Saabo – SAABSUNITED

Saab 95 – “Ol Blue” with Saabo in tow

September 14, 2010 by Swade

It’s with great pleasure that I’m showing you these images today. These are from Swedish Car Day, which I was fortunate enough to attend a few weeks ago in Boston.

As with the Saab Sonett V4 that I showed last week, the Saab 95 below is owned by one of the technicians at Charles River Saab. His name is Peter Maitland, and once again, it’s nice to know your tech loves the brands as much (or more) than you do!

And just like Ralph’s V4, this Saab 95 and Saabo won an award at SCD – Best in Show! You’ll see why below.

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Ol’ Blue is a 1968 Saab 95 purchased by Peter Maitland in 2002 in Butler PA, while Peter was working for Saab Cars USA. The previous owner had the car nine years and had only driven it 100 miles! Prior to that, it was owned by Jack Ashcraft in Oregon, where it had been driven since new. Under Ashcraft’s ownership, the 95 had been repainted once, the original Husar Blue, and the interior had been reupholstered.

Improvements that Peter has made include installation of a Jack Lawrence high output motor and induction system (good for 120 bhp), Deluxe model dash and gauges, new wiring harness, wheels, rebuilt Sonett transmission (selected for its taller gearing), striping and decals on its flanks, front air dam and an XM radio tucked away in the glove box. Peter has driven the car 50,000 miles (true total mileage on the car is unknown), including to the 2004 Saab Owners Convention in Washington state. It was on the return trip east from that SOC that Peter stopped in Iowa to purchase his Saabo.

Photos from the North American SOC Aurora, Ohio

August 2, 2010August 1, 2010 by eggsngrits

Most of my photos from last weekend at the Saab Club North America SOC in Aurora, Ohio are up on Flickr.

A handful of favorites to pique your interest:

Saab Sauna – with Saab boat and Saabo bonus

November 6, 2009 by Swade

If you’ve been surfing Saab stuff on the web for any reasonable period of time, then there’s every chance you’ve come across the Saab Sauna (or Saunaab as it’s sometimes called).

I had a brief story about it early in the Trollhattan Saab days but the link I set up to the full story has since died away. I’m pleased to have found this new (to me, at least) writeup about it, though, because not only is written by the actual constructor/owner of the Saunaab, he’s also the owner of some other fascinating Saab stuff.
His name is Magnus B and he now lives in France.
Some of you may know that the Saab aircraft people were tossing up ideas back in the 1940s about what else to build when the war was over, and one of the ideas was to build boats.
Well, here’s one of Magnus’ other Saabs, a Saab boat with serial number 26!

And a here’s Saab #26 again, this time with his Saab 9000 and Saabo caravan!!

Magnus has had, and still maintains, a large collection of Saab cars and other associated bits and pieces.
A man after my own heart. If only I had the access and the room.
That sauna story is 7 years old now. I really hope it’s still working and still in use.

Saab motorhome restored to former glory

July 9, 2009 by Swade

Can you imagine this coming down the road toward you?

We’ve seen some pretty strange modified Saabs over the years and we’ve even taken a good look around the Saabo caravan, but this is something even rarer than that Saabo.
I first saw one of these in pictures a few years ago but didn’t know much about it. Back in 2007 there was one parked on the side of the Kinekulle racetrack during the Saab Festival but I never took the time to go and have a closer look.
Now I wish I had.
This motorhome has just been restored by a group of Swedes. It’s referred to as a “92h” and is built completely on top of the running gear of a Saab 92.

This particular vehicle (if I’m reading the translation correctly) was abandoned as a vehicle and for a while was parked in the woods, being used as a cabin. A group of enthusiasts got hold of it and have now restored it back to prime condition.
The running gear is still completely original Saab 92 stuff but the entire body appears to have been replaced, but with original materials available at the time and using original methods.

They must have done a first class job fixing this baby up because the 92h passed its vehicle inspection and will be showing this coming weekend at a classic car show in Ramsele, which is where many of the restoration group live.
After that, the group will make their way to Trollhattan on the weekend of the 17th and 18th for the Saab Days celebration.
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Thanks to Tim R for the story. The original article in Swedish (with a few more photos, too) is here.