The Dutch can lay claim to many things in this world. Historic explorers, seas of orange sports fans, Victor Muller, hash bars (no link between those last two, by the way) and something that might surprise a few of you: the world’s oldest Saab Car Club.
For the last 49 years, Saab Club Nederland has been running an event called the Viking Rally. I’ve been told that I’m going to be there next year for the 50th – and who am I to argue?!
The Viking Rally is a three stage event with all sorts of challenges along the way. As described to me by a friend of mine, Nic S:
There are all sorts of ways to navigate involved. Joep Wanders is the guy who designs and sets out the Tulip Rally, so it IS difficult! There are 3 legs or stages, with hidden time controls, the full rally works. Blind maps, arrows, driving close to a set border on a map, doctored maps, the whole deal….
Doctored maps? I hope it comes with a roadside help service (one that consists of something more substantial than just Nic’s puppy with a Garmin tied to his collar).
The rally is a very social event and the 2011 edition saw sixty teams competing, spread over three classes – Sport, Tour and Recreation. All entries were Saabs, of course, ranging from two-strokes to the new 9-5. Mud was sought, and found, and a good time was had by all.
We have a huge gallery of photos below, with thanks to Nic. Congratulations to the organisers and the club for what looks to be an outstanding event.
The summer events program for car enthusiasts in North America is coming to a close now that winter draws nearer.
Last weekend, Mitchell Saab in Connecticut held it’s 30th annual Swedish beauty contest along with it’s sister Volvo dealership.
Steve F, who runs the Saabfans weblog, attended the event and was kind enough to send along some photos for me to share on Inside Saab. My thanks to Steve for sending these in.
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Saab 9-4x in black (rear) – gorgeous!
Saab 9-4x in black – front
Saab 9-4x in silver – my first chance to sit inside a 9-4x and I wish I got to drive it – soon I hope!
The beginning of the Saab line up with our 99 Turbo foreground
It’s always great to see our dealerships conducting activities like these to bring their customers together.
Mitchell Saab are a long-standing Saab and Volvo dealership based in Simsbury, Connecticut – right in the heart of Saab country in the USA.
This weekend, they’re hosting their 30th Annual Swedish Beauty Contest. There will be a free Mini Detail and Service Clinic running at the event as well.
I was tipped off to the event by Steve F, who runs the Saabfans website, and he writes as follows:
We attended the event last year, and although smaller than some gatherings, it was attended by great Saab and Volvo drivers as well as the wonderful owners and staff at Mitchell.
Simsbury, Connecticut is a beautiful town, and we are approaching the time of year for excellent fall foliage viewing, so why not take a nice Fall drive in your favorite Saab or Volvo and head over to Mitchell for the 2011 Swedish Beauty Contest
It sounds like a wonderful setting and a great way to take in some beautiful scenery in a beautiful Saab. With winter coming on, it might one of your last chances to do so before the spring.
If you’re in the region, perhaps you should plan on calling in.
What: Mitchell Saab 30th Annual Swedish Beauty Contest When: Saturday, October 15th Where: Mitchell Saab, 348 Hopmeadow St, Simsbury, CT
On Saturday, October 1st, I attended the inaugural Octoberfest organised by Saab enthusiast website, Saabs United. The event was based at ANA, the Saab dealership here in Trollhattan.
Scheduled events in the daytime programme included a Saab 9-4x vehicle demonstration, a Saab 9-3 ePower demonstration, a spare parts sale for older Saabs, as well as presentations by Saab authorised tuners Hirsch Performance, and Saab aftermarket tuners, Maptun.
The Hirsch Saab 9-5, driven up especially for the event from Switzerland:
And the Maptun collection……
Peter Dörrich from Saab demonstrates the Saab 9-4x……
Personally speaking, it was wonderful to see something so vibrant happening at ANA. The health of our distribution network is something very prominent on our minds at Saab, and whilst this was an independent event, it was great to see so many people at a Saab dealership with smiles on their faces.
The happiest man in the room was Joachim Lind, the chief at ANA, who was also pleased to see so many people there:
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A few personal reflections:
It was a strange feeling for me, attending this event as somewhat of an outsider. As many of you will know, I started writing about Saab nearly 7 years ago now and Saabs United was the site I founded back when GM were selling Saab. I sold Saabs United to the current owner earlier this year, prior to joining Saab Automobile to do the job I’m doing now.
