Category Archives: Saab Videos

Saab Studio Story – Efficiency and Aerodynamics

Posted on by
9

This is an excellent video produced by General Motors Europe, and packaged and posted online by theautochannel.com (boy, and if you ever wondered about the Michigan accent, take a listen to the woman in the AutoChannel spots at the beginning and end of the clip. “Daaaaht Caaahm“).

I take the following points from this little window into the design process:

- These guys are pros. Mr. Lo, your folks are on the right track.
- Using a spoiler to significantly change aerodynamics on a small car is something of a lost art, but I’m glad to see the Saab is there, making a great leap forward. In the case of the Saab 9-1x, the spoiler makes an even larger difference than with many other cars simply because it helps to avoid the pitfalls of the blunt rear shape (blunt-end causes drag due to flow separation). I’m happy to see this type of attention to detail.
- Concept cars used to be mostly about fanciful ideas that weren’t truly ready for technical execution. In this round, Saab has proven that many or most of the technical details are worked out while the car is built as a concept, and this video shows us a few more of those examples. I like that, because it means that the Saab 9-1x can be built more directly from the concept.

Question: Do all designers wear black suits and white shirts to work everyday? It’s becoming a trend, methinks.

More Saab XWD videos

Posted on by
3

The first two of these videos are in various languages so some of you won’t understand them.

If you’re like me though, you just love to see the Saab XWD 9-3 SportCombi in motion, so you’ll watch them anyway :-)

Very enjoyable stuff. I think one’s in French, I’m not sure about the other, and one’s to music only and features some great clips (has been shown before but deserves another run).

–

–

A Star is Born – part 2

Posted on by
5

The first time I referred you to the video work done by Gunnar Heinrich it was a review of a BMW 733i. The recommendation in that instance was due to the quality of the work – the guys he’s engaged to film and produce these videos are top notch.

This time I’m recommending you pay him a visit (1) because his review of the 2008 New York Auto Show features Saab quite prominently – AND (2) because the video production qualities just keep getting better. This is a visually rich piece of work with Saab placed front and center.

Gunnar attended the US premiere of the 9-X BioHybrid Concept and the Eco-friendly clothing line. He chatted and schmoozed with officianados there, as well as charming the occasional damsel in distress from his perch inside the 9-3 convertible.

The next day it was on to the show itself. Impeccably dressed, Gunnar again swapped words with Steve Shannon, Jan-Ake Jonsson (I’d love to know the real answer to that question), 50 Cent, Dr Ulrich Bez and some guy from Pontiac who agrees to lift out the roof of the Solstice coupe.

Did you really go to Harvard?

—

It’s 10 minutes of film that’s worthy of a place on any of the current automotive TV shows – seriously.

Check it out at Automobiles Deluxe.

BusinessWeek on Saab on video

Posted on by
2

There’s a quick video piece here from Businessweek, who attended the New York 9-X BioHybrid reveal. They’ve also run a text piece on GM’s resurgence plans for Saab, which I’ll cover in another piece shortly.

There’s absolutely nothing here in the video that we don’t know or haven’t seen before, but it’s worth watching just to get another glimpse of that 9-X in live video (rather than a photo).

Per Eklund drives the Turbo X through space

Posted on by
2

With thanks to Kroum for the heads-up, here’s a quick video of Per Eklund giving demo drives of the Turbo in northern Sweden.

It’s quite amazing how he can just cruise at these speeds on ice. Everything looks stable, quite unshaken.

It’s also pretty cool how the lights illuminate the road only, leaving everything beyond the snowbanks completely black. It’s a Saab on the snowy superhighway in space! Or something…..

Enjoy.