Music for cabriolets : Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five, extended and live

This version of a classic piece blowed me away with the easiness and professionalism it is performed. There is a kind of minimalism in this version, which keeps the players away from to be too egocentric at the solos and to concentrate full of the overall result. Even the drum solo, which stands out, has its development and reason.

The repeating simple drum & bass line is maybe the thing which works in the car so well. Also it's not to feel, that it is seven and half minutes long, there are no empty or weak places, always something to listen to and discover.

Genius.

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The F1 evolution

An interesting and beautifully designed video about how the F1 race car evolved over the time.

full infographics | animated gif

It prompts the question of drag coeficient a bit. While reading, that an F1 drag coeficient is less important than other factors and varies by racing circuit, for a road car this it's very important. There is a list of Saab drag coeficients as well as a large general table including a couple of Saabs online.

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Classic 900 Talladega red stolen, any information would help

From Leipzig in Germany via Tom from Saabblog.net is coming an ask for help. Maybe some of you, the readers, could help.

In the last year there has been three classic 900 Saabs stolen in Leipzig , one of them was a convertible, another one a Turbo. Today dissapeared the fourth one - a Saab 900 Turbo 16 S in Talladega red colour.

The Saab was built in 1992, it has an airflow kit and a light grey interior. The front-side airflow elements are not mounted yet. There is another very visible thing - the english windshield wipers which have the idle position on the left side. The c900 has brand new Hella front lights, a Bilstein-B6 chassis, rear windshield wiper, Abbott Motorsport stickers, the fresh renewed air tunnels and a Carlsson dual exhaust.

The numberplate is L-TU 900. It seems, that in Leipzig someone goes planned after classic 900s. Therefore we are asking for help, so that Hagen, the owner gets his Saab back. The Saab community is not large and a Talladega red Saab is very visible. The airflow kits are rare and even more rare is, when a part of them is not mounted.

Maybe the Saab or parts of it appear on one of the known Internet platforms soon.

In case you spot the car online or in the streets, please write immediately either to me or directly to Germany to Tom. Please share this if you can or want.

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Saab Festival 2013 : program essentials published

The Saab Festival 2013 event which will be held on 31.5. - 2.6.2013 in Trollhattan published an overall program. The participants can expect many interesting things like seminars, Saab outlet, a swap meet, a family rally, a performance challenge and more.

The Saab Car Museum will be open all weekend.

You can see the program at the Saab Festival 2013 program page clicking at each day. There will be more details coming in the next weeks.

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A Saab 96 (1968) electric conversion

A Saab 96 from the 60's converted to electric propulsion. A strange combination. Not for petrol purists and definitely not for classic car lovers. But it has a kind of magic in it. It's this non high-tech feeling which comes from it. The electric cars of today are in some way spreading this supermodern feeling, if not from the exterior, than definitely from the interior. This one is a simple Saab still maintaining it's soul, where you wouldn't expect to be electric.

According to the video the range is about 120 miles, which means a city car. This is a 4th converted car by this guy, done via a conversion kit, so he's experienced already. It's also an advertisement for amprevolt.com, but that's OK.



Brought via Matthias,the organiser of the Saab Meeting in the Bavarian Forest. Thanks a lot for pointing this out.

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Life is not a spectator sport

A likeable little commercial for the 9-3

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Again a classic 900 picturesque photo

source : Save Saab Museum facebook page
author : bennorz.de

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A complete SAAB wheel guide

If you have ever searched for new or used wheels for your Saab, you might come to a quite powerful but still not complete guides, either Jeff Powells list or the Allfactory wheels list.They have a lot of content but either some wheels are missing or information about them.

There is now going a really nice attempt to make a complete list in a shared google document, where fans already did a great job and it continues right now. It looks like this :

This really nice community effort can be found here : Saab Wheel Guide.

The edit is open for a week or a little bit longer.

Please look at it, if you can add something, please do it. If this goes good, it could be the most complete Saab wheel guide on the web.

This attempt was started by a user of the Saabbit forum.

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When things have no reason ...

This is an hour old Waze screenshot from my home city Bratislava. Everywhere traffic jam. It is not usual and there seems to be no reason for that : no rush hour, no snow/rain/ice, no friday, no car accident on some important spot, no sports match or anything similar in the TV, no large police control, nothing ....

