Monthly Archives: October 2007

Turbo X to go on show in Zurich

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Zurich Motor Show

The Zurich Motor Show is on next month (there’s still an hour of October left as I write this).

It’s on from November 1st to the November 4th.

I’ve just received a note to say hat the Turbo X has just arrived at the venue for the setup there.

The Zurich Motor Show is the second biggest show in Switzerland, after the Geneva show, of course. I’m sure there’ll be a number of Swiss Saabists out to get a look at the Turbo X, seeing Switzerland receives one of the higher allocations of Turbo X’s with 120 units going there.

Switzerland, of course, is also the home of Hirsch, Saab’s official tuning partner.

If your a Swiss Saaber and you didn’t know this was coming up – well now you do!

Saab atop Gaywheels listings again

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Just a quick note to – um – note that the Saab 9-3 was, for the third quarter in a row, the second most researched car at Gaywheels.com.

With the recent run in a 9-3 convertible by the gay rally team in the Fireball run, I’d have thought that maybe they’d top the list. Alas, it was not to be.

The #1 spot was also a three-times-consecutive winner, the Toyota Yaris.

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By the way, I never covered the final result of the Fireball Run.

The GLAM Team, driving a Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible, finished 2nd in the luxury class and 11th overall. The final chapter of the event diary is here.

And below is a quick video that shows a very small amount of driving.

Detroit News test the 2008 9-3 SportCombi

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Saab 9-3 SportCombiSportCombi owners – I’d like you to read this review, then smile. Then print this review and pass it out to anyone who asks about your car. Even those who don’t ask about it – give one to them too. Use the “Share this” button at the bottom of this post to send this article to your friends. Whatever, just share and enjoy.

It’s long been my contention that Saab’s provide the best combination of luxury, performance, safety and utility – let’s throw value in there as well. In the 2008 model year you get all those things plus a new look and a quieter ride. It’s a potent combination.

Scott Burgess from the Detroit News has driven the car for a week now, and it seems he might be thinking along similar lines:

Luxury – It’s a car that pampers your senses with luxury appointments while also feeding your adrenalin with power and performance.

Performance – The car whizzed through corners, its 17-inch alloy wheels biting down and never letting go. Even with a wheelbase stretching over 105 inches, its body hardly rolled in fast turns.

Safety – ….lots of safety devices, including electronic stability and traction control, driver and passenger front and side airbags.

Utility – The 9-3 sedan has 15 cubic feet of truck space, whereas the SportCombi offers 29.7 cubic feet with the second row up. Drop it, and you have 72.3 cubic feet available.

And I’m not picking the good bits out of a lukewarm review here.

I’ve long-held the belief that the 9-3 SportCombi is the closest thing in the current lineup to the classic 900. Burgess comments on it’s distinctive profile, is handling and as you can see above – it’s utility. The headline of the article even goes as far to call it the Anti-Crossover.

His dislikes:

a) the cupholder – it seems the strengthening of the core wasn’t enough for a Dunkin Donuts coffee

b) maybe the seat bolsters could have provided more support, but he considers it a minor point.

Click on through.

Read the review for yourself and see why the SportCombi has proven to be so popular. And if you’ve got one, you’ve earned yourself a smug five minutes or so.

Here’s the final word:

For someone looking for a car with European driving dynamics and Swedish sensibilities, the 2008 9-3 Aero SportCombi should be on the shopping list. It’s fun, stylish and has all the practicality of a crossover.

It just performs better than most.

That new 9-3 ad – what the creators think….

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Say you’re given a job: to do an ad that shows the transformation of one model generation to the next. There’s a strong ‘Jets’ element in previous campaigns, which your client would like you to preserve.

I presume that’s the way it went down.

What we all ended up with was the new Saab 9-3 ad. Comments on the ad weren’t exactly complimentary, but I think that was more to do with the theme of the ad than the actual job they did. Given that they’re most likely following direction given to them by someone else, one could reasonably say that it was a job well done. I may not be too keen on the continuing theme, but given that that’s what they had to work with….

