Yesterday I posted a reminder about Swedish Car Day, due to be held this Sunday in Boston.
Unfortunately it seems that Mother Nature might be making plans of her own……
Due to the impending hurricane which is forecast to be in New England this weekend, Swedish Car Day might be rescheduled. This would also include the Swedish Car Day Rally and Post-Rally Gathering. Participants are asked to check www.facebook.com/swedishcarday on Friday morning to see what the final decision is. If the current prediction of heavy rains and high wind holds, Swedish Car Day will move to Sunday, 4 September 2011. Additional instructions and information will be posted as well regarding those who have already registered. Questions can be sent to pierre@crsaab.com .
I’ll update you all with the final decision on the event, tomorrow.
Swedish Car Day 2011 is coming up very soon and once again, I can highly recommend the gathering for anyone within travelling distance of Boston. I wish I could be there myself.
I attended Swedish Car Day in 2010 and I can tell you it’s one of the best events I’ve had the good fortune to be at. Boston is just a brilliant city and the work that Village Auto Group put into this event is amazing. Just check out the setting, below, for starters!
This has been added to the Inside Saab events page.
What: Sponsored by Charles River Saab, and its sister stores Boston Volvo Village and Volvo Village of Norwell, Swedish Car Day brings together Saab and Volvo owners together every year on the lawns of the gracious Larz Anderson Auto Museum. The event will feature over two hundred cars displayed on the lawn, and we can reliably expect that two-thirds will be Saabs. There will be cars of every vintage, some pristine, some well seasoned, and a number of modified examples as well. There will be a raffle, awards for displayed cars as chosen by the attendees, a parts tent, specialty vendors, guest speakers and for the first time, live music! Don’t forget to tour the museum’s collection!
As a warm-up for Swedish Car Day, on 27 August 2011 we will see the return of the Swedish Car Day Rally. This will be a scavenger rally, and the theme will be Greater Boston Parks and Gardens. The rally will finish at Charles River Saab and we will have an early evening barbecue and gathering for all Swedish Car Day enthusiasts to catch up with old friends and get geared up for the main event.
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A couple of my photos from last year (it was HOT! and the weather was pretty warm, too)
More images have come through from our own Stephanie from SCNA, as well as from Greg Abbott, Meg H and Pierre T. You can see Meg’s full gallery of images here.
The feature shots today are the group shots, a tradition at SOC. With and without people….
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The gallery is a megamix of images from the people noted above. It’s interesting to see the event from different people’s point of view so I’m very appreciative of all the people who are sending in images.
A slightly interesting ‘aside’ – It’s been interesting to compile these galleries to see what people are photographing. As a Saabologist, it’s been confirmed to me by a whole bunch of polls and discussions that classic Saab 900 is definitely the most revered Saab in the company’s history. And you when people gather at these big events, there seems to be a relatively small number of 900 photos, which older Saabs getting a huge amount of shutter time.
Today’s gallery includes some great shots of Luke Sorensen’s Saab 99 rally car, as well as some photos from the “Heritage Drive” – did you get to drive one of these heritage collection vehicles? – as well as a brilliant image of the yellow convertibles gathered together.
So…..here is today’s gallery. Again, my thanks to all those who’ve submitted images for use here in Inside Saab. You’ve succeeded in making me extremely jealous once again 🙂
The 2011 Saab owners Convention is well and truly underway and it’s been great to get some updates from people on the ground there.
Of course, our own girl-on-the-ground, Stephanie from SCNA is there and she’s been having a lot of fun, meeting a lot of attendees and getting a feel for what a Saab owners gathering is all about – great cars and great people.
She’s also been getting a good feel for life in the convertible lane…..
Following is a nice gallery of shots sent in by Stephanie, Steve C and Greg Abbott.
Steve C attended one of the tech sessions held earlier on Saturday. The session was held at Reinertsen Motos, a Saab dealer and one of the SOC sponsors.
Jack Lawrence of Motor Sports Service was the featured speaker talking about lessons learned from his illustrious racing career with building and maintaining race cars based on Saab Sonetts and 96s. These shots include Len Schrader’s vintage racing 96s. The red one is signed by Erik Carlsson. Len is Principal and co-owner of Reinertsen Motors, Denville NJ.
The photos from the tech session were taken by Paul Ostensen.
