Top Gear will be doing a tribute to "over 50 years of Saab production"

[Nijee]

What a great photo! Your Saab seems strangely small in between those two US behemoths. That looks like Clarkson leaning through the Charger window. I think Hammond was in the Charger. You dont want James May behind you

[stew81]

i think the episode featuring the saab tribute is on next sunday (26th feb) here.

[96mn12]

And here it is...

http://transmission.blogs.topgear.co...days-top-gear/

"We’ve got a tearful tribute to Saab, Jeremy making much smoke in the Merc C63 AMG and Maserati MC Stradale, and Richard racing a slightly insane man who sports a jet-pack. Oh, and DOCTOR WHO is in the Reasonably Priced Car."

[stew81]

[96mn12]

great picture chap!

[96mn12]

Just saw the episode on BBC. It is very well done. Great tribute and they go into the history actually quite well. They even drive an ursaab!



Sad indeed, a great tribute to a great brand.

[Tailspin]

The guy that gave them the 9-3 couldn't even send the SID in before, pft. Missing pixels galore.

[mossypossy]

and the 900 they dropped on the tarmac (upside down) had a walnut dash!
Was this a good use of a car?

[Xedus129]

Originally Posted by mossypossy

and the 900 they dropped on the tarmac (upside down) had a walnut dash!
Was this a good use of a car?

Yeah that was upsetting but proved a good point.

[TunnanXWD]

The early "9's", nor just the 900, also had that body roof cage and many of us who purchased Saabs back then remember Carlsson rolling down a ski jump and opening the doors.

I think Clarkson and May were a bit young for that and I have almost bought a few 900 Saabs that were on their roof at some point. Telltale scuff marks.

Safety? They missed the ball with the "ng" series horrid frontal record.

"Extra" button? Well I pondered for months what this one black black rocker button did on my 9-3 as my wife's and finally after after a bit of searching found it was there if you wanted to add an extra. All c900 series had an empty or blank phony place where a dealer could add something but since they looked like "buttons" occasionally you would push, hoping for a peanut or prize or something?

Aircraft? Dead on. I have never seen anything in a Saab that reminds me of any aircraft I have ever flown or worked on. Real stupid crap ad hype that made me want to puke.

"Night Panel" .... hell, my Corvair turbo and moms 700 had a little knob called a rheostat .... aka .... night panel.

I have a few years to go on what is out there but, there are other cars and frankly, the dealers have been horrible, one just ruined my wheel during a service a few weeks ago and never called back with any resolution.

Typical, Saab, horrid service with cars so complex they seem haunted.

It's was fun, it was painful .... RIP.

[NewWilOrder]

Last night's episode with SAAB segment:

http://dai.ly/AyJzlO

[NewWilOrder]

Link to last night's episode with SAAB segment:

http://dai.ly/AyJzlO

[lowbudgethero]

Originally Posted by TunnanXWD

Safety? They missed the ball with the "ng" series horrid frontal record.

Am I missing something? I thought he NG 900 had a 5 star frontal crash rating.

[kanundrum]

Great episode. You could see they were passionate and liked the brand but never knew why haha. Its like everyone on here, on paper it doesnt make sense but we are still there everyday trucking away. Either way Im glad they did the episode and hopefully they will have a few more features in the future.

[TunnanXWD]

Yes, it was a death trap, period and end of story.

It was somewhere on this forum that I saw the frontal impact tests and coming from a former Corvair (great car) .... or Pinto owner (many great rallys), I tend not to panic over things.

But after seeing those early year crash tests for off-set frontal ... DEATH on wheels. And yes, they changed it some years later. It pains me to think my kid is out there in a 1996 with mods thinking he is ... "IN A SAAB".

BTW, some of the Euro data is "muddled" and gives a good overall rating but if you take note the front crash date disappeared.

We had them as family cars and it never hit me to question the integrity of SAAB. Later in the "9-3" ng era they improved it.

After listening to Clarkson, it sounds like it was not all GM madness.

I am waiting to see if the US Top Gear treats the Corvair fairly since that is on this week. What tire pressures will they use (or do they know?).. yep, the old Vair would swap ends like the 911 back then so the manual had you run hard rear tires .. to ease the break ... most didn't and if you got off the gas suddenly in a hard turn it would break traction.. like a 911.

Ralph Nader never has had, to this day ... a drivers license.

And the f'er killed the great American turbos ... Sypder and Corsa Corvairs.

rant off

[ahal]

I don't think it was great tbh. I'll admit to being biased towards the 9000, which is considered by some purists not to be a real saab, and everyone's entitled to their opinion of course. I do think some stuff of varying importance was missed, including:


1/ The design team of engineers back in 1947 consisted of 14 men, only one of whom had a driving license

2/ The Saab driving team

3/ The 9000 in general, not to mention the fact that my own (Carlsson) was (according to Autocar) faster through some gears than a Ferrari

4/ Erik 'On the roof' Carlsson and his legendary rally drives, not to mention the 1970's being the preserve of Finns in Saabs!

5/ That Erik Carlsson is married to the sister of Stirling Moss and lives in the UK (Despite his age he still partakes in meets)

6/ The Saab 600, which was a re-badged Lancia Delta

7/ I believe Saab used a design that was essentially a tweaked British motor for over 20 years?

Even when they did bother to show a 9000, it was the 1990's model. For the love of God, could they not find the '85-'90 model anywhere? When they looked at concept cars they left out most of the interesting stuff. For a proper tribute it needed to be twice as long.

I just felt that the whole thing was fairly slapstick and poorly researched. It seemed more theatre than anything. I miss the old Top Gear!

[Tailspin]

Originally Posted by mossypossy

and the 900 they dropped on the tarmac (upside down) had a walnut dash!
Was this a good use of a car?

There was a point in time that i scoured the internet looking for a video i heard of a 900 getting dropped on the roof, and couldn't find it. Personally, very happy they did it. I stripped my 900 to the frame to install a rollcage, only to notice there was already one there.

[kimvette]

Originally Posted by TunnanXWD

I am waiting to see if the US Top Gear treats the Corvair fairly since that is on this week. What tire pressures will they use (or do they know?).. yep, the old Vair would swap ends like the 911 back then so the manual had you run hard rear tires .. to ease the break ... most didn't and if you got off the gas suddenly in a hard turn it would break traction.. like a 911.

. . . or any other rear-engine vehicle, such as the then-ubiquitous VW Bug (which the 911 was somewhat related to back then). Granted, with a measly 25-35hp it was a bit harder to accelerate enough to get into enough speed on a turn to get into trouble, but it's far from impossible.

[cinemarr]

The fact that the top gear guys refer to SAAB as being dead, are they just speculating or are the ashes about already? I haven't been on this site for a while and have been checking now and then but still can't work out yet if there's any hope left to hang on to.

[96mn12]

Originally Posted by cinemarr

The fact that the top gear guys refer to SAAB as being dead, are they just speculating or are the ashes about already? I haven't been on this site for a while and have been checking now and then but still can't work out yet if there's any hope left to hang on to.

saab as the car entity we knew is dead. Thats it, no other way around it. The name, the chassis, the electrics/electronics, its all trademarked to other companies.

they dont owe anything anymore, thats what happens in ch11. its like new gm/old gm (although im not sure anything change, its still the same shiat politics with those jerkoffs)