Monthly Archives: June 2007

Future Hopes

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Posting will be light this weekend, so here’s a long one that might need to breathe a little.

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I recently had the good fortune to travel to Sweden and take part in the celebrations for the 60th Anniversary Saab Festival.

It was a heck of a trip. The trip of a lifetime for a hardcore Saabnut, actually. My head still spins when I think about some of the things that I got to see and do. All those people, places and cars that I’d only read about in books before – they were all there in abundance, almost to the point where they blended in to the background. When you turn around and see Erik Carlsson crossing the street and all you think is “There’s Erik again”, well, you know you’ve been spoiled.

The Festival, the place, the cars, the people. All of these different elements gave me a new appreciation and a deepened understanding of the Saab marque.

During my second-last day in Trollhattan, I was standing out front of the hotel having a cigarette and there was a drunk guy hobbling down the street in the distance. He was actually doing one of Billy Connolly’s drunk walks. Anyway, I knew he was coming towards me. He was only walking in my general direction, but somehow I knew he was coming towards me. And indeed he was.
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BSR promotional video

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Following is a promotional video for BSR.

I’m strongly considering one of their PPC units when it comes time to chip the Viggen, most likely next year. Richo’s just ordered one for his Viggen and one of the regulars at this site, Turbin, has applied some BSR juice to his SportCombi.

And loves it.

Everyone’s got their tuner of choice and I’m sure those preferences are all for valid reasons.

BSR are certainly making some inroads in the marketing department, however, as this video will demonstrate. Whilst I’ve heard good and less-than-good references for just about every tuner there is, I haven’t seen anything from another tuner themselves that shows off their facilities and product like this one does for BSR.

A good, professional presentation.

New Site Development

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As mentioned earlier, I’m going to spend a fair bit of this weekend developing a new site for Trollhattan Saab, so entries will be light as a result.

The new site is on a subdomain at the moment and you can check out the progress by clicking here.

As the post at the top suggests, your input is more than welcome!

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Mitt harta klappar for Saab

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My apologies for the lack of umlauts in the text above.

Despite the horrid photo, I though I’d better publish this for posterity’s sake if nothing else. This is an article in Saab’s internal newsletter thingy for this week, covering the trip to Sweden for Saab Festival.

Click to enlarge, and if anyone feels like providing a translation in comments then I’ll post it underneath the article later.

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Erik has kindly provided the following translation:


“My Heart Pounds for Saab”

He is Mr. Blogg in the Saab world and is often first with the latest news from magazines and enthusiasts all over the world. The number of visitors is around 7000 per day. Finally, Steven Wade from Australia has had the opportunity to visit Sweden.

His blogg, trollhattansaab.net, has received status and such a serious image that esteemed news papers such as the New York Times used him as reference. With his network that he nurtured for quite a while he is often first with news on Saab.
- I like to write and I like Saab. It’s nothing that get you rich, but I have a job as an accountant on the side that provides for me, says Steven Swade when we meet him among some Saab legends during the 60 year jubilee. He is enjoying every second of his visit to Sweden.
- To, in a few days, get the whole of Saab’s history and meet the people that have shaped Saab and with your own eyes see the manufacturing has been a real kick, says Steven Wade.

What made you start the Saab blogg?
I drive Saab, it’s as simple as that. Once you have tried, you are hooked. I’ve been a Saab fan since my twenties. My buddy, who owned a Saab 9000, converted me. In Australia, or more rightly Tasmania where I grew up, it’s all about Holden and Ford, so I started to look towards Europe. In Australia, we love underdogs. Saab is a small brand which has picked a fight with the giants, we love that.

What is so special about Saab?
- The more I have studied the company and followed its development, there more in love I have become in the brand, the cars and the special aura that surrounds Saab. It’s not just another car. It has something unique and a technology that has always been ahead of the competitors. The turbo technology for example, was revolutionary when it was put into serialized production.

What is your impression of Saab in relation to Sweden that you now have visited for the first time?
- Swedes are practitioners and has a nation full of engineers. You have a genuine feeling for quality and an ability to transfer your technological skills into functional, user friendly solutions. That shows in Saab. And you have an independent relation to the rest of the world and high self esteem. That shows in Saab’s attitude. Just look at the concept car Aero X, what a charisma.

What does Saab mean to you?
- To me, Saab is character, and that has been confirmed by all the people I have met here. Severel of them has been part of shaping Saab. Others are worried about what GM will do with Saab, but I am not worried. The brand has a genuine identity and is positioned in the very first line when it comes to car manufacturing in the world. I definitely believe that you have a future. My heart pounds for Saab.

