Hirsch Performance restarts production

This is really great news. In a recent newsletter Hirsch Performance announces, that it will restart production of some of the parts which have been sold out.

Nice! Well not everything, but some parts yes. The newsletter says:

Production restart

Since two weeks, it is again possible for Swedish customers to order a new Saab 9-3 Aero! There is also a chance that the new Saab 9-3 Aero will soon become available for order in other countries as well.

In spring of 2014, the first happy customers will be able to pick up their new car directly from the factory in Trollhättan.

In response to those good news, Hirsch Performance have decided to restart production of some previously sold-out products, both to complement the new car, but also to offer an attractive accessory portfolio to existing Saab owners.
The new accessory parts are for the Saab 9-3, including the new model year 2014 Saab 9-3 Aero.

The production will initially be in small volumes only, so to ensure timely delivery, we recommend to pre-order parts through your local Saab dealer.


We wish you and your family a happy new year!

Yours sincerely,

The Hirsch Performance Team

And the products:

01. Roof spoiler

Already on stock in limited volume 

In anticipation of a future restart of the production of the 9-3 in wagon form, we have produced a small number of 9-3 roof spoilers, which are now available in stock. The roof spoiler is delievered primed, including all required installation parts. It fits all Saab 9-3 SportCombi and 9-3X.
 

02. Leather interior

6-piece leather interior kit for the Saab 9-3 MY07-
The popular Hirsch Performance leather interior kit, which has been sold out for some time, will become available again from Q1 / 2014. The kit includes the four door handles, the handbrake handle and the multi-slot cover.

03. Sport steering wheel

Sport steering wheel for the Saab 9-3
The steering wheel for the Saab 9-3 will be available again from Q2 / 2014. It will fit the Saab 9-3 MY06 - as well as the new Saab 9-3 Aero.
Note: The steering wheels are shipped without the airbag and without the switch units, which need to be carried over from the original steering wheel.

04. Sport sedan boot lid spoiler

The boot lid spoiler will be available in a new pre-painted version. The available colors are the same as introduced with the New Saab 9-3; jet black and diamond silver.
The boot lid spoiler integrates perfectly with the new 2014 Saab 9-3 Aero but can be installed to all Saab 9-3 MY08 -.

05. 8x19" 6-twin spoke rim

The new production lot of the 8x19" rim will be available in Q3 / 2014.
The new rim will be painted in a new, modern color and therefore be a perfect fit for the new 2014 Saab 9-3 Aero.

06. Discount on software performance upgrades

The 50% und 30% discount for the software performance upgrades will continue!

Starting january 1-st, 2014, a 30% discount is available for cars from model year 2009 and 2010.
A 50% discount will be applicable for all cars from model year 2008 and older.

source: Saablog-in and Hirsch Performance newsletter

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Winter ?

One would expect tons of snow, ice and winter atmosphere here in Europe. Instead of it it's ... cabrio weather. This is 24.12.2013, Bratislava, Slovakia. 11°C, sunshine. hmm...

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Merry Christmas and only the best for 2014

Christmas are here again. For me, these are the days when all the stress and hurry stops for a moment. The days to be with the family and the loved ones. But not everybody lives these days in peace and harmony and this is why I am thankful, that I have this luxury.

And I am wish you all, dear readers, that you have it too.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
alex @ saabism

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Music for cabriolets: Nitin Sawhney - Sunset

This worked very well in the car.A recently discovered older piece. Smart, modern and subtle. A bit pop but by far not village carousel stuff.

The author Nitin Sawhney is a very respected composer, musician and producer. He worked with Sting, Cirque Du Soleil, Paul McCartney, Imogen Heap and many others. Well no wonder ...

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99 Turbo photoshopping

Usually I don't like too much photoshopping, but this one somehow catched my attention. It seems to be a car from the SCNA Heritage Collection.

In the original picture are Inca wheels, which are to be respected, but I like these photoshopped as well.  There are a couple of other Saabs on the source site.

Source: Virtual Models / Photoshop Chops

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Cabrio ride hints: Transylvania

The rented 9-5 in front of the huge Palace of Parliament.

