Start of the season, Saab 96 project & Porsche disaster
We write the weekend after Easter. The season has long since started, the daily SAAB sightings are increasing by leaps and bounds and the weather at Easter was already warm, suspecting summer. Will it be the same a weekend later? We had hoped it would, unfortunately it did not happen. Fortunately, the weather remains the only disappointment today - but all in sequence.
What was organized last year in a private circle, now takes place for the first time in public. The meeting in the Harz. After more and more drivers in Justus reported on the report of the first issue last year and expressed interest in the next meeting, we decided to open the circle and invite other drivers. So twice divided on Instagram, once mentioned in the video on the appropriate YouTube channel and already the number of participants has almost quadrupled. Meaning: 5 became almost 20 cars.
Like last time, they came back from all directions. From Hesse, Hamburg, Berlin or just around the corner. Even a 9-3 with Bavarian license plate had arrived. Almost all participants travel several hundreds of kilometers that day, to be able to talk for a few hours, to meet new drivers and to enjoy one or the other drink with the appropriate catering from the grill.
As far as the fleet was concerned, (almost) every SAAB decade was represented again. An 900 from 85 marked the oldest participant, a 9-3 SC with handle kit the most modern. In between, two SAAB in Talladega hue (Attention rarity!), An 16 S Vollturbo and various 9-3, from Combi to diesel to Viggen collected. For Blogger Justus it was also the first longer exit in the newly acquired 900i 8V.
The 96 project
Among other things, the guys from the Saab Project 96 and their talladega red 900 Aero were there. Both recently started restoring an old SAAB 96 and want to implement the whole thing as a project for but also with the scene. About all the background, where the car comes from, how the idea came about and what the intermediate status of the restoration is, more on the blog in the next few weeks!
The project definitely promises SAAB excitement - and deserves it for us to take a closer look at the blog. If you do not want to wait and want to know more, I will put the appropriate Instagram account on the one hand and the website of the two on the other.
The Porsche disaster
The meeting also took place again at the usual place, a large parking lot in the small village Langelsheim. A place that seems to be not only great for a SAAB meeting, but also seems to be popular with other brands. Because shortly after the official start of the meeting, they suddenly appear.
The Porsche drivers.
At least 40 cars, more or less neatly lined up in rows of three, find their way to the very parking lot where the small alley of SAABs has gathered. From the classic 911 to the wickedly expensive GT3. The regional Porscheszene tidies up properly. The Zuffenhausers stand close to the SAABS, squeezing through between an 9000 CD and 900 Aero. In the end, only one remains. The pure arrogance of Porsche drivers.
Smiling, they look over to the Swedes, almost as if they do not want to hear the cars from the Göta Canal. From 40 drivers so only one gets involved in a little nice conversation, listens with interest and confesses in the end: even a SAAB can be a pretty fancy car. And so we all agree quickly in one thing: To be glad that your own scene does not show such a miserable picture in public.
For a Porsche driver, the event is already finished before. Had he managed to crash his Carrera Cabrio against the only lantern in the large parking lot? With broken rear apron and damaged tail light, he pulls away, wildly cursing over the fact that his parking sensors would have pointed him to the impending obstacle so did not even. What remains is a smile on the faces of SAAB riders, while others would call it karma.
Anyway, the Porsche wave is not permanent and after 15 minutes all German cars are gone again.
The next generation
And at some point then exactly what Justus and I had feared all along. The sky opens its doors, wind is blowing and it quickly gets uncomfortable. After 3 ½ hours, the place is cleared, the SAABs roll from the yard. We from the Orga team manage to escape the rain for half an hour, fly back in the convoy and use the last rain-free minutes for a small photo shoot.
Are we satisfied with our first meeting? In any case. Despite the very mixed weather, more SAABs have arrived than originally thought, among them almost only young SAAB riders looking for access to the scene and thus having a chance for clever networking among like-minded pilots.