It's just there ... strange

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A classic 900 detail

src : Saab Italia facebook

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Your Saab data in real time

This video is an impressive example of gathering data from your Saab while driving with relatively simple tools. It's a user walkthrough, saying what you need to get the data in real time and much more.

It's an OBDLink MX device reading the data from the ECU and sending them via Bluetooth to an Android smartphone, which runs an application called Torque. The reader is utilising OBD-II standard and this video example is made on a MY2007 Saab 9-3 with B284L engine (stock).

The reactions on the few forums are claiming, that the reader device is extremely well built and fast, much better than the usual chinese production. However there are tests online with cheaper devices which are claimed to work.



According to the description the Torque app besides reading from the ECU has many other features. It can record a mobile video with selected data (throttle, torque, fuel consumption etc) or you can combine them with the video from another camera such as this Saab in the Nordschleife. For this you might need a free Track Recorder plugin.

While reading around the combinations, there are three important things coming out : 1) the amount of informations from the ECU varies by car type, 2) the device takes energy from the battery also with engine switched off, so one has to be careful not to flatten the battery and 3) it needs a quite powerful smartphone.

This device doesn't support iOS based devices, but the manufacturer has wifi based devices, which can be used with Apple mobile toys.

I think my Saab will get a new toy. When the new smartphone will arrive ...

src : youtube

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The Roudnice gathering 2013 date announced

The largest meeting of Saab fans in this area (up to 500 km) is every year in Roudnice nad Labem, near Prague in the Czech Republic. Every year a group of people from Slovakia is driving a small convoy there. Every year around 150 - 200 Saabs are coming.

The date for Roudnice 2013 is Saturday, 11. May 2013.

Lovely, I'm looking forward to Roudnice. You can breathe the atmosphere from last year through a couple of photos here and also a video here.  

Also I absolutely love the ride there and back. A very early morning meeting and start from Bratislava. The ride leads to Brno to meet friends from around there and continue through a large part of the Czech Republic to a larger pre-meeting in Prague. And than a couple of kilometers to Roudnice.

If the weather will be good, the way back will lead on the next day again on roads outside of the highways through southern Czech Republic and Moravia back home. Roof down of course.

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På Taket Saab featured in Saab Enthusiast magazine

It all began with an innocent question in a Skype room and continued with weeks of work. The Pa Taket Saab 96, our amphibian vehicle, was built for the Red Bull Rapids competition, where unusual vessels compete in a rafting channel. Our club crew attended in the competition, finished somehwere in the middle of the field and had a lot of fun.

Since than our special "replica" has a kind of special life. It has a small facebook page and from time to time we get a like. It also got an enthusiastic response on the Saab Session Slovakia in the autumn last year with. Then it caught attention on Saabsunited (thank you Jason !). We're very thankful for all that, it keeps the spirit alive.

Yesterday I got the the hardcopy of the magazine of the british Saab Enthusiasts Club. The club is featuring Pa Taket in the current winter edition. A local hardcopy of a club magazine is always a very rare and special thing [ANY HARDCOPY FOR A FEATURE IS VERY WELCOME, JUST WRITE]. Inside is a feature of our Pa Taket.

UK will host the annual IntSaab 2013 gathering and the Saab Enthusiasts Club is one of the three clubs organising it. It is to feel in the magazine, that there are preparations going on. I also love the 96 rebuild story as well as the important trade directory. And also the key part of the Chairman's letter truly defining the meaning of these international gatherings in a few words :

"I can assure you, the fact that Saab has changed is irrelevant to our enjoyment of this international event. Many visitors have been coming to these annual meetings for many years so obviously they will know others met on previous occasions. Why not join us and make new friends ? It isn't just about breaking down barriers, socialising, admiring each others cars, for me it is also about building contacts, remembering and building a Saab world in the mould of the traditions established in Trollhattan before the bankruptcy."

There is also a PDF copy of the feature available. The story about building the Pa Taket was documented here on Saabism : intro, update 1, update 2 and update 3. The complete image gallery is on the Pa Taket facebook page. 

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The Saab 93 Mark III by Gray Design

One of the most impressive studies of SAAB I've ever seen. As the Eduard Gray, the designer writes, this is an attempt to take the Saab 92001 perfect simple lines and to grow them into a larger hatchback while maintaining the SAAB DNA design parts.

