Cabrio ride hint : links for scenic rides

I'd like to offer you some of the many links around the Web covering scenic rides, most of them suitable for a convertible (or motorbike). Since I am living in Europe, the focus is there, with some exceptions.


Huffington Post : Most scenic drives in Europe : are just photos, but very nice hints, Italy, France, Scotland, England ... I will do definitely some of them when time and budget allows.

Huffington Post : Most scenic drives in the U.S. : the same for U.S.. I did part of the first - California Highway 1 twice, it's a very comfortable and nice coast road. My part was from Half Moon Bay through Santa Cruz to Monterey, a 144 km (90 miles) part. However the California 1 continues another 640 km (400 miles) to Los Angeles. One day ... I'd like also to add very interesting coastal roads on the Big Island / Hawaii, where a great tropical environment is constantly changing with Moon-like surface after the volcano eruptions. For those of us who don't travel every year to such a destination, it is an experience for the whole life. Also Great Smoky Mountains was a very interesting ride.

Guardians most scenic drives adds a brief description to the roads. It's simply impossible to choose the best.


Forbes offers a collection of 21 roads mainly (but not only) in southern Europe with a short description.

Bootsnall shows a collection of 9 roads, some of them repeating from the above lists.

A more personal list and description offers Roadtrip.name. U.S. as well as Europe. An unusual experience is probably the 4x4 underground ride in France.

Bolivia, Australia, China or Japan roads can be found in 19 of the greatest roads of Breakdowncover, simillar to a TrendsUpdates.com list.

Enjoy browsing, dreaming ... and choosing the right road for you. 

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Saab AUX for older Saabs

Unfortunately one of the greatest sites for Saab parts - Elkparts.com has ceased its operation hopely only temporarily until Saab starts the production, there are sites appearing where some special things are offered.

One of them is SaabAUX which offers an AUX-based solution for listening to mp3s and other compressed music files called CDConnect. It emulates a CD-changer, works in Saab 9-3 (1998-2002) and Saab 9-5 (1998-2005) and supports iPhone, (m)any mp3 players and PCs. You can find out more in the FAQ section. It is based in Sweden. 

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Cabrio ride hint : Adriatic Coast

For our one week trip to Croatia we decided to make use of our convertible and drive outside the highway for a while. We choose to drive along the adriatic coast from Senj to Jesenice. It is a 130km long part of a much longer coast road.


Larger map

There are some forums saying that on the road is heavy traffic. This was true before the highway, which leads a bit more to the north, was build. The main traffic goes there. Maybe it is good to mind the road in summer on Saturdays, when the vacations starts and ends for many tourists. On this road are driving mainly locals or people which have booked something close, the rest, heading to Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik etc. drives on the mentioned highway.

We came at the start - Senj at a Saturday 8 a.m. in the morning and the traffic was low to middle, which means "some cars".

It can be one of the places, where you have the great feeling to see the ocean after a longer trip. At that day the the sea was empty, because bora ended for some time, which was great for us heading to a yacht trip. The road is mainly slow, it's a 50-80kmh (30-50 mph) drive with some places for overtake. It leads partially through the hills and the main part along the coast and small villages. Ideal for convertible or a motorbike. The 130km trip took us ~2.5hours to drive.

One important hint for planning : don't cross the border to Croatia in the night Friday - Saturday in the summer season. Or count some hours in. We were stuck in a 15km traffic jam for 3 hours in the night, in the direction from Ljubljana / Slovenia. It's natural to be used to the EU and Schengen advantages, but Croatia isn't there (EU should be by 2013, Schengen unknown) and the customs are stupidos.

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Music for cabriolets : London Elektricity - Out Of This World

This is an older drum and bass hint for the convertible which works perfectly. A lot of dnb tracks contain long repetitive passages, which bring you into this hypnotic state of mind and often switch on autopilot. These tracks are more fit for long lonely highway rides through the night. In contrast this one is full of energy, instrumental skill, arrangement mastermind and does not disturb from driving. Plus the fact, that London Elektricity once played it as a full live band. Enjoy.

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Top Gear coverage of Saab PhoeniX concept

A nice coverage of the Saab PhoeniX concept unveiled in March 2011 can be found here. Besides a nice introduction there are some first interesting signs about a new 9-3 : 

OK, but a few minutes later, I'm with Saab's chairman Victor Muller who can't resist getting out his smartphone and showing me an image of a 9-3 coupe he's had Castriota design. It's basically the PhoeniX without the wings and the lower-body layering, and it really does look like a car to give the TT and RCZ pause.

Anyway, Castriota says the whole nose section of the 9-3 replacement will look just like what'son the PhoeniX. The swept-back wheel-arch modelling too. And since the PhoeniX uses Saab's new platform, the relationship of wheels to bumper is right, including the shortened but more effective front crash structure, so Saabs won't look as nose-heavy.

Interesting. There are some new and very nice pictures :

 

The whole text and more pictures can be found here.

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Music for cabriolets : Salmonella Dub - Push on Thru

This came from a new friend driving an awesome old school Saab 900. No more words needed. This is near to mandatory to have in a convertible, the more in a Saab convertible. Thanks Igor for the hint !





It is downloadable legally (i assume) from Soundcloud - here.

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Double-din unit install in Saab 9-5

To change the navigation / radio / CD unit is something which many Saab owners considered for sure. It is far from to be state of the art. It works fine, but drivers which prefer arrows and distances instead of voice guidance have a problem, the night/day mode switching is strange, there are missing some maps, new ones costs hundreds of € and aren't actual. The earlier types does not have AUX inputs etc. There are some aftermarket double-din units with far more funcionality.

I considered a swap as well, but decided not to do it, because a genuine Saab part simply belongs to the car. Another reason is, that I was afraid to loose controls on the steering wheel. Saab (in case of  successful solving of the current crisis) is working on a new Android-based system called iQon. Maybe this will be compatible with the older cars like mine (2007), in this case I would go for it.

But there are people swapping the units and I've found a great how-to, I'd like to share. It is this thread, belonging to Saabworld.net, showing how to replace the original part of a 2005 Saab 9-5 with a Pioneer unit. The discussion also makes a lot of sense. Great work !

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