The following article was translated and provided by my good T-shirt designing mate from Hungary – Ivan.

The article was originally written by Ákos Égő, the chairman of the Hungarian Saab 900 Club, and it was orginally published in an online magazine called Vezess.

You can find more photos of this unique Saab convertible here. I can highly recommend looking through this absolutely fascinating gallery.

My thanks to Ivan for the translation, and to Rickard for producing such a unique vehicle. Such vehicles are not for everyone, but like the article says; even if it’s not your cup of tea, you’ve got to admire the work that’s gone into it. Rickard’s definitely one hardcore Saab enthusiast. I tip my hat to you, sir!

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Sweden is known for its famous export products like Roxette, ABBA, IKEA, Absolut Vodka, Zlatan Ibrahimovics, Volvo and of course, SAAB. Here we have an extreme rebuild of a cabrio from the last one on that list.

Asele is a small, quite northern town, 1300 km from the ports arriving by ferry. It is located at the same latitude as Alaska so don’t be surprised that the locals build some unusal cars in their garage during those long winter nights. Swedish car and bike manufacturing is famous worldwide, moreover there is even a special “swedish chopper” style among motorbikes.

Rickard lives in the abovementioned town and created a very special car. When I first saw the pictures I could not decide whether I liked it or not. After getting familiar with the details my appreciation has risen.

I’m mad about the old 900 Convertible but was suspicious about this car. I quickly realized that it’s not a 900 – it’s a 99 going by the photos! There was no factory convertible 99 model, however. Its base is the same as the C900 but the front is shorter, the suspension and steering is quite different. The body is more solid but it has less options than 900. As Rickard said: “I sacrificed a 1969 Saab 99 for a more enjoyable life.” He did radical changes on the body by the intense usage of a grinder on steel.

[Read the rest of this entry →]

Following on from what looks to have been a successful promotion in 2008 (though it’s impact in terms of vehicle sales might be questionable) Saab are teaming up with the Burn Notice TV show in the US to provide another interactive online game in 2009.

From Mediaweek:

Covert Ops 2 will integrate the Saab brand throughout the game, including letting players drive a virtual version of the vehicle depicted in the show.

Over a nine week period last summer, the Burn Notice-inspired Cover Ops game drew between 40,000 and 60,000 users a week on USANetwork.com, and 300,000 overall. Visitors spent an average of 12 minutes per session with the game, which was designed to complement each week’s new Burn Notice episodes by showcasing original corresponding storylines conceived by the show’s writing staff.

……As for Saab, besides having digital version of its cars built into the game, Redniss’ team shot some footage from within actual Saab vehicles–in an effort to provide players with the feeling that they are actually driving. “You’ll be able to see through the windshield on screen,” he said.

The launch will be on January 22 (i.e. now in the US) to correspond with the launch of the new season of the show. The Covert Ops website is here.

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Plans for the 2009 Saab Cabrio Challenge are taking shape and seeing there’s a complete lack of clarity as to plans for a Saab Festival this year, this might be an event for convertible owners to pencil in to their calendar.

Whilst there are some tasks to complete along the way, the event is not so much a ‘challenge’ but an experience, and should provide for some inspirational driving for Saab convertible owners who are making their way to Sweden in June.

From the website:

Saab CabrioChallenge 2009 will take place Saturday the 27th of June. The starting point is still a secret but we will end up somewhere in scenic Kolmarden. One day of wonderful driving, assignments and competitions is completed with a nice dinner and stay at a hotel/mansion near Norrkping. On Sunday we will join the “scenery tour” together with a B-engine Convertible gathering in the vicinity of Norrkoping.

Two days of Saab Convertibles, how about that?

Everyone who owns or drives a Saab Convertible is welcome to participate. We will provide nice looking decals etc. as well as financial support for for example the Saturday dinner. (Last year Saab Automobile payed for the dinner and a nice gift to all participans)

More information will be published here shortly. To sign up send an e-mail containing name, e-mail address, phone number and car modle as well as the number of participants per car to info-at-cabriochallenge.se

Some photos from the 2008 event, which was the first of it’s kind.

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I bet you’re one of those cynics who thinks that Kiefer Sutherland isn’t really capable of saving the world over and over and over again. I bet you don’t believe in getting from one side of a major city to the other in under 20 minutes – and I’m sure you don’t believe there’s a helicopter that can be where you are, wherever you are, within 5 minutes.

But I’m here to tell you that 24 is in fact based in reality, and a Saab 9-5 is going to prove it!

Here we have some stills from the opening scene of a recent episode.

A quick run-through for you.