Here’s the ad again:

Now the reason this is all coming up is because the creators of the ad have had a few words to say, and they’re all very pleased with it:

Commercial and feature VFX Supervisor Kevin Rafferty from The Orphanage and celebrated director Joseph Kahn with HSI Productions teamed up with Lowe New York to create an explosive spot to introduce the new Saab 2008 9-3 sedan. The :30 second commercial spot just began airing; to view, go to: http://www.theorphanage.com/ocp/portfolio/recent/1284.

The spot highlights the rebirth of the 9-3 series which includes a sedan, sport combi and a convertible. In this CG-packed spot, which was shot in an airplane hangar and in the 115° degree heat of Death Valley, a jet engine-blast fuels a fireball around the 2007 9-3. Then, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the new 2008 car is reborn racing through the sun-drenched stretch of road.

Joseph Kahn is known for his kinetic visual flair and keen understanding of vfx; his “Toxic” music video for Britney Spears won the Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Music Video. About his experience with this spot, Joseph Kahn comments: “The Orphanage executed the very demanding task of finding beauty in an act of evolutionary destruction. They brought a compelling level of design artistry to an ambitious idea. I had a great experience working with them.”

A celebrated veteran of the industry, vfx supervisor Kevin Rafferty adds: “After the recent creative successes of Director Bong Joon-ho’s ‘The Host’ and ‘Fantastic Four’, I was excited to work on this visually arresting commercial, especially one with such a well known cutting-edge director.” Rafferty, a pilot himself, relished the challenge to envision and create a CG jet, CG jetblast, CG ‘welding’ sparks, CG molten metal, CG Saabs, CG set extensions and CG ground fog for what he called “an epic amount of elements for a 30 second spot.”

So, they’re all pretty happy with it. If you click on the link in that article you can see it using Quicktime and it does look better with the greater level of detail that the format allows.

I’ll agree. It’s an idea well executed. I’ve got no issues with the execution, it’s just the idea that I’m starting to have reservations about.

Wednesday Snippets

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Still sick. Today’s DVDs – more Seinfeld and perhaps JFK.

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Mini are thinking of building an SUV (can they still call it Mini?) and Cadillac are thinking of a small RWD car for Europe.

This is the world we are living in. Saab, please keep doing what you do best.

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Poor grain crops here in Oz lead to grain-fed stock farmers calling for an end to all biofuel promotion by Government.

The dairy, pork, egg and feedlot beef sectors said the global demand for grain to produce ethanol was causing record grain prices, food inflation and job losses.

With Australia so prone to drought, and climate change likely to lead to even more extremes of temperature and rainfall that would affect grain production, the groups demanded governments abandon any plans to mandate the use of biofuel…..

….Although the 2007-08 harvest will be about 4 million tonnes above 2006-07 production, for the second year in a row Australia is set to produce far less grain than is needed for domestic and export use.

Ethanol industry supporters argue that grain prices have been unrealistically low for decades and the grain shortage is due to the weather.

Hmmmm. Not a strong argument. I guess the weather’s putting the kibosh on current E85 discussions here in Oz and therefore my thoughts of going all BioPower here in Oz as well.

And yes, the top ethanol producer here in Oz uses grain rather than sugarcane to make its ethanol, despite the huge sugar industry in the north.

Thanks Richo

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On Friday I’ll be driving the new 9-3 in Melbourne. On Saturday, I’ll be going to the races and checking out the Saab entertainment. It’s the Spring Carnival in Melbourne, the biggest horse racing season of the year. On Saturday there’s a race called the Saab Quality Stakes, which is the final qualifying race for horses wanting to run in The Melbourne Cup – the biggest race in Australia.

Saab have had a facility at this racing meet for years now and it’s one of their bigger marketing campaigns every year. This year they’re creating an ice bar, complete with a frozen Ice Blue 9-3 convertible (prelim pics here).