I attended the event mostly as an enthusiast, but also as an employee of Saab and as a blogger, looking to provide coverage of the event here on Inside Saab. An event of this nature is something I could not have contemplated as the owner of Saabs United, as I lived halfway around the world, in Tasmania, Australia. I’m not sure I would have had the courage to organise it, either, as it can be a logistical nightmare to do this things.
What amazed me most about the day was the number of people who traveled quite long distances to be part of a single-day Saab event. There were several people from the United States and Canada there – that’s an ocean away! I met people from Iceland, Portugal, England, Wales, Holland, France, Belgium, Germany, Slovakia, Norway, Denmark, Finland and of course, from all parts of Sweden.
It just goes to show the incredible passion that people have for this car company. I received questions and well-wishes all day from people who were hoping and believing for the best, for Saab. People were very well educated about what’s going on with the company, the situation that we’re in the milestones ahead of us. And people were all wishing for a production re-start, a return to normality, as soon as possible.
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I didn’t just stick my head in as an observer.
I took a 9-4x along for the occasion and spent the entire afternoon taking people for rides in the new Saab crossover. The feedback from the exercise was very affirming indeed. For many attendees, this was their first opportunity to see a 9-4x up close. A number had had a chance to sit in one at other events, but none had taken a ride in one before. It was great to hear their comments as we drove a circuit from ANA down to the Saab factory and then back ‘the long way’. People got a great feel for how stable and comfortable the car is at speed, how well finished and spacious it is on the inside.
I did 15 or so of these drives, introducing around 50 people to the Saab 9-4x from the inside, which was a whole lot of fun.
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The day concluded with a dinner at the Nova restaurant, just next to the Saab Museum. Around 120 or so attended, had some wonderful food and conversation, as well being treated to some great stories from the Saabs United Historic Rally Team and special guests, former Saab rally drivers Simo Lampinen and Ola Strömberg.
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My congratulations have to go to the entire Saabs United crew and their sponsors for a wonderful event. SU owner, Tim Rokka, was the driving force behind the event and the team that he led put on a wonderful gathering that people from all over Europe and beyond enjoyed. It was a true celebration of the Saab Spirit and a wonderful occasion for all who attended.
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The visitors from other continents flew in, of course, but there were a lot who drove well over 1,000kms to attend the event. With several hundred people attending throughout the day, that means a lot of nice Saabs in the parking lot.
Below is a gallery showing just a portion of the Saabs in attendance at the show.
Readers of this website will know that I’ve been talking about why their is so much belief here in what we do. It’s why we continue to fight for this company’s future when the “experts” out there tell us we should give up. But it’s not about tough circumstances, it’s about the product and the future.
It’s not just me talking about it, either. A couple of Saab people from our engineering department have taken it upon themselves to write to the biggest paper in Gothenburg. Their letter has been published and you can read an English translation of it at Life With Saab (enthusiast site).
The separation from GM gave many of us the necessary confidence in the future to complete a number of the future-oriented development projects. Our loyalty can be simply explained by the fact that we want to see the car in which we put so much energy also drive out on the roads. We want the picky consumers to experience the driving characteristics we have developed.
One of our most active enthusiast websites, Saabs United, is hosting a weekend gathering here in Trollhattan, along with companion gatherings in a number of cities around the world.
Informal gatherings will take place on Friday night with the full program of events happening on Saturday, October 1st.
09:00 – Event opens at ANA
09:10 – Welcome speech by Tim Rokka, Joachim Lind, Manfred Lenherr and Fredrik Bengtsson
09:20 – Cars for test-drive arrive
09:30 – Test Drive of original Saab Cars and Hirsch Tuned Saab Cars begins
09:30 – Car Show begins
09:30 – Boot-sale begins
10:00 – Test Drives begins (test-drive hirsch / maptun software in your own car!)
11:00 – Presentation of MapTun Performance by Fredrik Bengtsson
12:00 – Presentation of SAAB 9-3 e-Power
13:00 – Presentation of Hirsch Performance by Manfred Lenherr
15:00 – Test-Track closes
16:00 – ANA Closes
18:00 – Dinner event starts
19:00 – Presentation of SUHRT & Saab History (Jörgen Trued is the host with several interesting guests!)
23:30 – Thank you and good night!
I’ll be there. Ex-Saab Finnish rally champion Simo Lampinen will be there, too, amongst a host of others.
I hope you’ll be there, too.
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And speaking of rally champions, we have the best former Saab works drivers still winning trophies 🙂
It was nice to see a particular Saab Sonett pop up on Flickr today. I’d actually received some photos of the same car via email just a few days before.
