One of the activities we got a chance to participate in last weekend was a circuit drive on the skid pan at GM’s proving grounds at Lang Lang, here in Australia.
The two outer lanes of the skid pan were wetted down and our challenge was to get the cars around the course as quickly as possible. We travelled the outer ring half way round, then switched to the inside ring to do a full circle, then switching back outside again for another half-lap.
We did the exercise in Sportcombis and a convertible, but Swedish engineer and rally driver, Peter Johansson, had a go at it in the Turbo X. This quick circuit was filmed by one of the local TV stations for an automotive TV show.
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I’m not sure what speeds Peter got to here, but in our runs (we drove in pairs) we were regularly getting up around 70 km/h on the inside circuit. That mightn’t sound lightning quick to you, but when you’re on the slick stuff it’s definitely fast enough to make a sweeping bend into a reasonably tight corner. It’s a constant task to keep looking ahead and stay on course.
In your head you feel like the car should be breaking traction at any point – but it never does. We had a fair bit of water on the surface and it definitely heightened your concentration, but the car never felt out of shape. The ESP isn’t overly obtrusive but it’s obviously working.
Saab may not have invented ESP but they’ve done a heck of a job developing and implementing it, making it a standard inclusion on the Saab equipment list. They recently handed it down to Holden here in Australia, too, and the same software is now standard on the top-selling Commodore range.
Last weekend I attended a drive day sponsored by Saab Australia at the GM Holden proving grounds at Lang Lang, in south eastern Victoria.
Because Saab Australia only has one Turbo X to act as a photographic model AND press car, they didn’t want us car club hoons driving it at high speeds on a dirt track. To make sure we got something memorable out of it, though, they brought in Peter Johansson to take us for a spin.
During the week, Peter is the lead engineer working for GM on XWD applications for front-wheel drive vehicles. He’s third-gen Saab, his grandfather working on tooling for the very first Saabs and his dad working for them as an engineer as well. Peter and his Dad came up with some early AWD technology, which they sold to a company called Haldex in Sweden. See where this is going?
On the weekends, Peter drives rally cars. The AWD technology that he and his dad developed was primarily a response to his own needs in rallying. Not only can he build this stuff, he can really use it too.
There were four events on the program. I’ll get to the other three in another post, but this was the final event that our group took part in – Peter Johansson taking us for a hot lap on the GM proving ground dirt track in the Saab Turbo X.
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Peter got to speeds of up to around 170 km/h on the back section of the track and if you’ve never been that quick on dirt, let me tell you it’s quite an experience!
The car was an auto, much to Peter’s disappointment, but he still gave it a pretty good run.
This really was the highlight of the day. The car’s incredibly solid and to see it in the hands of an expert was quite a revelation. We did two laps of filming at the end of the day and the brake rotors were glowing at the end of them!
I hope you enjoyed the video. There’s plenty more to come from the weekend.
A quick peek at what the Turbo X got up to on the weekend.
It may not look blistering fast there, but he’s approaching the fastest bit of the track where top speeds got up to around 170 km/h. That’s on dirt, by the way, so it was a little nerve racking – and a lot of fun!
Nothing special here. Just a bunch of driving sequences and yes, one was sped up (just for something different)
Some nice shot setups by Stu the Lens Genius and our young bloke, Geoff. Driving by yours truly and Matt the Fudgepacker. Music by Eddie, Alex, Michael and Sammy, chosen specifically for the start.
Back in January, I was very fortunate to hitch a ride with 1985Gripen up to Santa Barbara and spend the afternoon with Mr Robert J Sinclair.
Uncle Bob.
Unfortunately I was so taken in by the moment that I didn’t record a thing at that time. We chatted for over three hours about all things Saab and it was quite possibly the highlight of my US trip.
Bob was the former head of what’s now known as SaabUSA and served in that position from 1979 until 1991. That was his second stint with Saab.
I wanted the chance to interview him so that I could present some of his story for the wider Saab community. I wanted to interview him this month in particular as March 2008 means it’s 50 years since he first joined Saab as a guy in his mid-20’s.
The interview goes for 45 minutes. Sit back, make a cuppa while you let it load, and enjoy the story of a true Saab pioneer.
Bob’s a blast to talk to and I thank him sincerely for his time.
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NOTE: This was recorded using Skype and there’s a couple of moments of interference in there. I think you’ll get the gist of what was said, however.
Also, the Google Video doesn’t seem to be playing the last 6 minutes of the interview. I’ve made a second movie now so that the final minutes aren’t missed.
Following is the final section of the interview I conducted with Steve Shannon earlier this month.
In this instalment, I ask about Turbo X pricing (to no avail) and Steve Shannon ponders an M3 vs Turbo X run through the twisties. We also talk about Steve’s rides.