Image 1 – Saab 9-5 driving through Washington DC (I presume)

Image 2 – Saab 9-5 is side swiped quite deliberately by recalcitrant ambulance driver in black ambulance

Image 3 – Still spinning…..

Image 4 – You think that shook you up, young lady?? Look out the back window!

Image 5 – It’s another black ambulance! That’s gonna leave a mark.

Image 6 & 7 – the Saab 9-5 mounts the car in front, though in a purely automotive way…BUT…

Image 8 – the safety of the Saab 9-5 wins out. The ambulance personnel (clad in balaclava for some reason, probably because they’re shy about their clumsy driving) are still able to gain access to the Saab 9-5 thanks to its strong safety cell

Image 9 – Ambulance personnel guard their patient with guns to ensure their safety

Image 10 – Under cover, they whisk patient away (still walking thanks to Saab safety) to the waiting black ambulance

Image 11 – The two black ambulances slip away leaving the Saab sitting atop the less safe product from wherever. Unfortunately they forgot their patient’s daughter, who waits in fear for the next ambulance to arrive with a bang!

At least that’s how I think it goes……whatever…..Saabs are safe!

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Thanks to Jeremy for letting me know and Howie for the video!

This post was written in real time.

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I covered this car a week or so ago:

If you don’t recall….

This is actually made from what looked like a perfectly good Saab 900 turbo. The hack job was done for a TV show in the UK called Chop Shop, with the celebrity client being Martin Kemp (actor and 1980’s musical ponce).

You might also remember that the car was coming up for auction. Some Chop Shop hating types from a VW forum decided to put in a bid to give the car a notable end.

This was the prospective owners’ plan:

We are placing a sealed bid for the Martin Kemp Gangsta car when it comes up for auction on the 10th January. If we get it, it will be trashed and posted through the special VW Action ’shitheap’ letter box, and then environmentally recycled.

Everyone will be able to buy the right to set upon it with lumphammers and cutting tools by making a donation to Brads Cancer Foundation.

It’s fitting for what the 900 became, but a sad end for any Saab.

As it turns out, their sealed bid was successful:

We did buy it at Coys auction… when we told them what we were buying it for, they laughed, then waived the sales commission as their charitable contribution.

Everyone on the thread who has seen it in the flesh has said it is a fugly monstrosity. I picked it up today…. they were being diplomatic!!! On top of which it won’t start, has no papers (it is an ex scrapper btw) and is worth the sum of its salvageable parts, minus the labour to get them off.

Most people are happy that the car is to meet it’s end at Santa Pod during VW Action next September. Some still feel we are being wantonly destructive, but don’t seem to truly realise how awful this car is imho. The current state of play is that we are moving plans ahead to find as many ways as possible to raise money for Brads Cancer Foundation

It sounds like the car has around 9 months of life left, after which it will provide a few hours of entertainment and, hopefully, many dollars for their nominated charity.

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Best looking vehicle at all of the GM stands?

Best looking GM stand?

The Saab 9-X Air and the Saab stand. Click to enlarge.

Photo from Autoblog, who call it the Saab 9-X BioHybrid and claim you can almost smell the looming death. All is forgiven.

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This time one year ago I was alternating between being very very tired, frozen stiff, fascinated, engaged, disengaged and all sorts of other things. I was at the North American International Auto Show. Call it the Detroit Auto Show if you like.

I met Jan Ake Jonsson for the third time, each time being on a different continent. I’ll have to organise a hookup in Africa some time. Later in the week I attended the GM Style event and had my name on the guest list immediately above “Wagoner, R”. He hadn’t checked in yet, either, which gave me the idea of hanging around the check desk and having a word with him about his little Swedish subsidiary. Maybe I should have.

I was most fascinated by how physically small the Detroit show was compared to it’s reputation as the biggest show in the world. And I was slightly fascinated by how physically run down the city of Detroit was, or at least the bits that I saw.

That was then, this is now.

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General Motors started the show with a parade of vehicles in the streets of Detroit. It was intended as a statement to the country of the quality of machinery that’s available now as well as the vehicles that will make up the future of the company.

There were seventeen vehicles in the procession and none of them were Saabs, though quite a few include technology developed in Sweden.

Interestingly, there were no Hummers, either, but there were two Saturns.

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The guy introducing the Cadillac SRX (think Saab 9-4x and add in the 2.8 Turbo V6 from the Saab 9-3 under the hood) called the engine “rightsized”.

Film.

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Is it just me, or does the Volvo S60 concept look like a bull terrier?

Full S60 gallery at Autoblog.

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Toyota released the 2010 Camry, which looks just like the 2008 (or is it the 2009 one?) only uglier.