Many trips in Romania usualy start in the capital Bucharest. Mine as well. After a couple of business trips I've decided to stay for a weekend, rent a car, see more of the city and drive through the countryside.

Actually you can rent a Saab in Bucharest. They don't realise at all, that there are only a few places in the world where you can do that. At one of the major car rental companies. You just have to require it and resist the E-class offer. 

It was not exactly cheap, but I've got a gorgeous 9-5 Turbo4 XWD Aero with only 19.000 km on the clock. Crashed (a bit) from the rear :) I didn't care. And despite that in the papers is written "Lin", leading to Linear, it was an Aero. Every Saab fan knows what that means.

Don't drive in Bucharest, if you want to keep your smile. 

Except your're a stoic person. I've learned that the more south you drive (in continental Europe) the more chaos rules the city traffic. Bucharest is not an exception. Traffic jams, stressed drivers pushing themselves into every possible gap honking all the time. Defensive driving ? Forget it.

Instead go outside if you have a car.

Hints were given by several people incl. romanian colleagues where to go. The hottest hint was Transfagarasan Highway which was featured and loved in Top Gear, but it's closed in winter. Another hint was Transalpina DN67C, but I've followed a hint o from a friend, an experienced motorbiker, organising motorbike tours and knowing this area.


View Larger Map

It was a part of a longer journey and also a two in one: a great drive and in the middle of it The Bran Castle, one of the possible inspirations of  Bram Stoker when writing the Dracula in 1897.

Three hints for travellers:
1) Don't expect everything to be nice. There are many very poor people around living with nearly no income, many parts of your journey will remind you on that all the time.

2) The travel is slow. There are very few highways and the "express roads" allow max. 90 kmh and are covered by long villages, where you must slow down. Plan accordingly. Google maps are in general right with the travel time estimations.

3) There are dogs freely living in the countryside. Everywhere. Be good to them, because they will be friendly to you, because of the food they want. Also they are a part of the nature and unfortunately they are often hunted by the people for money. Rather don't judge this, just be good to them. 

Transylvania is a well known part of Romania. The hills I am referring to are Carpathian Mountains, a 1500km long chain of mountains, starting in the southeast of the Czech Republic / western Slovakia and continuing in Poland, Ukraine into Romania and Serbia. [map].

Once you come into the hills, you can get this view:

Luck with the weather. For a while.

The HUD was a nice bonus.

Like on a post card.

You get empty roads, in average in good condition and wonderful scenic mountain views. Not very fast roads, but that's not what is expected here. Some places to stop are always there.

One longer and recommended stop is the Bran Castle. An ancient castle, which started as a fortress in 1211 and then continued as a castle since around 1388. It has a long and interesting history, which is worth to see. You can go in, it's an hour long walk inside and in the courtyard. Beneath that is a small marketplace.

Bran Castle.

The road then continues in direction to the city Pitesti through a wonderful hill drive. The scenery in this, for european context wild area, is just beautiful. Untouched nature, at least in the hills and not too much tourists. Just watchout while you drive not to look too much around, the road is curvy.

Some scenic stops are there. Not many.

A curvy road.

How was the Saab ? Great. The 220hp engine had enough power in the hectic city traffic as well as in the mountains. It has an automatic transmission, so a slight delay is there. But it's a great feeling when the large Saab is angry accelerating. It was great in the curves, the response from the steering wheel is quicker and steeper than in mine 9-3.

The equipment had everything what you would expect from an Aero, except the GPS. Important detail was the AUX input, I had a cable into my phone, means my music, because the local radios are terrible. It made me actually think about buying one. Saab, not radio. Again the repeating heart contra brain fight. It's such a pity GM denies to let them build.

This is a very recommended trip. A strange part of the world, with reported but largely underrated beauty. A world of it's own, kind of peculiar. Why cabrio ride hint ? Because this must be in summer with a convertible a fantastic trip. I plan to do it again in summer if the situation admits.

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Bye Chevy: GM pulls Chevrolet out of Europe by the end of 2015

GM announced yesterday, by the beginning of 2016 the Chevrolet brand will no longer have mainstream presence in Europe. Reason: difficult economic situation in Europe.

