This may be a crazy idea, but, Threepwood, our families trusty old 87 C900 8v is sitting un-used and is getting lonely.

Some Threepwood background:

Curious How High do 8V owners rev their motors?

Threepwood lives!!! - 87 C900 8V


The residual value of such a car is close to nil, but sentimental value may be somewhat higher so I was thinking of sending him on a tour of the USA then donating him to a worthy young person at then end of the journey.

Also thinking this may be a fun project for the SAAB community nationwide and may add some publicity to the brand and aid in preservation of the cars left on the road.

I would like to drive first and last legs. Threepwood lives in central Pennsylvania so I was thinking of driving East to the Atlantic Ocean and handing him off to the 2nd leg driver, and then picking him up in a similar location at the end of his journey. My kids who have been commuting back and forth to College in Threepwood till I recently got "The SAAB" a 93 9000 CSE up and running may also want to drive legs.

Think there would be any interest from SAABer's nationwide to support such a project?

Some issues that would need to be worked out:

• insuring the various drivers
• Maintenance and repairs along the route (Threepwood has 200K on his clock) to insure his return home and subsequent hand off to the new and worthy owner.
• How to select the new and worthy owner?
• Who could update the blog? run PR, coordinate activities?
• Run a live GPS tracker? Where is Threepwood?
• Who is going to tell my wife?

All comments, Suggestions and support invited.

Jeff Krebs

For repairs, couldn't each driver "buy" their time in the car? The money goes into a central pot and if the car breaks down money can be taken from the pot.

For the new owner, you could go down the the local high school and start asking if there are any good candidates. You might run into problems though. Some people might not be so understanding if little Johnny wraps it around a tree and gets hurt. Yeah it's slow, but people want to blame someone is they get hurt.

PR wouldn't be too hard. We have a blog function here on the site, and we could send out to Jalopnik and similar to know what's up.

A GPS tracker wouldn't be hard. There are a bunch on Amazon for less than $50. I'm sure they are just plug and play or not much harder.

I'm sure it will be much easier to tell the wife when it goes something like, "I was just thinking about the next selfless act I was going to do... I'm thinking of donating Threepwood. I'd like to give the old guy one last hurrah!"

Also, what happens at the trade off? You drive to place X, and hand-off the car to the next person. Then how do you get back home? Plane ticket? Rental car? Follow car?

My questions are how do we prevent someone from keeping Threepwood? Say he goes to a not-so honest person during his travels, and that's the last of him? Sure, he'll still be owned by you, but there's a possibility you just own a stolen car.

I like this idea 110%

For repairs, couldn't each driver "buy" their time in the car? The money goes into a central pot and if the car breaks down money can be taken from the pot.
Motor and Trans should be good for a lap or 2, but little things might crop up. Personally I would get in and drive across the country old car and all, the spirit of adventure. A lap of america is like 10 to 15K so if he was all tuned up with fresh brakes and tires costs should be minimum.

For the new owner, you could go down the the local high school and start asking if there are any good candidates. You might run into problems though. Some people might not be so understanding if little Johnny wraps it around a tree and gets hurt. Yeah it's slow, but people want to blame someone is they get hurt.
Gotta be a kid that is really into SAAB's, and who really needs a car, must be a few left.......

PR wouldn't be too hard. We have a blog function here on the site, and we could send out to Jalopnik and similar to know what's up.
Would like to use this site, as long as they do not sell out....Facebook?

A GPS tracker wouldn't be hard. There are a bunch on Amazon for less than $50. I'm sure they are just plug and play or not much harder.
Just looking at these which are pretty cool. Could add a link on the Blog to a map indicating location, even starts stops and locations with Address. Was thinking a picture of Threepwood at famous attractions would be cool. "Perhaps Segment Teams" Competing for the most blog posts and cool photographes??

I'm sure it will be much easier to tell the wife when it goes something like, "I was just thinking about the next selfless act I was going to do... I'm thinking of donating Threepwood. I'd like to give the old guy one last hurrah!"
Thinking as long as it is out of the Driveway and no liability on us she would be cool, gotta figure out the insurance thing, wonder if you could get a per day cost? I'l check with my carrier.

Also, what happens at the trade off? You drive to place X, and hand-off the car to the next person. Then how do you get back home? Plane ticket? Rental car? Follow car? For me, I would use a chase car link with a vacation night for the wife and instant ride home. I think each segment team would need to work that out for themselves. I think it is a must to do a live hand off.

