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!

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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Saab
SAAB- Born From Jets
Saab Photography
Classic Saab
The ultimate SAAB 99 / 90
The “Classic” SAAB 900
Saab 900 Cars (1985-1993)
Saab 9000
Saab 9-3
Saab 9-2X
Saab 9-5
Saab Convertible
Saab BioPower
Saabs Together
Modified Saabs

Car META Directory

GM Europe: Driving Conversations Photo of the Day
European Convertibles and Targas
European Wagons
Swedish Cars
Cars From Uusikaupunki Car Factory
Mavic
European Estate and Combi Cars
Cars cars cars

For the previous Saab Flickr dump, click here.

You know I love good Saab photography. This is some of the best:

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From Schenkelhuber

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From Varroproduction

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From Bennorz

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From Erikskantze

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From Theron Hemsell

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From Sam Gibson

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From KPTyson

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From Renovator

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From Erik Nygren

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From Sebastian Gustafsson

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From Erik Nygren (again)

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From Beatkeung

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From Rixoon

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From FreakyLeo

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From Tazio35

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From occasional visitor and commenter, PJGH

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From Fabvt

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From Christov3

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From MrMarco

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Not a car, but a Saab Safir. From Saab Safir

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Captions “We are Swedish. We drive Saabs” Simple.

From Metaliene

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From Michael Banovsky

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From Masgod

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From Mediahuis

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Made you look!

Saab have a long history of hybrids, from the wide-bodied 99-96 hybrid called the Toad to the twin-engined hybrid called the monster. They also had a plug-in hybrid convertible a few years ago, but we don’t like to talk about that one.

From Flickr comes another Saab hybrid. This is the kind of hybrid you build your darn self when you’re darn sick of those darn mechanical pop-up headlamps!!!!

It looks like a job well done, thought the jury is still out as to whether it was a job worth doing. There’s something that’s just not quite right there.

Thanks Robin!

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David is one of the Turbo X owners that I reported on back then, one of the ones whose satnav order went missing somewhere between his dealership in the US and the factory in Sweden. A few arguments yielded little satisfaction at first, but thankfully Saab eventually came to the party and offered him $500 towards the purchase of a portable satnav unit.

Lemons. Lemonade. And one very happy Turbo X owner.

This was sent through to me in mid-July:

I have only 1200 miles on the car and am getting 20 to 25 mpg. I absolutely love the car and most importantly my wife does too. I don’t really care if the 09′s have most of the x’s pieces – there aren’t many x’s on the road – sort of how the viggen was perceived – very unique.

And then earlier this week:

….on a recent 1000 mile highway trip I got 26-28 mpg in the turbo x!! I was very pleased.

It’s not all about the mileage, I’m sure. As you can see from the photos below, David likes to buy cars that are built to be driven. That’s his X, his son’s Viggen and David’s vintage BMW 2002.

Nice.

Congratulations, David, on the Turbo X acquisition. Click.

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It looks like it’s just a little unfinished at the moment with the mesh from the front grille missing. Note also the custom paint on the original Saab wheels (I like the silver outer rim) and the custom dual exhaust. I’ve not seen the black badge on the hood before, either.

I’ve not been a huge fan of matte finishes on cars in the past, but this actually looks pretty good. Very distinctive.

And Konstantin assures me that the Lambo in the background is representative of a typical Moscow street nowadays

Click to enlarge….

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Here they are:

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A shot simply called Miriam that reminded me straight away of some of Saab’s own promotional images from the 1960s. Those of you who have seen some of the old 95, 96 and 99 images will know what I mean.

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Goran works for an automotive publication in Europe (I’m sorry mate, but I can’t remember which one as I’m writing this but will correct it later) and has posted some great shots of the Saab 9-5 he’s been driving recently.

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A workshop full of old Saabs. Just WOW, ok?

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And whilst we’re talking old Saabs, this guy’s fitted a pair of 9000 Aero seats into a Sonett. I’m not convinced.

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Our mate in France, Golfhunter, has been snapping some inspirational countryside shots of his 900. I’m a fan of the black and white work.

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And our mate in Denver and POO competition finalist, Tim, purchased one of Ivan’s custom made Saab badges for his 9-3. Looks pretty good, don’t you think?

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Oh, MAMA!

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A little while ago, I wondered out loud about whether the US market was going to get a low-pressure turbo again – a 2.0t engine. This was due to the engine being mentioned in a press release for the 2009 Saab 9-3.

I’ve received confirmation from SaabUSA that the US market will not be getting this engine. It was just a typo and will be corrected.

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A guy on Autoblog this morning learned the value of 1) driving a car before he disses it, and 2) knowing when to shut your piehole.

Autoblog covered Forbes’ list of top 10 family cars. The Saab 9-3 SportCombi Aero V6 was on that list and our Autoblogger, Chris Tutor, wondered why it was there in place of the VW Jetta. He conceded the power advantage held by the Saab as well as the space advantage, but still wondered why it was there given that it had comparatively poor mileage.

Thankfully, there was a number of commenters at Autoblog who set him straight. The 2.0T still enjoys more power and space than the VW, which much better mileage than the Aero.

It was quite pleasing to read comments about Saab on Autoblog that weren’t snarky or derisive. (update: I first read through the comments some 10 hours ago. They’ve since delved into the usual depths that come with anonymity and a keyboard. It was nice while it lasted)

Thanks Loughlin!

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I know I’m not supposed to mention Alfas much here, but there was a record set recently, with 240 Alfas on a track a one time.

Now that would have been nice. Pictures here.

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Time for some Saab awesomeness from Flickr. Click through on the associated links for bigger versions and folders with more stuff:

From Santinet

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From T.Jashari

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From Mehugtree

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From CarMad Economist

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From Mad T

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A Saab quilt from JunieFlickr

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And finally….. Robin M is still doing his set of Saabs for 2008 – a different Saab each day for a whole year. This is #187.

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I’ve been fascinated by this sort of stuff for a while now. A few years ago I actually did a night photography short course to get a taste of it and it’s a lot of fun.

Strobist is probably the website of choice for this sort of thing. The particular art being expressed here is that of lighting an object with multiple flash units positioned away from the camera. This example, found on Flickr, shows a Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan being lit from several angles. The dark surrounds and selective lighting really set off the red lines of the car.

I’d really love to run a photo contest based on this sort of thing. The imagery can be very evocative and with Saab’s distinct lines, I’m sure we’d get some excellent shots. It’s very involved, though, and takes a whole heap of commitment. Especially on a cold night.

This is part of my brief foray into night photography (more here). This one involved a 30 minute exposure on a freezing cold midwinter night, with the building lit up by multiple bursts from a handheld flash.

I’ve got a shot of my old Saab 900 5-door too, though I can’t seem to find that one at the moment.

If you’d like to see more strobist stuff, check out the strobist pool at Flickr. And if you’d like to try some Saab Strobist photography yourself, please make sure you send in the results. I’ll be happy to shot them off.

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I took that shot on a film camera seven years ago. I had no software to play with back then. A quick press of the ‘enhance’ button in iPhoto gets the contrast looking a lot better.

Ah, the wonders of the digital age.

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