I don't remember the year, but a V-4 four speed on the column torpedo found languishing next to a dumpster in Yonkers, NY. Gut dropped it off for service once upon a time and died, I bought it from the shop owner with no paperwork. Got it running, then pulled the engine and painted it Ford blue. It was out on my driveway one Saturday and I couldn't believe all the high school aged girls mooning over it!
Wife's friend Lydia bought this '92 900s new, loved it for 150k miles and bought another. This one slept next to her house for years before she gifted it to my son.
New headliner in Swedish Tartan.
I don't think its a good idea for me to post photos of ALL of them that I've owned, so here's our current on-road Saab fleet:
'92 900S 2.1/5spd. Rescued last year after sitting in an apartment parking lot for 10+ years without moving.
'85 900S 2.0 8v/5spd. This is one of my favorite cars I've ever owned, and one that we've driven all over the country for various events. We rescued it from a field where it was being used as a parts car. It had been mostly off the road for 15+ years. With the help of a couple of good friends and smartest people I've ever known, this thing has been rock solid reliable after that round of work.
Next up is our '91 900SE Turbo Convertible. It shouldn't exist in this color, but here it is. I can't explain it and I stopped trying years ago. A group of friends and I stripped this one to a rolling shell back in '13 and rebuilt it (cheaply because I was broke) using the best parts I had collected at the time and what I could scrounge from parts cars. My wife and I took it on our honeymoon. It has been to Carlisle multiple times, SOC, and Deal's Gap.
'72 95V4 1.7V4/4spd This car has under 60k miles on it and is imperfect in every single way, but it drives well and is a lot of fun to hammer around in.
There are some others here that exist solely to support the habit for myself and my friends, but we don't usually talk about those.
Some other cool ones that came and went over the years:
'69 96 DeLuxe that I bought in UT and drove home to KY, and chronicled the adventure on the old version of the GRM forum. I'd love to have a copy of that thread.
1990 900S that came to me as an untitled parts car, then went on to be my companion for 11 years of life, motorsports, and travel.
1987 900S Airflow
A couple of the ratty SPGs that have passed through ('85 and '88)
'93 900 Turbo Commemorative Edition #65/325
'72 95V4 that was my DD until it broke in half due to rust
And of course, Garfield. A car with some GRM (and other interesting) history that is now living its best life with a good friend of mine.
In reply to 914Driver :
1972, we picked that up from a used car dealer in Queens. Around the same time you dropped off the 91' 900S
1989 Saab 900S that I bought from 02Pilot in the Fall.
Have to start them young, right?
In reply to 914Driver :
The car sat for 10+ years in the driveway rotting away. Family friend purchased the car brand new and drove it until 2008
The non-Classic variety. 2008 9-3
Sold the car after putting almost 50k miles on it. On the list of ones I should have kept
Too bad the 9-5 was stolen .....
If I was made of money , this is the SAAB that's first on the list:
In reply to WineSaab :
Nice to see the old girl. Whatever you did to fix the wheel arches looks good.
In reply to 02Pilot :
Stainless Fender Trim Kit from RBM. I took both front and rear bumpers off, sanded and painted with Bumper trim black spray, sanded and painted the fender flares, and mounted right over the existing rusty fenders.
I didn't want the rivet fender flares, so when I saw these it was worth the $100 (for all four)
I grew up around Saabs; my town had a rare Saab dealership, and a lot of people in town had them. On top of that, one of my best friends growing up's parents both had them; his dad had a 1986 900 2-door and his mom had a variety of 9000's and 9-5s over the years.
I don't have a lot of pics of it, but I briefly had a 2003 9-5 Linear that I scooped for $100 and drove it home. And of course, it was originally purchased at my hometown dealership, like all the others in the area.
I was prepping it to put it on the road when it got clobbered by a tree. I still want another one, preferably cheap and in wagon form.
Appleseed said:If I was made of money , this is the SAAB that's first on the list:
Fortunately, you can add one to your ground-based Saab's roof. This place Saab3dprint makes printed fighters to replace the sharkfin. I'm awaiting their 9-5 cupholder for my winter beater and will prb go for a draken for the wagon once it's up and running.
wae said:
SOON!
ObSAAB: Still would like a sealed-beam 900 turbo, because they are the exact type of awesome/nerdy/80s that I like, but I have come to accept that this is best kept as a thought process.
XLR99 (Forum Supporter) said:Appleseed said:If I was made of money , this is the SAAB that's first on the list:
Fortunately, you can add one to your ground-based Saab's roof. This place Saab3dprint makes printed fighters to replace the sharkfin. I'm awaiting their 9-5 cupholder for my winter beater and will prb go for a draken for the wagon once it's up and running.
That is so beyond rad.
Pete. (l33t FS) said: ObSAAB: Still would like a sealed-beam 900 turbo, because they are the exact type of awesome/nerdy/80s that I like, but I have come to accept that this is best kept as a thought process.
Do you like doing rust repair? If so, I have a couple in my backyard that could be revived. One automatic. One manual. Both turds.
In reply to Powar :
I have not touched my GTI because I do not like doing rust repair.
I acquired a succession of first generation RX-7s because I do not like doing rust repair. (when one fell apart, transfer funbits to next shell, rinse and repeat)
I bought a P2 Volvo because I do not like doing rust repair.
These are only some of the reasons why I accept that I'll never have one. The upper control arms were rotting out of them before they were ten years old.
I guess it started before I was born: my dad bought a Saab in Germany in 1967, a 96 2-stroke, shown here with some distant relatives in France and my mom. Filthy guy on left was a farmer, not a slob. ;-)
Dad would go on to own a bunch more (still has two). I inherited his nearly used-up '78 99 in high school. Pic below is just after an Earl Scheib re-spray (with atrocious prep done by yours truly -- it was a 30-footer even after the paint). The car had at least 300,000 miles on it by then, and it was still running when I had to get rid of it with 348,000:
I picked up this '89 900 Turbo in '98; it remained my daily until just a few years ago. It's got 265,000 on it, third gearbox, <super dork>and my favorite--and very rare--'90s Saab rims, from a V6 9000.</super dork> Shown here shortly before being stolen -- it's a myth that your 5-speed won't be ripped off cuz thieves can't drive stick...
I saw this '86 2-door "notchback" on the side of the road, left a note on the windshield, and bought it for $400 in 2003 or so. A rare car in the U.S., only a few thousand notchbacks made it over here, and only in '85-'86. Saab built them so they could cut the roof off and make convertibles. They're lighter/stiffer than hatchbacks. I added 100% more turbo and a bunch of other stuff, but the truth is, it's a languishing unfinished project.
This is my buddy's '85 Turbo, since sold, which we drove well north of the Arctic Circle in a winter Alcan 5000 event. With 250,000 miles on it. It was a TSD car, and I worked on it so much and spent so much time in it that it merits including here. This shot was taken at the edge of the Arctic Ocean, reached via ice road in Feb.
A co-worker sold me this '04 9-5 Arc for $800 a few years ago. It was a boring, unreliable turd, so we called it the Silver Toaster. It's still boring and silver, but just rolled 200,000 and we now like it well enough that my partner insisted we be more positive about it, so she renamed it Pegasus.
And last, not a car I ever owned or had anything to do with, but a shot from Saab when they introduced the '85 900 16V Turbo. The local dealer sent us a postcard of it, saying we ought to come buy one. My parents weren't interested. I kept the postcard for years; wish I still had it.
Isn't it funny how, as adults, we come to identify so strongly with and devote so much energy to things as mundane as the cars we rode around in as children?
You'll need to log in to post.