So after killing Saab another GM brand cease to exist here. Comments are saying about serious canibalisation Opel vs. Chevrolet. Which seems to make sense, they are indeed not clearly distinguished from each other. So in a difficult situation of Opel, it seems that GM did two things, investing in Opel and cut in-house competition.

Saab was clearly distinguished.... ehh.

The announcement further states, that Chevrolet doesn't dissapear completely from Europe, some cars will be offered, namely Corvette. And that it continues to have broad (mainstream) presence in Russia and CIS.

It is also clear, that it is very hard to compete against Kia, Skoda, VW and french cheap production. It's a low margin segment, where to make profit one has to sell large volumes.

So the Opel / Vauxhall brand can breathe a bit more. Also GM is finalising plans for expansion of Cadillac in Europe. Same error again ? No, Cadillac as a luxury brand, is clearly distinguished from Opel. However to build up a new brand, the almost non-present Cadillac will be hard work and very costly.

All in all it seems, that the GM products will be like this: low margin volume = Opel. High margin lower volume = Corvette and future Cadillac.

Cross fingers ? Nope, it's impossible to forget what GM did to Saab. But it will be interesting to follow, what will happen over time.

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NEVS started to produce new Saabs

Here they are. Today NEVS started to produce new 9-3's. According to the official press release, it's a 9-3 Aero Sedan, the engine is a 2-liter turbo with 220hp. The production starts at a very modest rate, about 10 cars in a week and will be increased later.

The initial focus of NEVS with Saabs is China, but next week NEVS also starts to sell first car to Sweden. The price tag starts at 279000 SEK (about 31.000 €) for a manual Aero. That's not exactly cheap, but one has to consider this is an Aero and anyway it's about 10% cheaper than a Griffin Aero 2012.

NEVS says, it is focused on electric cars. The electric Saab will be launched in spring 2014. Saabsunited claims, that also around 2014 should come a SportCombi, X and convertible chassis. It's unknown if with combustion or electric engine or both. Qingdao, the chinese city and a partial owner of NEVS has placed an order for 200 electric Saabs, which have to be delivered in spring 2014.

Well what we see here is basically a Griffin. According to many previous information it should have reworked front part to comply with EU pedestrian control regulations, new stereo and a couple of other things 200 new parts (source: saabblog.net). We already can see a bit reworked seats. In comparison with the first pre-production Saab it has different wheels - the turbine wheels. And a new logo on the hood as well in the wheels (I want them!:) ).

There was a press conference today so there will come a bit more information out later today or in the next days. Hopely :) Let's see what the future brings, hopely this resurrection of Saab works well. 

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NEVS starts the 9-3 production on Monday

The first series production car 9-3N Aero sedan will be born again. NEVS sent a press invitation to take present it. The slightly refreshed version of the 9-3 Griffin will roll down from the production line on Monday around 13:25. It has a petrol engine. Where the main market will be is not officialy confirmed. Let's see if these questions will be answered on the press conference today.

There will be a photo session as well as a Q&A session. 

Saab stopped the production 2.5 years ago.  

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The Saab model collection

A photo of the beautiful Saab mode collection came from Saab Suchomel in the Czech Republic. That's a true enthusiast sign. So besides being a service point and a Saab dealer in the time when Saab was functioning properly, they are also collectors of the small things. Walking along the rooms and corridors of this dealership you can find many little memorable things.

A (partially) english speaking webshop included.

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Petrolicious : bullnose Saab 95 Deluxe

Petrolicious has another nice Saab story. After the Saab 900 video there came an interview with an polish owner of this rare bullnose Saab 95 Deluxe (combi) version.

The interview is a must read story. The owner is speaking within a few lines about the history and experience with this Saab.

The whole story features also awesome photos by Paweł Skrzypczyński (facebook | flickr).

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Lifestyle Saab 900 ad

src : pinterest

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Elegance

Elegance was the word which first jumped into my mind, when I've seen this gorgeous photoset on facebook.It's an '88 classic 900 turbo convertible in Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park south of Los Angeles. 

Well, no wonder, the author Jeff Kroese is a professional photographer. On his portfolio website jeffkroeze.com you can find a lot of great photos. My favorite is the "environment" part. Anyway, Jeff kindly allowed me to post the photos here, thank you very much for that.

