by Brendan
June 10, 2011 in Editorial
As a fan of The Amazing Race it was great to see them using Saabs when they were in Sweden during the last season. Now I’m watching the first season of The Amazing Race Australia, which I recommend to any Amazing Race Fans.
In the latest leg the teams find themselves in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Those of you who have been avid followers of SaabsUnited for a few years, do remember the link Saab has with Port Elizabeth, South Africa?
by Red J
March 12, 2011 in Saabology
In mid February Swade posted about a 9-3 tuned by Maptun performance to 415hp.
Last weekend the car was tested at the trackdays at the Snetterton circuit(GB).
The test went quite well, as the biggest incident took place in Holland, where the driver behind the Maptun 9-3 was too interested in the car and rear ended the car.
The guys from Maptun(white car) where invited by NeoBrothers(yellow-black livery).
You can get more details of the whole story at the new Maptun blog.
RedJ
by Swade
March 9, 2011 in Saabology
Brandon Hollinger is a guy who some of you may have heard of before. There was a few articles about his project at Saab History a year or so ago.
Today, his endeavours at electrifying his Saab 96 (as if it wasn’t electrifying enough!) have been covered online at Philly.com.
Hollinger got serious and in 2008 bought the 1970 Saab on eBay and combined it with some parts from a 1968. Then he used a regular three-month winter break from the theater in 2009 to go electric.
Hollinger had to fashion mounts for the motor, the controller, and the batteries.
And now that he’s had it running for well over a year, he’s actually looking to do it for others….
Now BH Electrics (Hollinger’s home business) has gotten the endorsement of the electric vehicle supply and engineering company Electric Vehicles of America. Bob Batson, owner of the Wolfeboro, N.H., company, said he and his handful of employees put together the engineering calculations plus a manual and DVD specific to the vehicle.
It would be strange to see this little car whistling down the street but on the other hand, it’s kind of cool that a Saab 96 is getting a second chance and making a statement like this.
Have any of you ever considered taking an old, clapped out Saab and giving it a new lease of life this way? According to the Philly.com article, it’ll cost you around $10K to do this to an existing car.
Hmmm. $10K on a restoration, or $10K on electrification. I’m not sure I’m that big a treehugger just yet. But it’d sure be interesting to see the results and try them out.
by Swade
February 22, 2011 in Saabology
I got the following email from Nigel P earlier today and I think there’s probably someone out there with some knowledge of a solution.
I am looking to buy a Turbo Edition 9-5 , one of the last made. For fuel consumption reasons I may go for the 1.9 TiD and have it “Hirsched”, but may go for an Aero having had 3 in the past.
My question is: I need to have a customised arm rest. I had a stroke last year and my left arm gets very tired on longer trips so it needs to be supported. The current one is not really high or long enough.
Do you know of any company that can provide a customised arm rest for a 2008-2009 Saab 9-5?
I’ve already pointed Nigel in the direction of State of Nine, who sell armrest boosters for a variety of Saab models.
Does anyone else know of any solutions? There might be someone else out there with a similar need and all advice would be welcome.
by Swade
February 15, 2011 in Saabology
Here’s one for the hi-po buffs.
Maptun have broken the 400hp barrier on a T8 tuned Saab 9-3 2.0T. The car is actually a 2005 Saab 9-3 but it’s been updated with 2010 panels and lights for the front and rear.
I love the carbonfibre detail work on the front there, too.
Enough about how it looks, though.
From the Maptun website…..
MapTun Performance is proud to claim the performance crown in T8 tuning – The magical 400 hp limit has now been broken.
The test car, a 2005 9-3 Aero equipped with our Quaife gearbox, reached an impressive 415 bhp and 450 nm of torque in our Rototest facility. A lot of time and effort has been spent fine tuning the software to limit the torque to a level that is suitable for the setup.
The car will be driven to England to participate in a trackday on the redesigned Snetterton Cirquit the first weekend of March. There it will face strong competition from Porsches, Ferraris and other supercars. In other words, a great opportunity to put much more expensive cars to shame. You will be able to follow the whole endeavour on the upcoming Maptun Blog.
It’s good to see Maptun planning for a blog to keep people up to date on the their latest products and achievements. But that aside…..
Performance like this doesn’t come easy. The list of engine changes is considerable….