It’s owned by a guy I’ve not met in person, but have corresponded with quite a bit over the years. It’s one of the very few Saab Sonetts that have made their way into my native homeland, in Australia.
The car is owned by Stephen B and last weekend he and his wife Wendy broke out some 1970s clothing and took their 1970s Saab to the “Bay to Birdwood Classic”.
The Bay to Birdwood is one of the bigger drive-and-concours events in the world, including over 1,800 vehicles. And Stephen tells me that whilst there were quite a few Volvos in attendance (including a P1800 that finished Top-10 in the concours), there was only one Saab – his.
Before I give you the details on the October 1st events happening in Italy, let me recap the Flying Saabs event that was recently held at an airfield in Verona.
It looks like they put a lot of effort into preparing for this event and got a good attendance as a result – so congratulations to the Saab Club Italia for putting it together. Nearly 70 people attended the event, travelling from all over Italy to be there, plus an international attendee from Switzerland.
It was a two-day event and Saab News covered the Sunday proceedings, which for some attendees meant parachute jumping and gliding (it was called ‘Flying Saabs’ for a reason, after all) and for others, it meant throwing their classic Swedish metal around the test track set up at the airfield.
The full report (and HEAPS of photos) are at Saab News.
Congratulations, again. It’s not all to report from Italy, though. See below the photos for Italian plans for a Saab Octoberfest event.
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Saab Octoberfest – October 1st
I’ve received the following details from Saabway Club (the other Italian Saab Club) about a gathering planned for October 1st, in conjunction with the Octoberfest activities that will be happening here in Trollhattan, organised by Saabs United.
Anyone in Italy who would like to attend should get the full details here.
The Event will be held at Autodromo della Franciacorta (a region between Milano and Brescia). This is the same location we had for the Saab Support Convoy. Let’s hope it could bring us some luck as it succeded last time! 😉
The program is as follows:
11:00 – Meeting at the track where we’ll find a reserved place to put all our Saabs together in the central parking.
12:00 – Lunch at track’s Restaurant.
15:00 – Possibility to race on Go-Karts and set up a Mini Saabist Kart Grand Prix.
Autofficina Sonia, our Saab Service partner in Milano which is also Hirsch dealer, will make free checkups of the cars with Tech2, they will also make free test drives, inspections, DPF rigenerations, Saab software updates, personalize car software settings and maybe give the possibility to try Hirsch software.
There will be also a list of parts and accessories with special price for the day (details into our forum’s link).
One of our Saab Cars North America staffers, Stephanie Moore, attended the 2011 Saab Owners Convention in Parsippany, New Jersey. Steph shot a little film there, and we put together a few bits to commemorate the occasion.
Thanks to all who said hello and made Steph and the rest of the SCNA crew feel so welcome. We’ll see you next year at the SOC in Iowa.
These are the first images that have come through to me from Swedish Car Day 2011, hosted by Charles River Saab in Boston, MA.
I was so sad to miss this event and I’m really pleased to see that it went ahead after Hurricane Irene stopped the event being held on it’s intended date a week earlier.
My thanks to Mark S for sending these in. It looks like another fantastic collection of vehicles right from the 96s and Sonetts of yesteryear through to today’s Saab 9-4x.
Here in Trollhattan (and in San Francisco, and in Minnesota), October 1st will see the Saabs United Octoberfest events happening.
Coincidentally, there will also be a significant gathering happening in China, with some attendees driving around 1,000km from Beijing to attend. China is becoming a very important market for Saab so it’s great to recognise this event and I look forward to sharing some photos from the gathering as they come in.
Suzhou is a picturesque southern city, around 60km west of Shanghai. It’s expected that there’ll be quite a few Saab fans not only from parts further north, but also from Shanghai and other areas as well.
More details about activities at the event will be released soon and I’ll be sure to help pass the word around here on Inside Saab.
The Saab Club of Austria is celebrating its 25th birthday this year!
They have invited the Saab Club of Slovakia along for the celebrations and together, they will take in what sounds like a fantastic meet-n-drive event in the region. The event is taking place on September 10th.
From Alexander K:
We’ll meet at the Marchegg Castle close to the Austrian – Slovakian Border, later cross the border using a small ferry-boat and then have lunch together in the city of Bratislava. Later on we’ll head back to Austria and have a small Rallye (driving using a road-book at a certain av. speed). Afterwards we’ll celebrate together at a tavern.
Photos are expected, Alex 😉
If you’re in the region and want to join in, you can touch base at the Saab Club of Austria’s website. You’ll get appropriate contact details for this event at that link.