Greg Abbott has sent in some beautiful images, including some from the dyno session held at the SOC as well as the parts sale.
Stephanies shots include images from Tim Colbeck’s presentation on the opening night (which by all accounts, went very well) as well as some images of the cars being shown at the event. A personal favourite of mine is Ralph B’s white Saab Sonett II, which I was fortunate enough to take for a drive around this time last year. Another personal favourite is the Blue 1980 Saab 900, which I believe belongs to another friend of mine, though I haven’t driven that one (YET!)
Click an image to enlarge…. (order of appearance – Greg’s, Steph’s, Paul/Steve’s)
Look what arrived today at the Owners Convention…..
A good friend of mine, Greg Abbott, has just driven from Minnesota to be there and he’s sent the following early images in via email (click to enlarge):
Custom built Saab 96 convertible….
Beautiful 99T badge shot…..
The goodie-bag given to attendees…..
Parking lot (there’s going to be a lot of wandering around in there over the next few days)…..
The Saab tent in the parking lot with a few of the heritage cars….
I’m not going to make it to the Saab Owners Convention in New Jersey this weekend. I’m sure all the attendees are going to have a fantastic time and it’s disappointing that I can’t be there to share in it. I’ve been doing this Saaby stuff for more than six years now and I still haven’t managed to get to SOC yet – very sad.
We still want to share some stories from the SOC, however, which is why Stephanie from the Saab Cars North America office will be attending the event.
Stephanie’s going to have a flipcam with her to capture all the good stuff from the gathering. We’ll put the footage together and show it on our various channels shortly thereafter.
So if you’re attending SOC this year, keep an eye out for Stephanie and make sure you say hello. She’d love to talk to you, check out your Saab or lead you around a quick tour of our new Saab 9-5 and 9-4x to get your thoughts. She’ll be doing photos and video at the event, so if you want your car (or yourself) featured, Steph’s the one to talk to.
If you’re into classic cars and you don’t read Hemmings, you should. It’s that simple. It’s not just that it’s the bible when it comes to collectible automobiles, but some of the editors there have a real affection for Swedish metal, and Saabs in particular, so ‘our’ cars receive some very nice coverage every now and then.
Last weekend, Hemmings held their sixth annual Sports and Exotic Car Show at the Saratoga Auto Museum in New York. Mark McCourt from Hemmings emailed me today to share some of the Saab Spirit from the show…..
I was very pleased that we had a good Saab turnout… we normally have one or two, but this year, including mine, we had six. Those included “Shelby,” the flat-nose Turbo belonging to Linnea K. Arte L’s famous Surface Friction Tester and Gary Stottler’s charming GT 850, which we awarded our “Favorite Swedish Car” were also there. Also, Ric D (from the Commemorative Edition Register) brought his ’93 Turbo Convertible daily driver and vintage Saab parts supplier Don L brought his custom 96 V-4.
Ric’s ‘vert, my ‘S’ and Arte’s SFT were in the non-judged “1987-newer” section, while Linnea’s, Gary’s and Don’s cars were in the judged category. Notice that Gary and Shari S were being interviewed on camera, and Don’s 96 was one car down… it’s hard to see, but two white Toyota Supras were interspersed between two white Saab 96s!
The slow rate of entries from IntSaab was due to the vast amount of activity.
Right now I’m sitting on a ship, heading away from Turku, Finland, towards Stockholm. The Saab 9-4x is tucked away safely in the belly of this ship and will enjoy another run from Stockholm to Trollhattan tomorrow (It’s averaging 11L per 100km for those who are interested).
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Like the Saab Festival in Trollhattan, IntSaab is one of those significant activities that people should really try to be part of at least once if they can. The variety of cars and people and the depth of stories to be told is just amazing.
I’ve lost count of the number of people I met who bought their first Saab back in the 1960s or 70s. And some of the history on show was just magnificent. New cars, too, though lesser in number. We need to get some of those newer buyers a bit more engaged (which is a responsibility that lies with Saab as much as anyone else).
I’m sure that everyone who attended the event would join me in thanking the Saab Club of Finland for putting on a fantastic event. It can’t be easy to find a venue that can handle hundreds of cars as well as accommodating and feeding hundreds of people. The hotel at Ellivouri did both with aplomb and it made the event all the more enjoyable to have a real, central base for everything.