Also, the question of whether there will be another edition is quickly resolved. And the answer is clear: YES. Like last year, there will be another meeting at the usual place at the end of the season. Then also advertised here on the blog, so that other drivers also have the chance to attend the whole spectacle. We are already looking forward to thank all drivers, who have gathered for the spring edition!
Hello. I like the video.
I'm also an 11th driver, but one of the (maybe) last 9-3 MY11 (uhhhh) TTiD sport combi drivers ... well. no madness 🙂 but after the 9-5 our companion ...
I'm happy that you have such great meetings. I don't know that for me….
But soon I will also be near Hamburg, with my 9-3 from Bern, ... 🙂
Who knows, maybe someday there will be an offshoot in Austria and Switzerland? How far from HH would you be? Otherwise could offer a small spontaneous meeting as compensation!
Or organize a Bernese Saab with the help of the blog itself. It does not have to be big, but at a nice coffee house with parking some Saab drivers drumming together and you have a little meeting. A Slovak friend organized a meeting in Bratislava a few weeks ago. In front of the parking lot of a pizzeria 12 Saabs arrived, some of them drove earlier, some stayed longer. Even small meetings can be nice
Good idea. In addition perhaps a notice with the ex-SAAB dealer. And / or turn to a club?
Was not it the Swiss people themselves who were told about an ingenious SAAB drive-in evening with Ove?
And also Switzerland, which still has a pleasingly high density of SAABs and service?
Something should go there ...
No problem. If the blog can be helpful, we are happy to help.
That's why I sold my 11 years ago. The image is quite ambivalent….
But with my Saab, always nice conversations with completely unknown!
THE PORSCHEFAHRER NAME OVE
Then you are a good example of the fact that one cannot lump all Porsche drivers together ...
An example. My pediatrician drove an 911. Always the same until the pension. For around 30 years he always stood in the same parking lot. The man was as close to a German edition of Ove as it gets.
With the small 6-cylinder 4-stroke boxers in the rear and rear-wheel drive, the original 911 was pretty much the exact opposite of the SAAB Sonett built at the same time with its even smaller 3-cylinder 2-stroke in-line engine in the front, but also idiosyncratic, no less bizarre ...
In spite of, or perhaps because of, these idiosyncratic contrasts, one could again interpret this as a certain brotherhood in spirit. Porsche was also a small fine brand that went its own way exclusively and consistently before it began to use conventional front and Audi engines and huge boxes to build around it.
And my pediatrician was not inferior in terms of sustainability and consumption denial.
He is on a par with the older gentleman I mentioned on his 9000.
Not for sale, first owner, the best car he ever had. Another would not come to him in this life in the house.
Another ove ...
I like this type, should he drive, care for and cherish what he wants ...
Hello Robert, and when I also sold a 911, Carrera 4S, years ago and bought another Saab, I thought I was probably the only one who exchanged a Porsche for a Saab. Now I'm glad I'm not the only “nut”.
I feel very comfortable in a Saab. Comes to my attitude to life More being than appearance already very close!
Greeting Hans S.
Interesting, there seems to be a strange connection between SAAB and Porsche. On the other hand, I know two longtime SAAB drivers, who are now driving an 911.
But how does my SAAB workshop say? SAAB drivers are not poor people 😉
The workshop has to know 😉
Otherwise, open a research field there.
There are other brands of which more drivers have switched to SAAB or SAAB to another.
Now one would have to use the degree of distribution of the respective brands and their models and compare it with that of Porsche in general or the 911 in particular ...
Subaru was always a topic here (because it was idiosyncratic) or Volvo (because at least it was Swedish before). But also Italians, French and now also Porsche ...
Talking about Italians, at the sight of the red SAAB Catherina, Alfa Romeo spontaneously shot me through the head. Even the grill is damn close. The bottom line is that there are many cars with certain qualities and their own qualities, that there are sometimes similarities, intersections and parallels, but that only one SAAB is really a SAAB.