And that’s before you get to the cosmetic/aero changes. There are still more changes to come, with upgraded brakes and interior being added to the car soon.
Keep an eye out for that track day video. I think it’s going to be a cracker!
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by Swade
January 13, 2011 in Saabology
I was looking for something on Google Images the other day and was struck by the number of custom Saab badges that different people have made over the years.
I guess it’s become a lot easier to design your own badge these days, with companies like Heko and others online (if you know of another good custom badge place, let us know in comments).
Here’s a selection from the ones found on Google earlier today. A few have been featured on these pages in the past, but there’s a bunch of new ones there as well.
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by Swade
January 7, 2011 in Saabology
Remember last year, when Gunnar L built a Saab 92 out of snow? His reasoning at the time was that he needed to burn off some of the food consumed at Christmas 
Christmas has come and gone once again, and Gunnar (and family) have been busy burning off those Christmas calories building a new Saab outside the family home.
This time, they’ve built a classic Saab 900 from the snow.
It all starts as a mound of snow…
With the odd sprinkling of water, the mound is shaped roughly into a car shape (looks quite Saab 96-ish at this point, yes?)
Keep on sculpting and eventually, you get to carve out some details….
Until you finally get the finished product….
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The full photo set is available on Flickr.
I wonder what kind of Saab Gunnar and the family will come up with next year? I vote for the Aero-X
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by Swade
January 6, 2011 in Saabology
My thanks to John J for sending through these photos of a project racer, featuring Saab on the nosecone.
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The racecar in the photographs was constructed by a student organization called “PACE”, or Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education.
Sponsoring companies include General Motors, Siemens, Sun Mircrosystems and Belcan Engineering (where John J has worked in a consulting capacity since retirement from GE Aviation). These and other corporations have partnered with 26 schools worldwide to enable engineering students to gain practical knowledge along with classroom training.
The project was created by the late Ralph Anderson, CEO and founder of Belcan which is the project’s largest financial sponsor. Parts of the car were supplied by various participating corporations, the front wing being furnished by Saab. It’s great to see the Griffin emblem leading the way in this worthwhile enterprise!
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I’m not sure what part of the Saab organisation provided the front wing of the car, but by the GM logos on the outer edges, my feeling is that it may have been provided a little while ago.
The car will not be raced at all. It’s purely an engineering and learning exercise. Still, the Griffin looks good on the front of a racer, doesn’t it?
Congratulations to all the students involved in building it.
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by Swade
December 29, 2010 in Saabology
This one’s a little bit of fun and was a nice little surprise for me.
The very industrious gent is a guy named Fredrik and he thought he’d decorate the ski-box on his Saab 9-3…..
More to come (oh, the suspense!)…..
by Swade
November 24, 2010 in Saabology
My mate Jim Smart in New Mexico will be all over this one, I reckon
For sale on Ebay right now is a Saab 93 from 1959. One could say it’s slightly modified…..
by Swade
November 10, 2010 in Uncategorized
Found via Andy Rupert (who just got back into a Saab 9000)
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXGdRwvGHHs
by Swade
October 12, 2010 in Saabology
….. and I don’t mean ‘wicked’, as in ‘cool’
Posting is light as I’m tied up during the day at the moment. Added to that, tonight is one of the busier evenings in my vocational life so it’ll be light tonight, too.
But here’s a few tidbits to get you started.
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RIGHTEOUS
I’ve always wanted to do this with some Saab chairs….
These are Saab 9000 seats, built into office-worthy chairs by Henrik B – and they’re for sale.
More of people doing strange things with Saab bits below….
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WICKED
GM, who we all figured were evil to some extent anyway, have brought down a PR disaster on their own heads.
They have admitted that the Chevy Volt, from which they’ve been harvesting massive fields of shiny, fluffy, smiley green credits in the public mind, is actually connected between the engine and the wheels.
We’ve all been told for the last three years that the Volt is a fully electric vehicle with an internal combustion engine providing charge for the batteries when they start to get low. Now it’s been revealed that at certain levels of depleted battery charge and vehicle speed, the engine assists by providing torque to the wheels.
Deceptive, and inherently wrong.
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WICKED
Google are being wicked because they’re testing cars that completely remove the driver from the task of driving. Yes, cars driving themselves and on public roads, at speed.
