While in Boston this week, we “social media” journos hacks were treated to a comprehensive presentation about the Haldex XWD system and why it’s an important development for Saab in its core markets: Northern Europe and the Northeastern US.

The reason: it’s great in wet and snowy conditions.

That doesn’t mean that the rest of us can stick our fingers in our ears and refuse to see the benefits of this great technology. After all, I live in one of the rainiest regions in the United States. (Nashville, Tennessee gets several inches more rain each year than Seattle, Washington.) Also, not every road hazard is due to weather — any foreign material on the tarmac can create a serious traction hazard given the right location and conditions.

To put the TurboX to the test, Saab took Jan Magnussen, a sometime Formula 1 driver and current driver on the Danish Touring Car circuit, to the Gingerman Track and handed him the keys to five vehicles: a BMW M3, a Subaru WRX Sti, a BMW 335xi, an Audi A4 Quattro, and, of course, a Saab TurboX sedan.

On dry pavement, the results were fairly predicable. I didn’t have time to copy down the exact lap times, but, from lowest lap time to highest, here’s the final result:

1. Subaru WRX Sti
2. BMW M3
3. BMW 335xi
4. Saab TurboX
5. Audi A4 Quattro

However, on wet pavement, Mr. Magnussen’s lap times changed the order to the following:

1. BMW M3
2. Saab TurboX
3. Subaru WRX Sti
4. BMW 335xi
5. Audi A4 Quattro

In this contest, the M3’s time and the Saab’s time were very, very close. Something on the order of a half second better on a track average time in the 110-second range.

So, what does this mean?

Essentially, it means that with the Haldex XWD the Saab TurboX lap times change very little from dry to wet, while all of the other vehicles change fairly significantly, gaining up to 10% of the lap time. In other words, XWD is real-world performance.

(It also points up something that Swade was on about the other day. Why buy Audi?)

Saab has great technology lined up for us, now let’s see how they get the word out.