My questions are how do we prevent someone from keeping Threepwood? Say he goes to a not-so honest person during his travels, and that's the last of him? Sure, he'll still be owned by you, but there's a possibility you just own a stolen car. Well, we would know who had it, it's GPS location prior to the thief disconnecting the GPS assuming all segment drivers are known SAAB guys Peer Pressure to not do such a thing might suffice. I also have a LLC, perhaps I could register it to the company or a non profit all it's own. I would really like to think this is a non issue with our crowd. Threepwood would be lucky to draw $500 on Ebay so I think it's not at the center of a thief's radar. If he breaks down and is un repairable, junk it locally and I'll send the title.

Threepwood has an interesting history, picked up in Belgium driven there and Germany for a while then to the DC area then to the Harrisburg, Pa area and now in Westport , Pa. It's the only C900 with no sunroof I have ever seen, has crank windows, some rust issues, but is really fun to drive around in. Supposedly it has a KPH Speedo at one time.

How about sponsors? Sticker him up!

I like this idea 110%

I could probably be down getting it from the Atlantic, maybe East coast of MD and taking it out to WV or someplace.

I don't think Frank is planning on selling the site anytime soon. And if he did, I'm sure he'd give us members a chance to buy it first. Look into his thoughts about what happened over at Saab Central (owners selling out to big company, without giving the members a chance).

A whole car's worth of stickers... I'm sure us here at SaabWorld would love to throw some big ones on there.


S camera could be left with the car. Not a super expensive one, but just one so who ever has the car can take some pictures to post up at their locations.

The hardest thing is probably going to be the insurance. Organizing a route and getting people to stick to it (break downs could throw it off, weather, or sometimes things just come up) could also cause some trouble.

I would be down for fetching it from somewhere from the west, and taking it back to Pennsylvania or something like that.

Originally Posted by Shazam

I don't think Frank is planning on selling the site anytime soon. And if he did, I'm sure he'd give us members a chance to buy it first. Look into his thoughts about what happened over at Saab Central (owners selling out to big company, without giving the members a chance).

Not soon...? Not ever! There is nothing for me to sell. The site and contents belongs to the members. I just hold the keys to the front door and keep them in a safe place.

Any publicity and content posted on SaabWorld generates traffic. This will result in a bit more advertising income which goes to running the site and sponsoring events and other activities. Like sponsoring this, for example. It's a circle benefiting the Saab community. It will be shared on Facebook and twitter anyways.

Not soon...? Not ever! There is nothing for me to sell. The site and contents belongs to the members. I just hold the keys to the front door and keep them in a safe place.

Special place on Earth for Frank!

Thinking this may be more manageable in small loops. Mid-Atlantic, New England, South East, Key West......

If we consider Mid Atlantic first it keeps Threepwood close to home and we can work out the kinks of Blogging, pictures, driver swaps etc...

I wish I could contribute!

Heading stateside in the next 12 months?

No, heading to Afghanistan...

Is this idea still on the table? I'd be honored to drive a leg in the southwest. I have a buddy who is a mechanic (he'd drive and ride shotgun), and we have contacts all over the southwest USA. I think it would be a great idea to shun-pike the entire trip - avoiding interstates like the plague. Not that there's anything wrong with them, but the US is so much more interesting on the secondary highways. As for insurance, you can "lend" your car to licensed drivers. I'd probably suggest having more insurance than minimum (I'd say 100-300 for starters) just to cover any eventuality. I'd also like to think that those who participate would want to recognize that they are part of something bigger - part of something special - and that they ought to stay off their damn cell phones while piloting Threepwood. There's also no reason to think that people couldn't make "improvements" while she's on the road. My specialty is stereo - if she showed up with a poor one or one that was non-functioning, that would be corrected post-haste.

I think it's a grand plan for a grand send off - I'll contribute any way I can.

This is ambitious! I have lots of questions.

This idea would take an incredible amount of coordination to implement. Remember 'Hands Across America'? Different scenario obviously but similar with regard to planning. Do you have the time for this?! How many drivers would be required? Do you have a proposed route?

Also, perhaps most importantly, how would you define success? To me the definition would relate, in part, to the the number of drivers I could get - the more I could get, the more successful the initiative would be (and the more work would be involved). But this metric might not be important to you. Maybe you just want to get the car around the country and the number of drivers doesn't matter. Fewer drivers would reduce the amount of coordination involved but success would depend upon you finding folks with huge amounts of freedom & incredibly flexible schedules to align with one another, a daunting-challenge.