The 2010 Camry goes on sale in the US in March 2009. Rumours that the’ll skip the 2011 model all together and offer the 2012 Camry in May of this year are yet to be confirmed, but Toyota is apparently telling anyone who will listen that it will take years for the Americans to catch up to them.

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Dodge continue to act like they’re planning on becoming viable in the near future and have released the Circuit EV electric concept car.

The body’s based on a Lotus design and actually looks pretty good with the standard Dodge crosshair grille.

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Saab have nothing new on show other than the Saab 9-5 Griffin Edition, which effectively amounts to having nothing really new on show.

The big interest around Saab is the press conference that Dagens Nhyeter say will happen tomorrow (Monday). Representatives from the Swedish government are in Detroit at the moment to talk to GM and Ford executives about the futures of Saab and Volvo.

I’m not sure what we should expect to hear from them, but I don’t expect to hear news about a buyer for Saab.

Rick Wagoner has been quoted in Bloomberg today, in an article saying Plans for the sale of the Saab unit are “moving along,” and GM has found interested parties, Wagoner said, without identifying prospective buyers.

Smokescreen, I say.

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From Sunday’s TTELA (the local newspaper in Trollhattan)

….But GM CEO Rick Wagoner should still expect that there will be many Saab-related issues (raised) by visiting Swedish journalists during the show.

How clear the answers he will give turn out to be remains to be seen.

It is clear in any case that speculation is in full swing. Automotive News claims that GM have found no buyers for Saab, and then a GM representative said to the AFP news agency AFP that question is still in its infancy and unanswered.

And Saab’s information director Eric Geers says, in turn, to TTELA that things may happen fairly quickly, but without wanting to specify more than that. Eric Geers notes that a long-term uncertainty surrounding the brand’s future is not what Saab needs.

And it seems the Swedish government representatives are in a jolly mood:

Representative Joran Haggerlund said that with the F150 being the best selling car in the US (and with it winning Truck of the Year, I guess) they could just as well visit the Henry Ford Museum as visit the NAIAS, such is the technological advancement evident in the F150.

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Thanks ctm and Dippen

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Surprise surprise.

GM want to keep their international ops out of the US spotlight, so it’s to be expected that there won’t be much on the Saab stand next year that we haven’t seen already.

The fact that there won’t be anything brand new for Saab was pretty much confirmed by a promotional email I received from the NAIAS earlier today:

……the highly competitive nature of the industry means most manufacturers keep plans secretive until the show draws closer. Until then, anticipation continues to build for the innovation, technology and creativity on the horizon.

An overview of some of the excitement set for 2009 includes:

* General Motors confirmed it will hold the world debut of three new production vehicles, scheduled for arrival in showrooms in the near future. GM will premiere the 2010 Buick LaCrosse sedan, the 2010 Cadillac SRX crossover and the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox compact sport utility.
* Ford promises some show-stoppers but is playing coy on details just yet. Company executives are teasing the media with hints that the models being shown for the first time in Detroit will be the next step in Ford’s future global design direction.
* Chrysler will hold three world debuts. The automaker is keeping details of those secret until closer to showtime.
* Toyota revealed it will use NAIAS 2009 as the stage to unveil its much-anticipated next-generation Prius hybrid. In addition to the 2010 Toyota Prius, Toyota also will unveil to the world a new Lexus hybrid.
* Honda, likewise, will unveil a hybrid – its equally anticipated – 2010 Honda Insight.
* The always-popular Mini will hold the world reveal of its new Cooper convertible.
* Kia plans the world debut of a new concept vehicle.
* Volkswagen promises the debut of a green but sexy model.
* Mazda unveils the five-door version of its highly successful Mazda3.
* Chinese automakers BYD and Brilliance Auto plan new model debuts as well.

In addition, the traditional crowd-pleasing luxury cars will shine at the NAIAS 2009:

* Audi plans at least two world debuts, including the premiere of a new production model and a concept strongly hinting at a future production car.
* Bentley will hold the world introduction of a new model, details of which are being withheld until a future date.
* BMW will only say it has major product news for the show. More on the specifics later.
* Maserati will show off its Grand Turismo S to the world.

That sounds like an impressive list, but remember that a whole slew of manufacturers have pulled out of the Detroit show already, and that means the NAIAS people are scrambling to promote the show as much as they can. Hence, the tell-all-they-can emails doing the rounds so far.

Saab will show the 9-3x early next year, but with Detroit off the table, it looks like it’ll definitely be Geneva.

The Saab stand probably won’t be empty at the Detroit show, however. The Saab 9-X Air just finished up at the LA Auto show and is now on the east coast for the Boston Auto Show (December 3-7). I imagine they’ll keep it around to liven up the Saab stand in Detroit.

The show is on from January 11 to 25.

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