saablog

Saturday was the annual meeting for the Northwest Saab Owners Club (NWSOC). It was held at the LeMay Museum in Tacoma; the LeMay family owns the largest private collection of automobiles in the world; more about that later in the post. In any case I planned to arrive there at 10:00 AM, with a stop in Kennydale to drop off Luisa at my parents’ house. We left home in Shoreline around 8:30, after a quick washing of bird poop from the hood of the 900.

 I was about the 6th car to arrive, and got to park next to Dan Morley’s beautiful 99 Combi-Coupe. It’s been recently repainted; the upholstery is in nice condition too. I love the look of the 99, and Dan’s is a particularly nice looking one. Dan is the president of NWSOC and he owns more than 20 Saabs of various ages. His wife sells Saabs at McCann Motors in Fife, and is evidently Saab’s #1 sales-person for Overseas Delivery in the US.  Dan’s son and daughter, both in their 20s, drive Saabs and are always looking for ways to add more performance to them. His son Quinn was fun to talk to at the meeting. Their family was in Trollhattan 2 weeks ago for the Saab Jubilee Celebration. Tons of Saabers drove up from all over Europe, and the spare parts center had a huge garage sale of parts for 96, 99, and classic 900 models. Dan came home with suitcase full of parts for all of his cars! Most parts were new in their cartons as they would have arrived at the factory for production 20 or 30 years ago!

When I arrived, Dan’s blue ‘69 Sonett (Sonett II) was already there, as were other club members’ late 60’s 95 wagon, 96 sedan, and 9000 hatch.

I love the looks of that Sonett II, and Dan’s is in beautiful shape! As more members arrived, there were all kinds of Saabs: more classic 900s, a 9-5 sedan, 9-3 sport sedan, several 99s, 2 9000 Aeros, a 2-stroke 96, and two Sonett IIIs. The only modern Saab model not represented was the 900/9-3 body style like my beloved old 1995 900.

I found my car’s soul mate in one of it’s older siblings: an Orange Sonett III with black stripe! It’s interesting to look at Saabs older cars; the Sonett III has a V-4 engine in it, as do many of the 96s.

Orange Saab- Black Stripe

I wish I had gotten a photo of this Sonett’s interior, it was immaculate. Absolutely beautiful!

Also at the meet was this very customized 99 Turbo pick-up, which has a 16 Valve turbo engine in it from a later 900.

It’s always interesting to see a Saab towing a trailer, and two Saabs arrived at our event towing trailers. One member arrived in a mid-’70s 99 notchback towing a white Sonett III on a trailer, that seemed like a somewhat unlikely towing setup. Another member, Phil, arrived in his upgraded 9000 Aero pulling his 2-stroke 96. He said that he’s measured the Aero’s output on a dyno and it was 405 HP; quite an upgrade from the ~250 HP it came with from the factory. I shared my lunch with Phil, and he asked whether I’d ever driven a 2 stroke Saab. I said no, and he said that at some point in the future he’d fix that. Sounds great to me. Below is a crappy off-center photo of his 96 and some of his 9000 Aero.

Craig from Scanwest Autosport, our local independent Saab shop, also came down, bringing his 2 year old daughter, his ‘93 900 turbo commemorative edition (#118 according to the dashboard plaque), and a box of goodies for giveaway during our club’s raffle. His car is what I envision mine to look and be like, though mine will never be so perfect…

Note that behind Craig’s 900, you can see a white 1st gen 900 convertible. That convertible is driven by a guy from Everett who has modified it with a larger intercooler from a 9000, and has added a 4th motor mount at the top of the head to the firewall to reduce engine slop and wheel hop. I first saw that convertible last summer when he brought it to Autocross; he’s been running it this season and says it is a lot of fun. The car only has a driver’s seat in it because he bought it with a ruined top and interior, as it had sat out with a leaky top for a long time. It’s a beast!

After we had checked out all of the cars we had lunch and our meeting. Then we had the raffle; I had purchased 6 tickets for $5, I ended up having 3 of my tickets called. I got a SAAB logo stocking cap, an oil filter for the 900, and model of 1995 900 turbo 3-door in Silver.

Then it was time to tour a few of the LeMay buildings. Harold LeMay was a businessman who started hauling trash and transporting goods in Tacoma after WWII with 1 garbage truck. His trash hauling company grew, he invested in property and businesses, and became a very wealthy man. He liked cars and started collecting them. At the time of his death several years ago, his collection of cars included 3400 of them! A museum was founded in a trust, and the museum has waded through the collection, paring it down to around 2500 cars now… some were evidently not worth keeping, like the 1980 Ford Durango Ranchero, which is essentially a Ford Fairmont pickup. Yuck.

In any case, the LeMay Museum is building a museum facility near I-5 by the Tacoma Dome which will be able to house around 700 cars, with a show field for various car club events. Construction will begin on that within the next year; but for now the cars are housed in numerous facilities throughout Pierce and Thurston counties. They’ve got all sorts of crazy cars there, huge American vehicles mostly, parked bumper-to-bumper, fender-to-fender.

I like how pointy the Riveria is, and the one below it…

Among the cars in their collection is Tucker serial no. 7; I had no idea that the Tucker was rear-engined. It seems like it was quite technologcally advanced.

Yes, you can see the corner of a Volvo 262C right next to the Tucker in the exposition hall, evidently the 262C is right up there with the Tucker in terms of historical significance. That was the only Swedish car I saw on the LeMay grounds that wasn’t driven in by an NWSOC member…

In any case, I had a wonderful time. I left shortly before the tour was over, so I could get home via Kennydale in time to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Ron and Carolyn, who are Ani’s aunt and uncle. I’d better step on the gas to get home!

It looks like I’ll be going to Autocross practice next weekend on Saturday. I saw Zane on Friday night and he said I should come. I’m looking forward to it!