I’ve known Markus L in an email sense for a few years now. He’s one of the regulars from my SU days.
I’ve seen some of his cars in photos from time to time, but there are usually long intervals in between viewings. When you meet a lot of people and see a lot of cars (in a virtual sense) it’s easy to forget just who’s got what.
I got these photos from Markus in my inbox today. I was quite familiar with his fully Hirsched Turbo X and the black 900, but not so familiar with the Viggen. All I could say was “Wow!”
Look at them. They’re in absolutely mint condition and all three of them are notable classics in the Saab family tree.
When I wrote back to Markus, I told him of my profound jealousy – that if I could have any collection of Saabs I liked, there’s a good chance it would be exactly what he’s got in that photo, with the likely addition of a Saab Sonett III.
He wrote back…… and promised to send me pictures of his Sonett! There’s a 99Turbo in the collection, too, but that’s not ready for photos yet as it’s still undergoing a restoration.
My final reply included an enquiry as to whether or not his father would be interested in adopting a 41-year-old man as an additional son. I’m not sure how well that will be received.
Click to enlarge, and if you’re like me, dream on……
I wrote about Bertil’s experience at Bonneville Speed Week last week. Bertil set a new record in the J-PRO class in his two-stroke Saab 96. Bertil wasn’t the only person running a Saab at Bonneville this year. He wasn’t the only guy to set a new land speed record in a Saab, either.
Tom Donney was there, too, with his two-stroke Saab Sonett II. Tom’s name will be familiar to many. He’s collected classic Saabs for years and runs a specialist transmission workshop and vehicle sales operation from his base in Fort Dodge, Iowa. And if you’re good with names, you might remember that Jay Leno bought the Saab 92 in his famed car collection from a guy named Tom Donney. Yeah, same guy.
Tom caught the Bonneville Bug last year, when he went to speed week as an observer and saw a number of Saabs on the salt. Tired of some frustrating outcomes in dirt racing, Tom and his team figured it was time to get their name in the record books. I can highly recommend you read Tom’s 2010 Bonneville background piece, before proceeding on to this year’s run, below.
Tom’s Sonett was running in the J-GT class. Here’s his story, in his own words and pictures.
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Bonneville 2011
Our team – myself, Steve Davis and Verlyn Gregerson – set out to break a old records set by Dick Cartron and his team in 1963 & 1964…..and to establish a new Land Speed Record in a two stroke Saab….. Dick set a personal best time of 103.560mph in 1963, and a Land Speed Record 105.453mph in 1964.
We arrived Friday am and began the long task of getting our car, a part 1967/1968 Saab Sonett II, loaded with a 750cc two stroke motor, (our car must run as a 1968 to met the required 500 car production) through the safety inspections so we could run on the Salt Flats. We worked on the car till Sunday afternoon and finally had all in order and made a required “Rookie” run to be sure me and the car was safe for the Salt.
We made two runs Sunday late afternoon that were about 95+ MPH and from there we started to dial in our Saab two stroke.
The current, 2011 Land Speed Record we were chasing was 96.683mph and was bumped to 96.877 on Sunday by a 1959 Deutsch Bonnet named Bone Evil! with a 2 cylinder 750cc motor
We met the owner, Mark Brinker and his crew and we all decided….NOW WE HAVE A RACE! They were a good team from Houston Texas.
On our first run Monday morning we ran a blistering 100.458mph which surpassed the old record of 96.683mph, which landed us with a date with History the next morning for our second “backup” run. At Bonneville you must run “down and back”, on two separate days, then if your average of the two runs exceeds the existing record, you now own a new record.
On Tuesday AM we ran a conservative run of 97.479 to give us the new land speed record of 98.968MPH.
Right: Tom with the new 98mph record…..
But success never sleeps. We quickly swapped out the cylinder head to an experimental one we made with a much higher compression ratio and pealed off a run of 101.653mph later that morning! Back to impound and a new attempt to “bump” our record on Wednesday am.
Wednesday AM we made so more mods and smoked all the old records by going 109.574,mph for a new land speed record of 105.613mph!