The result is a beautiful piece which got a lot of very positive response. According to the reactions around the Internet, it seems, that this is something, which many SAAB fans would love to drive.

For more pictures and high resolution pictures look at Gray Design project page.

via SaabWorld

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Macklemore

Although Saab is claimed as a car preferred by artists and designers, it's not easy to find them even on Google. It's because you have to know the name of the artist. But here and there they appear through other sources on the net.

This time it's Macklemore, an american rapper and musician. And he's doing a classic 900 really visible. The song linked below (more pop than rap or hiphop) has on youtube over 4.6 million views, in terms of youtube an excellent number.

Again a thing still making Saab an iconic brand. Let's hope NEVS doesn't sleep too long.

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Bandits & Saab

From the movie Bandits, Bruce Willis stole this 9-5 and used for a while. A nice piece, this is the 9-5 generation I like probably the most. Chipped 300 hp would be yummy :)

The movie features also the georgious Cate Blanchett.

Broadcasted on the local TV yesterday. 

src : this Saabcentral thread

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Karel Gott and Saab

A couple of days ago I blogged about a wonderful Saab story written by Gene Deitch, a known american animator and illustrator. In the story is a mention about the first Saabs coming to former Czechoslovakia in the 60ies. One of them belonged to a very known singer Karel Gott.

By a completely coincidence, the czech magazine Reflex had last week a story about Jiri Staidl, one of Karel Gott's friends and collaborators. And there appeared a photo of Karel Gott with his Saab.

This is one of the first four Saabs coming to (the former) Czechoslovakia in the 60ies. 

I apologise for the quality, the original is old and my scanner is kinda basic. 

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An Open Letter of Support from Fans and Owners of Saab Cars

 For several months I'm in occasional with Brandon, the moderator of Saabbit, the Saab section of reddit. An e-mail landed in my mailbox about a petition, he's putting together. The idea is to show to the new owner of Saab that we, the fans of Saab are still here and ready to buy a new Saab if it would come.

The key part of the petition is this :

"All we ask is this: that National Electric Vehicle Sweden work to return Saab to its former and rightful presence in European and North American markets. We understand the challenges of the global economy, as well as the importance of new markets such as China. It is only right that Saab seek to establish a strong presence there. However, there are also countless, passionate Saab fans right where we have always been - Canada, continental Europe, the UK and the US. Please keep Saab in these vital markets as well. You do that, and we'll rally behind Saab like never before."

I don't know if it helps. It seems, that the business plan at NEVS is done. And we, the public, don't know much about it. Only fragments. And I agree with the opinion, that SAAB will never be the same as it was before.

But.

The thinking, that NEVS ignores the strong (though slowly fading) community spirit behind the SAAB brand, seems too shallow to me. Yes, the sales numbers behind are unpredictable, but there must be someone in NEVS, who sense this and has ability to turn it out into successful sales. So if the voice of the fan community can be stronger through this petition, than it makes sense.

That's why I signed it and posting it here on Saabism. You can see / sign the petition in the link below as well as see the discussion about it.

The petition | Discussion on Saabbit

P.S. Once I worked for a global IT company (Sun Microsystems), which planned to discontinue one of the versions of its very strong operating system (Solaris for x86, for PC servers). Reason : unprofitable. After the announcement thousands of open letters worldwide came to the company. As responsible for this in a small country, a couple of them landed in my mailbox as well. They all were forwarded to the product responsible group.

The fan community around was similar strong as at Saab.

The result : we continued with it. And not only that. We could turn out additional profit of it as many customers finally bought support service for it, continued to run it on their systems and bought additional servers from us.

It's maybe a bit of idealism behind it. However as the communities behind brands become more and more important in todays world, I don't think NEVS will ignore it.

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The season is coming ...

The convertible season seems to be right behind the corner. Maybe the joy is a bit too early, but no wonder, many people around here, incl. me, have enough of the winter. A fresh 9-10° C forced me to push the roof button on the convertible. For the first time this year.

It's still a bit cold, but the windshield works perfectly and the couple of kilometers outside of the city was a really joyful ride. In the last years the periods between cold and warm temperatures were quite short.

And the time works for us now.

YAY !

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A 9000 pickup mod

A Saab 9000 pickup modification. Not a good picture, but the only one, which appeared.

src : facebook

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Stormtrooper

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