And today, there was this in the Melbourne newspapers:

THE folk running the SAAB marquee at Flemington care so much about their guests over-enjoying the ice bar (it’s really made from ice) that they’ve mailed out anti-hangover tablets. The bar, inspired by Sweden’s Ice Hotel, presents some challenges: guests will be given coats made from fluffy duck and feather down — and just as well, because their derrieres may have stuck to the ice stools. Ouch! And staff, clad in coats and beanies, will be rotated every 30 minutes so they don’t freeze.

I’ll be checking it out on Saturday and photos will be forthcoming!

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Seems like a Saab dealership in Iowa burned down in the last day or so.

Fire Meyer Garage is located somewhere near Stacyville. Locals probably know where I’m talking about.

From the photo at the article, though, it doesn’t look like a particularly new dealership. I’m sure there’s more to this than the brief report is telling us.

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I love some of the stories that come out of the Swedish newspapers. They’re always thinking, those Swedes:

A Swedish inventor believes he may have found a solution to the pressing issue of lamp post corrosion – a urinal for dogs.

NY Daily News invents and reviews its own Saab

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This is the epitome of a mixed review.

I don’t know if it’s a type, or if this guy didn’t read the paperwork, but apparently he’s reviewing a 2.9 litre, 4 cylinder Saab 9-3. The “9″ key is between the “0″ and he “8″, so he could be in either, but given that he does refer to the turbo giving it the power of a 6 cylinder I’ll take a stab and say he was driving the 2.0T.

Some people just don’t “get” Saab and I’d take a guess and say that this guy’s one of them. Saab’s styling has always been something that divides opinion and it’s obviously not appealing to our reviewer here.

Though I’ve got to say he does take a fair bit of literary licence in an effort to entertain:

Despite the face-lift, the ’08 9-3 is blobbish, so indistinct that it wasn’t often easy to tell where the car ended and the atmosphere began.

Say you don’t like it, by all means, but don’t be so obviously stupid.

Another bit of literary licence comes in later, in a brief blurb about the ride:

Despite its power, it loathes bumps and will punish occupants’ spines with all the fervor of Vlad the Impaler when you smack one.

Other 9-3 owners might like to provide some insight here, but I’ve never found that to be the case. And in the interests of looking after cars, I’ve always tried to trat potholes with caution, anyway. “Smack” any car into a pothole and you’re probably going to feel it.

I don’t think any Saab seat is going to allow one to feel like a victim of Vlad the Impaler. Do you? Literary licence run amok once again.

Despite the licence taken and the personal insights as to the looks, there’s something here for someone looking at the 9-3. Our reviewer mentions the generous equipment levels that come as standard and the good performance from what I assume is the 2.0T. This really is a great little engine.

Read with caution.

Maybe Saab IS at SEMA after all….

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After showing the 9-7x Aero concept at SEMA last year, Saab is absent from the aftermarket show this year, which doesn’t disappoint too many people.

But perhaps Saab are there in spirit.

E85 Hot rodThis Chevy hotrod is powered by a 2.0 litre Ecotec engine running on E85 and is tuned to produce 500hp. An Ecotec 2-litre E85 engine – sound familiar?

Channel 4 in the UK go so far as to specifically call it Saab sourced, though I haven’t seen that written anywhere else. This is kind of heartening, though:

GM Performance Division director Al Oppenheiser adds: ‘The engine was built using the basic recipe that is available in the Ecotec performance book available from GM Performance Parts. Also, the E85 conversion is based on a kit that GM is exploring for regular production engines.’

….which makes me wonder – what other 2.0 Ecotec performance solutions are out there in GM-land in the US that people could apply to their 2.0T Saab 9-3s? I know when I’ve looked at the GM performance sites previously there’s been no specific mention of Saab, but I’m pretty sure there’s Ecotec stuff there.

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And here’s a look at SEMA that shows wy it’s not a bad idea to be there. From an aftermarket point of view it’d be a great place to promote Hirsch should it ever make it to the US:

    SEMA by the numbers:

    Booths: 10,000
    Attendees: 125,000
    Exhibitors: 2,000
    Exhibit size: 1 million square feet
    New products unveiled: 1,200
    Annual car aftermarket sales: $36.7 billion

That’s a big pie. Not having an aftermarket offering at all – wisdom?