More mods and back on the track…..next run that afternoon gave us a run of 108.671mph! Another recorded beater was in order for Thursday am for our “backup” run.
Thursday AM we ran 106.215mph and said good enough……we now had set the land speed record THREE times! And our last one was 107.443mph.
Right: 109 mph in a two-stroke Sonett…..
We spent the rest of Thursday swapping out playing with a larger “prototype motor” and got up to 112.538mph for a max speed. With that we packed and headed home with our green little Saab and with all the goals we had set out to accomplish.
On a final note, Lots of people came up to me to say they loved the Saab that we had, and Saab as a company, and that they wished Saab well. People always ask me which is the “Best Saab Ever Made”? My answer is always the same…..”the last one off the assembly line!”
Today, as back in 1963 and 1967, Saab makes a great car…..go out and buy one and do what they are meant to do…..BE DRIVEN!”
This is pretty exciting stuff for a Saab nut. I’m always keen to see how people run their older Saabs and it always puts a smile on my face when I see something like this.
My first correspondence with Bertil Sollenskog was last year (2010), when he had a failed first attempt at Bonneville. He had some mechanical issues last year that couldn’t be sorted out at the flats themselves, so he brought the car home to fight another day. He wasn’t discouraged, however. Having been told that it usually takes at least two failed attempts before people can get close to a record, Bertil vowed to himself that the second time would be charm.
And so it was.
Bertil is an expat Swede living in the US and he runs his own engine-building company, preparing competition engines for various VW and Toyota racing formulas.
He saw a Saab Monte Carlo for sale 4 or 5 years ago, bought it, and has been playing with it ever since. After helping out a friend at Bonneville Speed Week in 2007, Bertil got the speed bug and decided it was time to make the Monte Carlo sing for its supper.
Last year’s run might have failed to produce a record, but it did a lot to teach Bertil about the harsh conditions on the flats and how well prepared you need to be in order to have a realistic chance of setting a record there. Consequently, Bertil took a team of five along to the flats this year, as well as two engines.
I’ll let him take up the story:
About 400 cars and 100 motorcycles come to Speedweek every year, representing many different classes. My 1966 Saab Monte Carlo is entered in class JPRO, which means it has to be stock on the outside and modified for safety on the inside. Engine tuning is “free”, but all basic engine parts must be from the Saab family.
The engine is 750 cc, water-cooled, 3 cylinder and 2 stroke. It is now tuned to 97 hp at 6500 rpm. (The standard is 52 hp at 4500rpm.)
The salt flats are unique, with temperatures up to 110 F, humidity down to 11% and altitude of 4500 ft. This makes it difficult to adjust the fuel mixture properly ahead of the time trials! Luckily there is up to 2 hours wait between runs, which allows for adjusting.
After many runs, never breaking 100 mph, the first engine melted a piston. The second engine was installed and modifications were made on the car (i.e. lowering the ride height).
After several more runs and tweaking, the Saab averaged 107.5mph on two runs with a flying start. The previous record of 103.9 mph was broken! I thought the engine could produce more, so we kept on trying. Ultimately, we reached 110 mph, our final record for 2011 Speedweek.
Bertil already has plans for a return with a faster car next year. The engine is strong enough, but gearbox and suspension modifications are in the works.
Note – the salt flat photos below are from this year, but the engine and interior photos are from 2010 and the engine is his ‘street’ engine with three downdraft carbs. The engine used at the flats has three side-draft carbs and delivers 20hp more than the street engine.
I don’t normally do posts about vehicles a specific dealer has for sale, but I think you’ll understand why I’m covering these two vehicles when you see them.
These photos arrived overnight from the outbox of Just Saab in Ohio.
They show a couple of Saab 9-4x’s the dealership has just acquired for re-sale – and they’re rather special. The cars are 2011 models but feature exclusive paint/trim combinations that aren’t available as standard on the 2011 Saab 9-4x range. They are very early production models and have been used by Saab Cars NA for the last few months before being offered for sale.