As usual click the pic for higher resolution. 

Photos © Jeff Kroeze

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The postprocess

Tons of photos are flowing around the Saab scene on the internet and social networks every day. Their quality varies, but some of them are really beautiful. One of the quality submitters is Nikolay Kachev, based in Moscow. You can see some of them on kachev.com and saablog.ru. So when he requested people to send him photos for postprocess, I did so.

Well, not everybody is a friend of the hard postprocess way, including myself. While many times it ruins the photo completely, sometimes the results can help the picture. And also time periods in which we perceive things as nice and later not anymore are part of the development.

So I waited what happens with my photos. Three of five came back. The best one is above.

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The Bologna Airport

This is Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ) in May 2013. Lamborghini celebrated its 50 years anniversary, so the pilots got an Aventador as a follow-me car. But a good pilot knows Saabs and spotted one, which is used under normal condition - a classic Saab 900.

These photos were sent by Hugo, one of the readers of this blog, a TAP Portugal pilot. They are shot from the cockpit of his plane. Great and unusual Saab spotting, thanks Hugo.

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Breaking the grey

Yes, it's everywhere. Black, grey and white. Also mine aero is black. But some aren't.

Photo by Matej, Puppy Hunters Saab Club, location Bratislava, Slovakia

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Saabilliard

I know whe shouldn't do that, but we couldn't resist. When mature men become children.

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The Saab Sonett III convertible story

Yes, you see correct. It's a Sonett III convertible. And it seems to be the only one worldwide. The story behind is partially foggy but also a wonderful example of how coincidences can develop.

Imagine to be a Saab mechanic with your own workshop, loving the Saabs and having enough work. One day you brake your arm and are forced to sit home and doing nothing. So you surf the internet, the Saab scene and so on. And than you find an ad for selling a Saab cabriolet, without stating a model but for some reason you start to be curious.

Exactly this happened to the owner Michael. He thought, that it would be a classic 900 cabriolet before the definitive end. But after a call with the owner and seeing the documents, it was clear, that someone wants to sell a gem without knowing it about and it's even in the same country.

What would you do than ? Jump into the car, drive there and buy it.

This Sonett was built in 1970 as a normal Sonett III. It's unknown who did the rebuild. But it is know, that it was intended for the Detroit Auto Show in 1972. The drums are drumming, that there were two pieces rebuilt, a burnt orange one and a silver grey. Nobody knows what's with the other. For some "paper" reason these Saab 97 Sonetts never came to the States. And it's very likely, that the orange one was repainted to Montecarlo Blue, that's why the blue soft-top. A 40 years old soft top !

The car was then bought by a Saab dealer from Corsica, imported there and drove 30 years as a beach and fun car. How it came to Germany is unknown.

What Michael found was a blue Sonett III cabrio in surprisingly good condition of the car but not very good condition of the colour. He found out, that the original colour was Burnt Orange, so he returned it back.  Otherwise only brakes and clutch hydraulics needed a repair, everything else was fine. No welding etc.

So here it is. If the accident with the broken arm didn't happened, who knows, where this unique Sonett would end.

Nice, nice...

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The Saab Meeting Bavarian Forest 2013

At the same weekend as the Saab Session Slovakia 2013 about 600 kilometers to the west happened another Saab event - the Saab Treffen Bayerischer Wald 2013 organised by Matthias Ketterl.

Carefully organised and booked-out about 85 Saabs arrived. Many models, from Saab 93 through Sonett (cabrio !), through classic 900 and 9000 up to NG 9-5 SportCombi and 9-4X. Alltogether about 150 people arrived.

The VIP guest of the event was Simo Lampinen, ex rally driver, member of the Saab rally team and a ambassador of the brand. I remember Simo from Saab festival in Trollhattan as a always smiling and energetic guy. I drove him by coincidence together with two other guys to the great dinner. Hi Simo, it's Alex here.

A very sympathetic act of Saab Meeting in Bavarian Forest is, that the remaining money from the event goes as a donation to the Saab Museum in Trollhattan. My respect, this is a great sign of support to the brand.

This is a selection of the many photos from the event :

There are more pictures from Saab Treffen Bayerischer Wald 2013.

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