Sorry, I'm running out of time & need to get offline and go to an appointment. But if it were me, I would consider contacting Google for sponsorship (crazy as that may sound). They've got their Google Earth folks out on the road all the time across America (or so I assume): in theory, a network of drivers throughout the US on a fixed, known schedule filming their routes. Persuade them to use Theepwood for their purposes. Mount all the equipment onto Theepwood & circle America. You'll just need to figure out what's in it for them. An angle.

Google folks strike me as forward-thinking. Maybe your angle with them could come from driving an electric car? I would consider requesting Google's financial assistance to convert Theepwood to electric (crazy as that sounds!). This could, in turn, engage NEVS, the new owners of Saab, whom I'm sure would be interested in your project since it would promote the notion of using an electrically-powered Saab. Perhaps Google and NEVS could co-sponsor the project. Wouldn't that be interesting!

That's all I have time to write at the moment (and perhaps I've had too much caffeine this morning!! Or maybe not enough?!!).

If you're going to think big, THINK BIG!

I guess it would be up to Threepwood's owner to define success. I'd be fine just being a part of it. You can drive from Long Island to Phoenix, AZ in 5 days with little kids. I'm not sure if the idea is have a rushed trip or to do a thorough tour of the nation. I guess you could do a little of both. Meet up points could be at airports or bus stations, I suppose. Stickers showing where Threepwood has been could cover the body of the car - similar to what you might do with a steamer trunk.

I don't want to be argumentative but, IMHO, I'd avoid corporate sponsorship. Things that have "sponsorship" have a tendency to go sideways and lose the real meaning of the original intent. I think with the right people involved, we wouldn't NEED sponsorship (sponsorship brings in money and headaches); I think this car could do it with just your average "Joe-SAAB-owners" doing what they love - driving and taking care of cars. I'd also be philosophically opposed to driving an "electric" SAAB (again, just MHO). I think the reliability and longevity of the SAAB motor and the drivetrain in said car speaks for itself. Even Mother Jones (not exactly a stalwart of reactionary thought) believes cars and the environment in which they exist are best served when the cars are well tuned, properly maintained, and kept on the road. We know electric cars can work in certain situations, so I don't think we have anything to prove with the idea of a conversion.

A show of hands could indicate how far, when, and who would drive. If needed, I could do a swing, from say, Las Cruces, NM or El Paso, TX out through the SW over to the California Coast - then maybe up as far as San Luis Obispo or something. I'm somewhat flexible, and it's the experiences of life that make it wonderful.

I'm still in.

Threepwood and I are still up for this. He is just sitting out there unused.

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=W...,2,3,4,5,6&z=8

I like the first leg. Who's picking her up in Rutland?

It is with a heavy heart and much regret that I report that Threepwood has got to go to a new home. I just committed to buy a 9000 Aero and the wife sez one must go.
He is inspected in Pa till December and ready to go, could use an AC charge.
Took a 100 mile road trip yesterday morning, and a 25 mile road rally style back road trip last weekend.
My Volvo buddy Conceded that his 240 could not rally anywhere near as well as the mighty Swede from Trollhatten.
Cleaned him all up and put on a coat of wax, tightened up the shifter and did some other little stuff.
Threepwood has been a very reliable member of the family picking up for our Land Rover and the 9000 on several occasions.

Still willing to make the hand off some sort of ceremonial event with a blog etc...

Anybody interested in writing the next chapter in Threepwood's story?

Wish I could, but there's just no way. I'm in AZ, I live in an HOA with room for 4 cars (and I have 4), and my wife would have a cow. I hope Threep goes to a good home.

I could potentially pick the car up in Rutland, per your original plan, if there's somebody to take him off my hands after I do a leg. What do you say? My girlfriend wants a rig to learn manual transmission on, and Threepwood sounds like a good candidate! We would blog and photograph and take scenic drives, of course.

If you're interested in straight-up giving the car to a new home instead, I can handle that too. I know a few Vermonters who could use a solid c900. Could even meet you halfway through New York state or some such thing like that, if you'd prefer. It's got a solid body, hasn't it?

Heading to Burlington in 2 weeks, could drive right through Middlebury.

The body is fairly solid. Ryan and I just patched a hole in the floor caused by the cursed floor rusters which we removed.

Taught Ryan 5 speed in this car. The motor/trans/clutch are in really good condition. I think it is easier to learn on than the 9000.