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Awww shucks. Thanks Erik.

Friday Snippets

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Posting may be slow here over the weekend. There’s a big overhaul happening for the site and I need some concentrated re-design time.

Layout or functionality suggestions always welcome.

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I think I’ve mentoined it here in passing once in the last month, but it bears repeating…..from Auto Express:


Swedish firm Saab is to become General Motors’ centre of excellence for transverse engine four-wheel-drive development. So impressed are bosses with the company’s XWD technology, Saab now has responsibility for sharing it with other marques in the group – including Vauxhall and Cadillac. It already carries out all work on GM’s turbocharged engines.

That’s a lead for Saab in XWD, turbocharging and E85 (which is kind of ties in with turbocharging). Who says GM would have any interest in selling Saab? Almost anything more advanced than a pushrod engine seems to be coming out of Sweden ;-)

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I’m not sure how this ad would have played out, but Saab seem to have got into trouble for it before it was released:


The Saab advert, illustrating the benefits of using the Channel Tunnel, said ‘Change the weather without changing the planet’. It was withdrawn.

If you check out the link, it seems some car-makers are getting panned for calling their cars environmentally friendly. The wowsers doing the calling are saying that no car is environmentally friendly as long as it emits some CO2. That criteria would make the environmentalists themselves unfriendly to their environment, would it not?

OK, so we call the cars environmentally friendlier, then?

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Automotive websites are falling over themselves to provide coverage of the future BMW 1-series coupe, which promises to be even less practical than the 5-door and looks odd and disproportioned if you ask me.

That’s the power of a strong brand.

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German Post 1

Saab-blog.com is a German site with one mother of a 9000 Aero under it’s watch.

Plenty of jealousy-inducing Nurburgring footage here (though id’ love to see it shot again with a camera mount in the car).

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German Post 2

You don’t need to understand German to figure out that we won’t be buying these Chinese cars anytime soon. If you’ve got relatives in China, best warn them about them as well.

The car is called a “Brilliance BS6″. Well, in China it is. Anywhere else it’s called “Death Wish 6″

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German Post 3

Saab Freunde has a list of the German specs for the 2008 Saab 9-3. Click here then scroll down a bunch for reprductions of the press releases.

2008 scale models coming….UrSaab here now.

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The 2008 Saab 9-3 isn’t in showrooms yet but according to the Elkparts website the scale model is coming soon. Maybe it’ll beat the real thing!?

1:43 scale models of the 2008 9-3 will be available soon in all three model variants and you can get them individually or as a complete pack of three.

Elkparts are accepting pre-orders for the 2008 scale models and as with all pre-order campaigns at Elkparts, your credit card will not be charged until the model is dispatched. Models are expected to arrive at Elkparts in October.

The one proviso with this, however, is that it’s so early in the cycle that colors for the scale models are yet to be confirmed. I’ll publish an update when that occurs.

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The other significant model that’s available now is the 1:43 scale model of UrSaab.

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This is the first time the UrSaab has been produced in a 1:43 scale model and it comes mounted in a special UrSaab presentation box. It can be ordered on its own or as a pair along with the Aero-X.

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Click here to visit the Elkparts model cars page.

Drive’s prestige car guide

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Australian visitors here may already know about this, but if you don’t…..

The Fairfax press’ motoring section, Drive, have just released their prestige car guide.

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The guide looks at all vehicle classes from small through to exotics. There’s a couple of Saabs pictured in the guide, a 9-3 SportCombi and a Convertible, but Saab only gets one mention and ironically enough, it’s the 9-5, which isn’t pictured at all.

It also fills out some extra pages with features on finance, insurance and other fringe matters.

It’s a 6mb pdf download and it’s available here.

TTAC and EDPs

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The Truth About Cars have an article that might be of interest to anyone considering traveling to Sweden and picking up a new Saab right from the land of its birth.

The article is an overview of the half-dozen manufacturers that offer Euro delivery with an incentive for doing so. Frankly, if I lived in the US and was in the market for a new car then I wouldn’t do it any other way.

You pick it up in Trollhattan itself, tour the factory where it was made, visit the museum, drive a little further up the highway and photograph it with the Viggen, drive around Europe and then fly home and await delivery. You even get to keep your Euro plates as a souvenir (great for car shows!).

TTAC present this summary of the six EDPs available in North America and as you’ll see, Saab’s EDP is more than comparable….

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TTACs article is a good primer on how EDPs work and a recommended read for anyone who’s got the itch after seeing the 2008 Saab 9-3 photos and reviews.

For even more details on Saab’s program, head on over to Saab USA’s EDP website.