What’s worse is that they’re succeeding – a radio report here in Australia today stated the only accident reported so far is another car hitting the Googlemobile due to inattention.
This is the ultimate in automotive evil.
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RIGHTEOUS
Kangaroos trying to cross the road at Bathurst…….. once again this year, Skippy made an appearance at Australia’s biggest race.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz2oAgoEE8Y
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RIGHTEOUS
The Local, Sweden’s news in English, has got into the car review business, with a very complimentary review of the Saab 9-5.
Success for the new Saab 9-5 range seems assured. Beautifully designed and built to standards befitting a premium brand, I feel that like me, the company’s loyal customers will struggle to find much to criticise in what is arguably Saab’s most important new model ever.
Much more where that came from at the link above. It really is a cracker of a car.
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WICKED
Honda are promoting their updated Civic – featuring Brown!!
Not as cool as our brown, I’m afraid.
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RIGHTEOUS
Saab sold 5 cars in Bulgaria last month.
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WICKED
Aston Martin are truly wicked for pressing ahead with the Cygnet. A more nauseating badge-vehicle combination you will rarely find.
I can’t even show the picture here.
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RIGHTEOUS
OK, more people doing fun things with bits of Saabs.
Via Flickr – the Saab grille
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by Swade
October 12, 2010 in Saabology
It was for sale in Sweden on Blocket.se last year….
And it’s back up for sale again. This time in Sweden once again, but from a website based in Germany.
Not much is known about this car. It was built by a custom Saab builder named Leif Mellberg, back when print media was king. The car featured in an edition of Bilsport magazine, but we don’t know much more than that.
The asking price in 2009 was around 47,000 Euros and it’s holding it’s value because the new owner is asking 49,000 Euros.
Thanks Ricardo!
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by Swade
October 1, 2010 in Saabology
Yet another somewhat strange, custom Saab is up for sale, this time on the Swedish online trading site, Blocket.
From the Googletrans, it appears that a limited number of these were made by a custom car builder named Wilman Coachwork, in Sweden.
The car is a Saab 900 at the front and a Volvo 850 at the rear, with two V70 rear axles.
The owner’s looking for a reasonably hefty price at 150,000 crowns, but this is a unique vehicle in what looks to be tip-top condition. The owner also seems to be open to trading a wide variety of vehicles in exchange or as part-payment….
BMW, MB, Volvo, Saab Turbo, XC90, V70, X5, M3, M5, passenger car, the Mercedes Sprinter Maxi or roughly equivalent, Cross Bus. Large end motorhomes in really good condition, SUVs, jet ski or jet ski Runabout, a smaller boat with motor, newer sliders, moto cross or enduro machine preferably 4 stroke, not older than 2007, sport bike, custom bike model more like HD, Shadow, Midnight Star or the like even more exclusive defective items. Do you have other suggestions so do not be shy, but came with them.
If you’ve got something you think might be able to get it done, get in touch.
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Thanks Carl S!
by Swade
September 28, 2010 in Saabology
The Saab/BMW news is all over the interwebs and it’s all been positive (aside from TTAC, see below).
We’ll have to wait for the press conference to see what the actual agreement brings to the table. Will it be more than architecture and/or diesel engines? I don’t know.
But personally speaking, I think it’s going to be absolutely fantastic, both for the expansion of the vehicle range and the perception of Saab in the marketplace. I’m pretty amazed at some of the reasons put forth in comments for reservation about this potential deal. The idea that this deal could ‘turn Saabs into BMWs’ is just really shortsighted and doesn’t give Saab’s excellent engineers any credit IMHO. Hang your reservations at the doors, people, and see what happens.
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Our mate Rune has been to meet his new ride…..
…..unfortunately there’s some problems with the road and registration authorities at the moment so Rune’s plates haven’t arrived yet. Agonising!
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I never thought I’d ask for Robert Farago to be reinstalled at The Truth About Cars, but it seems the inmates are now running the asylum. Farago was grumpy and critical, but at least he was predictable. This guy’s just freaking nuts!
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Another ‘different’ Saab is for sale over at Saabnet…..
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And then there’s this….. pre-production, and a sequel to the rear shot shown yesterday…. click.
Looking absolutely fantastic!
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