Tuesday Snippets
Good morning all. It’s the first after a lazy long weekend here.
My first task, in just over an hour from now, is to deliver our Saab 9000 over to the Eastern Shore here in Hobart so that my stepson Ben can sit his driver’s licence test.
I think I’m more nervous than he is…..
HE PASSED!
——
How many of you watch the Superbowl for the football, and how many watch it for the commercials? Whilst we get the game here in Oz, we don’t get the ads, unfortunately.
A 2008 Saab 9-3 Aero will feature in two ads shown during the big dance. No, it’s not quite what you think - I don’t think SaabUSA’s budget can stretch to Superbowl ads.
Saab will the beneficiary of someone else’s advertising. From an email from SaabUSA this morning:
Watch for two new Bridgestone TV commercials to debut during Super Bowl XLII - Sunday, February 4 - featuring a 2008 Saab 9-3 Aero Sport Sedan.
The first spot, titled “The Scream,” also features a memorable cast of furry characters and will be the first commercial to air at the end of the first quarter.
The second spot, titled “Unexpected Obstacles,” takes some interesting twists and turns and features the likes of Alice Cooper and Richard Simmons. It will air in the third quarter of the game.
I wonder if they had to contribute to the cost in order to get the product placement?
——
I don’t have much by the way of translations here, but it seems some speedskaters could win themselves a Saab BioPower in Norway. The advice I received was simply as follows:
a 9-3 biopower to any speedskater setting world record this weekend at the Vikingship stadium (Hamar, Norway). Many attempts, no winners …
Maybe these guys would have more of a shot if they were wearing skates…..
——
OK, here’s one for the rumourmill.
There’s some whispers going around in a European Saab forum that engineers may be working on a Wankel rotary engine for Saab.
Hmmmmmm. Could be fun if they find a way to keep the consumption reasonable.
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Why would Saab want to add a rotary engine to their lineup? Perhaps Saab is researching a dual-fuel engine like Mazda’s hydrogen/gasoline rotary engine.
I just watch the commercials so I will watch out for those Saab moments. TiVo just does a great job of getting to the good parts of anything.
The Super Bowl is not for people who like football anyway – it is for people with a lot of money to have a nice day, be entertained, and look pretty. Not a bad way to live if you are in the 1% of the population.
Ooooh, rotary! If they can keep the Wankels from smelling like Wankels, it’ll be a hit!
On the subject of ads have seen the ‘Release Me’ ad with ‘08 yellow convertible twice in two days on Oz TV. Both times in peak slots, second time it was just before Top Gear. Good work.
Swade, maybe Emily can confirm what in what slots they are showing the ads.
Working on a wankel huh??
europeans!!!!
they should try Flying on a Fagina, or Trying a Toss…. working on a Wankel indeed.
I’m off to Flogg my Fenis
I saw it during 9 News on Saturday night and also at the Cinema on Thursday night (Dendy Quay)
I saw it on SBS the other night, too.
I also saw a big ad featuring the same car at Sydney airport on the way to Detroit. First thing I saw when I came out of the gate off the flight from Hobart. I have a picture, but it’s at home.
Any news on Ben yet?
yep. there is big one on Victoria Rd Balmain. It’s a main arterial Sydney road, and there are 2 big ones at the airport.
what stuns me is that the dealers don’t seem to be on the same page.
anyhoo…
Given the number of tires that GM buys, I’m sure that Bridgestone didn’t charge too much — more likely it helped to cinch a new contract or helped to smooth over a missed shipment, etc.
Tire manufacturers want their product on the most cutting edge vehicles, and the 9-3 certainly is a fresh face.
Wankels are great, but why on earth would Saab / GM Europe spread themselves so thin? They still haven’t come through on the other items on the plate: plug-in hybrid, diesel that passes US emissions, output per liter that equals the Germans, etc.
Wankels are fun to drive, but they really work best in very lightweight vehicles (low torque).
Oh, and Richo: That’s WAYYY too much information.
ok, sorry eggs… i’ll make sure next time i explain where the outdoor posters are i’ll just list the one
I just caught the word on the Wankle engine there – and I think Mazda still owns a bunch of patent rights on that design, so I would assume that is why you don’t see more use out of it from other automakers. Seals were always a problem on those (piston rings to the rest of us) and they tended to use some oil as a result of that. Catalytic converters really do not like oil, so that caused premature failure of those as well.
At any rate – I have driven a few RX7 and RX8’s in my day and I was never really impressed with the engine. The cars had decent handling, but you really had to work that engine to get power out of it – almost like driving a higher performance VTEC Honda motor.