Both cars have some miles on them (around 5-6K) but I’m sure you’ll agree they look absolutely stunning. I don’t think they’ll hand around for long.
Whilst the newspapers and web columnists have been talking us down, you’ve been hearing plenty from me about the reasons I believe Saab will survive it’s current difficult times – brand, factory, product and people. Perhaps it’s time to hear from someone else.
The following was written in comments to this website by Derek M, who attended the Saab Owners Convention in New Jersey last weekend. I’ll present it here without any further introduction or context as I think it speaks for itself. We have some of the best fans ever.
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Just a quick (although not brief) note of appreciation. When SAAB was announced for sale by GM, I hungered for news and stumbled upon Saabsunited. It’s my wife who has always been enamored by the brand, but I’ve since come to develop a passion for the brand. I still receive a smile each day as I pilot my convertible to work. Your post of the 9-5 combi at SOC was all the incentive needed for Denise and I to take a day trip to New Jersey. It was nice to be surrounded in an environment that was all about product instead of the media’s constant barrage of finances.
It is the details of the 9-4x which are certain to create or reinforce the brand loyalty in the CUV segment. Ex: The collapsable u-rail system locks into place under the floor if not needed. (Gee, can you see what Jason and the design team can do about emulating that concept with the wind diffuser for the next generation of convertibles???)
Perrine SAAB brought a 9-5 turbo4 sedan for test drives. (Java with the cashmere leather, wood trim and cocoa brown dash is particularly luxurious looking.) I must confess to having scoffed at your praise of the turbo4. My bred-in-the-US mentality is that bigger is better – so while I appreciate the size of the new 9-5, after driving the turbo6 last year why would I even think about a test drive of the turbo4?
Was I mistaken in my assumption? Absolutely. The power band and torque for the turbo4 was smooth and readily available, no lag- no feeling under powered.
After drooling over the 9-5combi in person, who cares what is under the hood. it will sell on looks alone. I do think the turbo4 is the right choice for the US market as this trim distinguishes it from the 9-4x trim levels. (Although, it would be nice if aero trim included the Hirsch upgrade in horse power to distinguish trim levels, but I’m no product planner.)
The most enjoyable part of the day was the interactions. During our test drive of the 9-4x aero, we had the opportunity to converse with John (Libbos, from Saab Cars NA). What great tenure and expertise. Where I work, we refer to employees of twenty-five plus years of service as Legacy employees. If my memory and math skills are adequate, John will reach that milestone next year. They’ve helped define our brand and create our culture, leading to our legacy. It is that passion and determination that distinguishes companies from their competitive set. Passion is inherent, you are either impassioned by your work or you are not. As a Human Resources guy- Human Talent is my area of expertise. I truly believe that it is the power of the individual , the human asset, that makes an organization unique. The competition can’t copy synergy, mettle nor fortitude.
So regardless of one year of service or twenty-five years, my thanks to both you and John for the impact and passion you’ve ignited in me. I look forward to the day when conversations and media can focus on product. I have every confidence that similarly impassioned individuals are working towards the financial solutions needed for such a realization.
We like to chat here at Inside Saab but we know that sometimes, when people are confronted with a comments system that looks a little different, they might be inclined to shy away. Inside Saab uses a comments system called Disqus. It provides us with some good moderation tools and also lightens our server load (which is always nice).
Commenting via Disqus couldn’t be easier so if you’ve thought of this ‘new’ system as a barrier to entry, let me walk you through.
If you’re new to the system then it won’t recognise you and you’ll need to either sign in or register. Disqus makes this process super-easy. Once you’ve entered your comment text into the dialog, you need to press the “Post As” button on the bottom right side of the dialog box. A pop-up will give you the various registration options:
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The default option is to login using a Disqus profile. If you don’t have a Disqus profile, you also have the opportunity to sign in using your profile from one of the following web services:
Google
Twitter
Facebook
Yahoo, or
OpenID
If you don’t want to use one of these, creating a Disqus profile takes seconds and you can use it here on Inside Saab and any other site that uses Disqus (there’s quite a lot of them, now).
