English

Car and Driver published an article about the Swedish company Autoliv, a Swedish supplier that researches and manufactures safety components for nearly every car brand in the world. The fake Swedish town is called Carson City and was built specifically to test active safety systems.

The Saabs only play a small role in this article but it is in an interesting read about how these active safety systems are developed and tested by this Swedish company.

...

Victor Muller will participate in the 2012 Mille Miglia, according tot he list of participants on the Mille Miglia website. The information and pictures shows it is a 1956 Saab 93 in a dark red color with race number 336 and license plate AL-41-42.

The 2012 Mille Miglia will take place May 17-20 so it is only a few days away. The site shows there are two Mullers in the race. The second Muller is most likely Victor's son as it was in last year's race. Good luck!



336 - SAAB 93 (1956) - Tourism
Muller (NL) - Muller (NL) Team: SAAB

Thanks to Saab Club Italia via Facebook.

...

From TouringCarTimes:

Linus Ohlsson secured the first ever TTA - Racing Elite League victory for Saab and Team Tidö/PWR Racing despite hard pressure from Volvo's Fredrik Ekblom.

"This was the best race of my life. I had a poor start, but was able to pull up a gap after that. This is just so cool, everything went my way and of all my victories, this is my best," said Ohlsson.

The 21-year-old was challenged by Ekblom in the start who had a better start. The both went side-by-side in to the first corner, but as Ekblom got the outside, Göransson was able to sneak past up in to second.

Ekblom had to hunt back on Göransson and got past after a couple of laps. The chase was then on for Ohlsson and Ekblom gained. ...

• The last 26 hand-finished, right-hand drive Saab 9-3 Convertibles are now available for sale in the UK.
• Final MY12 high specification models with improved exterior and interior features, including the striking Independence Edition.
• Customers can obtain more details from their nearest Saab Authorised Repairer.

Saab Parts UK has successfully secured the sale of the last remaining 26 right-hand drive MY12 Saab 9-3 Convertibles for UK customers.

The Convertibles have now arrived in the country and will be available to buy through Saab’s national network of 87 Authorised Repairers. Hand-finished by a dedicated and loyal workforce of Saab employees based at Saab dealership, ...

It is very tempting to buy a new Saab right now. There are some very good discounts offered and this may be the last opportunity to buy a brand new Saab. The website cars.com shows there are 599 new Saabs available at the time of this writing. And there are probably more available at dealers which do not advertise their Saabs on this website. There are also many slightly used 2011 models available.

There are about 900 new Saabs being stored at 3 sea ports and it is still unknown what is going to happen with those. Once these are being released to the consumer market, it is possible to see additional discounts. Some of these 2011 Saabs are almost 2 years old now so you would think Saab dealers would very much like to get rid of their remaining inventory. Many of these unsold Saabs are sitting outside exposed to the elements.
...

Saab parts come from Saab as well as many suppliers. Recently, I looked into one supplier; what they normally do, more about their product, and how the Saab factory situation has affected them.


Shiny glass and shiny Saabs

Saab glass is made by Saint-Gobain Sekurit, a large multinational company headquartered in France. Saint-Gobain is the largest European auto glass company and the second largest in the world. There is some Vitro brand glass sourced from the Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico area used in the Saab 9-4X.

Auto glass companies work with car manufactures to design glass. Dr.-Ing. Ann-Katrin Glüsing, one of the Communications Managers from Saint-Gobain Sekurit offices in Herzogenrath, Germany provided some insights. She said that "Saint-Gobain Sekurit (Innovative Materials) strongly cooperates with car makers during the development of new products in order to make sure that it provides value to the end user and complies (with) ...

Today I went to Langenburg, a city about an hour from here, where they hold an annual race weekend. I found out about it late Saturday, and only made it there for Sunday afternoon, so I missed all the action on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. On Friday night they had a night race that is more a parade of cars, Saturday there was a regularity rally, then Sunday morning there was a tourist rally, and Sunday afternoon a hillclimb. I was there for the hillclimb. The historic races are for cars and motorcycles over 40 years old, but they make exceptions for newer cars of historical ...

We have seen the pictures that were posted earlier of the seemingly forgotten Saabs at Port Newark. I was in the Newark area last weekend to pick up a used Saab 9-5 I recently bought so a short stop at the storage area was on my list of things to do.

The pictures don't really tell the whole story about how sad it is to see these brand new Saabs waiting for their owners, seemingly forgotten and caught in a legal battle between Saab Cars North America and Ally Financial. I was there on a bright and sunny Saturday morning and it was very quiet. No other people were around and only a few cars passed by. The storage area is in the flight path of one the runways of Newark Airport so the quiet morning was disturbed by an airplane on approach to land about every 5 minutes.

I was there for about 30 minutes taking pictures and a security guard was driving by inside the fenced area, probably checking ...