Given that Saabs are more ‘geared’ towards low RPM torque I am not sure how that problem could be mechanically solved given the design of the engine.
Rough translation of the article above (3am so I’m getting sleepy.. ):
At the World Cup at Vikingskipet stadium, any speedskater that breaks the world record gets a car as a prize! – They should have had such a prize in my days, says former speedskater Even Wetten
Ole Røhnebæk, Eskild Ervik and Even Wetten has managed to get a car as a prize to the skater who breaks and sets a new world record at the Vikingskipet stadium in two weeks time.
- Earlier, they skated for glory and honor in the world cup. This is something totally different. A real carrot and a prize which will give a real inspiration to the skates, says Even Wetten, who is now in the arrangement committee for “We are going to fill the stadium!”, an initiative for filling the stadium for the world cup.
The local cardealer Autostrada and the norwegian importer of Saab is giving away a Saab Biopower.
- I really hope the car goes! My heart is beating for speedskating, and the initiative to fill Vikingskipet is admirable and exciting, says Autostradas daily manager, Bjarne Lang-Ree.
He is a speedskating enthusiast and hasn’t liked seeing empty seats in Vikingskipet.
- It has been embassasing being a spectator, but this is going to change, says Lang-Ree.
The car has a value of 350.000 kroner (US$ 64 000 / € 43,500). For the speedskaters, this is an incredible prize.
– The prize will not only increase the prestige of winning and better the effort of the competitors, but will also put a spotlight on speedskating in Norway, says Ole Røhnebæk.
The ticket sale stunt is looking like a huge success.
- So far we’ve sold between 2500 and 3000 tickets. I think we’ll reach 5000 sold tickets when the cup begins January 25th. Then it will be a real atmosphere in Vikingskipet all weekend, predicts Røhnebæk.
The Vikingskipet Motel has recently sold over 500 tickets alone, and it’s still two weeks to go.
—
Vikingskipet (The Viking Ship) is an arena built for the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics in Norway, and is named so because the roof construction makes it reminiscent of a viking ship turned upside down.
I hope the rotary engine is false…. I’m not a fan of the rotary engines, not at all.
If Saab wants to try a new engine setup, why not go with inline designs? What need would GM have for a rotary anyways…
Oh… I usually only watch the commercials during the Superbowl… Not a fan of football.
Wankel? Why? I don’t know that much about rotary engines except that Mazda is known for them. What are the advantages?
If GM is going to fund Saab engine development I’d much rather see it spent on something like a working production-worthy SVC engine. That would be truly revolutionary. Why re-invent the wheel (Wankel engine)?
If it’s true, I do give props to Saab for finally deciding to get weirder after too many years of ditching the “quirkiness”!
The Wankel engine is conceptually the complete opposite of the SVC engine. Less moving parts in a Wankel and a lot of more moving parts in the SVC.
I like the idea, but they have to get down the fuel- & the oil consumption a lot !! Otherwise it doesn’t make sense at all.
Mercedes gave up in the seventies after some tryouts and prototypes. Mazda really invested in this motortype and the bad engine stories of the NSU R0 80 seemed to be not the case with the recent Mazda Wankels.
But in Saab-terms: Will the Wankel be BioPowered ? Or a Diesel-wankel ? Well at least with a Turbo.
In Belgium there is even a similarity between the BioPower and the Wankel, both are not encouraged by government: for a 1300 cc Mazda rotary, you pay the same taxes as for a 2600 cc car, so the advantage of a lot of power out of a small engine is gone; for the BioPower you’ll get none financial advantages at all. It is even not regarded as a ‘green’ & environmental fuel, i.e.the former socialist minister of environment considered BioEthanol as non-environment-friendly and his answer in the parlement why this fuel shouldn’t be distributed in Belgium were full of arguments like: that as a small European country can’t afford to join the forces that destruct the South Amercian Jungle etc. Of course in Belgium there are not so many woods like in Scandinavia, but what is needed is a common European political vision about those fuels.
QSBPW 9X TTiD
(Quirky Saab BioPower Wankel 9X with a double Turbo, sounds nice, without HUD please)
Any reliable sources about this Saab Wankel ? Or just wishfull-thinking-forum-chatting ?
The U.S. still doesn’t have the TTid, a plug-in hybrid is YEARS off the map…and Saab are developing (maybe)a wankel rotary engine?!
That’s what everyone wants…low fuel milage.
I hope this rumour is FALSE.