It’s been a tough winter in the north. Whether you’re a Saab dealer, Saab employee or an interested observer, the brand’s taken a battering and it’s been hard to watch.

These cars are born from a pretty tough place, though, and are made to thrive in such conditions. Hopefully a winter of positive XWd road tests (and there have been a few) will open a few eyes.

Tough conditions? How about life on Ted Y’s alpaca farm?

Here’s some others, sourced from Flickr with special mention to Robin M for finding a goodly number of snowy cars in the last few days.

The Temp Wars continue, this one coming from Saskatchewan, a region in Canada known for two things: It’s majestic rolling hills (NOT!) and it’s fervent, frenzied football fans – the Rider Nation.

Francois sent in this SID reading from there and notes that his previous car, a Mercedes Benz C230, had to stay inside when it was this cold. Not so the Saab:

And from somewhere a little to the south and somewhat to the east, Sumit has sent in these shots of his fine collection. He’s looking forward to the day when an independent Saab can provide something to get him out of the car in the third photo for good. The first two shots are his 08 Saab 9-5 Aero wagon and Turbo X SportCombi.

Nice.

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I don’t know if your local Saab club got up to anything last weekend. it certainly looks like some Saab clubs were busy though.

I had heaps of Saab photos on my Flickr feed this morning and thought I’d give them some air time here. It’s always good to see people out and about celebrating their Saabiness.

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This group of Saab 900 owners had a good turnout. Some beautiful vehicles there, too, especially the yellow convertible.

No location given.

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There was another Saab meeting elsewhere (again, no location given), with a few very tasty classics in attendance.

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This guy’s photo has a caption reading “use as unmarked police vehicle undercover”.

One could suggest that posting it on the internet is going to blow the undercover status of the vehicle.

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Some Saab nuts got together in Finland……

……including the driver of this Turbo X. How good does that look?

And by the way, here in Australia last night we had the episode of Top Gear where James May is taught how to drive on dirt by Finninsh ex-F1 ace, Mika Hakkinen. Fantastic story, that. While Clarkson is the clown element and the glue on the show, May is really coming of age and providing some entertaining and worthwhile stuff. Thouroghly enjoyable.

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Someone spotted a sad old Saab 96 in Iceland. Don’t you just want to take it home and care for it?

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And finally, in case you needed any more convincing that this is the best looking concept car this year, here’s another rear view of the Saab 9-X Air from Detroit.

There’s been so much news lately!

Maybe it’s time to get back to the reason why I do this, and why you come and visit here – some excellent Saab vehicles. It’s the driving of them, after all, that’s so engaging and addictive.

This magnificent Saab 9-5 is owned by the national Chairman of our very own Saab Car Club of Australia, Clive M.

It’s a 2001 model and Clive’s had a lot of serious work done to it since buying it new at that time. How serious? Around $30,000 worth of serious!

The car’s been maintained by Dean Randle at Swedish Prestige in Melbourne. Dean also happens to be the authorised agent of Abbott Motorsport, so there’s been plenty of Abbotisation over the years.

The list of modifications is considerable:

* Dean Randle full performance and precision rebuilt B235R motor, overbored with forged pistons.

* Full (end to end) Abbott Racing inlet induction with cast end housing high performance intercooler, matching performance ECU.

* Fully rebuilt auto gearbox (5000kms since fitted).

* 18 alloy rims with low profile r rated Dunlop tyres ( 8000ks since new )

* Custom stainless steel exhaust headers matched to full Abbott performance exhaust system and then finished with unique twin exhausts

* To bring all this to a safe stop, upgraded brakes.

* Koni dampers and Abbott lowered springs.

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This, to me, is the money shot.

Have a look at that engine! Grrrrrrrrr.

Cliva actually visited Tasmania a few years ago with the Saab club but I had family staying with me and couldn’t catch up with everyone other than a quick visit at the concours display. I wish I’d had more time to get to know all of these brilliant vehicles.

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If you’re disappointed at missing out on buying Richo’s Viggen, then maybe you should consider this Abbott 9-5. It’s for sale and you can contact Clive for details.

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From Flickr. Well done, Mr H!

No description necessary, eh?

It’s Saturday as I write this here in Australia, but it’ll be Friday for most of you reading it

One of the good things about reverting to this old template is that I can do short entries again. I always felt compelled to do long entries before because you had to click through to see them.

So I’m going to go back to some occasional simple content. Light n Easy. Flickr Friday.

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I know there’s been ice storms in the northeast USA in the last week, but spare a thought for those in the Pacific Northwest as well.

The caption accompanying this photo on Flickr was as follows:

Is your Saab equipped with a deep snow locater beacon ?? Now that is Swedish engineering to the max !

Apparently there was 24 inches of snow in 24 hours.

Brrrr

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OK, so it’s probably more escapist denial at this point, but I thought that a brief interlude will remind us that Saabs will still be around for a long time no matter what happens in Detroit, Washington, Trollhattan or Russelheim. Let’s all go to our happy place….

All are from Golfhunter’s Flickr stream…

First, there’s this unbelievable two-door 99 with a body kit. This is why I chose Jeff’s photos for this little breather.

I like the shock of red above this 9-3…

We never seem to give the 9000 enough love.

Finally, I’ve always wanted a 5-door C900. They are very, very rare here in the US. This one is a great example (now that I’ve gotten the right picture here — thanks, Joe!):

This is Jeff’s 99. It isn’t a 900. I think that you can see why I picked the wrong picture based upon the thumbnails!

We haven’t had a Saab O The Week entry for a while. Time for that to change.

I love old Saabs and I envy those who have them. More than that, I envy their dedication to keeping them in extraordinary condition because I know that as much as I’d like to, I’d never be a worthy custodian of such a car. I know they would deteriorate if under my care, much as I might try.

So it was a pleasure to see these pictures arrive in my inbox earlier this month and come to know that there’s yet another worthy custodian out there.

This is Kurt K’s 1969 Saab 96 V4. A classic of the early Saab era and one special car, with only 38,000 miles on the odometer.

Here’s a little of Kurt’s story:

I am a longtime Saab owner going back to 1980 when I purchased my first Saab – a ‘76 99 GL 4 door (with 90,000 miles) in Topaz Yellow when I was a Senior in High School here in New Jersey. I loved the interesting history of Saab and how rare they were; oncoming Saab owners used to flash their lights at me. My parents were ecstatic because they thought it was safe and great in winter. I traded my moped and got full value for it from Reinertsen Motors in Denville, New Jersey. Back then, it was a 1 car showroom.

I am still driving Saabs – my most recent purchase is a ‘07 9-5 Combi 60th Anniversary Edition (Jet Black) which I also bought from Reinertsen Motors – which continues to be a wonderful stand alone dealer but now has a large showroom with multiple service bays. Len Schrader, one of the principals, races both a 96V4 and 99. Kjell Skavnes, the fellow who sold me my 99 contines as a dealer principal as well. Over the years, I’ve owned many other 99s, classic 900s and a ‘79 V4 imported as a grey market car.

Thanks to Kurt for sharing his story, and for taking great care of this classic V4 Saab.

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