen placed on the side of it for movie night which consisted of a selection of the best episodes of Top Gear. By midnight most people turned in (except, it seems, those around my tent).

On Sunday things were a bit quieter. Many of the other show participants seemed to focus only on Saturday, but not Saab. A good 75% of the cars were back for the showing of the colors. We arranged the cars by color instead of model and had another judging (what’s with only three white cars?). Those awards were presented during the lunch which closed out the three day weekend. A great time was had by all.

To some photos, then……

I should give the honor of the first image to Jim himself, as he rode to Carlisle (a 900-mile round trip) in his Saab Sonett III, which is no small feat for a tall man.

You can all of Jim’s images from Carlisle here.

The following images are from Meg Haviland, who travelled to the show from New York. You can see all of Meg’s images

here.

That last one’s an interesting one. I’ve had a couple of people include tales of getting woken up by “that darn orange Saab” in their emails about Carlisle this year.

If you’re wondering how such a sweet little car could do that to so many people, maybe this will give you an idea….. 🙂

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Another Saab mashup on the streets

It’s always interesting to see what sort of Saab-related oddities are out there in the world.

Last week it was the SaabViper making big waves on the internet – a Saab 9-3 SportCombi with a Dodge Viper engine.

This week, it’s something quite different……

It seems this Jeep CJ5 is the latest Saab mashup to get noticed. The car appeared at the Carlisle Import and Kit Nationals event staged last weekend in Pennsylvania. It’s a big gathering of vehicles from all around the United States and Saab always has a massive presence there.

Visitors to this year’s Carlisle show might have been a bit puzzled when they saw the Jeep parked amongst all the Swedish metal. All was made clear, though, when they looked under the hood.

From a little reading around the web, it seems the owner of the vehicle had a Jeep with no working engine, and a Saab engine laying around without a body. Why not bring them together?

The engine is a 2.3turbo and the Jeep is rear-wheel-drive.

My thanks to Mark M and Jim C for the images. More can be seen over at Thor’s Saabs @ Carlisle pages.

We’ll have more from Saabs @ Carlisle later. It looks like people had a great time there.

Saab at Mille Miglia – a fan’s view

We’ll have some material on the Mille Miglia from the inside perspective tomorrow.

Today, though, I’d like to draw your attention to an absolutely brilliant collection of photos from the Mille Miglia, taken by some Saab fans in Italy.

Saabnews.it is an Italian Saab fan site and it’s typical of why Saab enthusiasts are the best automotive enthusiasts in the world. The dedication of the average Saab fan is without peer and the collection of photos from this event by the moderators at Saabnews.it is a prime example.

I’ve posted a few photos below with their permission, but please head on over and view the full collection for yourself. You’ll be AMAZED by the number of shots there:

2011 Mille Miglia at Saabnews.it

Click to enlarge.

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Saabs United Days a success

I got back from Australia in to Trollhattan on Saturday evening, just in time to take in Day 2 of the Saabs United Days event on the weekend.

Saabs United Days was a gathering organised by the Saabs United website, aimed at giving a chance for readers of the website to get together, share some Saab experiences and attend various presentations to give them a better understanding of the Saab company and brand.

Day 1 was conducted mostly at ANA, which is arguably the largest and most trafficked Saab dealership in the world, located right here in Trollhattan (the new Saab of North Olmstead showroom in the US might be the single point of argument about size).

There were plenty of new Saabs to test drive. All variations of the new Saab 9-5 were on offer so that people who’d previously not had a chance could get to sample the new Saab 9-5 Sedan range. Attendees also got an exclusive small-setting opportunity to spend some significant time with the new Saab 9-5 SportCombi and the new Saab 9-4x, neither of which are released to world markets just yet.

Reports say that a number of vehicles were sold at ANA on the weekend, which is a great outcome for both ANA and Saabs United.

I joined the group for Day 2 of the event, which was hosted at the Saab Museum in Trollhattan. Aside from the opportunity to check out the various historical Saabs in display (with free entry for SU Days attendees), there were also a couple of presentations made giving people an insight into how Saab operates as a company.

A team from the Saab Technical Development center presented on how Saab use modelling and simulation to enhance the model development process. Everything from design to supply and even safety is enhanced by Saab’s greater use of modelling techniques. In fact, where Saab used to build mules every six months to test a generational change in the development cycle of vehicle, they can now test significant changes to development vehicles every six weeks using computer simulations.

This presentation also included a segment about the Saab IQon vehicle entertainment and integration system. The IQon system drew a great amount of interest at the Geneva Salon when it was unveiled earlier this year and that interest level hasn’t dropped off at all, with plenty of questions in the group Q&A session that followed being about IQon in particular.

The second presenation addressed Saab’s production facility – how Saab actually goes about making cars. We had a photographic tour around the factory, as well as some detailed insights into how Saab use ‘Lean’ production methods to constantly improve their production process. It was a very intensive presentation and one for the real Saab die-hards, but an incredibly interesting perspective nonetheless.

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I’ve been writing about the Saab company for over six years now, until recently that was on the Saabs United website. One of the great aspects about Saab is the community that surrounds it – a very dedicated and passionate group of people who want to know more about Saab and why we do the things we do.

It’s easy to think of this gathering as being just a group of car nuts, but the fact that people were willing to travel from England, Finland and Holland to attend something organised by other fans just like them is indicative of the passion people have for the company.

I’d have to rate the first Saabs United Days an outstanding success. The fact that people are willing to organise and attend such an event is something that we at Saab really appreciate. It’s also a feather in the cap of the organisers and attendees, the people who are always needed to make such an event a success.

If you’ve got an event like this happening in your local area, please do contact me so that I can add it to the Events page on this site. I might even be able to get along and say Hi if the schedule works!

Photos by Rune at Saabs United. Used by permission.

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2011 Mille Miglia complete – all three Saabs finish the journey

Peter Backstrom, the director of the Saab Museum here in Trollhattan, oversaw the engine builds for the three Saab 93A’s competing in the 2011 Mille Miglia. Those engines were built not to be outstandingly fast, but to be very, very reliable (whilst still being quite quick for such a small engine).

That strategy has worked for the second consecutive year, with all three cars in the 2011 Mille Miglia finishing the event in fine style.

Brescia, Italy: The 2011 Mille Miglia contest ended on a high Saturday night, as all three competing Saab 93s safely returned to the enthusiastic crowds in Brescia. The number 332 car, piloted by Spyker Cars Chairman Hans Hugenholtz and his wife Laurence, was the first Saab car to finish the third and final leg of the 2011 event. Earlier on Saturday, the classic Saabs had departed from the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, after which they made their way back to Brescia over a course that brought them past Viterbo, Siena, Florence and other highlights of the Italian landscape.

Here are some more photos from the final day. Click to enlarge. We’ll get more information and stories from the guys as they come back into Trollhattan and regain their senses after a hectic week’s driving.

Congratulations to all three teams on the successful completion of the event. I can’t wait to see the full set of photos and video.

Coming soon!

Mille Miglia photo and video update

News from the Mille Miglia has been difficult to come by as we only have a very small team in Italy for the event and they’re almost all involved in either competition or support. It doesn’t help that I’ve been flying between Australia and Sweden for the last few days. We will get a more complete story in the coming hours, however.

Until then, here are some photos from Day 2 of this beautiful event through the Itlian countryside.

Click to enlarge.

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We’re also thankful to the Saabway Club, from Italy, who had members present to shoot a fantastic video of all three Saabs at the beginning of the event….

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