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Interest in the future of Saab was high amongst people at the event. Everyone wanted to know who the mysterious Americans were and how things were going back in Trollhattan. What was the future for Saab? Are we going to survive?
It was hard being unable to provide fuller answers, but the message I conveyed at IntSaab was the same as the message here and everywhere else when it comes to Saab matters.
The current issue is short-term. We still have to get through it (and we will) but when we do, the long-term future is very bright. And don’t believe everything you read in the papers.
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We brought along a Saab 9-4x for the event and the reception it received was outstanding. People were all over the vehicle from the first time we opened the doors.
The Saab 9-4x has been made primarily with the US market in mind, but it was really encouraging to hear a lot of people asking about when it would be available in Europe.
We stopped in at the few Saab dealerships on the way to IntSaab and they were really happy to see the 9-4x as well.
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Those dealer visits were all part of Saab’s wider contribution to the weekend. There wasn’t a whole lot that we could do with a small team, but I hope we managed to add something to the weekend.
In addition to bringing the Saab 9-4x, we also had Kenneth and Kent from the Saab Performance Team there. They put on a smaller, two-man show that kept the crowd entertained on Saturday afternoon. I’ll be putting together some video from this show (you can see the teaser here if you haven’t already done so).
We also had two Saab 9-5s for people to inspect, and Sauli Naski, who is one half of the in-country Saab Finland team, was on hand to take any questions about the local market.
It was great to be able to bring something from the company to add to the event. The organisers of IntSaab 2011 did such a fantastic job and of course, they do it so that people can share their enjoyment of the brand and the cars that we’ve made over the years. Coming along and adding a little bit of a presence/enjoyment from Trollhattan was a lot of fun, and the least that we could do.
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I’ll have more photos and stories from IntSaab when I get back to Trollhattan. Right now, my camera (and memory card) and safely locked inside the 9-4x, in the car deck of the ferry. That’s why you’re reading a lot of text right now and not seeing a lot of photos.
Again, thanks to all at IntSaab – both organisers and attendees. Have a great start to the new week and I’ll catch you all when I’m back in Trollhattan tomorrow.
Today, we’re looking at the 1980’s and onwards. The cars of this generation are those that will likely be more familiar to the modern Saab enthusiast and the vehicles on show were just as beautifully maintained and presented as the older cars.
The Young’uns
Click any photo to enlarge.
Let’s kick things off with the (second) youngest vehicle at the show, Mike’s 2010 Saab 9-5 in Glacier Silver. I saw four new Saab 9-5s on the roads that day, and all of them were this colour. Obviously, all of them were owners with impeccable taste.
There was another Saab 9-5 at the show, a 2011 model, which was brought along by Graeme Lambert of Auto Express magazine. The vehicle is their long-term tester. And yes, it was also in Glacier Silver 🙂
There were plenty of Saab 900 Convertibles on show and it was the perfect day for some topless exhibitionism…..
I have to draw some special attention to this next one. It was a limited run of convertibles specially made by Saab City, the Saab GB owned dealership in central London. The paint and interior combination was specific to these model and the car was badged as the Diamond Edition. It’s unknown to me how many of these were made or how many still exist, but I sure hope the owner understands and appreciates the rare gem he has there.
And some more modern convertibles……
This one stunned me when I first saw it. Try as I might, I can rarely remember seeing one of these in red (a red Viggen convertible in Minnesota comes to mind, but not much else). I don’t know why there aren’t many of them as this looks sensational.
…..And a beautiful blue Anniversary convertible, or “Cerulean Edition” as it was known in England.
There was only one Saab 9-3 Viggen at the show, in the perfect combination of Lightning Blue paint and 3-door body.
To my discredit, I didn’t get an exterior photo of this Saab 9-5. I can assure you that it was as black as the darkest night, totally spotless, as is the engine bay and interior you can see below.
The ‘Best prepared current production vehicle’ award was one by a Saab 9-3 that was truly magnificent in its presentation. The detail in the engine bay and body kit (carbon fibre) was amazing.
This Saab 9-5 had a very unusual set of almost-Saaby wheels…..
And another very nicely turned out engine bay as well….
Saab 9000s were a little under-represented in terms of numbers (as they often are) but this Aero was a treat….
And this Saab 900 was just plain good fun…… more pics of this one in our final post, coming very soon.
