Saab Youngtimer Germany: Saab 900 Talladega No. 6 is alive!
Every Saab fan knows the Talladega Long Run. Or almost everyone. The younger Saab drivers probably will not be among us.
The Talladega story, part of the Saab legend, so again in short form.
The Talladega racetrack is located in the US, in the state of Alabama. To prove the durability of the Saab turbo engines in the then new Saab 9000, Saab 1986 sent three fully standard 9000 Turbo cars to the 100.000 Kilometer Marathon in the USA. Shortly before that, the Ingolstadt-based brand in Talladega had caught a bloody nose and used it to heat up the non-fully-inflated Audi turbo engines.
Saab wanted to do better. At that time, apart from Audi, there was no model in the luxury class focused on turbo engines. An extreme long-term load of turbo-charged gasoline engines over a very long distance had not been successfully passed before the Swedes.
The Saab 9000 Turbo drove 20 days in continuous operation. 100.000 kilometers, one stop only to change drivers and for inspection. Well, yes and to the refueling stop. All three of the 9000 competed completed the route under the critical scrutiny of the race commissioners. The fastest Saab 9000 achieved an average speed of 213,299 km / h. The “Talladega Long Run” continued part of the Saab Turbo legend.
10 years later, 1996 repeated the carmaker from Trollhättan the record run. It took six standard Saab 900 from the bands, three Saab 900 2.0 Turbo, two Saab 900 V6 and a Saab 900 2.0i.
The 900i is the Saab number 6 in our pictures. Each car returned 40.000 Km on the course, 40 records were set and the average speed of the fastest participating Saab 900 is 226.4 km / h.
Saab 900 Talladega number 6, a 2.0 liter with 131 hp, went to the Saab Museum in Trollhättan after the record drive and was loaned to Germany in 2008. He is now standing on a Saab Germany site and appears quite unnoticed, which we think is a shame.
The 900 Talladega is one of the classics in the stock of Saab Germany and is a piece of the Saab legend.
Like the Trollhättan brand, he hopes for better times with us. Maybe it will be restored and will soon be back in the showroom or loaned to dealers. He deserves it.
Text: tom@saabblog.net
Exciting that this car is “forgotten” here in the open air.
The Talladega story. Great past Saab times, warms your heart. Thanks for the report.
@ mac9-5 Many Saab bosses in the past few years come and go. Because a car is simply forgotten. Maybe you saved it from Rüsselsheim GM to Frankfurt? That can and will only get better.
@ 9-3 Trollinger,
The car was already there before the separation from GM.
Another little Talladega to look 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov8m8gJNeGA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SzE5yil0_A
Enjoy!
Hello
Marco
Why is such a car not ordered back and has been “lost” for years in a “backyard” (Frankfurt - sorry for the expression) somewhere in the world !?
Although a recent Saab fan (since I bought my 2009), I know this endurance test.
Maybe one should (just this year 125 after invention of the automobile, in which each manufacturer remembers its history) once back with a target in this direction TV spot. The fact that Saab has not gone bankrupt after all has somehow overlooked the press.
Not overlooked, dear Phibo, but hatefully not reported - only the negative about SAAB is spread here in Germany!
As already well known: AMS + Co. are in a bad mood and will apparently only keep them alive with money from the German auto industry - but also various daily newspapers are no better: objective and well-researched reporting = nil!
Greetings from Schleswig-Holstein
Julie
Yes, absolutely, "spiteful" hits it right. I have often asked myself what Saab, that is, the brand or the cars, have done to people that they are corrected in this way. It couldn't have been the most social and best working conditions in the auto industry (keyword modern factory, installation of components from the side and not from below, etc.), and neither was the durability of the cars, because consumers should really be happy about that. It couldn't have been the Saab drivers either, with the highest proportion of academics of all car brands and the reserved but well-groomed understatement, which is also evident on highways.
All that remains is the good old envy of the dispossessed or the flow of money from industry as explanations. I can't think of anything else because bashing a brand that is down financially has no style at all.
LG P.
Hello Julie,
the "overlooked" was meant rather sarcastically. The impending SAAB insolvency has also made it into the business section of the regional daily newspaper, the story about the first failed reconstruction request was still a side note, now there is peace in the box again - or in the newspaper.
My dream would be a kind of repetition of the Audi hill spot (if that doesn't mean anything to you, take a look at Youtube) - only that a Saab is passing by on the left 😉
Greetings from the Saarland
phibo