PS
“Longtime SAAB drivers” and “911” sounds like people whose children (if there were ever any) are now out of the house and their living conditions have changed. Perhaps the 911 is just a consolation and a defiant reaction to the fact that you couldn't buy a new SAAB Aero convertible with which you would otherwise have liked to celebrate the departure of the children and the departure from parent taxi services?
In both cases the children are either at work or at the end of their studies. The taxi services have been discontinued for a long time. The 911 is there a SAAB Aero (deer) replacement, or something. Whereby both ex-SAAB drivers are of the opinion that Porsche with the SUVs now breaks the mark. In addition, both would send their notice to Zuffenhausen, there would be a suitable replacement in Trollhausen.
Then I was about right with my guess ...
So SAAB drivers are loyal souls, even if they are forced to buy a Porsche.
Thank you for the illuminating answer.
Maybe you do not dare to talk to a Porsche driver as much as a Saab driver, do not think that Porsche drivers greet each other, at least the younger Porsche and Porsche SUV driver certainly not.
Since Porsche is compared to Saab mass goods, but still different, it may well pull one or the other Saab driver to Porsche. That's the cars are nice and fun is clear.
It would also be interesting if the classic Saab drivers with Saab 900 would also think so about Saab SUVS, which would probably exist today if Saab were still producing today. Then there would be an 9-1X, 9-3X and 9-4X and the 900 fans would say that has nothing to do with Saab anymore.
Wonderfully written, great photos, great video. Oh yes, this PDC that doesn't recognize everything ...
It is gratifying that young people are meeting for such meetings and even happier is that they are enthusiastic about Saabs.
I also find it great that the blog is still so versatile and you can still experience so much new.
5, 6, 7, 8 ...
for four days every one a contribution or a message (event calendar) ...
Always with cool photos and even videos ...
The two shots from Niels Burock are great. And I could and would like to express a lot more positive thoughts about today's contribution, the meeting, the generation change and the offspring of the scene or about the authors and the blog ...
If I save it now, it's because you're too fast and too good.
A brand that has disappeared has its own daily press ...
Incredible. Unbelievable good.
Daily press - very nicely to the point! Yes, the blog is great in every way and it just keeps getting better! A feeling of happiness, over 7 years after the end of production! The same thing overcame me last Friday, by the way: After I had just returned from vacation (plane trip, i.e. without my beloved Saabs), I got 7 Saabs on the way home on a small errand here in HH (except mine, in which I sat) counted - within 5 minutes on a distance of 3 km! I couldn't believe it and it made the end of my vacation a lot sweeter! 🙂
All local characteristics?
Otherwise, the SAAB traffic could have been the journey to the Brandshof meeting ...
Yes, they all seemed to be from here - only 3 driving ones anyway, 4 parked in very different places on my way. So quite “normal” - although I also have to say that our district seems to be a real Saab convertible stronghold. Of course, you already know some of them. This time there were only 3 convertibles, one in a very nice and rare light blue. 2 of the 7 are still in the same parking lots, including a Rostock 900 I with an H license plate, which I have of course taken under the microscope during a walk. 🙂 Unfortunately, I couldn't come to the meeting at the gas station, although so close. But that's why we're going to Sweden in June! 🙂 I'm really excited!
The fact that even a local Hamburg and proven SAAB enthusiast did not make it to the tank, relieved my conscience and freed me a bit from my (foreign) and maternal self-doubt. Thank you!
Sometimes and often you just can't bring everything beautiful under one roof ...
Such a devious lantern! 🙂 Hach, schadenfreude is something beautiful! 😉 Very well written, thank you very much! And if the next meeting would be announced on the blog, a lot of people would be happy - then the Zuffis won't have any more space, huh!
The next meeting is coming! and then with the announcement on the blog. At least 50 - 70 cars can easily fit into the described venue.
Written funny! My morning is thus saved. Thanks to Jan & Justus ...
My pleasure !