On the Login screen (see above image) you simply click the link that says “Register a new Disqus Profile”
The screen will change to the registration page. It’s still within the same popup and won’t take you away from Inside Saab.
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Simply enter in your email address, desired username and password – and you’re done!
If you want to make your profile a bit more elaborate, you can go to Disqus.com, use your registration details to log in there and fill things out a bit (add an avatar image, etc).
On future visits, depending on your computer and privacy settings, the system will either remember you, or you can simply log in again whenever you want to leave a comment.
I know that there is a degree of skepticism about anything I write about the Saab 9-4x. I’m a company guy, right? True. Whilst I’ll never write something here that I don’t believe in, I can understand the filters people will apply when they read it.
Right – Saab 9-4x 3.0 Premium
So even though I might tell you that from my recent test drives (Stockholm and back, Finland and back) that I think the Saab 9-4x is an outstanding new Saab, it would pay for you to check it out for yourself.
Two guys who did that recently were Steve C and Mitch. Steve emailed me directly over the weekend about his test drive. Mitch left his thoughts in comments to this website yesterday after taking a look at the 9-4x at his local dealer. Here’s what they had to say…..
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Steve C:
I chose one of the better summer weather days (Thursday) to take the day off, get an oil change and finally take a drive in a 9-4X. Reinertsen had 4 parked out front. This was a non-Aero XWD model and it lived up to expectations. I have a usual test drive course that offers me a fair comparison of vehicles.
The first thing I talk about when describing my first impression is that the 9-4X feels and drives smaller than you might think. When I set the mirrors to eliminate blind spots, I feel comfortable on multi-lane highways. On the narrow twisty road near my dealer, I was wondering how that would feel and the answer is great! I didn’t feel too conscious that it was too wide to stay in my lane and it felt great cornering.
I was impressed with the ride – even in sport mode it wasn’t bad. Probably better than in the 9-5 given the 9-4X tire size/aspect. That V-6 naturally aspirated engine likes to rev! I didn’t think I was too heavy on the gas but it still liked to rev before shifting, even in comfort mode. I liked that in sport mode, it showed you the gear it was in – even if you were still in auto mode. You don’t see that in comfort mode.
The other new thing for me was that the turbo gauge was replaced by a mpg gauge. And those side mirrors make for interesting visibility when looking out the side windows.
When I first saw the 9-4X prior to the NY auto show when my dealer had it for a week, I did all the things you can do when it is standing still with the engine off. This trip was just for driving and, taking everything together, I can say there is no question that this is a Saab!
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Mitch:
The 9-4x is brilliant. Too bad this piñata phase at Saab is detracting from it and other great products like the new 9-5 sedan and upcoming 9-5 ‘Combi. I spent some time this past Saturday with Chad at Just Saab Dayton OH and their showroom floor 9-4x Aero. Wow. The owner of the 9-4x reported as a sale on July 23 over at SaabsUnited pulled into the lot as we were talking. Wow. Just wow. The 9-4x looks even better in motion.
… I really need to hurry up and pay off my 2009 9-5 Combi …
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As always, don’t take my word for it. Get in and check out the 9-4x for yourself. It really is a cracker of a car and I’m sure you’re going to love it.
I made this video last year, whilst at the launch for the new Saab 9-5 in Sweden. We were at Volvo’s test track, which Saab had hired for the launch. I stumbled upon the video today as I was tidying up my hard drive and it reminded me of just how incredibly good the XWD system is.
You’ll need to be patient with this one. It’s around 9.5 minutes long and it shows a few different things. I think your patience will be rewarded, however, with an exhibition of just how incredibly intelligent and effective Saab’s XWD really is.
The video starts off looking at Drivesense, the switchable vehicle setting that debuted in the Saab 9-5. Drivesense changes the steering, suspension and throttle response settings according to selections made by the driver: comfort, sport or intelligent. In the video, a display is connected to show how intelligent mode varies the inputs according to conditions (and how it delays those variations if required – e.g. not changing steering settings whilst you’re cornering).