Today I drove all the way to Sarreguemine, France (3-1/2 hour drive each way!) to look at a 1987 900 for sale. The guy who is selling it has been a died in the wool SAAB guy for 13 years and right now owns four SAABs. His first one was a '98 9-3 convertible, then he got the 900, then a '71 99, and now a newer 9-3 sedan for a daily driver. He is selling the C900 because he was using the 900 as a daily driver and recently replaced it with the new 9-3, and he might be selling the convertible too, and is thinking of buying a Mustang (midlife crisis he says...).

The 900 is ...

We have seen the pictures of the Saab V8 engine but there never has been much information available about how this engine came to be. And more important, why it never made it to a production car.

Tommi Järvinen in Finland published an article on his website Tommi’s Saab Site with detailed information of the history, design and construction of this engineering curiosity. He interviewed chief engineer Mauno Ylivakeri who was the V8 project supervisor at the Valmet Linnavuori engine plant.

SAAB V8 Engine – The Complete Story

Just before Christmas in 1987 presented Juhani Linnoinen, Director of the SAAB-Valmet Uusikaupunki car factory, a special ...

The inventory and many other items of the Saab Cars North America headquarters in Royal Oak were auctioned in February. I drove by 4327 Delemere Court this weekend and found the big yellow sign in front of the building. Such an incredible sad sight to see the company ending up like this after they finally broke free from General Motors.

The building is available for purchase for $2 million or for an annual lease of $13,048 per month. The total space is a little bit over 13,000 SF. The real estate listing shows the following information:

...

Saturday, April 7, 2012
From the Welwyn Hatfield Times



Saabtech Welwyn opened at the former site of Saab dealer Squire Furneaux in Brownfields on Saturday, heralding the car company’s return to Times Territory. The new business offers full servicing facilities in a five-bay workshop, MOT testing, body shop repairs and a shop selling Saab parts and accessories. At a weekend-long opening, former rally driver Erik Carlsson was on hand to welcome visitors, and to regale them with tales of his racing days.

The 83-year-old is an icon in the rallying world. A three-time British RAC Rally winner, Carlsson was born in Trollhattan, Sweden – home of Saab itself. ...

This weekend is the Bilsport Custom and Performance Show in Jönköping, Sweden. I visited the car show today, here are some Saab pictures from the day!

See more pictures in the forum thread: link

...

CAR magazine in the United Kingdom had a 2011 Saab 9-5 in their fleet for a long-term test. It is a beautiful Laser Red Aero diesel and it is certainly not something you see every day. The arrival of this Saab 9-5 was in August last year and the Saab administrators and finance company in the UK finally reclaimed the car a few weeks ago.



There were a lot of good things reported about this Saab 9-5.

...

For the exclusive circle of Saab 9-5 Turbo4 and Turbo6 owners

Hirsch Performance now offers two new package deals with an unbeatable price-performance ratio. Don't miss this unique chance to make your vehicle even more sporty and exclusive!

Saab 9-5 Touring Package

The package includes:

- Performance upgrade
- Stainless steel quad exhaust including diffuser
- Rear spoiler

The performance upgrade to 330 hp/430 Nm (Turbo6) and 260 hp/400 Nm (Turbo4) gives the driving experience a significant boost. True to Saab's "responsible performance" claim, the Hirsch Performance upgrades are certified to the same emissions levels as the original car; Euro5 / CARB BinIILEV.

The Hirsch Performance stainless steel quad exhaust delivers a refined sound, with a character that alters from a sporty roar at full throttle to a sonourous sound during relaxed cruising, without ever becoming annoyingly loud. All exhaust ...

The new calendar wallpapers for April are available from Saab Art. You can download a variety of formats from their website: http://www.classiccarprint.com/saab.html

This month features the Saab 9-3 TTA race car and a Saab 9-3 convertible. Thanks to Roy for making these available every month!



...

If you visit the Saab Museum in Trollhattan in April, don't be alarmed when you see a Saab 92 in the wind tunnel where the UrSaab usually can be found. The UrSaab is displayed at the Flygvapenmuseum in Linköping in April.

This year marks 75 years since Saab was formed. The museum has a special exhibition and an audio tour for their Saab aircraft. The exhibition includes a Saab Safir from their collections and throughout the month of April, you have a unique opportunity to see the UrSaab, the very first car that Saab made.

Saab was established in 1937 when there was a need for Sweden to build their air defense. They did not want to rely ...

From the front dust jacket:

Launched in the late 1960s, the Saab 99 was a highly distinctive car from from a highly individual manufacturer. Designed as a medium-sized, and medium-priced family car building on the success of the 92-96 cars., the 99 scored a second substantial success for the Swedish maker. Well designed, reliable and, perhaps more than anything, noticeably different from its competition, the new car sold well and formed the mainstay of the company's output for over ten years. But when its successor, the 900, was conceived it was decided that the company should move into the executive market. Re-pitched for the wealthier buyer, the 900 provided the company with success in this lucrative sector. ...