Later on (at around 5:30 in the video), there are some amazing displays of grip thanks to the Saab XWD system. Consider the conditions (very wet), the speed and the way that Stefan is pulling the steering wheel. The car just never got out of control. Absolutely amazing.
There are plenty of media outlets willing to write Saab off at the moment. I’ve contended several times on this website that the long-term future for Saab is very bright and it’s just a short-term cash crisis we have to concern ourselves with right now.
Any time you’ve got great people, a great plant, a great brand and most importantly, new product, then you’ve got something that people will be interested in.
AJ Murphy from Just Saab, Ohio (two outlets) left the following double-barrel story in comments last night and I think it speaks to the potential lying dormant in this brand. Of course, everything hinges on the production re-start, but once we get to re-launch this company again, there’s so much that we can achieve…..
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My first point:
Tonight we had a couple in looking at new Saabs. They own a new Cadillac SRX. They came to the store surprised that Saab still existed…Admittedly they fell prey to the media’s coverage of ‘GM’s shedding of brands’ ending when Saturn, Hummer, Pontiac and Saab were announced as the brands they’ll extract from their portfolio (another story).
They loved the ‘new’ Saab styling i.e. NG 9-5, 9-4x, and 9-3 sedan. They even gushed over the styling of the 9-4x. Particularly when I told them it shared architecture with their SRX. He admitted he liked Saab’s styling better…said the lines were more ‘natural’…as he pointed to his tail lights. 🙂
They left pleasantly surprised at what Saab had to offer. They were equally as baffled by why the message wasn’t being communicated (more effectively) that we’re not dead and that our product portfolio is so impressive (these folks were comparing us with the cream of the Euro crop: Merc, BMW, Audi, etc).
My second point:
We’re seeing increasing interest in the 9-4x. Sales are starting off far better than the new 9-5 did. The challenge is inventory…we have just 2 in Dayton and only one in Cincinnati. We’re having to buy from other dealers.
Despite all the forces pulling us down, people are still buying Saabs. And not just bargain-basement, giveaway-priced Saabs, either. 9-4s are selling at little discount off sticker which is a product of ‘right-pricing’, the Aero 9-5 is the best selling 9-5 in our store and the 9-5 is outselling the 9-3 combi, convertible and sedan…combined.
A good sign, right?
So, simply (<--tongue-in-cheek) get the news going in the right direction, re-start production, get us the inventory of 9-4's, and I assure you the North American dealers will get this train back on track.
AJ Murphy
Just Saab
Yesterday, I published an editorial where I spoke about my belief in, and passion for this industry and in particular, for Saab.
The following morning, I got this in the mail. Sam had written to me a few days before, seeking some purchase advice. He lives in the US and the 900 he was looking at will be his first car. I’m sure those of you who, like me, now have a few miles under your belts, can remember a time when you would have written something like this…..
I HAVE BOUGHT THE SAAB!
I haven’t seen it yet due to the fact that I’m in Florida but my Dad is still in Massachusetts.
He went and saw it tonight. At precisely 9:25 on Wednesday, August 3rd my Dad struck a deal with the seller. 2500 dollars. The previous owner was a SAAB mechanic, so it’s in great condition.
I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of my very own SAAB. Where I come from, most kids get cars from their parents. My parents don’t spoil me so after years of saving up it feels great to be able to get my OWN car.
I can’t believe that my first car is one of the cars I dreamed of as a 10 year old. I am a complete car nut and I have an especially soft spot for SAAB’s. I’m still getting over it. It’s going to be a long wait because I don’t get back to MA until the 21st.
Best day of my life, BY FAR.
HAPPY SAABING!
I hope you enjoy your 900 as much as I intend on enjoying mine.
Sincerely Sam
P.S I just bought a SAAB, holy ****!
Welcome to the family, Sam. It’s a bit like Hotel California, if you know what I mean…..
Sincerely, congratulations on your purchase and thankyou for reminding us all of the excitement that we’ve all felt at different times.
The journey that I wrote about yesterday – the journey that I’ve had with Saab that I appreciate so much – started just like Sam’s journey. It’s taken me to some great places and brought me some incredible experiences.
